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/lit/ - Literature

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21896451 No.21896451 [Reply] [Original]

I am seriously asking. What is in this series? Why does everyone lose their minds over this?

>> No.21896483

It's a cleverly written epic fantasy series that has a very unique structure.

Author is both an archaeologist and anthropologist so the world building feels believable despite being full of demo gods, magic dimensions and living swords.

>> No.21896508

Massive reader payoff with heavy focus on themes above all. Erikson knows his shit and he went and wrote and finished the incredible series within 12 years. The moment I got my hands in gardens of the moon and I couldn't put the books down. Memories of Ice is my favorite fantasy novel of all time.

>> No.21896541

>>21896451
Post modern fantasy that mixes high- and lowbrow, everything you're told is subjective/false, and everything you're shown is too vague and confusing to make definitive sense of.

>> No.21896559

>The series has received widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the epic scope, plot complexity and characterizations, and fellow authors such as Glen Cook (The Black Company) and Stephen R. Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) hailing it as a masterwork of the imagination, and comparing Erikson to the likes of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, William Faulkner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Jesus christ; Conrad, James, Faulkner, and Dostoevsky, sounds like Nabokov's worst nightmare, but that's a lot of praise

>> No.21896586

I guess I'm in the minority in that I didn't like it. The span of years is so vast that it seems meaningless, with weird ancient prehistoric orcs and undead humans who made themselves so in order to combat them. I think I read three or four books before I dropped it. Characters can die pretty easily except for the ones with plot armor (or a magic coin lel). Not all of the series is chaotic and random feeling but a lot of it is. I guess I did like the sword that traps you inside of it pulling a giant chariot for eternity or whatever it is.

>> No.21896613
File: 27 KB, 220x323, Covenant3a.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21896613

>>21896559
I ended up reading The Black Company and Thomas Covenant because I enjoyed MBOTF so much. Erikson frequently mentions them as his inspiration, and they often give Erikson praise in return. I only ended up reading the first trilogy of books for Thomas Covenant because I honestly thought it was the perfect ending. And anyone I've asked about the next two trilogies has done nothing but shit on it saying it needlessly undoes the perfect character development. It wasn't the best book series I've ever read. It's probably more hit and miss than Malazan. But something about it resonated with me personally and hit me harder than anything else I've ever read.
>>21896586
Interesting. Book 3 and 4 were what hooked me and convinced me to read all 10. But fair enough. It's really not a series for everyone.

>> No.21896618

>>21896451
It somehow manages to oscillate in scope so massively without being... cartoonish?

Vast pantheons of gods fucking with vast amounts of mortals and vast amounts of mortals fucking with vast amounts of gods. Lots of weaving threads.

>> No.21896635

>>21896586
It takes place over like, 6 or 7 years.

>> No.21896716

>>21896635
I meant the ancient races being like 300,000 years old etc

>> No.21897278
File: 399 KB, 1452x811, Mark Harrison- Thomas Covenant 2 The One Forest.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21897278

>>21896613
>spoiler
yes, it's true. the second trilogy is fairly decent, i see it as an alternate ending like the ones you would get in a videogame or something. Covenant shares protagonism with a new character called Linden, she is like covenant an outcast of society and filled with self-hate.
Stay away of the third chronicles, they are awful i don't know what the fuck happened to Donaldson in that one.
This review explains it very well, it's spoiler free
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcqs-ceM2fE
But honestly if you just want more Covenant, read Mordant's Need and The Gap Cycle, all of Donaldson's main characters are pretty similar (in a good way, covenant is a superb character).

>> No.21897298

>>21897278
>the library ladder
Love this du'

>> No.21897330

>>21896559
I like this series but even I think this level of fellatio is a bit gross, especially considering he’s nothing like those writers

>> No.21897697

>>21896451
I couldn't make heads or tales of it and quit once the armies of mages and flying mountains showed up.

>> No.21897722
File: 80 KB, 750x550, A8D38425-7C4C-42D8-A6C6-48E26F6985DF.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21897722

>> No.21898184

>>21897697
That is literally chapter 2.

>> No.21898291

>>21896451
Lads I read GotM and Deadhouse. But had a couple of kids and now its been 5 years between reads. I remember the general plot. But any good summary to go over GotM before I get back into it?

>> No.21898308
File: 307 KB, 1280x1726, guy she told you not to worry about.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21898308

>>21898291
GotM should be re-read, but probably after you've gotten a few more books into the series. Considering Deadhouse Gates wipes the slate clean I'd say just keep reading.

>> No.21898363

>>21896451
OOOH
STILL WE RIDE
FIGHT AND DIE

>> No.21898413

>>21898291
https://malazan.fandom.com/wiki/Gardens_of_the_Moon#Plot_summary

>> No.21898418

>>21898291
This has all the details you need
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GLRmiaFcxe_cGc93ckE5UItRq5rYsfeU0BhvqcaNq9E/edit

>> No.21898434

>>21896451
Is there a /lit/ fantasy chart? I'm getting into fantasy now and I'd like to see what to work towards.

>> No.21898456
File: 2.71 MB, 1740x1667, litfantasy.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
21898456

>>21898434
/sffg/'s "official" chart isn't entirely devoid of truth, though it has some obvious bullshit biases.

>> No.21898465

>>21898456
thanks, I don't think I could have gotten a better response. Are the D's still worth reading?

>> No.21898511

>>21898465
>Are the D's still worth reading?
Not really. Once you get there it's pretty genetic.

>> No.21899348

>>21898184
Yes.

>> No.21900121

>>21898465
Sure.
The Belgariad and Eragon might only be interesting as timecapsules to a more basic and derivative era of fantasy,
Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire / Mistborn is a must read if you want to get into his huge magic system focused cross-over universe that is all the rage right now,
Dahlgren is surreal and transgressive literary sci-fi that's only put there because manchildren has been allowed to influence the chart...

>> No.21900469

>>21897722
I tried to like this but I'm three books in and can't suffer the child protagonists any longer.

>> No.21900488

>>21898456
Maybe I'm biased as a Donaldson enjoyer but I didn't think Thomas Covenant was that difficult to read. Painful but not difficult. I support the C ranking for the series as a whole but books 1-3 (which is a complete trilogy that makes sense to end on like >>21896613) I would easily rank as a high A, just short of S.

>> No.21900508

>>21898456
>Once and Future King
>Hard to read
I love T.H White but it is not hard to read, Sword in the Stone is literally a children's book.

>> No.21900710

>>21900488
I've found that "hard to read" basically just means "I have a brain disorder and it affects my general comprehension". The most complicated sff I've read so far was Book of the New Sun and the narrative itself isn't that hard to follow. It just uses archaic language as part of the meta-narrative. Sure you won't get everything but that almost never actually matters.

>> No.21900731

>>21900508
Basically everyone thinks their favorite book belongs in S4, when in reality, only MY favorite books belong there (The Worm Ouroboros, The Night Land)...

>> No.21900822

>>21896451
Not much.
To be honest if it didn't rip off Black Company and didn't autism over D&D-style gods and magic systems at a time when there was a dearth of that stuff it probably wouldn't be very popular.
>>21896586
>I guess I'm in the minority in that I didn't like it.
You're not. I found it average and in some aspects worse than other flawed similar stuff like WoT.
Notably the constant perspective shifts, the introduction of new areas that add nothing, the constant new races that add little, multitude of new characters only a handful of which are of interest etc.
It didn't get much better once I realized parts of it were written solely out of masturbatory subversion purposes due to Erikson being assmad over REH's Conan being liked despite anti-modern civilization attitudes being Evil™. (dude was even so butthurt he wrote an extra essay about it Epic Pooh-style)

>> No.21900857

>>21898465
Mistborn Is comfy and pretty enjoyable. The list is clearly biased against Sanderson if they think Mistborn is in D tier unironicaly.

>> No.21900868

>>21900822
You have not read Malazan if you think it rips off Black Company and autisms over magic systems and DnD.

>> No.21900897

its been ages since i first started reading the crippled god, but i lost all interest in it
and then i heard that its not even the REAL end, but id have to read something like 6 companion novels or some shit to get to it?
is it worth it to power through? is the ending actually satisfying?

>> No.21900920

>>21900897
The Crippled God is the end. Those other novels are by a different author and only tangentially related. The ending of The Crippled God is great.

>> No.21900928

>>21900868
I've read it through to the end. (from the start up until book six and then the release of the new ones)
To be precise it's his own homebrew system with the pocket-dimension warrens (originally GURPS and then going over to D&D) and the whole player's becoming god stuff with beliefs and domains is 1:1 how late 3E era stuff went and should be very familiar to anyone who played back then.
And it heavily rips off the Black Company with the Bridgeburners.

>> No.21900937

>>21900928
>originally GURPS and then going over to D&D
ew, why the fuck would he transition from God's Own RolePlaying System to dnd??? Talk about a downgrade

>> No.21900959

>>21900897
>is it worth it to power through?
YMMV but I barely remember anything about Malazan after finishing it. It's pretty unmemorable outside of specific bits and some characters .

>> No.21900963

>>21900937
Unironically said because he wanted support for multi-class characters.
Not that they seemed to have followed the rules very closely.

>> No.21901058

>>21900928
Being loosely based on a tabletop campaign is not "DnD autism".
Even if the Bridgeburners were a rip off of the Black Company, which they aren't, the Bridgeburners are only in two of the books.

>> No.21902182

>>21900897
You just need to read the core ten books. Everything beyond that is extra.

>> No.21902460

>>21900822
Your reading comprehension is very dubious to say the least.

>>21900928
>originally GURPS and then going over to D&D
Literally the other way around.