## Malazan Book of the Fallen?

* Author: u/None *
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/1s8oq8/malazan_book_of_the_fallen/
* Score: 3

* Created: 2013-12-06T13:39:18

### Post:

Someone recommended [*Malazan Book of the Fallen*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen) to me as a rationalish *Game of Thrones*-style series. But I'm not sure of it; before I start a 10-book-long series, I'd like to be sure it's good. Has anyone here read it? Yes or no, in your opinion?

### Comments:

> **u/Escapement** [+3]  *Ankh-Morpork City Watch* (a day later)
> 
> Having read it:
> 
> - There is less rationality than Game of Thrones
> - It is high fantasy, with excessive amounts of magic, gods, etc. Not really that similar to Game of Thrones in tone in a lot of ways.
> - The characterization of various people in the story is mostly pretty weak; The individual characters aren't as strongly written and differentiated from each other as one could hope for.
> - There's a lot of extremely extensive and interesting backstory, there is a complicated series of plots that are each not terribly complicated on their own but there are like fifty of them. 
> - The first book, Gardens of the Moon, is dramatically weaker than the others in the series. The books are independent enough that you could start with book 2 and 3 before book 1, to see if you liked the 'better' Malazan writing first. 
> - Setting elements are unique and interesting. 
> 
> Overall, there's a lot to like, and a lot to hate. I would suggest it for readers of the fantasy genre as a whole, but I do not think it has much real rationality in it, so if you specifically look for that you will be disappointed. I would caution against buying the entire ten book set at once - a library to get book 2 and see if you like it would probably be your best bet.

> **u/clawclawbite** [+1]  (7 days later)
> 
> Not rationalish:
> 
> There are at least 3 'Mastermind' type characters (and at least another pair of 'trancendent' characters tying to play the same games) and their effectiveness is all by hand-waving, and not by on-screen thinking and plotting skills. The closest there is is a secondary character who is a financial genius who does some interesting plotting to take down an empire's economy via actually understanding it better than anyone else and that is mostly just one (later) book.
> 
> Interesting complex fiction, and really nice building of an ancient history with impact felt in the current setting, but not anything like 'rational' characters.

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