Epic fantasy readers talk as if there’s nothing tougher to read than Malazan Book of the Fallen. I’m of the opinion that Malazan is not nearly as challenging as readers claim, but I want to go further in this article. In fact, I want to make the case for why readers should binge Malazan.
I’d always intended to read the series deliberately. But after staying up all night with the flu and Gardens of the Moon, then eventually reading almost half of House of Chains on a single plane ride, I was convinced of a better way. In fact, binging might be the easiest way to read Malazan.
Here are the top reasons I recommend reading it fast:
- There’s almost no repetition between books in Malazan
- Sequential reading will help with recall
- Faster reading shines a light on cross-book connections
- Quicker reading pairs well with the deceptively fast pace of these books
- You’ll still find many complete stories along the way
What do I mean by binging?
When I recommend binging Malazan, I’m not talking about listening at triple speed or quitting your day job to finish the next book in the series. I’m talking about reading the books back to back, in short order, with chunks of time dedicated to the process.
Whether you do this in 30-minute blocks or 4-hour reading parties is up to you. For contrast, however, consider how I first read The Wheel of Time: Slowly. My journey took pauses between the more sluggish volumes (of which there are several). I gave myself ample time to read refreshers between books (as many Malazan readers report doing). I even tried to take time to stew on things and guess where the journey would go next.
While I enjoyed this approach to Wheel of Time, it brought drawbacks as well. After one volume, I often forgot minor characters, for instance. It was easy to miss details about who was up to what, or how developed some of the macro plots really were. Most of all, it made the series feel even longer than it really is (for better or worse). Which queues up my first reason to read Malazan in a more streamlined way.
1. There’s almost no repetition between books in Malazan
Wheel of Time readers get to read the same bits about Domani culture or Two Rivers tabac thirty times before the series ends. This is part of what makes the series accessible, long though it is. Malazan readers won’t get the same benefit. Erikson rarely repeats much world-building or character detail.
The beauty of binging Malazan is that you get new material with every volume. It’s a lot like The Lord of the Rings in this regard. But even when following characters the reader knows—or literal events that have already unfolded—there’s something spare about the information Erikson doles out. He tends to trust readers to keep details once he has shared them. Sometimes he expects reader recall for tidbits he has only even hinted at.
Which leads to the second reason to binge this series.
2. Sequential reading will help with recall
With 700 named characters, dozens of Paths and Warrens, a plethora of species, and a long history at work, the world of Malaz can be legitimately tough to grasp all at once. Even halfway into the series, I sometimes found myself double checking whether one character was Jaghut or Imass, or whether another character fit my supposed memory of them. The easiest way to digest Erikson’s world-building is to read more. He always gives the information needed for a satisfying character arc or a conclusive arrival. But it takes reader persistence to keep up with it all.
Reading the books in sequence, without big gaps, is a simple way to stay fresh. I completed all the first four volumes in near marathon-length reading sessions—and it was noticeably simpler to keep up with the craziness when I read more quickly.
3. Faster reading shines a light on cross-book connections
I can’t claim to catch nearly all of Erikson’s Easter eggs and foreshadowing hints. Reading in swift sequence has, however, made it much easier for me to see connections between magic systems, races, and key characters.
Binge-type continuation tees up some big reveals. In particular, it makes it easier to understand which mages have which abilities (something that’s rarely explained in any explicit way) and which members of the pantheon are up to what. At the end of the day, Erikson has created a massive history, in addition to the massive story happening in time with the reader. Careful reading of any type will reveal some of the nuances and connections in this history. Continuous reading at any pace, however, will mitigate the need for incredible precision.
4. Quicker reading pairs well with the deceptively fast pace of these books
Malazan is generally fast-paced. It doesn’t always feel like it, but that’s partially because of in medias res storytelling that pulls lots of information into the reader’s head upfront. Across every volume, a lot happens in not so many pages (contrary to the common reader complaint about the series being slow paced).
There’s not much room left for readers to really catch their breath. But as it happens, reading more quickly actually makes the quick pace of the series easier to navigate.
Some data
For reference, I analyzed a sample of just 100 reader reviews to see what average readers said about the pacing in Gardens of the Moon. About 20% said the first several chapters were slow or even tedious. About 40% of readers described the books as fast-paced (a higher number than I expected).
5. You’ll still find many complete stories along the way
Some content is bingeable because consumers love the characters. Sometimes it’s a storytelling format that makes it bingeworthy (episodic laughs or a monster-of-the-week structure). For Malazan, there’s a lot of binge power in how each volume delivers a strong story by itself.
The larger story weaves its way across books, building momentum over time. One of the series’s great strengths, however, is the degree to which each book stands alone. Malazan gives readers a set of full stories in a way few other epic fantasy series come close to offering.
So, if you choose to binge this series, you can rest assured that the investment begins paying off long before the ending. Even if you stopped halfway through, you would have started and finished several amazing stories by then.
Conclusion
No shade on Wheel of Time. Or on some of the really outstanding but unfinished epic fantasy series. Or the ones that are written to refresh readers’ memories all along the way. But if you want to read a huge corpus from start to finish, Malazan is a surprisingly good place to do it.
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About the Author
Stephen Taylor is the author of The Witherclaw Trilogy as well as short fiction appearing in The Future Fire, MYTHIC Magazine, The Centropic Oracle, and other publications. His short story “Only an Ocean” won a Silver Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. When he’s not writing, he’s often playing his violin or wandering in the woods.
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