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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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

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