Malazan

[RedEyedGhost]

also, why is my results for the term malazan limited to the first 200 ?

Because the search function sucks ass now that we can't search "titles only", and it pulls up every post which is capped at 200.

[Radio Changes]

If people don't like Malazan, what kind of stuff do they like? It's not like with Epic Fantasy you get a large selection of series of any quality, and the only 'epic' series I enjoy more is ASoIF. Malazan isn't great literature, but it's great fantasy. If you want great literature, the fantasy genre isn't the best place to get it. I mean, Gene Wolfe is the only author in fantasy who can be comparable in talent to other 'Great Authors'. So this genre has one. That's why this forum can surprise me about how elitist people act about fantasy, and it really comes out in spades with the Malazan detractors. I like the characters, and I think there are times when his prose is great, although it's hit and miss, sometimes it is heavy-handed. I think Malazan is leaps and bounds above the majority of fantasy literature out there. And it's a lot better than other, more popular series(Wheel of Time, Terry Brooks, Sword of Truth, although everything is better than Goodkind). I find every book to be exciting, and really fun to read.

[beniowa]

Like others have said, it's worth a shot if you're already interested. I personally have never seen a series that was so divisive or had such variations quality and the opinions thereof.

These threads are more like Phil's toaster in the tub, swan dive off the bell tower, stepping in front of traffic phase.

And the poor groundhog is Gormenghast :(

I hope it doesn't get to the "kidnap the animal and suicide with him" phase.

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

[Werthead]

Because the search function sucks ass now that we can't search "titles only", and it pulls up every post which is capped at 200.

I have resorted to using Google in combination with the board name. It seems to work a lot better.

[The Evil Hat]

I don't have the energy to get into another debate over this, so I'll just say that it's something you should try for yourself. The first book is, unfortunately, far weaker than the rest of the series, so, if you don't hate it, read book two as well. If you're still not a fan (or if you just hated book one) at least you've tried.

[RedEyedGhost]

I have resorted to using Google in combination with the board name. It seems to work a lot better.

I'll definitely give that a try. I really hate the new search.

[Errant Bard]

No. I am, however, feeling like learning to play the fiddle, unleashing ice glaciers across equatorial jungles, making everyone miserable for 300,000 years by questionably imprisoning an alien deity for no particular purpose and then heaping abuse upon abuse on every popular female character I have for no discernable reason other than to piss off my fanbase ;)

Damn. You probably are a groundhog Soletaken D'iver, to boot. And one master of the deck board.

Because the search function sucks ass now that we can't search "titles only", and it pulls up every post which is capped at 200.

We can search title only, only it doesn't work well... I tried with "Malazan" and it came back with only 1 thread. I was pretty confused.

It's really funny how people who recommend the series are so considerate of others' tastes, while those that don't are bluntness itself.

Of course, because for ANY book, the only answer to the OP's question is :(copy right: 'The Evil Hat') I'll just say that it's something you should try for yourself., no matter if it's Goodkind, GRRM or Erikson. Those who say stuff like that don't "recommend" Erikson. Inversely, those who answer "bluntly" simply assume the OP is not a moron and knows he'll have to try them for himself if he has any individuality, so they skip to the review part, and there's no way a negative review will censor itself just so those who like it don't feel offended (they feel offended as long as you don't actually recommend the book, as you casually point)

If people don't like Malazan, what kind of stuff do they like? It's not like with Epic Fantasy you get a large selection of series of any quality

Sorry, people who don't like Malazan tend to not consider Malazan as being a quality series. Perhaps you might consider than your logic can be used like this "If people don't like The Sword of Truth, what kind of stuff do they like? It's not like with Epic Fantasy you get a large selection of series of any quality". Liking some epic Fantasy series is not contingent to liking Malazan. (Though of course I did buy everything up to Reaper's Gale in hardback, so I liked it well enough at one point.)

Myself I make do with The Long Price, Asoiaf, Discworld, LoTR, PoN or even The First Law. Not that I'm attracted to epic fantasy in particular, I just try to pick good books. In contrast, I have dropped both WoT and Malazan after respectively 5 and 6 1/2 books, and feel entirely justified for it.

[RedEyedGhost]

We can search title only, only it doesn't work well... I tried with "Malazan" and it came back with only 1 thread. I was pretty confused.

That's new. When I searched for something last week it was a drop-down that had two options: search posts or search titles and posts.

I just did a search for malazan - thread titles only - to see what would come back, it said

Your search for the term malazan returned 18 results

but it only listed one thread :bang:

The sad thing is that this forum used to have the best forum search that I've ever encountered.

[Errant Bard]

The sad thing is that this forum used to have the best forum search that I've ever encountered.

True. The 200 hits limit sucks, but the impossibility to just accurately search in titles only makes the thing useless. And you cannot even tell redundant posters to use it. Meh. What's so hard with something like, say:

SELECT url FROM threadTable where INSTR(title, "search")>0

[Radio Changes]

Point well taken Errant Bard. Looking back Malazan isn't as mind blowing as I thought it was when I first read it, but I've had a weird intro into fantasy, and have grown a lot as a reader in general. It all went through my dad, at first. And so I read Sword of Truth and for a while, thought it wasn't bad, I liked it, but felt betrayed half-way through with the politics, but still read on because I wanted to see what happened. But that was high school. I've grown to like better literature, and look back on Goodkind and am in disbelief that even enjoyed his stuff. It's like a literary skeleton in the closet.

Right when I started to hate SoT, I was introduced to Malazan though, I was bored and gave it a shot, and I really liked it. After that, I heard about a series on my own, ASoIF, and loved it. But I still like all the Malazan books, even after these couple of years from when I was introduced to them. And I liked Bonehunters, and Reaper's Gale.

But yes, try it for yourself.

[Raskolnikov]

That's it then. I'm reading The First Law first before I get into Malazan. I have the first books of both sitting here and thinking which series to read first.

[Ran]

I'm going to look into switching search to Sphinx, an alternative full-text search engine. Why IPB decided to screw up the regular search, I do not know, but yeah, it's a pain.

[Gigei]

The first book is, unfortunately, far weaker than the rest of the series

Not really. I like the first book more than the others. :fencing:

Malazan in general:

It's got lots of cool stuff like epic battles but it's pretty insane in terms of coherence.

When the next book is out (the last in the current series) I will probably re-read half of the series. The other half has too much Karsa/Trull/Lether.

Yes, I do recommend it, why not? It's not like there are enough epic fantasy series to fill every day of the year.

[MinDonner]

"Lots of cool stuff" is the best reason to read Erikson. It's full of Huge Epic Stuff - massively overpowered mages threatening even the gods! Ancient extinct/undead races some of which are like dinosaurs with swords for arms! Bloody vengeance carried out over millenia! Warring deities that can turn into dragons! Entire continents destroyed by magic! Badass undefeatable barbarians carving their way through hordes of legendary monsters! Annoying fat guys! Tragedies and mysteries and horror! In short, it's awesome, but probably not for everyone. The books do get noticeably weaker as the series goes on, but that's no reason not to try it out.

[Lyanna Stark]

Malazan is huge and sprawling. It has some really good stuff and some really WTF stuff and some quite boring/bad stuff.

It's got occasionally very doubtful prose, philosophical ramblings over powerful character and interchangeable military types.

It's also got an intriguing magic system, huge epic scale tragedy, one of the best female characters ever described in SFF and some generally cool stuff and large explosions.

Basically, it's not a clearcut thing whether someone will like it or not, it really is up to people's preference. (Although I can't for the life of me understand why people read the first book and can't understand what it's about. Yes, you get thrown into the deep end, but that's the intention, no? )

[Old Nan]

It's got lots of cool stuff like epic battles but it's pretty insane in terms of coherence.

That's probably the most succinct way to put it.

I don't mean that it's objectively not worth reading; I've read the entire thing to date and I'll read The Crippled God too. I've also read all of Goodkind and all of Jordan and all of Eddings and all of Martin and..., regardless of how much I enjoyed any particular book; I'm obsessive that way. If you do decide to read Malazan I hope you enjoy it, but what I meant by "no" is that after finishing the series I doubt I'll ever read it again, which is one of my fundamental metrics of quality.

one of the best female characters ever described in SFF

Who is, for the record,

a crack whore. She might be a well-thought-out crack whore,

but this a trend for Mr. Erikson. This is the Book of the Fallen, but the women fall harder and in more disgusting ways than in most fiction you'll ever read.

[Lyanna Stark]

Who is, for the record, a crack whore. She might be a well-thought-out crack whore, but this a trend for Mr. Erikson. This is the Book of the Fallen, but the women fall harder and in more disgusting ways than in most fiction you'll ever read.

1) please spoiler tag shit like that, even if your description of the character in question is shallow and spiteful in the extreme.

2) I challenge you to provide examples for how women in general are treated worse than the men in Malazan.

If you can't do b, you are talking out of your arse. I get that you hate the series, and that there can be reasons for that. That's fine. Levelling totally random turds at it just makes you come across as dumb. So back that statement up or back off.

[Errant Bard]

one of the best female characters never described at all, except by some readers' fertile imagination, in SFF

Fixed it for you :fencing:

B) I challenge you to provide examples for how women in general are treated worse than the men in Malazan.

How many men are "hobbled" and how many raped? :pirate:

[Emery Silverstein]

As most people have said, I would definitely give the series a shot. I tried it a couple of years ago, got 100 pages into Gardens of the Moon, and didn't know who the hell anyone was, what they were doing, or what was going on so I gave up.

I picked it back up over a month ago and it grabbed me right away and now I am almost finished with the second book and am enjoying it quite a bit. There are alot of times where I am pretty lost and not sure what the hell is going on but I try and just shrug it off and continue. It seems like one of those series that you really have to pay attention to in order to grasp everything.

[Old Nan]

1) please spoiler tag shit like that

Done.

2) I challenge you to provide examples for how women in general are treated worse than the men in Malazan.

Let's start with the hobbling, because that's one example I'm certain I remember clearly. But how many female major characters are there in Malazan who are not either already emotionally stunted (eg, Laseen, Tavore) [considerable overlap with lesbians] or get their comeuppance in the form of a rape or almost-rape? Yes, rape is realistic in warfare - but just as there's really no such thing as an "anti-war movie," there's no real way to avoid fetishizing rape scenes in fiction.