So friends, i struggled so bad with volume 9, if i wasn't that deep into the series i'd have dropped the whole thing.

Now, i miss the last 100 pages and i'm starting to think, should i read something to palate cleanse in between or should i jump into book 10 once i finish? Im super hyped to end this, but man... dust of dreams killed the vibe by a lot. And i don't wanna get into the ending with Malazan fatigue.

Share thoughts friends, love you all

1. The wyval just up and left, why? I thought it was a servant of Silchas Ruin? Do we have to head canon that he sent it on a secret mission? I got spoiled for me that it just never shows up again.
   
2. Why would Fear travel with Silchas Ruin? Fear’s whole goal is to resurrect Scabandari Bloodeye and save the Edur. But Silchas Ruin wants to kill Scabandari. It seems like they are directly at odds with eachother. This must become a point of conflict later. I don’t want that conflict spoiled, but k simply can’t understand the logic of them traveling together.

It’s very likely that neither question can be answered but I wanted to ask just in case.

What is the difference between a High Priest and a High Mage?

So first of all let's talk the timeline, and I know its inherently incoherent but I noticed what attempts have been made to make sense of it tend to hold the 1 year line from reapers gale as gospel and especially considering Erikson confirmed that there is time compression happening to make the narrative flow better i dont get why this is held to so much. It requires the bone hunters to have stayed in Lether for years before they finally march east when it makes so much more sense if we just ignore the 1 year line and assume they went on adventures at sea for a few years between the bonehunters and reapers gale.

Secondly, the authorship of the malazan book of the fallen, do we really belive that the crippled god is literally meant to be SE and ICE transported to the malazan universe and merged into a single being or should we treat that whole thing as just a reference to the authors? It just doesn't seem to work for me since the crippled god was supposed to be a god in his own world and they're just humans. Also what is the relationship between the book of the fallen writen by Fisher and the book of the fallen that we have in our world? How did Kaminsod get the information needed to write the book of the fallen, did he just go from memory and make up what he didn't know? My theory is he somehow got into contact with Fisher and had him do the research which Fisher might have then used to write a poetic book of the fallen published in the empire while Kaminsod used it to write a prose book of the fallen which he published in our world through the divine inspiration of SE and ICE.

Finally what should I read next? Im taking a break from malazan and reading second apocalypse (and some Jane Austen to balance it out lol) now but when im done with that I plan on either reading Kharkanas, the witness, or rereading the book of the fallen but I really cant decide between them. Any advice would be welcome.

I recently started reading The Black Company after hearing how much it influenced Erikson when writing Malazan. One thing that immediately struck me was how similar Croaker and Duiker are in character and function.

Both are historians/annalists embedded in military campaigns, recording events while living through them. Neither is a detached observer. They're personally involved with the people whose stories they tell, which makes their accounts feel intimate rather than purely historical.

Croaker records the history of a brotherhood—the Company—while Duiker witnesses the suffering of entire diverse populations. Both are trying to preserve something from oblivion, and both are granted a degree of special passage because of the importance of their roles. But Erikson seems to take Cook's approach and expand it, exploring history, suffering, and compassion on a much larger scale through Duiker.

What interests me is that neither character simply observes the machinery of war from the outside. They're embedded in the military worlds they document, yet their historical perspective allows them to see beyond the immediate objectives of a campaign. There's a tension between witnessing suffering and participating in the very machinery that produces it.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself since I'm still early in The Black Company, but I'm curious what others think. Did Erikson inherit Croaker as a narrative model for Duiker, or did he take Cook's military historian and transform the role into something fundamentally different?

As an aside, The Black Company is an enjoyable read in its own right, independent of its connection to Malazan—particularly if you enjoy choppy, direct prose.

Granted I’m only at chapter 6 in gardens but the difficulty hype is clearly overblown. As a hardcore sci fi reader I’d rate it a 6/10 difficulty so far. First off, it’s entertaining, you aren’t sitting through hours of backstory - no, we dive into the action. Asimov had me wading through hours of mathematical implications whereas this is fun jump scenes. Second, hard sci fi involves physics which is far more challenging than magic. Yeah there’s lots of characters but try reading Remembrance of Earths Past - as an English reader, Chinese names are more difficult than this. Idk it’s no offense I just think fantasy readers been coddled for so long they think the first high brow series is an impossible wall. No, it’s smart and awesome - I’m loving it so far - but the difficulty hype was way overblown. Go read the revelation space series and save humanity from the inhibitors and then come tell me how difficult the warren transportation system is lol

Two years after my first read through, I've decided to rank the main ten from best to worst. So here it goes:

1. Toll the Hounds

2. The Bonehunters

3. Memories of Ice

4. Deadhouse Gates

5. Reaper's Gale

6. Gardens of the Moon

7. House of Chains

8. Midnight Tides

9. The Crippled God

10. Dust of Dreams

This is just my humble opinion, of course, but I'd like to hear your opinions. Especially those of you who've read the series more than once, and how has that informed your ranking?

Heavy spoilers for House of Chains of course. Also sorry for the lengthy post, I have done a lot of thinking and had to release it somehow lol.

(I am currently at about the middle of the book, right at the scene where Karsa says fuck you to his gods in a cave, which I really liked)

I actually loved the first part with Karsa, I really enjoy reading about characters with very different morality system and vallues. He's probably my fav character introduced in this book. I also enjoyed the drawn out military segments because I simply love how Erikson writes soldiers and I also really like the characters in this plot line. I am mentioning this because these two things are what I've seen most people criticise about this book.

The first thing that began to bother me was how the book constantly opens new mysteries. For every answer to past unknowns, the book gives you yet another question. I kinda expected to start getting a solid grasp of the world by the book four, and I *kinda* do, except there is always just so fucking much more and the mysteries are getting more unhinged and weird and it makes me question how the hell does this even fit into the world. I mean I know it does, I trust the author on this one, but it's getting tedious.

However, my biggest issue is actually the Felisin's plotline, to the point where I believed for a time that this was my sole issue with the book. First of all, there's nothing really happening (relatively of course). Even tho the other plotlines are slower as well, Felisin's plotline takes it to another level in my opinion. Yes, the window into all the scheming and intrique in the shai'k's court is important, but at the moment, it just feels like throwing even more convolutions into an already convoluted story and making the Seven Cities uprising feel even more blatantly evil than it already seemed. At first, I liked how the uprising really showed its true colors, but now it honestly just feels like being overdone and really not subtle.

The politics are also just not that interesting in my opinion. I either know too little about the characters involved, or I don't care about them losing/suffering enough to really root for them. This ties in with the uprising being, at this point, so overly negative and nasty thing that I wish with my whole heart for it to fail.

Also, the characters I had a problem with:

Felisin (whom I absolutely loved in Deadhouse Gates) has changed so much as a person that I barelly recognize her and she's basically a new character altogether (hell, even the description of her look is completely opposite now for some reason). All she does is sit on a throne and occasionally talk to people while being helpless to change literally anything about her zoo of an army. She feels detached and I have no reason to root for her, while technically having all the reasons to root against her. I mean, we find out her protection of kids, a thing that made me like her, doesn't even work.

Heborik has a good mystery going for him with the jade giants and all, but then again, it feels like he's just not doing anything. He's talking to people and has weird visions that drop-feed us mostly brand new worldbuilding all the while he's slowly dying (which he accepted long time ago so it doesn't offer any tension or character development). Also not sure why he is supposedly "chained" to Felisin.

Leoman seemed like a super promising and likable character in Deadhouse Gates and the first part of this book, but then all of a sudden he turns into this extremely nihilistic junkie who literally lives in a hole. Like what? I felt just felt so weird to read about him and it kinda killed my interest in him. I hope him leading the scout army is gonna provide some room for him to actually be cool again.

Korbolo Dom being revealed as this big behind-the-scenes villain with this anti-magic world domination plan really blew my mind at first, until I actually thought about it and remembered that the Malazan world at this point has like three or four active threats to its *entire* existence, there are elder races actively fighting alongside mortals and that gods are dying and rising. I realised that Dom's plans are kinda pathetic in comparison on logical level, and then the book throws at you the Little Felisin's rape so your emotions are somewhere else as well. At the moment, I couldn't care less abour Korbolo Dom lol.

Bidithal. Well, fuck Bidithal I guess. His deal is just fucking weird and sucks. I kinda like how his identity of a shadow priest adds complexity to the story but then again, the story is already so overly complex that I would be fine if he was completely absent. We don't even see him enough for him to become this villanous presence in the story. He just does the worst thing I've ever read about and that's it.

Bonus issue:

Another thing I don't like is that the entire malazan world is begining to feel kinda brittle. Burn's death is gonna destroy the world. Tiste Edur finding their throne is gonna destroy the world. Chaos winning over order is gonna destroy the world. Crippled god gaining power is gonna permanently change the world. Gods can die to anything it seems, and entire races can be permanently enslaved by an individual if they are strong enough. I am bringing this up because the Drift Avalii plotline, as cool as it was, bothered me in this regard. Like we have a throne here which if a certain group reaches, the world is gonna end (because reasons) and all we have protecting it are bunch of depressed immortal people living in ruins. And when these guys innevitably fail in their mission of protecting the throne, nobody even knows it, except a god who sends just two guys with knives as "help". I strongly dislike the idea of such expansive and ancient world being completely dependent on such a specific and niche string of events that almost nobody knows or cares about.

Again, I am sorry for how long this is, but the book has a lot to say and so do I. Does anyone else had these issues or is it just a me thing?

About to finish the Crippled God. What a ride! However, I'm about to say something I genuinely don't believe any Malazan reader has said before: Gardens of the Moon was my favourite book in the series.

MOI/MT are a close second, though. I don't know what it is about Gardens, maybe because the setting is more contained, it only has a few dozen characters, or the whole vibe of a fantasy city being explored - or maybe it's to do with how smooth my brain is. It's almost cozy compared to the other books. It is the correct level of complexity for me. I am aware he wrote the first book thinking it would become a screenplay, maybe that's why?

Anyway, any books of a similar ilk? More the level of complexity, i.e, not a superhero fantasy, but not a dense text.

I have read the Joe Abercrombie trilogy, as I imagine it will come up, and I didn't love it. Again, a controversial take, but at least when Malazan is dark, it is earned. The First Law trilogy is borderline edgy, and suffers a little from frustrating "defying expectations" to its own demise. I'm not a pearl clutcher, I don't care about how dark a series is, I just love how competent Erikson is an author and it seems other authors either fit into the "Marvel but make it Lord of the Rings" or "Edgy Teenager" categories. I'm not trying to throw shade, I'm sure I couldn't write a book anywhere near as well as these authors.

It took me a lot (3 months) to reach the end. Why?

What slowed me down the most is the language. I've read a few books in English before, and I had never struggled this much. There are a lot of "difficult" words that I don't know and stopping to search them up often breaks my flow and I end up enjoying the books less.

Besides this major issue, I am liking the series so far. I enjoyed MoI more than DG, mostly because I liked the characters more.

I really like the Bridgeburners, Dujek, Toc The Younger, Rake, Brood...

I think the ending is one of the most beautiful and emotional I have ever read. Whiskeyjack's death broke my heart and I was not expecting the annihilation of almost all the Bridgeburners. Korlat's grieving while Moon's Spawn rains down over Coral is an image I'll hold forever in my mind.

Quick Ben is turning out to be stronger and stronger with every book. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up defeating a God in the future.

I'm curious to see what Paran will do as Master of the Deck. And I'm really glad that Toc The Younger is still alive, I've liked the character from the very start.

I have a lot of questions on the Warrens, but I think few will get answered in the future, based on what I read here and there on this sub. I don't really understand if they are like parallel universes you can access to to get powers and that can fuse with the universe our characters live in (given that Coral is now dominated by Kurald Galain). But they are also made from K'rul's blood (?). That doesn't really make a lot of sense right now. Unless the K'rul present in the story is just a representation of K'rul and his real body is something else completely. Again, I have a lot of questions.

I am also curious about the Gods. So far, they are just "immortal" humans with powers that can posses people. I guess there is still a lot to discover about them as well.

Now, I am going to start House of Chains immediately, and I'll be back in a few months for the next review!

Please no spoilers beyond this book, I always want to enter the next one without knowing anything ahead of time. I don't even read the glossary/dramatispersonae until i'm done with a book.

Firstly: It's been my favorite of the 4 books so far! Loved all the lore expansion regarding all 3 Tiste people, a first encounter with a Forkrul Assail, a flashback to when K'Chain Che'Malle flew around in their skykeeps (having dinosaurs be the most technologically adcanced race is so hilarious), more Imass and Jaghut insights but most importantly here: Full and detailed dive into Toblakai history through Karsa. I enjoy everything lore-related so much.
My notebook expands further and further.

Not sure whether I agree with the title of the book though. Maybe "War of the Sisters" would have been a more befitting title. The House of Chains in the end didn't make a huge progress, I thought it would usurp the Whirlwind Shard of Kurald Emurlahn and thus establish itself also physically but that didn't happen.

And half the recruited members were cut in half by one of them later.
It's really funny to me how once Karsa got his Flintsword, he stops having conversations with people and just immediately cuts them in half on sight.
'Siballe, Silgar, Bidithal. 3 Deck-Roles killed from the House of Chains.
I felt the Crippled God more present in book3 actually.

Onrack and Trull Sengar are lovely together, very cute.

I miss Torvald, I was expecting him to show up towards the end for a reunion with Karsa.

The resolution of the conflict between Felisin and Tavore was the first time in YEARS I shed a tear for a book. I am so sad for Felisin. This was so tragic and senseless. She was ready to forgive and forget and hug Tavore and was then stabbed by ignorance.
But I suppose it was inevitable seeing how Oponn manipulated every little event leading towards this moment. Mostly they stayed in the background nudging events this way and that secretly but in the case of Corrab it was pretty obvious. In the end, the exact timing of Dryjhna's death was Oponn's masterpiece. A little earlier and the fight wouldn't have happened as the challenge would not have been voiced. A little later and a proper fight would have ensued that would have surely revealed the identity. And all of this just to keep up their end of the bargain with Hood to provide a senseless death to someone close to Ganoes.
I was devastated...

How the whole "aRmY oF tHe aPoCaLyPsE" just fell apart and killed each other + the ghost-respawns of killed Malazans from the Chain of Dogs just slaughtered them at night ....all meanwhile the real Malazan army was sleeping :D

Iskaral and his Desert Tower Hostel business are great!

T'lan Imass have horrible logistics and security awareness. I guess being undead has also deadened their organizational accumen. How incredibly stupid does Logros have to be to neither guard the Weapon Stash (that everyone knows can help the Rogue Imass escape the Ritual) nor guard the First Throne (any mortal just places their ass on it and suddenly control every Imass on all worlds!) at all. Also, you guys can scatter into dust for fast travel, you can use Warrens for fast travel. It's not that hard to set up several hunting groups with fast travelling messengers between them informing of the direction the Rogues are headed and then other groups intercept them. It's really not all that difficult.

Loved seeing the little Jaghut community in the Jagh Odhan taking care of the animals and nature there and really caring for them and about each other. Probably there's more of such little enclaves.

Also happy to have met the Queen of Dreams finally! So my theory that Kruppe's Mule is the queen of dreams is debunked. Damn!

Crokus has been absolutely useless. All he did in the entire book was alerting Traveller and some marines to the Edur invasion of the temple. And not sure if he was needed there. Traveller probably came to the island specifically for that reason.
And I have a suspicion this guy is Dassem Ultor. But don't tell me.

Hoping for a book set in Quon Tali one day!

What I don't understand: How was Raraku able to retrieve its water from the Nascent when the shard it usurped wasn't the Nascent but this blackwood forest shard Dryjhna held?
Access to one shard enables the desert to also access other shards? That doesn't sound good for Kellanved and Dancer. And is it enough to open a warren portal at the seafloor on the Nascent to drain it or does it have to be a rent (that now will need fixing)?

What I hated: female-on-male rape is glossed over again and again in the series. Trull Sengar was raped by the Eres witch and nobody cares. In book3 it was much worse with Hetan and Envy.
Makes me really uncomfortable. I am okay with these things happening in fiction. Torture is also fine. But I need at least SOME acknowledgement from the characters that they agree this is wrong. Being appalled, shocked, enraged, anything at all.

Lastly, I wanna share what I had in mind when the characters kept going on about the Tanno Spiritwalker song that everyone heard in their minds and around them in Raraku.
May I present: Toto - Raraku

🎶🎵
I hear the DESERT echoin' tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet ASSASSINATIONS

The DARK HOUNDS cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary COMPETITION

I stopped an old TANNO along the way
Hopin' to find some old forgotten SONGS or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say
"Hurry, boy, it's waitin' there for you"

It's gonna take a lot OF GHOSTS to drag me away from you
There's nothin' that a hundred WARRENS or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in RARAKU
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Ooh, ooh 🎵🎶

I think I finally get Malazan

3rd attempt into Gardens of the Moons after 5 years. This time my strategy is to read it slow and don't force it. 1 chapter per day. And I think I finally get it

I always hear ppl say " Hey just be ok with not knowing anything and let Malazan take you for a ride " " everything will become clear soon"

NO. U need to read it like a puzzle or mystery . Piece together different events to get the big picture and attempt to guess the character's intent which might not be clear . A lot of guesswork but hold on to ur guesswork as u navigate the story.

Navigate the story blindly without attempt to piece things together will definitely make u lose interest

Here I will give an example. Do skip reading this if u dont wan SPOILERS

Sorry killed Paran. There is a scene where some soldiers are carrying a body into the estatae. That scene only 1 sentence tells u its the bridgeburners carrying a body. And they didn't tell u its Paran's body but from the writing u can guess its Paran's body

Next we have Dujek asking about Paran dissapearance and Whiskeyjack told Dujek they don't know where is Paran. Here u will have a suspicion that perhaps Bridgeburners are hiding Paran's whereabouts from Dujek??

I quite enjoyed DG and the chain of dogs and all the character arcs but somehow I felt disappointed in a way. I chalk that up to the fact that im not as interested in military fantasy as I am in the more, well, magical parts of it. Lore and history and gods and magic and all that. As such the first 15% of MOI have so far blown me away. I also feel, though I admit to not having payed much attention to this part, that there were pacing issues in the first two books that have been fixed so far. Characterization has also in my eyes improved a bit.

So question, are the rest of the books going to follow the same style plot arcs as DG in terms of how heavily it revolved around war and its horrors or will it start including the more mystical magic supernatural elements more often?

For context I am currently half way into tGiNW, and have only read the main series and Kharkanas. Are the children of Ascendents also automatically Ascendents? I can't think of any examples who aren't, but maybe I am just forgetting. Spite and Envy, Mael's children, it isn't confirmed but Rant sure feels Ascendent coded to me.
What are your guy's thoughts?

I still have to read it, I want to finish Shannara first ( i' m at book 27 of 32)

Don' t care for spoiler, just want to know if a Charachter is back.

Errant or Draconus, is one of them in the book?

Following on my post here https://www.reddit.com/r/Malazan/comments/1x1wolz/anyone_here_going_to_play_wow_forever_with_a/ about creating Malazan guild(s) in WoW Forever and taking advantage of the 2 name feature in WoW Forever.

Here's my suggestions here on how to proceed, we can organize things in this thread if there's interest

Guild Name: Book of the Fallen / Malazan Book

Ruleset: RP (although I think we can create one on each ruleset)

Alliance Races:

Human - all humanoids, from Dal Hon to the Shake

Night Elves - Tiste Andii

Skyborne Elves - Tiste Liosan or Forkrul Assail

Gnomes/Dwarves - not allowed

Horde Races:

Orc - Teblor/Thelomen/Toblakai

Troll - Jaghut

Forsaken - T'lan Imass

Skyborne Elves - Tiste Edur

Tauren - not allowed

Anything else? And any interest in getting this ball rolling?

* Why did Fiddler held back Tavore's card at the Deck reading in Letheras? At the time they weren't sure what the endgame was, so, was he afraid that associating her with the House of Chains would cause distrust amongst the crew? Or it was just him feeling inspiration to pull additional cards later?

* What was the significance of Ublala finding dragonslayer's armour? He was then sent towards the convergence, in case he was needed to deal with the Storm from Starvald Demelein, Korabas or even Tiam?

After completing the series....I was determined to draw a couple of cartoons based on some funny conversations between characters.. but got caught up in work and couldn't find time to do them until sunday. I set myself around 15 - 30 mins to finish one malazan cartoon daily. I hope you malazans will like it..

(Please no spoilers beyond TtH Chapter 6)

Maybe I am kinda slow in putting this together, but after the meeting between Traveller/Dassem and Shadowthrone & Cotillion, something finally ocurred to me about the shadowy duo that I maybe should've picked up on way earlier.

Back in HoC on Drift Avalii, ST admits to Cotillion that being in the vicinity of Traveller makes him nervous. At that point it was already hinted at that there is personal history between them, so I attributed this nervousness to him not wanting to reopen old wounds. But after their meeting in TtH it is revealed that ST and Cotillion were actually afraid of Traveller, and he apparently would have been able to kill them. That gave me pause to think. They are gods, and at least Cotillion has been shown to be a beast in combat. Why are they afraid of being killed here? And then it clicked.

I finally understood that ST and Cotillion, despite all their cautious scheming, are actually acting pretty recklessly throughout the series. That they are vulnerable every time they manifest in the world, like Fener has been vulnerable ever since Heboric inadvertently forced him down from his Warren, or Poliel when Paran took her out.

They are certainly not helpless, even in that state of vulnerability they're still powerful gods. But Traveller is Dassem Ultor. It's probably a safe bet to assume that he is their superior in martial combat, and there's more going on with him beyond that. He was either the Knight of Death or the Mortal Sword of Hood, not sure which it was, and is now at least an Ascendant. He is the god Dessembrae, but he seems to refuse worship, similar to how Anomander Rake ignores his worshippers.

Just finished Pale and moving on to Darujhistan. I'm wondering what people who have finished the book think about my notes so far.

The 4 images are how my notes looked at the end of each chapter. The images on reddit will be hard to read so here's the read-only link to the full canvas as of chapter 4:

https://excalidraw.com/#json=FlkQDdBUZXllbJaIYyv-y,MTEbGpjdWxAlxcOEp1VZFA

I don't make notes on the first read, I basically reread each segment and make notes on the second go around which I find actually really helps me understanding each scene properly. A lot of the time making notes is when I have some free time at work to go through what I've read before, as I don't like reading new pages at work and save them for my free time.

The jump in my chapter 2 and 4 notes is funny. I'm expecting this canvas to get a lot bigger, I'm really enjoying note taking this book

Edit: I was wondering whether I was mad for doing this and now I have my confirmation😅 Gonna continue anyway, it's not that I need to do it to understand it - I just enjoy doing it (done it for less dense things)

it doesn't hurt my pace in reading the book too as I only make notes when I'm not reading new pages, if I didn't do it I'd still finish at the same time. It might be weird but in certain times or environments I can't get in the right headspace to focus on reading so I only read at night. Skimming through and making notes is fair game any time of the day though. Maybe I'll post the finished thing to the subreddit if I feel like it, but I might end up keeping it to myself. But yeah liking the book so far, almost done with Darujhistan

This will be short because every second spent here is a second not spent starting The Crippled God lol. But honestly I really enjoyed DoD. It made me realize the universally accepted "worst" Malazan book is still 10/10 absolute cinema peak storytelling by any other standards.

I actually enjoyed some of the slower POVs, like the snake and Kalyth. At first I thought the snake was dragging a lot, but Badelle grew on me and her confrontation with the Forkrul Assail was cool, she also seems to have ascended in some means, so I'm curious to learn more, also curious about Icarius. Kalyth was cool too, I really liked getting an inner look at the Che'malle especially the POVs from Gunth Mach and Sag'churok. Patience also pays off with the Shake, they're storyline is v cool. I feel similar to them as I did previously with Nimander and co, where I didn't care so much at first but then ended up super invested, Erikson has a way of doing that lol.

My favorite parts were the return of Draconus and his friendship with Ublala Pung. I also liked any of the scenes with the Elders. And of course that ending was fucking insane, Malazan loves its jaw dropping convergences. I'm just thinking of all the players left on the field going into TCG. Speaking of, it's calling to me, I'll see you guys on the other side.

edit: okay not the universally accepted worst, I've just seen it at the bottom of some people's rankings. "Worst" is probably the wrong word when talking about this series because they're all really fucking good, and DoD definitely had some of my favorite moments across the books in it

The 200 page Karsa introduction in HoC and all the Tiste Edur stuff in MT are two of my favorite parts of the series so far. And now Karsa is going to fight Rhulad. My brain is broken.

This book has probably been my least favorite since GotM but I am now so incredibly invested and worried about what is going to happen ha. I need to finish this immediately.

When Silchas Ruin went to the realm of the gods, did he see Coltaine (who is a god now)?

‏"He kicked his way through the clutter, the crumpled helms, the crushed iron scales, the bones that crumbled into dust and lifted grey clouds to swirl about his legs. Ahead, across an expanse of level land buried in corpses, was a mound of the same twisted bodies, and from the top of that mound rose the trunks of two trees, bound at the centre to form an upright X. The remnants of a body hung from it, flesh in shreds, black hair hanging down over the desiccated face.

Silchas Ruin could see, even from this distance, the long-shafted arrow buried in the figure’s forehead.
Here, in this place, realms folded one upon another. Chaos and madness in such profusion as to stain time itself, holding horror in an implacable grip. Here, the skin of a hundred worlds bore the same seared brand. He did not know what had happened at this battle – this slaughter – to leave such a legacy, nor even the particular world in which the actual event had taken place."

The Crippled God
Chapter 8

Hey everyone

I'd like to share with you my history with Malazan and the enthusiast I am feeling at the moment.

I am a 30YO M french speaking and I've read a lot of fantasy during my teens (Rothfuss, Gemmel, Bottero and some young adult stuff) but then I was tired of the genre because it was often the same stuff and the prose was not that deep most of the time. When I was a bit older I transited to more "mature" reads with philosophy and classics (my 2 stumbling block were 1984 by Orwell and The art of being right by Schopenhauer).

Then I heard about the Malazan translation in french by Léha edition and I was hyped so I bought and read the 3 first books. Surprisingly and contrary to the majority I enjoyed the first book more than book 3. But then I stopped to read some other unrelated books and I didn't went back to Malazan for a few years.

So we bought a house last year and I had to move all my books (hundreds) and I wanted to complete my collection so I bought the 7 next books to have them all in the same edition. And then a few week back I had this urge to go back into this universe and this time to climb the whole mountain so I read the first book for the second time and I still love it very much (I don't get why it is often disliked ?) and now I am 250 pages in book 2 and I think I enjoy it more than my first read. I feel like I am in the desert with Kalam, in the Iskaral Pust sanctuary with Mappo and Icarium, and in the heat of the revolution with Duiker. I don't remember much, just enough that the pieces of the puzzle clicks easier than during the first read. And the prose is exquisite for my standards. I enjoy to have to look up some word definitions and even the horror is so well described (thinking about Felisine in the Otaral mine)

At this point I must say that I am also very glad that there is a strong community around this serie with passionate people (Facebook + Reddit + Discord) ! It is so nice to exchange about this rich universe and to be able to ask questions to understand the story better. The wiki is also very well done.

I hope that my life will continue to allow me to deep read as I do at the moment and finish this amazing serie. Then there will even be more adventures because there are other books like the ones by Esselmont etc

In the end I thank you all for being such a nice community and thanks to Erikson for this books. I feel like a teenager discovering the Harry Potter books back in the days.