Malazan series by Steve Erikson... anyone read it?

[The Human Target]

Just finished the first book.

The end was brilliant. Everything came together fluidly and I got really excited to continue on to the next bone.

 

[Mistwell]

I bought the first three on recommendation from this forum. I got through the first 94 pages of the first book before I put it down and never went back to it. I don't hate it, and plan on giving it a try again. But so far, I found it to be not to my taste.

George R. R. Martin, however, is brilliant!

 

[The Human Target]

I bought the first three on recommendation from this forum. I got through the first 94 pages of the first book before I put it down and never went back to it. I don't hate it, and plan on giving it a try again. But so far, I found it to be not to my taste.

George R. R. Martin, however, is brilliant!

I could totally see someone putting it down that early on. But to me it really does get ten times better by the end.

Kinda feels like someone going from an amateur to a fantastic author in the space of one book.

 

[death tribble]

Well I got the first book as part of a Sci-Fi Fantasy book collection thing. And I loved it. I consider myself a fan of the series and will to defend it to anyone else's death.

I have read them all and eagerly await the next one.

Gods, Living skeletons, odd humanoids. What's not to like ?

 

[Spud]

I bought the first three on recommendation from this forum. I got through the first 94 pages of the first book before I put it down and never went back to it. I don't hate it, and plan on giving it a try again. But so far, I found it to be not to my taste.

George R. R. Martin, however, is brilliant!

Keep with it, i nearly put it down a couple of times during the first half of the book but i had nothing else to read at the time so i carried on. Glad i did, bought the rest of the books after i finished GotM. Deadhouse Gates alone made me glad i kept with it, cracking read.

 

[greymist]

I finished Gardens of the Moon just before Xmas, and I am about 100 pages from the end of Deadhouse Gates. I think the books are worth reading. I am not a fanboy, nor a literary critic, I like reading, and I so far Erikson has been able to keep me interested. I always worry about commiting to a long series (thinking about Jordan) as I always expect the quality of the stories to degrade as the the author stretches things out (still thinking of Jordan).

The two Malazan books that I have read remind of Cook's Black Company, if only because they focus on members of the military. I read the Black Company years ago, and if I recall, I felt that they started to suck after awhile, it felt like Cook was simply grinding out books to maintain an income stream.

Long story short (or is it too late for that) I recommend the Malazan series as a good read.

 

[IcedEarth81]

Erikson is different from a lot of fantasy authors with long series because he has it pretty well mapped out and he is putting out books at a quick rate. His first Malazan book was published in 1999, and the 7th is set to come out this year. That's a pretty good rate. Also, we know it will be 10 books, and he seems to know where he is going with this. I love Martin but his rate of putting out books sucks and his series keeps growing. Jordon long ago lost control of his series and it balooned to ridiculous proportions. I don't have that feeling with Erikson. I think he will handle the latter half of his series well.