This is a spoiler free post.
11,405 pages. 3,325,000 words. 1.5 years.
That's the time and workI've put into reading Malazan, Book of the Fallen. I knew it was a big undertaking when I started this journey back in August of 2023. I don't regret even a single minute of this reading journey. It's one of the best I've ever experienced.
Fanart by Shadaan
What is Malazan Book of the Fallen?
Malazan Book of the Fallen is a gigantic fantasy epic written by the British Canadian author Steven Eriksen. I'm surprised that I had never heard about this work before a friend introduced it to me roughly two years back. I't s a 10 book series released between 1999 and 2011, which to me is impressive seeing how detailed and thought out the books are.
In the books we follow a set of characters from the Malazan Empire through a rather complicated series of events. When I say a set of characters I really mean a ton of characters. There's so many characters and events happening in these books that there are no definitive main characters. In that sense you could compare it to A Song of Ice and Fire, just with even more characters.
eBook cover of the series
What makes it good?
There's a lot to talk about here. What makes Malazan so good to me is the interconnection between all of the 10 books, the huge cast of characters and the ingeniously thought out story. When the first book starts it throws you right into the fray. It's clear that this isn't the beginning of the story and that there are a lot of events and lore already underlying. With all the glimpses of lore and preceding events it feels like the author must have 20 more books that he's written just as past events. The fact that he manages to weave this all into the coming 10 book series is truly a work of art.
It's also the kind of series where you start to appreciate each of the earlier books the deeper you get into the series. Even though each book is sort of self-contained the overarching plot is always there. You can't see how yet, but you just know that this story you're currently reading will weave into the overall plot. Even if you're reading 700 pages containing nothing but new characters and a whole new story-line you're left speechless at how it all connects when that missing puzzle piece is revealed.
Cover to Memories of Ice, the 3rd book
The end
By the time you start the 10th book you're left with the feelings that there's at least a hundred loose ends not yet tied up and explained. Most of these loose ends are masterfully tied up in the last few chapters which is not an easy thing to do. At the same time I was left with a lot to contemplate and reflect upon. There's still some loose ends but not critical ones. The kind where the reader can sort of decide for themselves what happens next. Things like, what happened to the characters after the events of the book?
It's hard to make a post like this and try to make it all make sense. I think for once I'm writing a post mostly for myself as a way to poor out some thoughts rather than write it as actual content for a reader. Still, I hope all of this makes sense and that it's clear why I like these books so much.
There's still 15+ books set in the same universe by both Eriksen and another writer called Ian Esslemont. They co-created this universe, and those books could answer so many questions as to the preceding story that I mentioned earlier in the post. For now I will take a step back from this universe and start delving into Warhammer: 40,000 instead. After 1,5 years of reading the same story from the same story I'm going to need a change of pace.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.