So, over a period of close to a year, I’ve waxed lyrical about Erikson’s epic series Malazan Book of the Fallen but, with today’s demands on our time, the question remains, should you even bother?
Chances are good that you can guess my answer to this question but it may not be as clear cut as a simple yes, for, if the story were as accessible as perhaps it should be, then I doubt that it would have taken someone four years or so, to have reviewed the series for Fantasy-Faction. Before I try one last time to encourage you to pick up book one, Gardens of the Moon, let me tell you a few of the reasons why you maybe shouldn’t read this masterwork, which takes all of the wonder and strength of Greek tragedy and drops it into a robust and compelling fantasy setting.
First, Erikson clearly hates his readers. And by this, I don’t mean the kind of tenterhooks many authors are known for; such as George RR and his penchant for killing off the beloved, or the outright recycling of stories one might accuse Eddings of having perpetrated. No, Erikson’s hatred of his readers is structural.
Chapter breaks: more than just the skeleton of any narrative, they also help the reader to compartmentalise the story into its significant elements yet to Erikson, they are a nuisance, at least so it seems. Who knows; maybe Erikson’s advice from his editors was ‘in a work this long, just keep the reader moving forward, so don’t interrupt them with chapter breaks’; or it might have been something like ‘the characters are going through hell, why not share some of that with the reader’. There are times when reaching the end of a chapter feels like finding an unexpected oasis in the desert. And while the moments of relief these oases provide is palpable, they also shouldn’t be so far and few between.
On the other hand, as far as interesting reading experiences go, perhaps that editor’s advice isn’t so far from the mark. Most of us have read books and series where the structure could have done with some amendment; too many chapter breaks is as bad as too few, so who am I to tell Erikson how long each chapter should be?
Next is the prose. It’s dense, it’s florid, and, because it’s a point worth repeating, it’s dense. This will be off-putting for many, but it’s not like you’re being asked to pick up something written in olde English; it just takes a bit of acclimatisation, is all.
Last is the way Erikson plunges you into the story. I vividly recall reading Gardens…for the first time and thinking “who….what….”, along with a host of other questions but, again, this is more of an acclimatisation issue than a failing. Also, reading on in the face of uncertainty forces many a reader to wonder, “what if the author can’t get their shit together in time for it to make any kind of sense?” Thankfully Erikson’s storytelling doesn’t leave you stranded, and it makes sense soon enough.
Should you therefore decide to give this series a go, the above is an honest accounting of all that will stand in your way. To balance, if not tip in outright favour, the pans of the scale, there is a host of reasons to read this series, and if you’ve scanned through some of my reviews of each of the books, you’ll know why. But a brief recap is in order, as well as a few new points that have occurred to me recently:
– It’s finished! No worries about your author dropping off the perch before the series is complete – this one is all locked up; just the way the author wanted it. And, apart from a minor deviation or two, it all holds together superbly.
– Epical epicness to end all epicness: Beowulf, Ulysses, The Aeneid, LoTR, The Wheel of Time; good as these and almost any other exposition of the form are, they are all eclipsed by Erikson’s work. Treat yourself to a story that dares to tackle such breadth and scope.
– The feels: it hurts so good; it lifts you up; it crashes you down. When it is done right, an author getting the feels right is as good a reason as any to read a story. Erikson gets it right about 94.65% of the time.
– Oh the in-humanity! Erikson combines the weft of mortal drama and the weave of immortal intrigue so well, and has designed a tapestry so large, that it may well be some time before another story allows us to explore how different races might experience each other in as grand a way as this one.
– The characters: Shake your fist at Rallick Mel, pull your hair at Shadowthrone, be humbled by Beak, feel protective of Felesin, endure the labours of Toc and Onos, laugh at Kruppe, cry at Mappo, thrill at Kalam, wonder at Quick Ben, endure with Strings/Fiddler, be dwarfed by Anomander; I could go on.
I doubt whether any additional words from me would be able to convince you to give this series a go, but if you’re in for an adventure unlike anything you’ve read before; one that stands head and shoulders above the pap that generally passes for storytelling, then come and join those of us who are in the know about all that is in this terrific series.
And so to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this redux, it is definitely worth picking up this series.
I give it 10/10.
