2.5 KiB
Malazan Book of the Fallen?
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Author: u/None *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/1s8oq8/malazan_book_of_the_fallen/
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Score: 3
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Created: 2013-12-06T13:39:18
Post:
Someone recommended 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.