Originally Posted by
kingoffighters
It is hard for me to judge. I used to think GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire is the high mark in current fantasy series, but Feast for Crows has soured the series and the ridiculously long time it takes for him to put out Dance has me not caring. Maybe when he is 100 and finish the series, I would go back to it.
A Tale of Malazan is really really ambitious in both scope and story telling. Erikson drops you basically in the middle of the story and doesn't tell you shit. In fact, the magic system was not even explained until book 5 (I think), basically 4000+ pages in. By that time, you have an understanding of how it generally works anyway. Erikson doesn't like to pander to the reader, so he doesn't bother to explain much. There are all different types of races in his world, and they are not stereotypical elves/dwarves/trolls/goblins/etc. They are entirely different and some are like transformers in that they can turn into beast/insects and such. It reads kinda like Greek mythology in that gods and humans mingle together, and humans can ascend into god hood.
With so many characters, I am impressed that he can juggle them and ties them all together in the final book. For instance, after book 3 (Memories of Ice), you don't get the continuation of that arc until book 8. I had to go back and reread them just to remember what happened. That can be very annoying as it is not a straightforward narrative. If that bothers you, I would not recommend that. Also, another common complaint is many of the characters (evenly lowly foot soldiers/cannon fodders) would break out in deeply philosophical discussions ranging fromon religion, war, human condition, etc and it can be slow to get through. This is especially annoying toward the later books whereas, the first 3/4 books are much more straightforward.
Some better editing would have been beneficial in cutting down maybe 25% of the book without losing much IMO.
So while the series is not flawless by any means, it is still tremendous in its epic scope and a fantastic cast of characters. There are so many memorable characters and scenes, I can name like 20 of them without much deliberation. It does get confusing at times though (especially some of the human/Malazan empire's legendary Bridgeburners). Some of the battles were insane, I love rereading the build up and resolutions on most of these. Apparently, it gets even better (as Sedition confirmed) in the last book, with one epic showdown after another.
So how would I rank this against Wheel of Time or ASOIAF? I like this better because WoT was pretty boring after the 3rd and 4th book and I hate most of the characters. A Storm of Swords is probably the best book out of those 3 series, but Feast was complete shit and drags down the entire series quite a bit. Plus, I have no faith that GRRM would ever live to finish it, so Erikson manages to write 10 books in as many years is just impressive. You can't compare this to Lord of the Rings and such, as that is the father of all fantasy and really nothing touches it on so many levels. But for modern fantasy, it is pretty close to the top if you can deal with the faults I mentioned above (and not everyone can). Sedition can probably give you better comparisons. I have read some of Terry Goodkind/Brooks, etc and find them to be complete shit. Feist is okay, but uneven. I have not read Donaldson yet. Have you ever read Glenn Cook's Black Company chronicles? It is similar in tone to that but BCC is much smaller in scope.
I also like Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle (The Name of the Wind was excellent, and the sequel, The Wise Men's Fears just came out a few weeks ago which I have not read). It is good stuff. Brandon Sanderson also began a 10 book series with The Way of Kings, and to my surprise, it was very good. But it is too early to tell if he can sustain it through 10 books, but at least it is a good start.
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