I loved your reactions to this book! While this is often considered the least popular book in the series, there were so many cool things to appreciate. I share your love Tattersail, Dharujhistan, and Crokus!
Wow, Johanna, thank you for watching and commenting. I watched so many of your videos in preparation for Gardens of the Moon. It means a lot that you liked the video 🥹 and yes! Crokus + Daru + Tattersail are the best 🥰
For everyone struggling with this series or feeling lost I recommend reading, after every chapter, the summary of that chapter on Malazan wiki. It helps you comprehend the scenes without spoiling anything. It helped me a lot especially since English is not my mother tongue and now I'm halfway through the Reaper's Gale. This series truly is amazing and worth reading.
If you want to go down the Malazan rabbit hole, AP Canavan at the Critical Dragon does a close read of the prologue and the weather vane. And chats with Philip Chase and Erickson pops in as well.
Eric I’m already deep in the rabbit hole 🙈🙈 been binging AP Canavan’s videos for two weeks now to help me understand the writing style but yes they’re amazing
Oh boy! I wish I could read this series again for the first time. Book one is introductory, but the series takes off from there. So much fun. Wait until you get to Kruppe and Karsa Orlong.
@@valliyarnl i also plan on startin malazan books actually since now i will have time! So i am looking forward to seeing your view on the books ^^. Also great work, i see your channel is growing very fast since witcher ranking ! Good luck
Awesome video! Have you continued the series since? Would love to see more like this! Malazan is one of my absolute favorite things of all time. 2 tips from me would be: 1) malazan books are often primarily about the themes over other things, and 2) Philip Chase and AP Canavan have wonderful discussion videos, I'd recommend watching them after each book to fill yourself in on some of the depth that you (like everyone) missed along the way
Canny video & class channel, you have an absolute journey ahead of you. Deadhouse Gates & Memories of Ice our some of my top books. Nothing will make sense sometimes and you’ll feel lost but it’ll all be revealed in time. Wonderful to see someone enjoying the novel !
as someone who picked up this series from simply browsing the shelves at Barnes & Nobles, discovering the reputation this series has was shocking. to me, it was just a random ass series i found on a packed shelf. little did i know.
Your introduction was really good! I started this book a few years back but it didn’t grab me.. I’m going to give it another try soon now. I like how you read each part and then reviewed before moving on to the next! It does sound like a difficult read, probably why I struggled with it.. it sounds like quite the commitment to read all the books in this series, how many?? And I thought Wheel of Time’s 14 was a lot! Another solid review from you, you’re looking like you’ve found your comfort zone! 👍🏼
Fun fact when I was starting to get more into adult fantasy I heard of these two series and I decided to start the wheel of time because it seemed easier. Now I realise that if I started with Malazan I would probably just quit reading adult fantasy period 😂😂 I was just too young so I’m glad I waited. This series has 10 books
Sooo if you had started Malazan first, you might still be reading Wheel of Time! I think you made the right choice, not that I’m a little biased with WOT being my favorite series .. oh wait, I guess I am!
The series has 10 books for the main storyline and at least 14 more side stories that go more in depth about things that are not explained as much. Definitely worth the read as well if you like the world then you'll want to know more.
"Such is the irony of life," Kruppe proclaimed, raising one pastry-filled hand over his head, "that one learns to distrust the obvious, surrendering instead to insidious suspicion and confused conclusion. But, is Kruppe deceived? Can an eel swim? Hurrah, these seeming muddy waters are home to Kruppe, and his eyes are wide with Wonder."
Ha! You’re in danger of me becoming a subscriber now. I love that there are people out there just like me in the wider world, judging from the comments as well. This is my favourite book series of all time, stuck with it, the best character hands down is Karsa Orlong who arrives in book 4 House of Chains. Everyone will identify with someone different, but he’s my guy 👊🏻
@@valliyarnl 🤣 one more good video relevant to me and I’m in. I’ve had a browse through some older ones and checking your recommendations. Tell me, did you ever get the Gwent physical cards to play? I’d like to see some content like that around the books and games.
@@Anotherperson81 I shall try to satisfy your interests 🫡 My Polish literature teacher had a gwent card deck and we used to have intense matches haha Northern Kingdoms on TOP
Go with the flow, and don’t worry too much about the deck of dragons. There are hints in the cards, but you don’t need to know them to enjoy it. If you don’t understand something, just keep reading😎
My experience over time has shifted from shutting off that part of my brain that wants everything to make sense and just watching what the characters are doing… it’s a challenge but it actually makes it easier to understand. 4 books in and I feel I should go back and read the first 2, the second two being so much easier to follow for me
I can absolutely attest to this. I couldn't really get into these books until i accepted that i would not understand everything right away and simply focused on the scenes in front of me. Definitely made it a lot more enjoyable.
7:31 Caladan Brood is also the name of an amazing Atmospheric Black Metal band. Their songs are based on the books and have amazing references (I also like how the song lyrics are written like the books in a way, where you have to piece together what the song is about out of context clues). Their only album "Echoes of Battle" is one of best Black Metal Albums of all time imo. ps: on the entire "understanding and explanations" part: I personally found it very enjoyable to not understand everything. The best way to enjoy Malazan is to just roll with it. Some disagree and prefer to read along in wikis and chapter-summaries, however I feel like that would take away from the joy of discovering all the connections. It also makes re-reads very enjoyable. (That being said, I think I read Gardens of the Moon 6 times, because every time I paused Malazan for longer than 2 weeks I started over from book 1 because I felt lost.)
Kiedy pierwszy raz czytałem Ogrody Księżyca to moim największym problemem było to, że Erikson nie opisywał zbyt dokładnie tego jak wyglądają poszczególne rasy - a pojawiały się ciągle. To samo z różnymi systemami magicznymi i... w sumie ze wszystkim. ^^ Ciężko jest sobie to wszystko wyobrazić, a ja czytając książkę muszę mieć w głowie obrazy i czuć się trochę jakbym sam odtwarzał sobie film. Wtedy mam najlepszy wystrzał immersji. Teraz jest dużo łatwiej, bo można sobie wpisać coś w google i zobaczyć mniej więcej jak to wygląda. Poszło Ci całkiem gładko, teraz będzie już tylko lepiej. :)) 2gi tom jest świetny, a 3ci to jedna z najlepszych książek jakie przeczytałem w życiu. Także trochę Ci zazdroszczę, że to jeszcze przed Tobą. Pozdrawiam!
Huge fan of the series and just watched your Witcher video. So yeah...just subscribed. Hope you share your thoughts ont he remaining books of this series 🙂
if I don't cover Deadhouse Gates in September/October I think a few of my friends will show up outside my house with pitchforks Thank you for subscribing!
Steven Erikson is an alumni of the University I attend so I feel a special connection to it. Gardens of the Moon had a lot of effect on my D&D setting. Overall its a very special book to me. Starting the second book soon!
I really like the way you did the video by breaking down your reaction into parts. It was interesting to see your very expressive real time experience (and it also helped me recall what happened as it's been a couple of years). Other than the Crokus fangirling, my thoughts and rating are very similar to yours, particularly about not being fully immersed in the narrative. You mentioned that SE wrote it as a snapshot of a longer history, and it felt to me like a narrative version of a history book, meaning it was interesting to read but there was a distance that stopped it being exciting or enabling me to fully empathize with the characters. It was like I was looking down at the world with an objective eye and noting what was happening instead of being immersed in the story at a subjective character level. Still, it's great to see an author try to tell a story in a different way. Like you, figuring out what was going on was my favourite part. I think I did OK, but initially I thought the acorn grew into the Azath House and was a bit baffled until I re-read a couple of chapters. That said, I agree that the Azath House was a deus ex machina and that annoyed me at the time - bring in things late in the story if you must, but don't use them to solve problems. The momentum also dropped for me with the multiple resolutions. Looking back with knowledge of the overall plan, it was great to get an ending to each part of it, but at the time I started to lose interest. I remember googling most of the questions you raised, and the answers were generally 'you don't get explanations immediately and have to wait until later', which is fair enough, but I don't know how much of a 10 book series I want to commit to before I might get some answers. Small aside - I pronounce fête as fate and thought the title had a double meaning - it referred to the party, but also to the 'fate' of events coming to a supernatural conclusion. I really liked what you said about the whole experience being more enjoyable than just the book. I found the same thing with reading theories on ASOIAF and Kingkiller forums. Buddy reads or talking with others while reading definitely deepens the experience. Hearing you talk about the book has sparked my interest in picking up Deadhouse Gates. I'm looking forward to more comedy from The Two Weras, but I'm sad that GoTM won't be touted as TikTok's must read summer romantasy :)
RD, I really love reading your comments. they're always so thought provoking. that does mean it takes me a bit longer to reply, but I hope that doesn't bother you too much :) Anyways, as for the Crokus fangirling (i just want to clarify) the smut part was a joke haha. I think your description of the book feeling like a narrative version of a history book is very apt. I wonder if that was the point knowing the authors background as an archeologist and anthropologist? I'm so glad someone agrees with me about the Azath House feeling like a Deus Ex Machina. Maybe if it was mentioned a few times earlier? Even during the prologue with the Deadhouse because I'm pretty sure that's one as well. Not too sure. The Fete pronounciation- I didn't think of that! Nice catch. ASOIAF and Kingkiller are on my list still, but not too sure when ill get to it. The Two Weras will most certainly be back prompltly for another comedy segment. In the meantime they're thinking of launching a propaganda campaign to launch Gardens of the Moon as TikTok's newest hottest steamiest summer romantasy. thanks for the inspo :D
Very well said. I read almost the entire series now (on book 8). I enjoy it mostly for the often beautiful prose, impressive sense of scale and remarkable creativity im some of the ideas but I agree so much about the feeling of "distance" to the characters and the plot and it unfortunately never really changes in my opinion. After spending this much time with the story and some of the characters I definitely have a bit more of an idea of what's going on and who everyone is but I just have a hard time getting deeply invested emotionally because Erikson seems to purposely always keep you an arm's length or more from his characters and plots which makes it all seem a bit vague and hazy and the fact that he constantly introduces new characters and switches characters so often certainly doesn't help either. I think it's a bit of a shame because there are moments of such agonising tragedy in these stories but I just can't really feel what I think I should feel because I simply am not emotionally invested enough. Maybe that's on me but I don't really have that problem with other series. I felt like I knew the characters in ASoIaF better after a single book (some even after a single chapter) than I know any of the Malazan characters after 8. In fact, I still often forget some of their names and confuse them with one another. Is that a sign of bad writing or bad reading comprehension? I really can't say. All I know is that I wish I liked these books even more than I do and I think I would if Erikson would just let me get a bit closer.
@@amysteriousviewer3772 Thank you! That's really interesting what you said about not getting any closer, even by book 8. I completely agree about ASOIAF. The close 3rd person POV really helps to get to know the characters - their thoughts, desires and motivation - so it's much easier to get a feel for them, empathise and become invested. The overall picture that Malazan offers seems like an academic view, but I'm looking for more emotional engagement. Maybe SE expects the reader to make that empathetic leap without being shown? What you've said is really helpful, so thanks. I still think it might be a series I'd like to finish one day but I don't feel a sense of urgency. Others books have greater immediate appeal and probably offer more of what I'm looking for. Thanks for the reply. I hope the last two books improve your overall impression, if you decide to read them.
To Remember: For most of the things you think has no context, or is somehow weird or incoherent in a narrative sense (no spoilers, but like for Bellurdan, T'lan Imass, the Hounds, the Azath, etc), there is going to be soo much more depth later on. Which is why, have utter and complete faith in Erikson's mastery in plotting and character.
Today, I stood at the Fantasy section for nearly 45 minutes trying to find a compelling story that would inspire me to finish my own fantasy novel... did not realize I chose 'the most difficult fantasy of all time'...
Its an odd book but the worldbuilding and imagnination have some cool elements . I could not relate to any of the characters and found myself zoning out when reading it often.
@@valliyarnl I think it would make a good movie adaptation where it'd easier to tell the story through visuals and sound. I really enjoyed your review. Subscribed and liked 😁
I actually believe it was GURPS (generic universal role-playing system) that they were playing not D&D (sorry that's such a nerdy detail lol) and I love Malazan, it certainly can be difficult (I myself would very often read chapter summaries on the wiki to make sure I was following wtf was going on. Maybe not the most difficult I've read (that honor still goes to Black Leopard, Red Wolf) but certainly up there
Also: if you take an advice: don’t make it as a challenge too much. Don’t even try to understand everything at the first read. It’s not meant to be. We never did that who started it back then. These tools of wiki and such are helpful but not really for page by page use. You are very smart and by your school you can memorise things. That’s more than enough. You also have your own opinions. It’s better you discuss things and that’s all. Yet do not keep long skips between the books. You mentioned that you watched Daniel’s interview. But you also should know that he hated this series originally and his biggest regret is that he kept big breaks between them. One of the obvious reasons: you forget everything. But also there is the other. You get used to the writing method, how these book tick so you basically get a routine in Malazan reading, increasing the enjoyment and how to pick the foreshadowing and so on. Even Merphy Napier who is a full time booktuber, keeps only 1 month breaks between the books if! it drains her emotionally too much but usually 2-3 weeks with her big tbr. That’s how she can keep up everything and will finish the series in almost 2 years and join us as one of the biggest fan. She hesitated much but it ended up on her top10 list forever and climbs up book by book. Your rating was this now… let’s see what will be on Memories of Ice… with this character cast. You want to understand the Whiskyjack hype? Read it! So will the Anomander hype.
I don't think you really got the irony behind Crokus's relationship. To me it was completely one sided and the funny part about it was that he is young and lost about his feelings. So he begins dreaming about a romance with a "princess". I am surprised you didn't talk more about the unsual "villain" in Anomander Rake because some of my favorite parts of the book are his interactions with Baruk. I also had a rough start with it but once i finished book 1 it got easier instantly. You have to read slow to not miss a detail lost in the complex (yet beautiful) prose but it's worth it. I finished GotM a couple of days ago and am already 20% in Deadhouse gates. Erikson completely won me over.
oh I DEFINITELY did not get the irony :( I truly WHOLE HEARTEDLY believed in their (not) love affair. the betrayal i felt when reading Gorlas's name was second to none. my heart has been broken. About Rake, i think this might be unpopular but he didn't really make too big of an impression on me yet. I found the line about him reading some random history nonfiction because he's been alive for a very very long time to be interesting+depressing, but other than that he didn't really do it for me yet. I hope you enjoy Deadhouse Gates. It's famous for having a banger ending. I will try to get to it when I get back to Ireland (because I want to buy the paperback and I can't in Poland).
I bought this book some years ago because one of my favorite bands takes its name from Caladan Brood but I gave up after a few chapters, someday I'll give it another chance
@@valliyarnl the band is named Caladan Brood, they're an atmospheric black metal duo but unfortunately they released only an album over 10 years ago. But it's a beautiful album, in my top 5 of all time
Later books in the series are more complicated. This book 1 is pretty straightforward with not many characters by comparison. Who said this is the hardest?
i do want to ... i've had an idea brewing for years ... maybe ill make a video explaining my writing plan? right now though the goal is to get this channel started on two good feet :)
@@valliyarnl Yea that could be interesting. I guess if your channel keeps growing (and I'm sure it will 🙂) and you do decide to write, you'll have plenty of potential readers right off the bat 👍
Yes. Crokus is a thief and a stalker. He got what him deserved. And good for him to toss the Coin away. Otherwise, we would be so fucked like Parian was. Played by gods. Striped of free will of any kinds.
It doesn't sound like a book I would enjoy reading, since, firstly, I am not a fan of very long books, and, secondly, I am not a fan of overly-convoluted plots. Interesting video, as always.
well i think it's a lot of things together: complexity of the world building (and how none of it is explained), the amount of characters and motivations you need to understand without it being spelled out for you, the writing is very dense (so on one hand you have no fluff, but on the other every sentence has multiple important pieces of information you have to pick up on). hope that kind of answered the question!
Hm… there is no Deus Ex Machina in the book. 😁 What was the goal of that jagh? And in that, think for a second, why they needed an enemy like this? And you think that was it? History is built on small and bigger events. The implications are following. The power in the series is balanced. Although this House was there, the mages and others would eventually kill the jagh. He was alone and they were many. As the dragons explained: the times changed since the era of the old races… and is that the only House we know of at that point? 👀 Don’t worry, you will get the Jack hype soon, at the book3… Also Kruppe is the goat. Welcome to the desert and the beginning of the uprising! Let’s turn on the grim part! 🫡 💀 Btw: foreshadowing? For even books. It doesn’t care for book endings… it builds up now for next bookS. Hence the House and many other things. That’s why a lot rates this book higher when they are in the series and they know how to interpret it.
well my theory is that Deadhouse is also an Azath house. As for the mages being able to kill the Tyrant... i don't know. He was really built up and I just wasn't convinced that they would stand against him without someone like Anomander Rake helping them. Hope you're enjoying the series. I will be continuing with DG in a few months!!
@@valliyarnl well… let’s see what happens next with this Tyrant question. 😉 Yep… There will be an other house at some point in the next book… but it has more than one plot lines. And yes, you will understand more about it. I read this series 12~ years ago first. 😂 I just go along with the new readers. I didn’t even know about these wiki stuff or anything else. It was a fun read without it. I think I’m at 5th read now.
I've read Malazan novels by both Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont. They were well written, but I do not plan to read any more by either author because your attention is divided in so many different directions. If they would cut the number of characters and story lines down by half the books would be much more enjoyable and easier to follow.
When I decided to start reading Malazan I was nervous due to all the TH-camrs who talked about this. After 5 sentences I knew this was a different beast from all other books I ever read. I had to read a bit slower and ease myself into it. Now Malazan is my favorite series of all time by a mile. You are in for a wild ride! PS. The Bridgeburners will become such a large, important and amazing part of the series. Don't worry about them being boring now.
Hahaha after the first five sentences I was stressing what a Mock’s Hold was 😂 (in serious this is definitely a very unique experience from the ther fantasy I’ve read) I trust you about the Bridgeburners 🫡
Malazan is one of my favourite fantasy series of all time. But it is in no way difficult. I think thats a myth created by redditors that havent really read anything. It starts in medias res, uncommon for modern pop fantasy, yes, but nothing new and not making it complicated. Stylistic choice that really works in its favour. Its a soft magic system, but people have a hard time with it because they expect it to be hard for some reason? Its beautifully written, with a lot of foreshadowing, symbolism and philosophy. But the series is fairly simple and straightforward. Your just not spoonfed anything and it doesn't suffer from overexposition. Which i guess its common with more modern pop sff books where the author has no faith in their readers.
So much fun to see your reactions to Gardens of the Moon. I find the Malazan's books both from Erikson and Esslemont really awesome reads. (currently at Dust of Dreams myself). Also, please don't worry about misinterpreting anything. By creating hypotheses and adding new information when it becomes available, we make sense of the world. And there's a lot of information to get or to miss in these books. I hope you will finish the series. Enjoy the ride!
I don't find the book that confusing, it's challenging sure but the reputation of it being difficult is a bit overblown, I think it's more due to the structure of the book that deviates from the standard fantasy story structure that's more direct.
The Azath House is RAFO. I will say you'll have a much better understanding of what happened by the end of the next book, but part of the mystery of the story is slowly piecing together how the cosmology of this series works.
The best way to read this series is too not try too much to understand everything. Enjoy the present scene you are reading... everything will wrap together. But as you read Mr Ericsson will skip time and place in between scene so sometime can be a bit confusing. Verry nice video and review 😊
@@valliyarnl maybe you can do a mix video on cyberpunk books, snow crash , neromancer or the detective's tale on hyperion also do androids sleep of electric sheep is kinda cyberpunk , besides cp2077 has a book i guess so you can included it on that
I would be interested in that crossover. Since Cyberpunk 2077 is Polish game based of USA lore. I think you are pretty and knowledgeable. May I have your number ? Just kidding.. I haven't Phone:(😢
@@valliyarnlStumbled across this video, let me first say I love the format of you giving your thoughts as you read through each section for the first time. Seeing that applied to BOTN would be interesting because it's so dense and esoteric, and it's all told through an unreliable narrator. There are things you can sus out if you're paying EXTREMELY close attention, but it's a series that demands multiple rereads to truly appreciate all the interlocking pieces.
This is the most unique take on Malazan I have ever seen, and this is a good thing 😊. It is my favorite series (together with Wheel of Time) ever! I really enjoyed your video 😊.
Considering this is widely agreed by fans to be the weakest entry in the series, I'm glad to see you enjoyed it overall. Can't wait to see you do the rest.
I came across your channel a few weeks ago and am really enjoying your videos. I'm part Polish and am trying to learn more about the culture. Do you have any recommendations for popular or significant Polish books with good English translations? I assume The Witcher is a good place to start, but was wondering if you had any other recs.
Great question. For SciFi I’d say The Invincible by Stanisław Lem. Not too long but Lem is the father of Polish science fiction. Even Sanderson mentioned him as inspiration in a few videos. Despite the translation of The Witcher not being great, it’s still The Witcher so if you keep the translation in mind then I think you’ll be fine. For historical creative nonfiction-> Stones for the Ramparts is the best Polish war story. Unfortunately the book doesn’t have a translation BUT the movie (which is incredible) does and I highly highly recommend. For a classic of Polish Romanticism (my favorite literary epoch), I have to say Balladyna. It’s beautiful and brutal and very very Slavic. Likewise I have to say Mr Tadeusz but I wouldn’t recommend the text because imo it’s quite long and too long winded, but the movie is good and really digestible. It also has the actor from the Polish Witcher series (that I once walked into fun fact). If you have any questions let me know!
Regarding the Azath house, it does absolutely feel like a deux ex machina at first. But this is just the start of the series, deadhouse gates and later books will go into more detail about the azath and how it works. The series has a soft magic system, meaning there won't be precise and exact rules to the magic, but it was intuitive enough for me to understand. I had finished the entire series a month or so ago and plan on a reread eventually. Because there is so much added context as time goes on.
Here’s a good way to think of the series. Or, rather, how I see it. Imagine you’re an alien dropped on Earth during WWII. You know nothing, but you experience, say, the European theatre of war. The pacific theater of war. The African theater of war.
You did such a phenomenal job on this review, that I might be inspired to pick the series up again. I gave up halfway through The Bonehunters, as I could not keep up with everything that was happening. I really appreciate your enthusiasm. It's infectious...
@@valliyarnl Its hard to look at it as a solo book, and not as part one of a big series, so I was not waiting for a grand finale, just the fact that I look forward to book 2 is enough.
Def the worst book in the series so i hope you enjoy book 2. The end blew me away and made me realize i was reading something really really special. But theres a lot of military stuff sooo idk how youll feel. Plus its basically a whole new cast.
When I started watching this video, I wanted to compare the book to House of Leaves. A book I'm reading currently which is also a very difficult read. And interestingly despite being written in very different styles I think they may be hard reads of the same reason maybe? ikd I haven't finished House of Leaves yet and I'm not even sure which genre it qualifies as. Nevertheless It'd be interesting to see your thoughts on House of Leaves if you ever read it.
I read this book so many years ago, that I couldn’t recall most characters names you mentioned. Definitely it’s about time to reread. But I remember that I struggled a lot with the first part and really enjoyed almost all action in Darujhistan. Great that you finished this book and still want to continue reading the series, as I know too many people who couldn’t finish Gardens of the Moon or finished but didn’t want to continue reading. Some people are describing Wheel of Time as containing the highest of high and lowest of low in fantasy, I would say that Malazan Book of the Fallen can be describe this way as well. Malazan Book of the Fallen helped me a lot in finding my favourite taste in fantasy, with high stakes, epic battles and more characters that I can remember. Over decade after finishing the series it is still in my top 5 series (with George R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire, Andrzej Sapkowski The Witcher, Robert M. Wegner Opowieści z Meekhanskiego Pogranicza and Felik W. Kres Księga Całości). I hope you will find something special in that series for you too.
I can see how this book would be hard. It is probably the worst edited novel I have ever seen where in a single chapter you are jumping all over the place to different characters and scenarios. The information dump sometimes is so overwhelming that I could not remember what happened or who did what. Only time I actually had to write down notes to keep things straight but gave up after I had 20 pages of notes only 2/3rd the way through. Kind of a shame as the author is a good writer and his world is engaging.
I’ve read the series three times and I’m still not clear on Azath houses. Keep in mind, no-one in the Malazan world fully understands them either. And if push came to shove, I think Erikson and Esslemont would have a hard time fully explaining them. Also remember, this is not a fully hard magic system. To a certain extent magic has to have some mystery. In GotM, the Azath functions as a deus ex machina. That’s because it resolves a key thread at the end, and it is not particularly well set up in the text. I think it’s a weakness in the text. I think your answer for Tatersail is already in the book, in one of Krupp’s dreams. Cotillion is not necessarily the bad guy, and for the most part these books are morally grey. Keep in mind, at the start, the Malazan are the invading, besieging army. They are aligned with the Moranth, who for lack of a better description, are bug people. They, the Malazan, are the bad guys (and there are lots of signs that the Empress is not so wonderful).
I'm commenting before I'm finished but one of the problems I think readers have with the series is that they typically have expectations that there are "good" guys and "bad" guys and that you'll easily figure out who is which and as a result root for/attach yourself to them. Erikson is continually taking your expectations and squashing them so that he can make something new, unique, and in the end thought provoking. It's not uncommon to have the feelings you have, I would just recommend that you try to drop your expectations and see where Erikson takes you instead. He trusts you to be able to follow and in return you have to trust that he knows what he's doing and that there is a payoff to the sometimes seemingly disparate pieces of the puzzle you are assembling. You will face this conundrum continually as each book of the first half of the series places new characters and new settings in front of you. You WILL find depth to these characters and you WILL be attached to likely dozens of them if Malazan ends up landing for you. It isn't for everyone at every time but the one thing I think everyone can take from this series is just how in tune Erikson is to the human condition and his willingness to approach all of it from different perspectives without (generally) telling you how you should think/feel about what you are reading. Hope you enjoy the rest should you choose to continue.
Dont forget, GOTM is a novelisation of a script that was written fir a potential screenplay. So when you read deadhouse gates itll be a way different experience, as thats when the series truly starts.
I feel sorry for you when you get to Deadhouse Gates, but power through because book 3 Memories of Ice really lays the path for the whole series, which is the most enjoyable I ever read. It's even better on the re-read.
I picked it up some year ago and I read it and I could not get past page 40. This video almost convinced me to try it out again. But for no fault of your own I will remain hell-bent on never doing so for as long as possible and maybe ever.
If I wouldn’t have had the slideshow, podcast, lecture series, and 2 friends explaining it my brain would’ve been going bleep bleep bloop the entire time so doooont worry about it 😂
Congrats, you have finished arguably the worst written book in the series, and it is also probably Erickson's weakest writing, as it was written 10 years before all the other books. Book 2 onwards, the writing improves a lot, and the characterization also improves. There will be less sudden jump cuts and pov hoppings will be smoother. The Azath house, at this particular point is absolutely written like a Deus ex Machina, but you will slowly get more and more info on that in the next book and throughout the series. Deadhouse Gates will be a slower burn, but the ending should be great. Lets see how you feel about it.
Oh my gosh I didn’t realise that it was written 10 years before the other books that makes me more excited to see how he improved in dead house gates. I also found a comment of him saying that gardens for him was truly a warmup for that book so That has been pretty hyped up
I'm currently close to finishing book 2 and I'll say it improves a lot. Gardens of the Moon opens a lot of plot points that it doesn't resolve in this book (like, Tattersail being possibly reborn, Caladan Brood, Toc the Younger disappearing, Rake's sword realm, etc). Also, I ended up not caring much for any character. Since you barely know their thoughts and motivations it's hard to connect. Also, they all sound the same or very similar tbh. So far I'm liking Deadhouse Gates more. The plot is more straightforward and easier to follow. And while my issue with the characters is not fully resolved, some of them feel more alive and are better written.
soooo Lorn - when the new empress tries to outlaw magic not used by the empire to forces mages to join the army, the place Lorn comes from rebels... in those riots Lorn's mother is killed.... the now orphan Lorn is taken in by the empire and many years later she is now the adjunct for the empress that caused her mothers death... where she runs into tattersail, the woman that killed her mother while just doing her job putting down the riots... that starts a crisis for Lorn, does she give up who she is and simply become a tool of empire or do she reasert who she is and brake free Lorn is a very very interesting character arc that will be mirrored a number of times throughout the series
Weird I thought you talked about this series already, anyway no problemo. Always a pleasure and maybe it will help me finish this daunting task I imposed onto myself... The series made me think more of video games especially during combats.
oh hey look i made that 💀happy to see people finding it useful! a guide for book 7 should be out soon, cheers! also any thoughts on sapkowski's hussite trilogy? just picked up book 1 on sale, people say they enjoyed as much if not more than witcher
Oh my gosh! I’m a bit star struck I must admit. Excited to continue reading and using ur slideshows 😄 I haven’t read the Hussite trilogy yet but I definitely will when my TBR lightens up 😊
It’s quite interesting to hear you say how a lot of the early chapters feel like short stories, as Steven Erikson ,describes the writing of the earlier books essentially being short stories piled on top of each other.
This book is like the most complex and immaculately built pool ever made, and you're thrown into the deep end of the pool and told to not drown. Yeah, it's intimidating, but worth toughing through.
Honestly, i just found it boring. I really didn't have a hard time understanding it. I just had a hard time staying awake to read it. I recently finished book 3, and that was not worth it. If that was the best book in the series, I think I'm done.
I love the black humor scattered liberally throughout the series. It's probably not surprising that perhaps my favorite character is Bauchelain, you'll run into him and his creepy sidekick later.
I would recommend you read Night of knives from Esslemont before you start Dead house gates. It's around 300 pages and takes place in Malaz city. If you want the full Malazan experience you should read both authors. Enjoyed the video.
i'm really split on whether to do the Erickson 10 or to go the full Malazan 16 on this read through. so far the advice i've been given was to do Malazan book of the fallen and then to go into Novels of the Malazan Empire. What do you think?
@@valliyarnl I finished the book of the fallen last summer, but I also read in between a few Esslemont books. I am glad that I did. I read night of knives after gardens, then read return of the Crimson guard after bonehunters. You should definitely read those 2. I am currently halve way on Stonewielder and I regret that I skipped it because it's awesome.
@@valliyarnlsecond the read the Ten first. Enough going on without all the new characters and side quests. Although Knight of Knives does take place before GotM and happens all in one night.
Congrats first of all. Gardens of the Moon is traditionally (and i think correctly) thought of as the worse of the malazan books (which have a high standard). Deadhouse Gates is in my opinion the best of the series. Looking foward to your review.
I’m planning to read dead house gates before the end of the year and maybe memories of ice as well? What’s your opinion on the penultimate book? I thought that one was mixed as well?
@@valliyarnlfirst three is an achievable target definitely for the year. The penultimate one should be combined with no 10 too (that’s Erikson’s intention too), and seeing it as it’s own book is why people are upset (all payoff is in the last one)
The Elden Ring of fantasy books
very accurate description!
So dang true
Literally I always say elden ring is the malazan of video games lol
Malazan actually has a story is the main difference.
@@CatastrophicDiseaseElden ring has a story as well, you just have to piece it together yourself
I loved your reactions to this book! While this is often considered the least popular book in the series, there were so many cool things to appreciate. I share your love Tattersail, Dharujhistan, and Crokus!
Wow, Johanna, thank you for watching and commenting. I watched so many of your videos in preparation for Gardens of the Moon. It means a lot that you liked the video 🥹 and yes! Crokus + Daru + Tattersail are the best 🥰
First 10 seconds is gold
👸🏼
I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Deadhouse Gates
video about it in this style will definitely be out before the end of the year. I want to do DG and Memories of Ice before the year is out :)
For everyone struggling with this series or feeling lost I recommend reading, after every chapter, the summary of that chapter on Malazan wiki. It helps you comprehend the scenes without spoiling anything.
It helped me a lot especially since English is not my mother tongue and now I'm halfway through the Reaper's Gale.
This series truly is amazing and worth reading.
If you want to go down the Malazan rabbit hole, AP Canavan at the Critical Dragon does a close read of the prologue and the weather vane. And chats with Philip Chase and Erickson pops in as well.
Eric I’m already deep in the rabbit hole 🙈🙈 been binging AP Canavan’s videos for two weeks now to help me understand the writing style
but yes they’re amazing
Oh boy! I wish I could read this series again for the first time. Book one is introductory, but the series takes off from there. So much fun. Wait until you get to Kruppe and Karsa Orlong.
That skit is gold 😂😂😂😂
thank you 😁
aaaaand sub, not malazan fan yet, but the quality of things you go through and passion sold this. ! i really cant wait for more reviews
Thank you! My friend is sending me his copies of the rest of the series so I will be continuing before the end of the year definitely ☺️
@@valliyarnl i also plan on startin malazan books actually since now i will have time! So i am looking forward to seeing your view on the books ^^. Also great work, i see your channel is growing very fast since witcher ranking ! Good luck
Awesome video! Have you continued the series since? Would love to see more like this!
Malazan is one of my absolute favorite things of all time. 2 tips from me would be: 1) malazan books are often primarily about the themes over other things, and 2) Philip Chase and AP Canavan have wonderful discussion videos, I'd recommend watching them after each book to fill yourself in on some of the depth that you (like everyone) missed along the way
haven't yet but I will shortly. and yes I've been watching the Philip Chase/AP Canavan videos and they've been super helpful! thanks for commenting
@@valliyarnl nice, those two are the best! Hope you enjoy Deadhouse Gates whenever you jump back in 🙏
Canny video & class channel, you have an absolute journey ahead of you. Deadhouse Gates & Memories of Ice our some of my top books. Nothing will make sense sometimes and you’ll feel lost but it’ll all be revealed in time.
Wonderful to see someone enjoying the novel !
as someone who picked up this series from simply browsing the shelves at Barnes & Nobles, discovering the reputation this series has was shocking. to me, it was just a random ass series i found on a packed shelf. little did i know.
Your introduction was really good! I started this book a few years back but it didn’t grab me.. I’m going to give it another try soon now. I like how you read each part and then reviewed before moving on to the next! It does sound like a difficult read, probably why I struggled with it.. it sounds like quite the commitment to read all the books in this series, how many?? And I thought Wheel of Time’s 14 was a lot! Another solid review from you, you’re looking like you’ve found your comfort zone! 👍🏼
Fun fact when I was starting to get more into adult fantasy I heard of these two series and I decided to start the wheel of time because it seemed easier. Now I realise that if I started with Malazan I would probably just quit reading adult fantasy period 😂😂
I was just too young so I’m glad I waited. This series has 10 books
Sooo if you had started Malazan first, you might still be reading Wheel of Time! I think you made the right choice, not that I’m a little biased with WOT being my favorite series .. oh wait, I guess I am!
The series has 10 books for the main storyline and at least 14 more side stories that go more in depth about things that are not explained as much. Definitely worth the read as well if you like the world then you'll want to know more.
Just got a copy of this the other day- excited to see how difficult I find it!
good luck soldier 🫡
Looking forward to your review of Deadhouse Gates. For you to become one of us. One of us.
One of us. One of us. One of us.
A good combo to read is Berserk and Malazan. The world of Berserk helps illustrate the world of Malazan pretty nicely.
"Such is the irony of life," Kruppe proclaimed, raising one pastry-filled hand over his head, "that one learns to distrust the obvious, surrendering instead to insidious suspicion and confused conclusion. But, is Kruppe deceived? Can an eel swim? Hurrah, these seeming muddy waters are home to Kruppe, and his eyes are wide with Wonder."
S tier quote
Can't wait to hear you thoughts on Dead House, hopefully it's good enough for you to continue to Memories of Ice because that book is simply amazing.
Thank you for watching! My plan is to get thru Memories by the end of the year
Ha! You’re in danger of me becoming a subscriber now. I love that there are people out there just like me in the wider world, judging from the comments as well. This is my favourite book series of all time, stuck with it, the best character hands down is Karsa Orlong who arrives in book 4 House of Chains. Everyone will identify with someone different, but he’s my guy 👊🏻
Can’t wait to meet Karsa 😁
As for that danger… it’s one id be glad to live with :))))
@@valliyarnl 🤣 one more good video relevant to me and I’m in. I’ve had a browse through some older ones and checking your recommendations. Tell me, did you ever get the Gwent physical cards to play? I’d like to see some content like that around the books and games.
@@Anotherperson81 I shall try to satisfy your interests 🫡
My Polish literature teacher had a gwent card deck and we used to have intense matches haha Northern Kingdoms on TOP
Go with the flow, and don’t worry too much about the deck of dragons. There are hints in the cards, but you don’t need to know them to enjoy it. If you don’t understand something, just keep reading😎
My experience over time has shifted from shutting off that part of my brain that wants everything to make sense and just watching what the characters are doing… it’s a challenge but it actually makes it easier to understand. 4 books in and I feel I should go back and read the first 2, the second two being so much easier to follow for me
Oooo I’ll try this for deadhouse gates
@@valliyarnl yeah and even when you’re doubting if it’s worth it, just finish it for maximum emotional damage
I can absolutely attest to this. I couldn't really get into these books until i accepted that i would not understand everything right away and simply focused on the scenes in front of me. Definitely made it a lot more enjoyable.
7:31 Caladan Brood is also the name of an amazing Atmospheric Black Metal band. Their songs are based on the books and have amazing references (I also like how the song lyrics are written like the books in a way, where you have to piece together what the song is about out of context clues). Their only album "Echoes of Battle" is one of best Black Metal Albums of all time imo.
ps: on the entire "understanding and explanations" part: I personally found it very enjoyable to not understand everything. The best way to enjoy Malazan is to just roll with it. Some disagree and prefer to read along in wikis and chapter-summaries, however I feel like that would take away from the joy of discovering all the connections. It also makes re-reads very enjoyable. (That being said, I think I read Gardens of the Moon 6 times, because every time I paused Malazan for longer than 2 weeks I started over from book 1 because I felt lost.)
Kiedy pierwszy raz czytałem Ogrody Księżyca to moim największym problemem było to, że Erikson nie opisywał zbyt dokładnie tego jak wyglądają poszczególne rasy - a pojawiały się ciągle. To samo z różnymi systemami magicznymi i... w sumie ze wszystkim. ^^ Ciężko jest sobie to wszystko wyobrazić, a ja czytając książkę muszę mieć w głowie obrazy i czuć się trochę jakbym sam odtwarzał sobie film. Wtedy mam najlepszy wystrzał immersji. Teraz jest dużo łatwiej, bo można sobie wpisać coś w google i zobaczyć mniej więcej jak to wygląda.
Poszło Ci całkiem gładko, teraz będzie już tylko lepiej. :)) 2gi tom jest świetny, a 3ci to jedna z najlepszych książek jakie przeczytałem w życiu. Także trochę Ci zazdroszczę, że to jeszcze przed Tobą. Pozdrawiam!
😄😄
Huge fan of the series and just watched your Witcher video. So yeah...just subscribed. Hope you share your thoughts ont he remaining books of this series 🙂
if I don't cover Deadhouse Gates in September/October I think a few of my friends will show up outside my house with pitchforks
Thank you for subscribing!
Steven Erikson is an alumni of the University I attend so I feel a special connection to it. Gardens of the Moon had a lot of effect on my D&D setting. Overall its a very special book to me. Starting the second book soon!
Lmao 😂😂. Absolutely loved the Malazan series.
I can't wait to continue!
@@valliyarnl I was impressed with your break down. Sounds like this series is gonna be your jam; plus you’ll get the ultimate fantasy brag
@@moonbot7613 that's why i do anything tbh
(joke)
@@valliyarnl 😂 too funny.
I really like the way you did the video by breaking down your reaction into parts. It was interesting to see your very expressive real time experience (and it also helped me recall what happened as it's been a couple of years). Other than the Crokus fangirling, my thoughts and rating are very similar to yours, particularly about not being fully immersed in the narrative. You mentioned that SE wrote it as a snapshot of a longer history, and it felt to me like a narrative version of a history book, meaning it was interesting to read but there was a distance that stopped it being exciting or enabling me to fully empathize with the characters. It was like I was looking down at the world with an objective eye and noting what was happening instead of being immersed in the story at a subjective character level. Still, it's great to see an author try to tell a story in a different way. Like you, figuring out what was going on was my favourite part. I think I did OK, but initially I thought the acorn grew into the Azath House and was a bit baffled until I re-read a couple of chapters. That said, I agree that the Azath House was a deus ex machina and that annoyed me at the time - bring in things late in the story if you must, but don't use them to solve problems. The momentum also dropped for me with the multiple resolutions. Looking back with knowledge of the overall plan, it was great to get an ending to each part of it, but at the time I started to lose interest. I remember googling most of the questions you raised, and the answers were generally 'you don't get explanations immediately and have to wait until later', which is fair enough, but I don't know how much of a 10 book series I want to commit to before I might get some answers. Small aside - I pronounce fête as fate and thought the title had a double meaning - it referred to the party, but also to the 'fate' of events coming to a supernatural conclusion. I really liked what you said about the whole experience being more enjoyable than just the book. I found the same thing with reading theories on ASOIAF and Kingkiller forums. Buddy reads or talking with others while reading definitely deepens the experience. Hearing you talk about the book has sparked my interest in picking up Deadhouse Gates. I'm looking forward to more comedy from The Two Weras, but I'm sad that GoTM won't be touted as TikTok's must read summer romantasy :)
RD, I really love reading your comments. they're always so thought provoking. that does mean it takes me a bit longer to reply, but I hope that doesn't bother you too much :) Anyways, as for the Crokus fangirling (i just want to clarify) the smut part was a joke haha. I think your description of the book feeling like a narrative version of a history book is very apt. I wonder if that was the point knowing the authors background as an archeologist and anthropologist? I'm so glad someone agrees with me about the Azath House feeling like a Deus Ex Machina. Maybe if it was mentioned a few times earlier? Even during the prologue with the Deadhouse because I'm pretty sure that's one as well. Not too sure. The Fete pronounciation- I didn't think of that! Nice catch. ASOIAF and Kingkiller are on my list still, but not too sure when ill get to it. The Two Weras will most certainly be back prompltly for another comedy segment. In the meantime they're thinking of launching a propaganda campaign to launch Gardens of the Moon as TikTok's newest hottest steamiest summer romantasy. thanks for the inspo :D
Very well said. I read almost the entire series now (on book 8). I enjoy it mostly for the often beautiful prose, impressive sense of scale and remarkable creativity im some of the ideas but I agree so much about the feeling of "distance" to the characters and the plot and it unfortunately never really changes in my opinion.
After spending this much time with the story and some of the characters I definitely have a bit more of an idea of what's going on and who everyone is but I just have a hard time getting deeply invested emotionally because Erikson seems to purposely always keep you an arm's length or more from his characters and plots which makes it all seem a bit vague and hazy and the fact that he constantly introduces new characters and switches characters so often certainly doesn't help either.
I think it's a bit of a shame because there are moments of such agonising tragedy in these stories but I just can't really feel what I think I should feel because I simply am not emotionally invested enough. Maybe that's on me but I don't really have that problem with other series. I felt like I knew the characters in ASoIaF better after a single book (some even after a single chapter) than I know any of the Malazan characters after 8. In fact, I still often forget some of their names and confuse them with one another. Is that a sign of bad writing or bad reading comprehension? I really can't say. All I know is that I wish I liked these books even more than I do and I think I would if Erikson would just let me get a bit closer.
@@amysteriousviewer3772 Thank you! That's really interesting what you said about not getting any closer, even by book 8. I completely agree about ASOIAF. The close 3rd person POV really helps to get to know the characters - their thoughts, desires and motivation - so it's much easier to get a feel for them, empathise and become invested. The overall picture that Malazan offers seems like an academic view, but I'm looking for more emotional engagement. Maybe SE expects the reader to make that empathetic leap without being shown? What you've said is really helpful, so thanks. I still think it might be a series I'd like to finish one day but I don't feel a sense of urgency. Others books have greater immediate appeal and probably offer more of what I'm looking for. Thanks for the reply. I hope the last two books improve your overall impression, if you decide to read them.
I hated this book for the first 300 pages, started warming to it in the second half. When i re read it I fell in love.
🥳🥳
certified banger
To Remember:
For most of the things you think has no context, or is somehow weird or incoherent in a narrative sense (no spoilers, but like for Bellurdan, T'lan Imass, the Hounds, the Azath, etc), there is going to be soo much more depth later on. Which is why, have utter and complete faith in Erikson's mastery in plotting and character.
Good to know !
You’re creative
I'm very glad that you liked the GotM, but more epic moments are yet to come, enjoy 😄
😁
Today, I stood at the Fantasy section for nearly 45 minutes trying to find a compelling story that would inspire me to finish my own fantasy novel... did not realize I chose 'the most difficult fantasy of all time'...
🤣🤣
Have fun!!!
Its an odd book but the worldbuilding and imagnination have some cool elements . I could not relate to any of the characters and found myself zoning out when reading it often.
Oh, I’m sad that that was your experience 😢 see I had my boy Crokus so I was reading the book for him.
@@valliyarnl I think it would make a good movie adaptation where it'd easier to tell the story through visuals and sound. I really enjoyed your review. Subscribed and liked 😁
I actually believe it was GURPS (generic universal role-playing system) that they were playing not D&D (sorry that's such a nerdy detail lol) and I love Malazan, it certainly can be difficult (I myself would very often read chapter summaries on the wiki to make sure I was following wtf was going on. Maybe not the most difficult I've read (that honor still goes to Black Leopard, Red Wolf) but certainly up there
Also: if you take an advice: don’t make it as a challenge too much. Don’t even try to understand everything at the first read. It’s not meant to be. We never did that who started it back then. These tools of wiki and such are helpful but not really for page by page use. You are very smart and by your school you can memorise things. That’s more than enough. You also have your own opinions. It’s better you discuss things and that’s all.
Yet do not keep long skips between the books. You mentioned that you watched Daniel’s interview. But you also should know that he hated this series originally and his biggest regret is that he kept big breaks between them. One of the obvious reasons: you forget everything. But also there is the other. You get used to the writing method, how these book tick so you basically get a routine in Malazan reading, increasing the enjoyment and how to pick the foreshadowing and so on. Even Merphy Napier who is a full time booktuber, keeps only 1 month breaks between the books if! it drains her emotionally too much but usually 2-3 weeks with her big tbr. That’s how she can keep up everything and will finish the series in almost 2 years and join us as one of the biggest fan. She hesitated much but it ended up on her top10 list forever and climbs up book by book. Your rating was this now… let’s see what will be on Memories of Ice… with this character cast. You want to understand the Whiskyjack hype? Read it! So will the Anomander hype.
I don't think you really got the irony behind Crokus's relationship. To me it was completely one sided and the funny part about it was that he is young and lost about his feelings. So he begins dreaming about a romance with a "princess".
I am surprised you didn't talk more about the unsual "villain" in Anomander Rake because some of my favorite parts of the book are his interactions with Baruk.
I also had a rough start with it but once i finished book 1 it got easier instantly. You have to read slow to not miss a detail lost in the complex (yet beautiful) prose but it's worth it.
I finished GotM a couple of days ago and am already 20% in Deadhouse gates. Erikson completely won me over.
oh I DEFINITELY did not get the irony :( I truly WHOLE HEARTEDLY believed in their (not) love affair. the betrayal i felt when reading Gorlas's name was second to none. my heart has been broken.
About Rake, i think this might be unpopular but he didn't really make too big of an impression on me yet. I found the line about him reading some random history nonfiction because he's been alive for a very very long time to be interesting+depressing, but other than that he didn't really do it for me yet.
I hope you enjoy Deadhouse Gates. It's famous for having a banger ending. I will try to get to it when I get back to Ireland (because I want to buy the paperback and I can't in Poland).
I bought this book some years ago because one of my favorite bands takes its name from Caladan Brood but I gave up after a few chapters, someday I'll give it another chance
i think that's fair. It's definitely a lot. It took me a long time to read and digest everything. what's the band?
@@valliyarnl the band is named Caladan Brood, they're an atmospheric black metal duo but unfortunately they released only an album over 10 years ago. But it's a beautiful album, in my top 5 of all time
@@gabrielemoio8935 that's so interesting. heavy metal gives me PTSD bc it was my ex's favorite genre but i'll give it a listen 👀
@@valliyarnl I hope you'll enjoy them 🙂
3 years in still only half way through probably won’t make it to the end before I pass away😅
Later books in the series are more complicated. This book 1 is pretty straightforward with not many characters by comparison. Who said this is the hardest?
… what 💀
Have you ever tried writing fantasy Wera? You seem to have a real passion for it 🙂
i do want to ... i've had an idea brewing for years ... maybe ill make a video explaining my writing plan? right now though the goal is to get this channel started on two good feet :)
@@valliyarnl Yea that could be interesting. I guess if your channel keeps growing (and I'm sure it will 🙂) and you do decide to write, you'll have plenty of potential readers right off the bat 👍
Yes. Crokus is a thief and a stalker. He got what him deserved.
And good for him to toss the Coin away. Otherwise, we would be so fucked like Parian was. Played by gods. Striped of free will of any kinds.
Malazan have 20+ books so i know it's normal to not to know much about what's going on. 👀
Upload that skit as a short!
OH MY GOD YOURE A GENIUS
ON MY WAY TO EDIT RIGHT NOW
It doesn't sound like a book I would enjoy reading, since, firstly, I am not a fan of very long books, and, secondly, I am not a fan of overly-convoluted plots. Interesting video, as always.
I think that’s fair tbh. It’s not gonna be for everyone. Thank you for commenting again. I really appreciate your support 🫶🏻
@@valliyarnl You're welcome. I enjoy commenting because it strengthens my atrophied writing muscles.
@@MrRosebeing 😂😂😂
Keep looking. There are far harder out there.
What makes this book hard to read?
well i think it's a lot of things together: complexity of the world building (and how none of it is explained), the amount of characters and motivations you need to understand without it being spelled out for you, the writing is very dense (so on one hand you have no fluff, but on the other every sentence has multiple important pieces of information you have to pick up on).
hope that kind of answered the question!
Hm… there is no Deus Ex Machina in the book. 😁 What was the goal of that jagh? And in that, think for a second, why they needed an enemy like this? And you think that was it? History is built on small and bigger events. The implications are following. The power in the series is balanced. Although this House was there, the mages and others would eventually kill the jagh. He was alone and they were many. As the dragons explained: the times changed since the era of the old races… and is that the only House we know of at that point? 👀
Don’t worry, you will get the Jack hype soon, at the book3… Also Kruppe is the goat.
Welcome to the desert and the beginning of the uprising! Let’s turn on the grim part! 🫡 💀
Btw: foreshadowing? For even books. It doesn’t care for book endings… it builds up now for next bookS. Hence the House and many other things. That’s why a lot rates this book higher when they are in the series and they know how to interpret it.
well my theory is that Deadhouse is also an Azath house. As for the mages being able to kill the Tyrant... i don't know. He was really built up and I just wasn't convinced that they would stand against him without someone like Anomander Rake helping them. Hope you're enjoying the series. I will be continuing with DG in a few months!!
@@valliyarnl well… let’s see what happens next with this Tyrant question. 😉
Yep… There will be an other house at some point in the next book… but it has more than one plot lines. And yes, you will understand more about it.
I read this series 12~ years ago first. 😂 I just go along with the new readers. I didn’t even know about these wiki stuff or anything else. It was a fun read without it. I think I’m at 5th read now.
The intro 😂💀
hello fellow Crokus stan
i see i have found my target audience 🫶🏻
I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE HIM AGAIN
I've read Malazan novels by both Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont. They were well written, but I do not plan to read any more by either author because your attention is divided in so many different directions. If they would cut the number of characters and story lines down by half the books would be much more enjoyable and easier to follow.
When I decided to start reading Malazan I was nervous due to all the TH-camrs who talked about this. After 5 sentences I knew this was a different beast from all other books I ever read. I had to read a bit slower and ease myself into it. Now Malazan is my favorite series of all time by a mile. You are in for a wild ride! PS. The Bridgeburners will become such a large, important and amazing part of the series. Don't worry about them being boring now.
Hahaha after the first five sentences I was stressing what a Mock’s Hold was 😂 (in serious this is definitely a very unique experience from the ther fantasy I’ve read)
I trust you about the Bridgeburners 🫡
Malazan is one of my favourite fantasy series of all time. But it is in no way difficult. I think thats a myth created by redditors that havent really read anything. It starts in medias res, uncommon for modern pop fantasy, yes, but nothing new and not making it complicated. Stylistic choice that really works in its favour. Its a soft magic system, but people have a hard time with it because they expect it to be hard for some reason? Its beautifully written, with a lot of foreshadowing, symbolism and philosophy. But the series is fairly simple and straightforward. Your just not spoonfed anything and it doesn't suffer from overexposition. Which i guess its common with more modern pop sff books where the author has no faith in their readers.
So much fun to see your reactions to Gardens of the Moon. I find the Malazan's books both from Erikson and Esslemont really awesome reads. (currently at Dust of Dreams myself). Also, please don't worry about misinterpreting anything. By creating hypotheses and adding new information when it becomes available, we make sense of the world. And there's a lot of information to get or to miss in these books.
I hope you will finish the series. Enjoy the ride!
Oh my gosh!! One left after DoD!! Good luck crossing the finish line 😄😄
I don't find the book that confusing, it's challenging sure but the reputation of it being difficult is a bit overblown, I think it's more due to the structure of the book that deviates from the standard fantasy story structure that's more direct.
That’s so interesting. For me it definitely lived up to its reputation
6:20 omg CLASSIC male experience we’ve all been here before
... Reed 💀
THAT PART MESSED ME UP REAL GOOD 😂😂😂😂😂😂
I always thought Wheel of Time was the toughest read. Unfortunately I read the entirety of it when I was 12 so I have difficulty remembering it all
💀 Truuuuust me, next to Malazan, WoT might as well be a picture book in terms of difficulty haha
The Azath House is RAFO. I will say you'll have a much better understanding of what happened by the end of the next book, but part of the mystery of the story is slowly piecing together how the cosmology of this series works.
That’s very good to hear ☺️
The best way to read this series is too not try too much to understand everything. Enjoy the present scene you are reading... everything will wrap together. But as you read Mr Ericsson will skip time and place in between scene so sometime can be a bit confusing. Verry nice video and review 😊
This review is so fun. Deadhouse Gates will probably break your heart. But that's something to look forward to. :D
Cant wait 😁😁😁
Heyy, I was watching your last Witcher video and you mentioned CP2077, if you are interested, can you make a video on it?
mayyyyybe in the future, but i don't think it's too likely :/
this is mainly a book channel and i think CP2077 would be a tad outside the niche.
@@valliyarnl maybe you can do a mix video on cyberpunk books, snow crash , neromancer or the detective's tale on hyperion also do androids sleep of electric sheep is kinda cyberpunk , besides cp2077 has a book i guess so you can included it on that
I would be interested in that crossover. Since Cyberpunk 2077 is Polish game based of USA lore. I think you are pretty and knowledgeable. May I have your number ? Just kidding.. I haven't Phone:(😢
@@cade4746 ooooooo wait this is interesting. Gonna take a screenshot of this comment and save it in my planning document
The hardest fantasy book (technically sci fi .. ) is The Book of the New Sun
Gene Wolfe is waaaaayyyyy outside my ballpark rn. maybe in a few years 🫣
@@valliyarnlStumbled across this video, let me first say I love the format of you giving your thoughts as you read through each section for the first time. Seeing that applied to BOTN would be interesting because it's so dense and esoteric, and it's all told through an unreliable narrator. There are things you can sus out if you're paying EXTREMELY close attention, but it's a series that demands multiple rereads to truly appreciate all the interlocking pieces.
This is the most unique take on Malazan I have ever seen, and this is a good thing 😊. It is my favorite series (together with Wheel of Time) ever! I really enjoyed your video 😊.
Welcome to the empire. Witness!
Considering this is widely agreed by fans to be the weakest entry in the series, I'm glad to see you enjoyed it overall. Can't wait to see you do the rest.
Soon!
I came across your channel a few weeks ago and am really enjoying your videos. I'm part Polish and am trying to learn more about the culture. Do you have any recommendations for popular or significant Polish books with good English translations? I assume The Witcher is a good place to start, but was wondering if you had any other recs.
Great question. For SciFi I’d say The Invincible by Stanisław Lem. Not too long but Lem is the father of Polish science fiction. Even Sanderson mentioned him as inspiration in a few videos. Despite the translation of The Witcher not being great, it’s still The Witcher so if you keep the translation in mind then I think you’ll be fine. For historical creative nonfiction-> Stones for the Ramparts is the best Polish war story. Unfortunately the book doesn’t have a translation BUT the movie (which is incredible) does and I highly highly recommend. For a classic of Polish Romanticism (my favorite literary epoch), I have to say Balladyna. It’s beautiful and brutal and very very Slavic. Likewise I have to say Mr Tadeusz but I wouldn’t recommend the text because imo it’s quite long and too long winded, but the movie is good and really digestible. It also has the actor from the Polish Witcher series (that I once walked into fun fact).
If you have any questions let me know!
Regarding the Azath house, it does absolutely feel like a deux ex machina at first. But this is just the start of the series, deadhouse gates and later books will go into more detail about the azath and how it works. The series has a soft magic system, meaning there won't be precise and exact rules to the magic, but it was intuitive enough for me to understand.
I had finished the entire series a month or so ago and plan on a reread eventually. Because there is so much added context as time goes on.
Yeah, I heard that people on a reread like it’s so much more and that there’s so much for them left to find! I’m glad you enjoyed it
Likes malazan, instant subscribe
0:10 That's what she said
Here’s a good way to think of the series. Or, rather, how I see it. Imagine you’re an alien dropped on Earth during WWII. You know nothing, but you experience, say, the European theatre of war. The pacific theater of war. The African theater of war.
Great analogy
You did such a phenomenal job on this review, that I might be inspired to pick the series up again. I gave up halfway through The Bonehunters, as I could not keep up with everything that was happening. I really appreciate your enthusiasm. It's infectious...
Awww thank you! Hope you enjoy the rest of the series!
10 more pages from GOTM and then I can watch this video😁
How'd you like the ending?
Loved Finishing with my guy Circle Breaker. Need some days before starting book two@@valliyarnl
@@valliyarnl Its hard to look at it as a solo book, and not as part one of a big series, so I was not waiting for a grand finale, just the fact that I look forward to book 2 is enough.
Def the worst book in the series so i hope you enjoy book 2. The end blew me away and made me realize i was reading something really really special. But theres a lot of military stuff sooo idk how youll feel. Plus its basically a whole new cast.
When I started watching this video, I wanted to compare the book to House of Leaves. A book I'm reading currently which is also a very difficult read. And interestingly despite being written in very different styles I think they may be hard reads of the same reason maybe? ikd I haven't finished House of Leaves yet and I'm not even sure which genre it qualifies as. Nevertheless It'd be interesting to see your thoughts on House of Leaves if you ever read it.
I fxcking LOVE House of Leaves.
@@valliyarnl Baller, I gotta finish it faster now
This 1 is coming fast for me!
i'll be curious to hear your thoughts :D
@@valliyarnl I will be getting them out there for sure.
I read this book so many years ago, that I couldn’t recall most characters names you mentioned. Definitely it’s about time to reread. But I remember that I struggled a lot with the first part and really enjoyed almost all action in Darujhistan. Great that you finished this book and still want to continue reading the series, as I know too many people who couldn’t finish Gardens of the Moon or finished but didn’t want to continue reading.
Some people are describing Wheel of Time as containing the highest of high and lowest of low in fantasy, I would say that Malazan Book of the Fallen can be describe this way as well.
Malazan Book of the Fallen helped me a lot in finding my favourite taste in fantasy, with high stakes, epic battles and more characters that I can remember. Over decade after finishing the series it is still in my top 5 series (with George R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire, Andrzej Sapkowski The Witcher, Robert M. Wegner Opowieści z Meekhanskiego Pogranicza and Felik W. Kres Księga Całości). I hope you will find something special in that series for you too.
I can see how this book would be hard. It is probably the worst edited novel I have ever seen where in a single chapter you are jumping all over the place to different characters and scenarios. The information dump sometimes is so overwhelming that I could not remember what happened or who did what. Only time I actually had to write down notes to keep things straight but gave up after I had 20 pages of notes only 2/3rd the way through. Kind of a shame as the author is a good writer and his world is engaging.
I’ve read the series three times and I’m still not clear on Azath houses. Keep in mind, no-one in the Malazan world fully understands them either. And if push came to shove, I think Erikson and Esslemont would have a hard time fully explaining them. Also remember, this is not a fully hard magic system. To a certain extent magic has to have some mystery.
In GotM, the Azath functions as a deus ex machina. That’s because it resolves a key thread at the end, and it is not particularly well set up in the text. I think it’s a weakness in the text.
I think your answer for Tatersail is already in the book, in one of Krupp’s dreams.
Cotillion is not necessarily the bad guy, and for the most part these books are morally grey. Keep in mind, at the start, the Malazan are the invading, besieging army. They are aligned with the Moranth, who for lack of a better description, are bug people. They, the Malazan, are the bad guys (and there are lots of signs that the Empress is not so wonderful).
I'm commenting before I'm finished but one of the problems I think readers have with the series is that they typically have expectations that there are "good" guys and "bad" guys and that you'll easily figure out who is which and as a result root for/attach yourself to them. Erikson is continually taking your expectations and squashing them so that he can make something new, unique, and in the end thought provoking. It's not uncommon to have the feelings you have, I would just recommend that you try to drop your expectations and see where Erikson takes you instead. He trusts you to be able to follow and in return you have to trust that he knows what he's doing and that there is a payoff to the sometimes seemingly disparate pieces of the puzzle you are assembling. You will face this conundrum continually as each book of the first half of the series places new characters and new settings in front of you. You WILL find depth to these characters and you WILL be attached to likely dozens of them if Malazan ends up landing for you. It isn't for everyone at every time but the one thing I think everyone can take from this series is just how in tune Erikson is to the human condition and his willingness to approach all of it from different perspectives without (generally) telling you how you should think/feel about what you are reading. Hope you enjoy the rest should you choose to continue.
Dont forget, GOTM is a novelisation of a script that was written fir a potential screenplay.
So when you read deadhouse gates itll be a way different experience, as thats when the series truly starts.
I feel sorry for you when you get to Deadhouse Gates, but power through because book 3 Memories of Ice really lays the path for the whole series, which is the most enjoyable I ever read. It's even better on the re-read.
I picked it up some year ago and I read it and I could not get past page 40. This video almost convinced me to try it out again. But for no fault of your own I will remain hell-bent on never doing so for as long as possible and maybe ever.
Slideshow? What is this slideshow?
linked it in the description!
@@valliyarnl Ah, I see
I read these more than ten years ago, thought at the time of 'GOT' why didn't HBO go with this instead, found all ten to be easy and engaging reads.
If it was hard for you the understand then I know my peanut brain could neveeerrrrr. But loved hearing you talk about it! 🫶
If I wouldn’t have had the slideshow, podcast, lecture series, and 2 friends explaining it my brain would’ve been going bleep bleep bloop the entire time so doooont worry about it 😂
Congrats, you have finished arguably the worst written book in the series, and it is also probably Erickson's weakest writing, as it was written 10 years before all the other books.
Book 2 onwards, the writing improves a lot, and the characterization also improves. There will be less sudden jump cuts and pov hoppings will be smoother.
The Azath house, at this particular point is absolutely written like a Deus ex Machina, but you will slowly get more and more info on that in the next book and throughout the series. Deadhouse Gates will be a slower burn, but the ending should be great. Lets see how you feel about it.
Oh my gosh I didn’t realise that it was written 10 years before the other books that makes me more excited to see how he improved in dead house gates. I also found a comment of him saying that gardens for him was truly a warmup for that book so That has been pretty hyped up
Hey you do get your romance eventually. I cant tell you more without spoiling which 2 characters survive to which book.
😄😄😄
(As long as Gorlas dies a fiery death and get ripped apart by a demon harder than the one that died by Anomander’s sword … I’ll be happy 😇)
I'm currently close to finishing book 2 and I'll say it improves a lot. Gardens of the Moon opens a lot of plot points that it doesn't resolve in this book (like, Tattersail being possibly reborn, Caladan Brood, Toc the Younger disappearing, Rake's sword realm, etc). Also, I ended up not caring much for any character. Since you barely know their thoughts and motivations it's hard to connect. Also, they all sound the same or very similar tbh.
So far I'm liking Deadhouse Gates more. The plot is more straightforward and easier to follow. And while my issue with the characters is not fully resolved, some of them feel more alive and are better written.
I’m looking forward to dead house gates later on this year!!
soooo Lorn -
when the new empress tries to outlaw magic not used by the empire to forces mages to join the army, the place Lorn comes from rebels... in those riots Lorn's mother is killed.... the now orphan Lorn is taken in by the empire and many years later she is now the adjunct for the empress that caused her mothers death... where she runs into tattersail, the woman that killed her mother while just doing her job putting down the riots...
that starts a crisis for Lorn, does she give up who she is and simply become a tool of empire or do she reasert who she is and brake free
Lorn is a very very interesting character arc that will be mirrored a number of times throughout the series
Oooohhhh interesting. Thank you so much for explaining it 🫶🏻🫶🏻
Weird I thought you talked about this series already, anyway no problemo. Always a pleasure and maybe it will help me finish this daunting task I imposed onto myself... The series made me think more of video games especially during combats.
I mentioned that I’ll be reading it a few times before :)
Thanks for watching!
oh hey look i made that 💀happy to see people finding it useful! a guide for book 7 should be out soon, cheers!
also any thoughts on sapkowski's hussite trilogy? just picked up book 1 on sale, people say they enjoyed as much if not more than witcher
Oh my gosh! I’m a bit star struck I must admit. Excited to continue reading and using ur slideshows 😄
I haven’t read the Hussite trilogy yet but I definitely will when my TBR lightens up 😊
It’s quite interesting to hear you say how a lot of the early chapters feel like short stories, as Steven Erikson ,describes the writing of the earlier books essentially being short stories piled on top of each other.
interesting!
This book is like the most complex and immaculately built pool ever made, and you're thrown into the deep end of the pool and told to not drown. Yeah, it's intimidating, but worth toughing through.
very apt metaphor
I was taking a drink, not expecting 'Gardens of the Moon is a romantasy in disguise' - lol
😂😂
I love fantasy but am too intimidated to read the book. What slide show were you referring to?
Linked in description!
Hardest book to read will always be the one in other languages you don't understand.
…. sorry what???
Honestly, i just found it boring. I really didn't have a hard time understanding it. I just had a hard time staying awake to read it. I recently finished book 3, and that was not worth it. If that was the best book in the series, I think I'm done.
I love the black humor scattered liberally throughout the series. It's probably not surprising that perhaps my favorite character is Bauchelain, you'll run into him and his creepy sidekick later.
Ooo yes I heard of them! Don’t they have their own spin off?
@@valliyarnl That they do, a couple of collections of short stories, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach Volumes 1 and 2. Highly recommended.🙂
I would recommend you read Night of knives from Esslemont before you start Dead house gates. It's around 300 pages and takes place in Malaz city. If you want the full Malazan experience you should read both authors. Enjoyed the video.
i'm really split on whether to do the Erickson 10 or to go the full Malazan 16 on this read through. so far the advice i've been given was to do Malazan book of the fallen and then to go into Novels of the Malazan Empire.
What do you think?
@@valliyarnl I finished the book of the fallen last summer, but I also read in between a few Esslemont books. I am glad that I did. I read night of knives after gardens, then read return of the Crimson guard after bonehunters. You should definitely read those 2. I am currently halve way on Stonewielder and I regret that I skipped it because it's awesome.
@@valliyarnlsecond the read the Ten first. Enough going on without all the new characters and side quests. Although Knight of Knives does take place before GotM and happens all in one night.
Congrats first of all. Gardens of the Moon is traditionally (and i think correctly) thought of as the worse of the malazan books (which have a high standard).
Deadhouse Gates is in my opinion the best of the series. Looking foward to your review.
I’m planning to read dead house gates before the end of the year and maybe memories of ice as well? What’s your opinion on the penultimate book? I thought that one was mixed as well?
@@valliyarnlfirst three is an achievable target definitely for the year. The penultimate one should be combined with no 10 too (that’s Erikson’s intention too), and seeing it as it’s own book is why people are upset (all payoff is in the last one)
@@elliott9995 ohhh ok that explains a lot thank you!