I wanted to comment on a blog post by Werthead and reading orders in general. Following the general premise that a reading order should simply maximize reader enjoyment as a first read. You could then rearrange orders, following plotlines or chronology, but at that point an experienced reader is able to make their own choice. So I think it makes only sense to discuss reading orders as a suggestion to a new reader.
In general, Malazan reading orders aren’t very controversial, or especially important, there are discrepancies between different lists, but they aren’t a big deal.
For that reason, I don’t really disagree with Werthead, but there are things in his statements that aren’t wrong, but certainly aren’t as final as he says. A different analysis is possible.
Starting from the most important:
The Tor list suggests starting with the Kharkanas Trilogy novels Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light. This is really not a good idea. The Kharkanas Trilogy is a prequel in the purest form, working better when you have knowledge of the characters from chronologically later on. In addition, Fall of Light may be the most divisive Erikson novel published to date. Having it as the second book in the series I think would be a major mistake, as I’ve seen that novel drive off twenty-plus-year veterans of the series (some have returned, now that The God is Not Willing and No Life Forsaken have been more warmly received).
I don’t know what Tor list he refers to, and I would be worried at some list that simply suggest reading the prequel first, but I also think that the rest of what he says is partial. I am one of those who would suggest reading the FIRST prequel book, only, as the very first book to read. But only in very specific cases. There are motivations to consider.
Yes, the prequel books are “divisive”, but there’s a significant selection bias at work, here. He says that veteran readers didn’t receive well the prequels, but then returned for the sequels. What he doesn’t consider in this context is that there ALSO are tons, and tons of readers who picked up Gardens of the Moon, and dropped it, either midway or at the end, and never read anything else by the author. NONE of these readers will ever read the prequel, whereas none of the readers who read the prequels HAVE NOT not-read all the main series.
Can you see the giant problem with that?
The first book is already a significant selection gate. The real problem is that it’s a REALLY BAD selection gate. All long series select their own readers from the very beginning, same as it happens with TV serials. You start from the first, and depending on how you like it, you keep going or stop. For major fantasy series, from Martin to Robin Hobb, to most others I can consider, including Bakker (despite some different claims from other readers), I think they all make “good” gates. You read the first book, you get a decent idea of the nature of the experience. Malazan is an exception.
For a new reader, to “get” Malazan, you need to go quite far and deep. You get significant pieces at the second and third book, but the nature of the work is likely still elusive. It takes the end of the 4th book, or even the 5th, to have a more complete picture. So that you know what the deal is.
The first book is not a “bad” one, but you can only appreciate it when seen in retrospective. It’s not about being a more or less perceptive reader, you simply don’t have ways to see it properly.
It really depends on the reader, on different terms. Someone who’s curious and is going to read the whole series in a year or so, because they have enough focus and commitment, then sure, follow the standard reading order. But telling a reader to go through several THOUSAND pages in order to get a proper idea doesn’t make for a sensible suggestion. You are asking too much. Most readers will “give it a chance,” they’ll pick up the first book and, in the best case, get to the end of it.
If you have read the books you can go back to GotM and see how it draws a straight, clear line to what Malazan is, but as a new reader reading the book will feel like being inside a giant nebula, hard to pinpoint. Again, not because you’re lost within the plot, not a problem of complexity, but the thing itself as a literary object, the sheer experience of reading. GotM will always feel weird and offputting, unless you happen to be already aligned with it.
There are two types of readers that make the suggestion to read Forge of Darkness (the first prequel) a good one:
– the skeptical reader
– someone who read GotM and decided to stop there
For the type of reader who wants to understand “what Malazan is about” but certainly doesn’t want to commit to thousand of pages just to be able to form a good opinion, then reading Forge of Darkness is a good suggestion. I still consider the book as effectively an independent standalone. I’m still stuck reading a re-reading the first 200 pages of the second book, so I cannot give a reliable opinion, but from what I’ve read the second book is already its own thing, to consider separately. The suggestion wouldn’t be reading the prequels first, but just that one book. It’s not overly long, and it has the best prose. It’s the distilled essence of what Malazan is at the core, and it is accessible to every type of reader.
Werthead writes: “The Kharkanas Trilogy is a prequel in the purest form, working better when you have knowledge of the characters from chronologically later on.” I don’t quite understand what he means with “prequel in the purest form” because I’d expect that a prequel would perfectly work as a starting point, but I disagree with the second part. It’s true that there are characters in Forge of Darkness that appear in the main series, but I consider the added knowledge DETRIMENTAL. Knowing those characters from the main series, set so many years later to be a different world, establishes expectations that are meant to be subverted, if anything it’s even more confusing as you try to merge together pieces that seem to contradict each other. Coming in with a blank state helps experiencing story, characters and settings as they are meant to be.
There is a counter point to this, though. Because the book is also not immediately accessible, and it seems to give the reader the idea there’s “something more.” But it is mere illusion. You get a feel that maybe this isn’t a “correct” starting point, that concepts seems to be taken for granted. But it is solely a matter of setting the approach: it’s the nature of what you’re reading. The same difficulties you have as brand new reader are in the same range to those of the veteran reader. The only difference is that the veteran reader has to “shed” a number of preconceptions and re-learn the world and its inhabitants. The difficulty is internal to the work, it never depends on pre-requisites. You have to trust what you’re reading, pay attention and keep your mind on the page, in the sense that any confusion is not meant to frustrate but it’s only natural. Give it time, keep reading.
Pretty much the same for the other group of readers who gave it a fair shot and read all of the first book, and yet found nothing in it especially appealing. It may be a good idea to give Forge of Darkness a chance before giving up entirely. You’ll get a sample of what’s inside Malazan, whether you stop there or decide to continue, at least you will be able to fully grasp the nature of the work. Something that DOES NOT HAPPEN if you read a lot more pages, but still don’t get past book 4 or 5. Without getting there, even if you read tons and tons of pages, you will still form an opinion that will be significantly incomplete. And again, this is something that applies to Malazan as an exception. You can read 50 pages of Sanderson’s The Way of Kings and you’ll have a perfectly good idea about what it is (as long you make past the prologue). The rest isn’t fundamentally different. Same after reading 100 pages of Hobb’ Assassin’s Apprentice. Or 100-200 pages of A Game of Thrones (take some more pages because the story is more fragmented into PoVs).
Malazan is an exception, believe it or not, but it’s also an exception that can be entirely solved within the 800 or so pages of Forge of Darkness. Nothing else.
On the other hand, Forge of Darkness itself wasn’t as widely appreciated by fans simply because it’s like there’s two sides of Erkison and Malazan. There’s the emphatic, bonkers and spectacular plot, and there’s the more introspective side. For the main series the emphatic and spectacular are front-loaded (and not always well set-up, to earn it) and the introspective will start claiming space in later books. As a “literary object,” the experience of reading and the uniqueness that Malazan represents, is only fully delivered within Forge of Darkness. With no distractions. It’s the only book by Erikson with an hyper-focus, despite the sprawling nature and ambition of it. It’s a book that tries MORE, despite everything, but with less emphasis and less spectacle.
The real, important recommendation is this one: if you will only read ONE Malazan book, then you HAVE to read Forge of Darkness.
Forge of Darkness is not the perfect starting point, it’s the only necessary read. For every reader out there. Whether it may be your thing or not, Forge of Darkness has to be read. At least if you care about literature for more than just entertainment. Which would be still fine.
For everyone else, who’s committed for the long haul, then you can read Forge of Darkness at the end, or whenever you feel like. Start from the first book as everyone recommends, because you’ll eventually “get” what Malazan is, and you’ll eventually get to Forge of Darkness and, whether or not, at that point, you feel it being better or worse than the main series.
Because, to return to the initial point, whereas currently 100% readers arrive at the end of the series, and then maybe to Forge of Darkness, 0% of those who start with GotM, and found it lacking, will EVER get to Forge of Darkness. GotM will filtered out tons of potential readers that want more than that surface-level chaos that GotM throws into your eyes and obscures the rest. And yet, to have a clear view, either stick to 4-5 more books, or you’re out. Which for most readers means going too far / asking too much.
(I still wouldn’t recommend reading Fall of Light, the following prequel, right after. The suggestion I make here is to consider Forge of Darkness as a standalone. It works perfectly well because it can be seen as fully contained, with absolutely nothing required both before or after. You can start and stop right there.)
For the rest of the reading order there’s not much to say (or much that you can do wrong). I’d suggest reading the first three Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas in between book 2 and 3. Because they introduce the characters at the right point and because they offer a sample of the more satirical and playful writing that will come more to the surface with book 5. It will liven up the read and mix things making some space before book 3. I also prefer placing Night of Knives after book 4 rather than 5. The book itself is not connected to book 5 at all, but I think it makes the most sense to “shore” it with the early phase than the latter starting with book 6. It’s more in theme, it feels flowing more naturally. And again, whenever it will be, I’d probably place Return of the Crimson Guard & Stonewielder after Reaper’s Gale, and then go through the rest of the series and pick up Esslemont after the end (Orb, Sceptre, Throne and so on). Merely because it all probably works better when bundled up rather than alternate between Erikson and Esslemont each book, trying to wind around plot lines that don’t quite perfectly align. I remember I read a number of specific motivations from other readers about this choice, but I forgot the details.
That’s all I have to say about reading orders. In the meantime my own current Malazan read got disrupted during the summer and stays now frozen once again. Right now I’m focusing on “Miss MacIntosh, My Darling,” that giant (at 670k words) and challenging book. I’m at some 20%, which is not too bad, and it’s certainly an unique reading experience. At the current pace it will take me roughly another 6 months to get to the end. But even with this current, rare focus, I still read stuff in parallel. I’m some 150k words scattered across four different “things.” These things being fully “internet” projects. Amateur self-publish territory. VERY amateur in this case. The common link being that, all four, are around 5 MILLION words projects each. And these aren’t the well known, popular ones like the Wandering Inn, or “Wildbow” ones. I’m curious about things even more at the margins. Besides that, I’m also, again, some halfway through the first book of Shadow of the Torturer. I don’t even know why. Or, I know, but it would take too much space to explain. The next few days I’ll get another four “big books”, King Sorrow by Joe Hill, I haven’t read anything else by the author, but I’ve read great things about this book since months ago. Then I’ve ordered Empire of the Vampire, considering the trilogy ended with the last book published a few days ago, but it’s not a priority so I’ll probably read as usual some 60-80 pages as I receive it, then shelve it for later. Then comes Ice, by Jacek Dukaj. I’ve chased after this book for more than 10 years. It finally got translated and published. Last one is Tom’s Crossing by Danielewski. I still need to decide whether I like Danielewski or not, but I always admire the ambition and publishing a no-trick novel of this size (545k), in the present year, is already a close to impossible event. “No-trick” because Danielewski is known for the “funny layouts”, that while quite pretty and charming, also waste lots of space on the page. The Familiar 28-books series, canceled at 5th, and where each book was around 800 pages was more like 200k words or less in total. Tom’s Crossing is a fancy western that uses no funny layouts. Only dense pages of text. Reviews I’ve read were somewhat… all over the place. I’ll link the nastier one because it’s the more off beat. You can find the rest on your own if you care.
In September I was waiting for Schattenfroh, that I had on preorder. It was never shipped and I canceled my order at the end of October. Maybe at some point Dalkey Archive will care sending some copies over to Europe… (even Miss MacIntosh took a while to be available, over here)
(I guess I should order Erikson latest as well, but since I’ll only be able to shelve it until who knows when, I don’t feel any strong priority. The book came out in a complete silence, which is somewhat worrying as marketing sadly is everything these days. I just hope it doesn’t do too poorly. It already got split into smaller chunks and it doesn’t project a positive scenario for a fitting completion of the prequel trilogy. But… “whatever.” As I already said so many times, Forge of Darkness fully delivered what I personally wanted and I would take anything else as a pure extra)
