Malazan Book Of The Fallen

This book nearly tops the Best Fantasy Books list and a number of other lists on this site; it would be an injustice to omit this series here as well, considering that it contains descriptions of in-depth military tactics, strategy, and epic battles so big they explode from the pages. The books follow the exploits of the Malazan Empire as they try to conquer an entire continent by fair means or foul. The plot vastly grows to incorporate other kingdoms, gods, wizards, and alternate universes (so brace yourself, these books are epic) as you progress in the series, but one thing never changes: it's all about war, conquest, and power struggles between empires, gods, and men. Battles and tactics make up quite a large portion of every book in this series. Because of the heavy emphasis on war, Malazan takes military fantasy to a new level. Every book has a big battle and quite often, each novel spends quite a bit of time building up to that battle. Now about the battle scenes. One word to describe: ZING. Erickson doesn't hold back when it comes to writing visceral battle scenes. You are swept away through vivid on-the-ground view of battles from the perspectives of both the grunt and the officer. You feel like you are in the center of action as it happens. Erickson is fantastic at really creating realistic battle scenes. Take WW1 and throw in some magic and that gives you a pretty good idea what every Malazan book is about.