The Malazan Book of the Fallen is perhaps the toughest fantasy series I’ve ever read. I have started it four or five times over the years, and failed to complete the first book—heck, sometimes the first chapter—every time. It’s only recently I sat down and forced myself to read it. I’m not quite sure yet if it was the right thing to do.
I don’t know why I struggle with it. Lots of people think it’s one of the best fantasy series of all time. I think it’s dense, and I will read for an hour and discover I’ve only read a dozen pages. It takes reading and rereading to get through it. I have several times wondered what the reading level is, and I have to stop and think about which character is which, because there are so many.
These things shouldn’t be an impediment to reading though. In many ways they’re selling points to me. I’m just not sure why I struggle with it.
What are the books about?
Heck if I know! Many characters and many sides, as far as I can tell.
No, seriously, it’s about an empire conquering all, but the last of their enemies is trying to fight back, but there’s also demons involved on their own side, and there’s a lot of luck happening too. From the perspective of soldiers, or wizards, or… many many others.
There are, I think, ten books in the main series, but then there’s a bunch of side books, and someone else wrote a few which are considered part of it, and, and… I don’t know, but it seems never-ending. Normally I’d love that in a series, but I think I also like it when there’s a stopping point.
My understanding is that it was originally intended to be a Dungeons and Dragons kind of game, but when that petered out, the author turned it into a novel. It would be rude of me to suggest he has made sure to drop every single NPC into the story, but it seems like it. There are side quests here and there for everyone, and you often won’t know what’s happening to who, but eventually it should all come together in one big conclusion.
It’s about as complex a story as I’ve ever read. So much going on is hard to keep track of. I’ve read fantasy where a series splits to tell a story, with one book telling one part and the next book telling a different part, before they come back together later in the series. This is what Malazan feels like all the way through. You’re only getting part of the story at any given point.
The Themes of the Malazan
Complexity
I don’t want to keep harping on this but I have to. It’s really showing you how every side has their own story, their own take on things. As always it’s the winner who writes the history books, but everyone else has their own interpretation of what really happened.
The Impact of History
Like the real world, history affects everything. You killed a few random people a few hundred years ago? Guess who remembers, and passes it down in their lore? And now you’re facing a rebellion because of this long-forgotten event.
The Nature of War
As you’re busy trying to figure out which character is which, a whole battle will go by, a bunch of people will die, and you’ll be left trying to figure out who they were, if anyone. I can’t quite say that it’s like Game of Thrones, where you’re shocked when the first major character dies, but simply because there don’t seem to be any standout stars of the books. So people die, just like in real life. And they’re forgotten, just like in real life.
A Character of Great Interest
I so want to find a character to compare to the Kingsmoot series, but I don’t think there is one. None of the characters in Malazan seem to be deep enough to have their own personalities. I don’t mean to sound rude about it, which that kind of does, because they all do, of course. It’s just that we don’t seem to get inside anyone’s head at all. There is little telling us about their lives, their motivations, and so on.
They are, in many ways, D&D characters. There are all the characteristics of being a person, but you look behind the curtain and there’s nothing there, other than a dude pulling strings (I’m referring to a movie here, not the author of these books).
The character I came to was Whiskeyjack, a soldier who is one of the leaders in the first book. He is a typical soldier type (perhaps stereotypical), with his stoic and disciplined demeanor.
I don’t know why I keep coming back to this kind of character. The strong, silent, excellent fighter. He features in all my books, either as Petr, as Bannel, or as Yosip. And those are just the leading characters, there are plenty others besides.
Every fantasy series features this character. He’s in Game of Thrones a bunch of times. He’s in Lord of the Rings (he’s even the same actor in the movie!). You name it, this guy is somewhere. Perhaps the only more popular fantasy character is the teen who happens to be the most powerful person in the world, they just don’t know it yet.
So what do I say about him that’s unique? Is there anything about Petr you haven’t already seen in all those other books? If anything, I guess I’m trying to say that you can get a long way with your natural abilities, but sooner or later you’re going to rely on someone else to be able to take your next step. And while that’s a little interesting, the other important thing about Petr is how he has to fight against the bias of where he’s from.
Multiple layers. Perhaps that’s what I’m not seeing in Malazan. At least in my understanding of the characters.
Other series to read
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan: Why this? I guess it’s the world-building. There’s clearly a lot of it going on in both series. I might say that this is king of the lite version though.
The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson: I’m a little ashamed to say this because I’m supposed to be a fantasy fan, but I’m including Stormlight here because, like Malazan, I’m not completely sure what’s going on during the books.
The Black Company by Glen Cook: Also dense and detailed, and with a similar atmosphere, the Black Company has the advantage of (mostly) following one group of characters, so you kind of have a sense of what’s happening as you read it.
In Conclusion
I guess I keep wanting to love these books, because clearly others do. I’m not sure if it’s something wrong with me, or with the books, that makes me admire them more than like them.
Perhaps I should write them off on the ‘you can’t love everything in the genre’ scale. Some people love X, some love Y, some love Z. It’s not wrong to not love all of them.
But maybe you should try it and see. Perhaps you’ll love it.