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Brys · 29th January 2006, 09:23 AM

Sorry to be predictable, but, these are my favourites in this order:
1) Memories of Ice - some great characters here, a very powerful ending and this is the book in which you finally get to start learning properly about the Malazan world. The only problem with it is the Mhybe storyline.
2) Deadhouse Gates - the Chain of Dogs, of course. But Felisin's storyline's pretty good, and while everyone else seems to hate her, I still think she's one of the most interesting, realistic characters Erikson's written about. Iskaral Pust does a good job at providing the humour for the novel, and Icarium and Mappo provide another great storyline.
3) Midnight Tides - easily the best written of those published so far, and the humour between Tehol and Bugg, with Shurq, Harlest and Ublala is amazing. And the insight into Edur culture was very interesting. As with the first two, it was a very powerful novel, especially the ending, and this novel introduced perhaps the best character of Erikson's IMO - Rhulad Sengar. (So what if he's another Elric clone, but without stormbringer).
4) House of Chains - decent ending, but not quite as good as the others overall IMO.
5) Gardens of the Moon - lots of decent ideas, but the writing isn't that great, and it isn't anything like as powerful as any of the others. The ending wasn't that strong, and pretty much all of Erikson's flaws in the other books are here, but magnified. It wasn't a bad book at all, and it was very entertaining on the re-read, but it wasn't a great book either. Strangely enough, on the re-read I didn't find it particularly complicated at all, it was more like reading an epic scale, sword and sorcery novel.

29th January 2006, 09:23 AM	#11 (permalink)
Brys Moderator Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 809	Re: Your favourite Malazan novel to date Sorry to be predictable, but, these are my favourites in this order: 1) Memories of Ice - some great characters here, a very powerful ending and this is the book in which you finally get to start learning properly about the Malazan world. The only problem with it is the Mhybe storyline. 2) Deadhouse Gates - the Chain of Dogs, of course. But Felisin's storyline's pretty good, and while everyone else seems to hate her, I still think she's one of the most interesting, realistic characters Erikson's written about. Iskaral Pust does a good job at providing the humour for the novel, and Icarium and Mappo provide another great storyline. 3) Midnight Tides - easily the best written of those published so far, and the humour between Tehol and Bugg, with Shurq, Harlest and Ublala is amazing. And the insight into Edur culture was very interesting. As with the first two, it was a very powerful novel, especially the ending, and this novel introduced perhaps the best character of Erikson's IMO - Rhulad Sengar. (So what if he's another Elric clone, but without stormbringer). 4) House of Chains - decent ending, but not quite as good as the others overall IMO. 5) Gardens of the Moon - lots of decent ideas, but the writing isn't that great, and it isn't anything like as powerful as any of the others. The ending wasn't that strong, and pretty much all of Erikson's flaws in the other books are here, but magnified. It wasn't a bad book at all, and it was very entertaining on the re-read, but it wasn't a great book either. Strangely enough, on the re-read I didn't find it particularly complicated at all, it was more like reading an epic scale, sword and sorcery novel.