Malazan - How important is the order in which you read the books?

[Lysalis]

I'm a newbie to Erikson. I just bought me The Bonehunters and I understand that this is the 6th book of his series. However the cover says " A tale of the Malazan book of the fallen ", I take from this the books are just loosely linked.

Is this true? Would I be better off with reading them in order, starting with Gardens of the Moon? Or would it be ok, to read The Bonehunters first.

The reason why I bought The Bonehunters was that they only had this one, Reaper's Gale and Toll the Hounds in the bookshop. I would have had to order the first books, which takes generally around 3-4 weeks .

[murphy]

If you start with the Bonehunters, you're starting in the middle. If you can wait, it's better to start at the beginning with The Gardens of The Moon and follow up in the order published. There are a lot of things in the earlier books that are explained in the later books.

[Lysalis]

I was afraid somebody would say that. I don't know if I can wait, waiting is crap *pouts*

Thank you for the advice nonetheless

[murphy]

The books will make more sense if you start at the beginning. They tend to confuse people as it is.

[HoopyFrood]

Amen to that. I'm up to book five and still only have a small grasp on what the hell's going on

In all seriousness, I second the comment to start at the beginning. Events do, mostly, happen in a linear fashion, characters pop up all over the place, and small things that happen in earlier books can sometimes be thrown into the foreground later on. It's definitely easier on yourself, at the very least, to read them from Gardens of the Moon and onwards.

[murphy]

The books really make you use your brain to try to figure things out and are well worth the effort.

[Clansman]

Add my vote as a third. I have read the first two, and have the barest of inklings about what Erikson is trying to accomplish. More is revealed with subsequent volumes, I am told, and if I started at no. 6, forget it. I'd be totally lost.

Very, very complex series. Do yourself a favour and start at the beginning.

[Ross]

Luckily - My uncle and Mother are buying me all of the books currently out for Christmas Ready for when I go onto him

[Lysalis]

I will start from the beginning and put The Bonehunters in my bookshelf for an undefinite time. It even got renamed, in The Dustcatcher *lol*. I mean, if every book has over 1000 pages, I will be reading forever...

Thanks for the advice

[Iceman Waddy]

Start with the first one!

[Lenny]

We had quite a nice list until the crash. I think it was Werthead who put it together - a chronological list of the Malazan books, and thus the order in which to read them should you truly want to do it by date. I'm quite sad that we lost it, because I started my re-read of the whole thing today (well, without the novellas, which I don't have), and am quite happily chugging through Night of Knives.

If WH is around, or if anyone copied down the chronological list, I'd be grateful if it could be posted again . Whilst it is fantastic fun to read both Erikson's and Esslemont's books in the order they are published, I'd love to read them in their chronological order, just to further help put all the pieces together. Yeah, it'll destroy some of the magic of seeing various arcs meshing, but I want to do it!!

[Overread]

this reminds me I really must get into book 3 -- I am still only at the start of that one
(

[Quick Ben]

Originally Posted by Lenny

We had quite a nice list until the crash. I think it was Werthead who put it together - a chronological list of the Malazan books, and thus the order in which to read them should you truly want to do it by date. I'm quite sad that we lost it, because I started my re-read of the whole thing today (well, without the novellas, which I don't have), and am quite happily chugging through Night of Knives.

If WH is around, or if anyone copied down the chronological list, I'd be grateful if it could be posted again . Whilst it is fantastic fun to read both Erikson's and Esslemont's books in the order they are published, I'd love to read them in their chronological order, just to further help put all the pieces together. Yeah, it'll destroy some of the magic of seeing various arcs meshing, but I want to do it!!

Wikipedia is your friend mate

Due to a failure by the authors to keep track of dates in the series, it is difficult to work out a precise timeline for events in the series. However, it possible to put together a rough chronological order of the series. The dates given are by Burn's Sleep, the calendar used in the Malazan Empire.

• Night of Knives (1154)
• Midnight Tides (uncertain, but possibly two years before Gardens of the Moon, c. 1161)
• Gardens of the Moon (1163)
• Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice (1163-64, these two novels occur simultaneously)
• House of Chains (1164, with a lengthy prologue section that takes place some years earlier)
• The Bonehunters (1164-65)
• Return of the Crimson Guard (c. 1165, just after The Bonehunters)
• Reaper's Gale (c. 1165 or 1166)
• Toll the Hounds (by internal evidence, c. 1169-70, but this conflicts with dates in other books)

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[HoopyFrood]

Originally Posted by Overread

this reminds me I really must get into book 3 -- I am still only at the start of that one
(

Har! Then I am so winning this race then -- I'm eighty pages into Midnight Tides.

Hem...

[Overread]

..............cheater........