Steven Erikson Books Ranked

[Germaine Greenweig]

Excellentarticle. I'm a huge Malazan fan myself, but starting with "Reaper's Gale" I've started to doubt that Erikson knows exactly what he's doing -- a point I've been using to defend Erikson since I got into the series.

22 books?! I hadn't heard about that yet (where can I read the details?) I still love the world, so I'll be reading everything that comes out, but I really do hope future books take a more coherent approach to storytelling.

10 books in the main sequence, 3 prequels (focusing on Anomander Rake), 3 sequels and Esslemont's 6-book side-series.

I'm sure that Erikson would say the main sequence stands by itself and you don't need to read anything else, but after seeing what an integeral part Return of the Crimson Guard played in the whole, I suspect that this isn't the case. There's some links to the news on the Malazanempire forum.

Wert, this is excellent and right on the money. My frustration with this series has been growing with every book. For every great thing (Tehol and Bugg) we have to endure hundreds of pages of things like the jade statues, the Myhbe, random new characters. I regret now being such an Erikson evangelist based on the first three books because I think the series has grown incomprehensible. I'll still read Toll the Hounds when it gets to the US but I'll no longer be jonesing for new SE.

Isn't a point of Erikson's work the fragmentary nature of history?

We've been given glimpses of Icarium throughout millennia and have gone through some of those periods in detail through other characters, yet the reader has to piece together an incomplete picture to understand Icarium.

I view this as a strength, while you do not. Martin lays out the entire history of the Targaeryns because it's integral to the story - succession to the Iron Throne.

Erikson's story is that of the current Malazan Empire and its struggle. I believe we've gotten plenty of that and enormous amounts of background too.

I think these are valid criticisms you're raising, but until I've read The Crippled God, I'm not prepared to jump onto the fence from my side.

While I understand where you're coming from I don't necessarily accept some of your premises. The basis of Malazan was to take sword an sorcery and make it more meaningful, more real, with deeper consequences for any actions. If you look at each book, there are threads that deal with the story of that book alone, as well as bits that deal with the arc as a whole. The main storylines can be said to be the Crippled God, K'Rul and the warrens (their nature, the connections to dragons, etc), and the Old Gods vs New Gods (power, those who had it, those who are gaining it, and all who want it). Central are the POV's in the Malazans and their armies,a nd their "tales of the fallen".

As Tree Frog mentioned, the Targaeryans and the mysteries surrounding them are central to the plot, yet how much detail do you require? With any world, you can explore as wide as you like and not really propel the central storylines (see A Feast for Crows, Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart, etc). How much of this is integral, and how much of this is fan service? Does SE do enought to propel the story and his themes forward? I'd say so.

You question the themes and their unoriginality, but fail to mention those works that trump SE's ambition. Exploring deep themes (sisterhood in DG, motherhood in MoI, brothers/fmaily in MT, etc) with the format of sword and sorcery. Throughout the whole, from first to last is the theme of chains, the ones you keep or break, knowingly or otherwise.

As stated in MoI, there are several layers of truth - skin, muscle and bone. The series can be enjoyed on all those levels - from guys looking for serious uber fighters and mages battling it out, warfare, etc to the complexity of politics, allegiances and shifting (?) goals, to the themes that SE attempts to explore within each book.

The cliffhangers or lack of info on certain things could simply be answered by saying that they are too cerntral to future stories. The same can be siad if you look at aSoIaF - what is Jon's parentage? Why is their so little info on Rhaegar when he was so central a figure a generation prior? The answers would simply give too much away, me thinks.

Addressing you point about prequels, well after reading RotCG, ther are only very few revelations from there that I can see directly affect SE's arc, and I fail to see how those could not be explained in a couple of pages/paragraphs. While huge in the local, I'm not sure how big they would be in the global. Refer to the Bauchalain, Korlbal Broach and Emacipoor Reese tales - very dark humour that do not affect the novels. I think we can look at the Rake prequels and assume that the content will be more flushing out of the character and his companions used to perhaps add more to the backgrounds of the characters in the current novels without really impacting on the enjoyment of them. As you said, the scope is vast, and these novels would probably focus more on missing details that fans would enjoy, details not necessarily required for the main arc.

Gardens of the Moon is a small picture of the whole, it seems. You're dropped in the middle, pick things up as you go along, learn a lot and end with stories being tied up, but the world keeps moving, and when one thing finishes another starts. A glimpse, if you would. Happily ever afters are boring, and people can't help themselves. Lessons learnt can be forgotten, and greed and ambition will always exist.

Not sure how coherent the whole reply was, but the gist of it is that with what SE is trying there will be great things and frustrations. As long as he holds the coarse, we will be able to judge the whole and decise if the exercise for him and us was worth it. So far so good for me, and I'm really looking forward to more.

What is interesting is that K'rul and the Warrens aren't really interesting enough or given enough screentime to be 'the main story'. Since Erikson essentially stopped reporting on events in the Malazan Empire after Book 6 and handed it over to Esslemont, the series can't really be said to be about the Empire either (although Malazan POVs play a major role in all the books bar the fifth). Karsa's odyssey isn't a central arc either, as again Erikson has handed him over to Esslemont after spending a large chunk of four thousand pages on him, which feels like a bit of a cheat.

The central problem with the Malazan series is that it is too diffuse. It sprawls in a thousand different directions simultaneously with nothing really unifying the whole together. I think the idea of making the books part of a unified series was perhaps a mistake. Perhaps making each book stand alone within the same world (as with Pratchett's Discworld books) would have been the better path to take.

Certainly the most notable rising complaint among readers is that they are tired of spending hundreds or thousands of pages following one storyline or character, only for them to vanish with no guarantee that the storyline or character would ever be heard from again, or if they are then it might be ten years later and written by someone else; and the lack of explanation for things. The 'figuring things out' approach is valid but Erikson is ham-fisted compared to Wolfe in this regard. And we are 80% through the core series, which is way, way past the point that we should have been getting answers to some of the series' mysteries (this is where the Lost comparison coms in).

Glad its not just me, though I've only tried reading Gardens of the Moon 3 times and have given up each time.

I so desperately WANT to like this series though. I'll be embarking on my fourth attempt to get through book 1 soon...wish me luck. I'm going in.

I read Gardens of the Moon about 3 years ago, and I thought it was almost pure chaos; it had many things that I liked, but there was also a lot that just didn't gel with me, rushed plotlines, central characters that I didn't feel had been fleshed out in the slightest, etc etc.

In the last few weeks, I've found myself wanting to give the rest of the series a try (my mum's a big fan, so I've got access to them all if I want to), but I'm in that terrible position where I feel I'll probably have to reread GotM in its entirety to even have a hope of understanding Deadhouse Gates, due to my memory of the first book having faded; however, that is an intimidating proposition, especially when I'm just not sure I liked it enough the first time round.

Anyone have any advice on this? Will I enjoy DG and MoI more than GoTM, and will it be worth continuing, especially given the criticisms that are currently being levelled against it?

I think DHG is much more cohesive and focused as a novel, although there's still a big problem with story elements not being explained and so on. I'd say give it a go, but you probably do need to read the first book to fully appreciate the third.

Excellent, spot-on article that captures at least some of the major problems of the books ( I would certainly add shallow characterization as my main problem with the series, whilst acknowledging that the issues you mentioned are also present). I would have loved for this to have been more coherent, and I think the idea of having each book be a sort of semi-standalone is very good.

*WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

Well Adam, I suppose I understand your issue with some of the characters, but to be honest it's never really been much of an issue with me. I've seen both SE and ICE handle Traveller, and both seem to work. I admit I will be disappointed not to see Karsa in the rest of SE's work, but there are still plenty of other characters there to love - Fiddler, Quick Ben, Cotillion, Udinaas, etc. Even though SE's tale has moved away from the empire, the Malazans themselves are still noted characters and POV's. I don't doubt that the Paran siblings and their armies (malazan armies) will have a central role in events to come.

I never expected to see Itkovian again, but he was used well in TotH for the themes explored. Even if some of these characters do not show up later, there are plenty of new characters in each book to enjoy. And the other bonus is that he is very fast in delivering his books, so that if it is 3 novels between characters, it's still less than the 5 years waiting for more Snow ;).

And for those who can't get into it, well, maybe it's not for you. DG is a far more cohesive book, but it is not soo different from GotM.

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