Post by mummifiedstalin on Dec 6, 2009 23:15:29 GMT -5
I'm halfway through this 10 book series (tenth is still to be published), and I'm convinced that it's one of the most remarkable things written in ye olde sword-and-sorcery.
This is a ten (10!) book fantasy series by a Canadian named Steven Erikson (a pen name). I haven't committed to a series of books this long since college, but this one's worth it. The whole thing is called the Malazan Book of the Fallen, and the first book is _The Gardens of the Moon_. On the surface, it looks like a largely standard sword-and-sorcery jaunt. But Erikson is one of those rare writers who can be both thoroughly OF the genre and completely cynical towards it at the same time. This is a brutal work. It's almost like military-fantasy at times. And one of the first scenes shows the "mages" in an army basically raining death on thousands of soldiers. Wizards are like artillery. And the world has a depth of history that's dark and anything but "enchanting."
Imagine that Tolkien had been a jaded cultural studies professor who wanted both magic AND a kind of cultural materialism that reduced divinity to realpolitik and magic to an exercise in environmental devastation. He'd have written this.
This is no playground for good/evil archetypes, and none of the characters are ever sure of anything, even when they become gods.
It's also fascinating because Erikson's version of "epic" means that there isn't one single, fundamental story line. Instead, what we get is a section out of a long history in which all kinds of forces (racial, economic, historical, magical, divine, and otherwise) are causing all kinds of chaos. The story isn't about defeating a bad guy or saving the world, but about a crisis that occurs when a host of different lines bump into each other and have unintentional effects. On the most basic level, it's about a company of veteran soldiers for an upstart empire who get caught up in conflicts bigger than themselves. But it's also about gods dying, kings becoming gods, people inadvertently gaining godlike powers, entire races/peoples realizing that they've wasted themselves, and the inevitability and constant presence of war. It's fascinating.
It's amazing. I should warn anyone interested, though. It may not be a good thing to warn someone that you may not really appreciate it until the third 1000 page book, but that might be the case. I started it because my high school friends liked it. The first book was fun, but the scope only showed up in hints. The second was better, but the third was jaw-droppingly good. Problem, though, was the multi-thousand-page commitment it took to get to that point.
But has anyone else jumped on this bandwagon yet?
This is a ten (10!) book fantasy series by a Canadian named Steven Erikson (a pen name). I haven't committed to a series of books this long since college, but this one's worth it. The whole thing is called the Malazan Book of the Fallen, and the first book is _The Gardens of the Moon_. On the surface, it looks like a largely standard sword-and-sorcery jaunt. But Erikson is one of those rare writers who can be both thoroughly OF the genre and completely cynical towards it at the same time. This is a brutal work. It's almost like military-fantasy at times. And one of the first scenes shows the "mages" in an army basically raining death on thousands of soldiers. Wizards are like artillery. And the world has a depth of history that's dark and anything but "enchanting."
Imagine that Tolkien had been a jaded cultural studies professor who wanted both magic AND a kind of cultural materialism that reduced divinity to realpolitik and magic to an exercise in environmental devastation. He'd have written this.
This is no playground for good/evil archetypes, and none of the characters are ever sure of anything, even when they become gods.
It's also fascinating because Erikson's version of "epic" means that there isn't one single, fundamental story line. Instead, what we get is a section out of a long history in which all kinds of forces (racial, economic, historical, magical, divine, and otherwise) are causing all kinds of chaos. The story isn't about defeating a bad guy or saving the world, but about a crisis that occurs when a host of different lines bump into each other and have unintentional effects. On the most basic level, it's about a company of veteran soldiers for an upstart empire who get caught up in conflicts bigger than themselves. But it's also about gods dying, kings becoming gods, people inadvertently gaining godlike powers, entire races/peoples realizing that they've wasted themselves, and the inevitability and constant presence of war. It's fascinating.
It's amazing. I should warn anyone interested, though. It may not be a good thing to warn someone that you may not really appreciate it until the third 1000 page book, but that might be the case. I started it because my high school friends liked it. The first book was fun, but the scope only showed up in hints. The second was better, but the third was jaw-droppingly good. Problem, though, was the multi-thousand-page commitment it took to get to that point.
But has anyone else jumped on this bandwagon yet?