A Tale Of The Malazan Book Of The Fallen

Starting this series is like being thrown into a tornado. Strapped to a cow. With a lightning rod attached to your head. It's chaotic and you'll find yourself confused but exhilarated. And it gets better from there.Why it's on this listThe key word when starting this series is perseverance. Erikson doesn't spoon feed the reader. You enter the world with no cues or explanations and are expected to keep up until the answers to your many thousands of questions are answered. And they do get answered; you just have to be patient. This is part of what makes this series so exceptional – without being bogged down by excessive explanations about the world that he's built, Erikson just gets on with the action and yanks you into the plot with force.The genius of the confusion felt by the reader is that it mirrors what the characters are experiencing: They also don't have all the information and must put together pieces of the puzzle until they have a full understanding of their circumstances. It's a unique thing to encounter in fantasy because, most of the time, the characters have some kind of weird author-provided omniscience that allows them to know the exact path they need to take to reach their destiny.With every title, Erikson's writing improves almost as much as his attention to detail. Many characters enter and exit this world as the plot progresses and each one is as well written and realised as the next.The battles between the characters in this series are epic in the truest sense of the word. These are people with incredible skills – from strategic brilliance to god-like power. There is nothing better than watching the mammoth showdown that happens between beings of such power.Most significantly though, neither the confusion felt nor the epic nature of the characters overwhelms the emotional aspects of the plot. There's tragedy here – the kind that is both beautiful in its intensity and devastating in its sadness. This is the power of good fantasy: To combine elements of magic with emotional depth so that when you put down a book, you feel a deep sense of loss at having finished it.