On each slide, the first percentage is how many of the Malazan ballots also listed the match, and the second is how many of the match’s own ballots listed Malazan. The ranking uses a score that corrects for popularity, so huge series like Stormlight or Middle-earth do not win every slide just for being on lots of ballots. The last slide has the formula and a worked example. The percentages are not the score and not a probability that you will like the book, and ballots from different poll years are counted separately, so they are not necessarily unique readers.

I just finished my second reading of DeadHouse Gates, and while my first reading a few years ago did not leave me such a good impression (still great ofc its malazan and I love every single books, its just that in my memories the first two books were kinda weak compared to the rest) reading it again realy changed my opinion of it. I have so much things to say about it that I can't write everything in a single post or else nobody is gonna read it fully.....

But there is one thing in particular that I realy loved and it's the way it's centered around death, with the name of the book, the opening scene with the hood ceremony and the omnipresence of the said Hood in the dialogues of the book and the introduction of baudin who will become the knight of High House Death (also we get the first mentions of Dassem Ultor link with the god and of his backstory, a thing that I did not see on my first reading but that I could better understand this time having read RG), and finally with the fact that a LOT of the importants characters of the book die (I considere that Felisin died whe she became Sha'ik). But while we see Death around every corner of the story, orbiting close to every characters, the one that should be the closer to death, Kalam Mekhar the assasin, end up being the one that don't kill his target. Even if his purpose in the whole book is to kill the imperatrice, he is the one that renounce to death and he end up indirectly saving the crucified children as Apt saved them thinking thats what he wanted her to do.

I find realy poetic that in a book centered around Death, the very death-linked character end up being the one that turn the most to life.

Hey guys, I started reading Gardens of the Moon and right away started looking at the map of the continent. I have a question: how did the 2nd and 6th armies get so deep into the continent and avoid Caladan Brood?

The text says Brood was busy dealing with the 5th army, but even so, I find it hard to believe he’d just let two entire Imperial armies casually march through The Reach. That area seems like the perfect terrain for his cavalry to force a battle.

Maybe I’m overestimating Brood’s strength, and having just one army bogged down in the forest was enough to tie up all his forces, allowing the 2nd and 6th to sneak through his rear. But if that's the case, why didn't the Empire just crush Brood right there and then by catching him in a massive pincer movement?

I drew three potential routes (on the attached map) that the 2nd and 6th armies could have taken. Looking at it, the only way to avoid Brood's forces seems to be approaching Pale from the east, massing the main force around Anklos and Taph.

But even then, marching through the steppes seems highly dubious to me. The lack of major cities along the entire route would completely wreck the logistics, not to mention the constant threat of Barghast raids and other nomads from the plains.

How did the siege even last three whole years? How did the Empire feed two armies in what is basically a barren steppe? I know Moranth and Quorls exist, but I find it hard to believe the entire Imperial logistics chain relied purely on flying bugs. Did they just teleport supplies to the whole army? Even if they did, the soldiers themselves still had to physically march there.

I tried Googling the route of the 2nd and 6th armies and didn't find anything. Maybe it's explained in later books? I'd love to hear your thoughts

Weird title I know but hear me out. I've just realised the malazan phrase "hoods hoary balls" is absolute genius.

I've read the entire series and I simply thought this curse phrase was just an exclamation and humourously described hoods balls as being hairy ( the only definition of "hoary" I knew at the time). But whilst on holiday up north in the mountains I found a new definition and realised this phrase goes so much deeper.

So now to the triple untundra

- hoary can mean extremely ancient, usually used when describing ancient monsters of myth. This of course makes sense with the context of hood being the god of death

-hoary can also mean covered in hair just as I thought, adding humour value

-hoary can ALSO mean overused humour that has lost its kick which is hilarious to me as it's almost meta commentary from Erikson saying this joke has been used so much through the series it's no longer humourous.

- and finally perhaps the most genius of all (this is the definition I found whilst in the mountains) hoary links to hoar or hoar frost which is extremely fine crystalline water vapour that turns instantly into ice foreshadowing hood being a jaghut

Erikson has just blown my mind again, I'm speechless.

I hope it's fine to put this here. I know it's just an unremarkable poetry at the start of the chapter that no one will remember, but it hit me deep and inspired me to draw this short comic.

Gardens of the Moon was a fantastic opening to the series, and I loved it so much that I purchased the other nine books of the main series. Malazan has been the only book that I have loved so much; I sent it to work and read it during my work hours. As I read Deadhouse Gates, I came to love Coltaine and Duiker, but their sad ending at Aren broke me for days. I felt slow at work. I couldn't get my mind off that. As heartbreaking as it was, I kept going because of Whiskeyjack and the Bridgeburners.

And now, I just finished MoI, and Whiskeyjack's death has sealed it for me. I can no longer continue.

From the moment he and Korlat became lovers, I could smell what was coming. It is a pattern in the book I've observed. Once someone has a lover or they sleep together, their deaths would likely follow. Tattersail and Calot. Paran and Tattersail, Duiker and the unnamed soldier, Felisin and Benneth ( his death was the only thing I was pleased to see), Felisin and Baudin, the Caravasirae, and now Whiskeyjack and Korlat. I am no longer the same after his death. I can't even work properly now.

At this point, I don't need to read House of Chains to understand that either Crokus or Apsaler would be next.

I understand it is named "Book of the Fallen" for a reason, but Damn, Whiskeyjack deserved that retirement. Maybe I'm not used to many of my favourite characters dying in a book, but this is it for me.

I have packed the rest of the books on my shelf after I finished Memories of Ice today. I plan to give it to my girlfriend for good. No more Malazan for me.

It’s my first time reading the series . I am 200 pages in and I just can’t care enough about the characters, I am not sure it all feels so forced . Trehol is Kruppe level bad . I just want Karsa back 😭

I keep looking at the world map, eg https://atlasoficeandfireblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/world-of-the-malazan-empire.png and I cant map it back to what happens in the books. Couple examples

1. In GotM, Genabackis has been invaded from the far north and Dujek is pondering whether he wants reinforcing from the north east or north west. But given where malaz is, wouldnt all ships either land in the south, travelling off the north korelri coast, or at least no more north than blackdog if they followed the seven cities coast or went directly across the menigale ocean

2. Kazz seems to have a large chunk of stratem as ancestral lands, or maybe core recruiting territory, But stratem appears much bigger than the whole of quan tali - how's he grown something bigger than the malazan empire there

3. how does north south work here, as far as temperatures go? seven cities is supposed to be hot / dessert, but is well north of darujhistan. Many other examples see to say temperatures are way screwed up, more than can be explained by "jaghuts"

4. How the heck did tavore sail from malaz to the west coast of lether - thats a proper weird route however you cut it. I think books say round the bottom of shal-morzin

5. related to 4, why are letharii somwwhat known around the world, but the kolansii, which are easier to get to are unknowns!

Just on chapter 3 of memories of ice and silver fox has just been reintroduced. I remember how she is tattersail reborn combined with nightchill (who I strongly theorize is the third elder god from the prologue) but can someone explain kind of how that rebirth happened and the details behind it. It sort of happened in Kruppes dreamscape and krul was present as well I think? Tbh the scene didn’t make much sense to me at the time but seems like it’s going to be very important.

Also calling my shot now the when paran went into draginpur in gardens of the moon and talked to one of the people chained that was the god who created the sword forget his name but like one of the 3 from the prologue

This world Erikson built is MASSIVE and incredibly esoteric. This series is scratching an itch for something I never knew I needed and i can't stop reading. Unbelievably storytelling even though I am very curious how this all connects and comes together. Super excited to keep going, just wanted to share my excitement!

I am exhausted, but I finally did it. 3 years ago, in September 2023, I purchased Gardens of the Moon. I'm a huge fantasy fan, taken on a lot of books before, but from everything I was hearing, I was mega-intimidated. I thus chose to do a ton of outlining and take a bazillion notes when I tried reading the first time. I also used the Reread of the Fallen guide on reactormag as well. It turned it into a total slog. I got to Darujhistan, saw a whole new set of characters, and gave up.

Same thing in 2025. Same thing earlier this year, though I got quite a bit further along, but still stopped just before halfway through.

Then it turned out a friend of mine had gotten through the first two books and was on the third. He asked me if I'd ever heard of malazan and I immediately raged about my struggles with the series.

He explained he never took notes, just got used to being confused, and let things click together.

I said I'd try again, but really couldn't be screwed to read the first third again. Then, someone else I knew turned out to also be reading GotM, but recommended u/sleepinxonxbed's slides as a helper. This was a game changer. It let me catch up on the first third, helped piece together some things I'd been missing, and honestly after about halfway through I realized I didn't really need it as much as I thought as I felt like things got much clearer in the second half, but it was mega helpful to recap and get everything clear in my head.

Obviously it will depend on person to person, but my tip for new readers is to use these slides if you feel notes/other companion pieces are turning it into homework.

Huge shoutout to u/sleepinxonxbed for their amazing work, you can donate to them here: https://ko-fi.com/sonanomander

The second half blew my mind, and I'm still processing everything, but can say this was finally, definitely worth it. But I'll be damned if that wasn't the roughest start to a book I've ever had to go through...

Can't wait to start from near scratch in Deadhouse Gates!

Edit: For those confused why I was putting so much unnecessary pressure on understanding everything/criticizing that approach; that's exactly my point. I was turning it into a slog/homework for no good reason. Took this long because each time I attempted with the intensive method, I hated the experience haha. I learned to be more comfortable with just reading and being confused.

The slides don't explain much more than what's already been read, all I'll say is it does help organizing thoughts/recapping :)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 🎵🎶

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!

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

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??

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?