Malazan Book of the Fallen

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Template:Use dmy dates Template:Short description Template:Infobox book series The Malazan Book of the Fallen (Template:IPAc-en)<ref>Malazan is an adjective meaning "of Malaz" Template:IPAc-en. For the pronunciation: Template:Cite interviewTemplate:Cbignore</ref> is a series of epic fantasy novels written by the Canadian author Steven Erikson. The series, published by Bantam Books in the U.K. and Tor Books in the U.S., consists of ten volumes, beginning with Gardens of the Moon (1999) and concluding with The Crippled God (2011). Erikson's series presents the narratives of a large cast of characters spanning thousands of years across multiple continents.<ref name=Bangs>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Alexandrian>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Pat>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Floresiensis>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His stories present complicated series of events in the world upon which the Malazan Empire is located. Each of the first five novels is relatively self-contained, in that each resolves its respective primary conflict; however, many underlying characters and events are interwoven throughout the works of the series, binding it together. The Malazan world was co-created by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont in the early 1980s as a backdrop to their GURPS roleplaying campaign.<ref name=gurps>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2004, Esslemont began publishing his own series of six novels set in the same world, beginning with Night of Knives. Although Esslemont's books are published under a different series title – Novels of the Malazan Empire – Esslemont and Erikson collaborated on the storyline for the entire sixteen-book project and Esslemont's novels are considered to be as canonical and integral to the series' mythos as Erikson's own.

The series has received widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the epic scope, plot complexity and characterizations, and fellow authors such as Glen Cook (The Black Company) and Stephen R. Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) hailing it as a masterwork of the imagination, and comparing Erikson to the likes of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, William Faulkner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.<ref name="SRDonaldson">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Cook&Erikson">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Cook Macmillan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Books

List

Erikson and Esslemont recommend reading the books in order of publication.<ref name="Reddit 5 December 2017">Template:Cite news</ref> Tor.com published a reading order based on the approximate chronological order of events in the series,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which the authors did not consider suitable as a reading order for a first-time reader.<ref name="Reddit 5 December 2017" />

# Title Series Approximate Word Count<ref>Wordcount based on Kobo Listings. </ref> 1st Publication
1 Gardens of the Moon Malazan Book of the Fallen #1 205k 1999 April 1
2 Deadhouse Gates Malazan Book of the Fallen #2 264k 2000 September 1
3 Memories of Ice Malazan Book of the Fallen #3 346k 2001 December 6
4 House of Chains Malazan Book of the Fallen #4 298k 2002 December 2
5 Midnight Tides Malazan Book of the Fallen #5 265k 2004 March 1
6 Night of Knives Novels of the Malazan Empire #1 92k 2004 September 1
7 The Bonehunters Malazan Book of the Fallen #6 355k 2006 March 1
8 The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume 1 The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #1-3 68k 2009 September 15
9 Reaper's Gale Malazan Book of the Fallen #7 378k 2007 May 7
10 Toll the Hounds Malazan Book of the Fallen #8 391k 2008 June 30
11 Return of the Crimson Guard Novels of the Malazan Empire #2 273k 2008 August 15
12 Dust of Dreams Malazan Book of the Fallen #9 371k 2009 August 18
13 Stonewielder Novels of the Malazan Empire #3 233k 2010 November 25
14 The Crippled God Malazan Book of the Fallen #10 376k 2011 February 15
15 Orb Sceptre Throne Novels of the Malazan Empire #4 217k 2012 February 20
16 Blood and Bone Novels of the Malazan Empire #5 227k 2012 November 22
17 Forge of Darkness The Kharkanas Trilogy #1 292k 2012 August 2
18 Assail Novels of the Malazan Empire #6 207k 2014 August 5
19 Fall of Light The Kharkanas Trilogy #2 355k 2016 April 26
20 Dancer's Lament Path to Ascendancy #1 144k 2016 February 25
21 The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume 2 The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #4-6 123k 2018 September 20
22 Deadhouse Landing Path to Ascendancy #2 130k 2017 November 15
23 Kellanved's Reach Path to Ascendancy #3 112k 2019 February 19
24 Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #7 2020 October 31
25 The God is Not Willing The Tales of Witness #1 191k 2021 July 1
26 Forge of the High Mage Path to Ascendancy #4 151k 2023 April 6
27 citation CitationClass=web

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The Tales of Witness #2 2025 October 23
TBA Legacies of Betrayal The Tales of Witness #3 TBA
TBA Walk in Shadow The Kharkanas Trilogy #3 TBA
TBA Unnamed The Tales of Witness #4 TBA
TBA Unnamed Path to Ascendancy #5 TBA
TBA Unnamed Path to Ascendancy #6 TBA
TBA Time's Cursed Cartwheel The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #8 TBA
TBA Unnamed The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #9 TBA

Malazan Book of the Fallen

This is the main series, written by Steven Erikson, and commenced, in terms of publication order, before any of the other series. This first novel, Gardens of the Moon, was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award. The second novel, Deadhouse Gates, was voted one of the ten best fantasy novels of 2000 by SF Site.<ref name="Notability">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach

The first three novellas were published together as The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume 1. The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume 2 includes the second three novellas.

Novels of the Malazan Empire

Novels of the Malazan Empire is a six-part novel series written by Ian Cameron Esslemont. The novels cover events simultaneous with the Book of the Fallen, like the mystery of the Crimson Guard, the succession of the Malazan Empire, the situation on Korel and Jacuruku and the mystery of Assail.

The Kharkanas Trilogy

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The Kharkanas Trilogy is a prequel series written by Steven Erikson after the completion of the main series. The series deals with the Tiste before their split into darkness, light and shadow. It sheds light on the events that are often hinted at in the background of Malazan Book of the Fallen. Many of the important Tiste characters from the Malazan Book of the Fallen make an appearance like Anomander Rake, Draconus, Spinnock Durav and Andarist.

Path to Ascendancy

The Path to Ascendancy is a prequel series set in the world of Malazan, written by Ian Cameron Esslemont.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The stories deal with the early adventures of Dancer and Kellanved (Dorin and Wu, in this series) and their eventual rise to power on Quon Tali.

The Tales of Witness

The Tales of Witness is a series written by Steven Erikson as a sequel to the main series featuring Karsa Orlong and his quest to destroy civilization.

In July 2024, Erikson stated that the series would now be four novels instead of the planned trilogy, as the second novel needed to be split in two.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Conception

File:Sub Press Edition.jpg
Subterranean Press Numbered Edition
File:Signature of Steven Erikson.jpg
Steven Erikson's Signature in Deadhouse Gates, Sub Press Edition

The Malazan world was originally created by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont in 1982 as a backdrop for role-playing games using a modified version of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.<ref name=Gardens>Introduction to Gardens of the Moon, Special Edition</ref> By 1986, when the GURPS system had been adopted by Erikson and Esslemont,<ref name=gurps /> the world had become much larger and more complex, approaching its current scope. It was then developed into a movie script entitled Gardens of the Moon. When this was not successful in finding interest, the two writers agreed to each write a series set in their shared world.<ref name=Gardens/> Steven Erikson wrote Gardens of the Moon as a novel in the period 1991-92 but it was not published until 1999. In the meantime, he wrote several non-fantasy novels. When he sold Gardens of the Moon, he agreed to a contract for an additional nine volumes in the series. The contract with Bantam UK was worth £675,000 <ref name = guardian1>Template:Cite news</ref> making it "among the largest fees ever paid for a fantasy series".<ref>Interview with Steven Erikson in SFX Magazine issue #99, Christmas 2002.</ref>

Ian Cameron Esslemont wrote the Novels series from 2004 to 2014.

After finishing the two main series, Erikson and Esslemont continued on to further projects in the Malazan universe. While writing the last novels in The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Erikson decided that his next project, The Kharkanas Trilogy, would be a "trilogy traditional in form," saying the following: "If the Malazan series emphasized a postmodern critique of the subgenre of epic fantasy, paying subtle homage all the while, the Kharkanas Trilogy subsumes the critical aspects and focuses instead on the homage."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

At one point, Steven Erikson indicated that the two authors would collaborate on The Encyclopedia Malaz, an extensive guide to the series, which was to be published following the last novel in the main sequence.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In an interview on a later date, however, he mentioned talks underway with an RPG 20D group to produce a game adapted from the Malazan universe, in which case the maps and notes created by Erikson and Esslemont would be released through installments or expansions rather than through the publishing of an encyclopedia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Malazan world has no official unified name, although Steven Erikson has jokingly called it Wu.<ref>Q and A with malazanempire No 1 (2003)</ref>

In an interview with a Spanish fantasy blog, Erikson said that the hand-drawn version of the Malazan world which he had at home was too large to be photocopied; however, he also said that the maps created by fans were coming close.<ref>http://caballerodelarbolsonriente.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/steven-erikson-no-hay-nada-para.html Interview with El Caballero del Arbol Sonriente, December 2017</ref>

Influences

In a general review of The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, Erikson fired a shot across the bow of "the state of scholarship in the fantastic as it pertains to epic fantasy,"<ref name= "Not">Template:Cite journal</ref> taking particularly to task James's opening lines in Chapter 5 of that volume. Erikson uses a handful of words from that chapter as an epigraph for a quasi-autobiographical essay in The New York Review of Science Fiction. James's sentences read in full:

Template:Quote

Erikson writes, "But epic fantasy has moved on, something critics have failed to notice." He goes on,

Template:Quote

Erikson concludes, "So, Professor James, when you say 'since [Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings]... most subsequent writers of fantasy are either imitating him or else desperately trying to escape his influence'—sorry. You're flat-out wrong."

Themes

The Malazan series contains many themes around socio-economic inequality and social injustice throughout such as gender equality with Erikson stating "It occurred to us that it would create a culture without gender bias so there would be no gender-based hierarchies of power. It became a world without sexism and that was very interesting to explore."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as the inevitability of and role of art in civilizational collapse<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and many other themes rooted in a postmodernist and post-structuralist deconstruction of the fantasy genre and magical realism.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Citation. Archive - "I've waited over twenty years for a postmodern/poststructural analytical discussion of my series. In fact, I'd just about given up hope that these elements would ever be noticed (how many students of philosophy read Epic Fantasy? Well, at least one!). I was lucky in that my initial foray into fiction writing (a Creative Writing program at the University of Victoria) was in the midst of the Magic Realist movement in literature, which as you know is explicitly deconstructed in terms of narrative reliability, while also openly challenging notions of objective reality. Magic Realism of course is deeply connected, philosophically, with Existentialism (made metamorphic beneath tyrannical polities), and all of this led, in a roundabout way, to metafiction. Alas, most metafiction struck me as too obvious, and I remembered wondering, way back then, if there was a way to make metafiction subtle. Then I began to wonder if one could make metafiction a hidden meta-narrative embracing a postmodern, poststructural story. Turns out, the answer is yes, as epitomized in the Malazan Book of the Fallen (the cipher unlocking the metafictional element to the series is found in Toll the Hounds). But for me, all of that was just me grappling with a growing uncertainty regarding almost everything, making the process of writing the series a kind of dialectic, not only between me and myself, but also between realities: ours here on Earth, and that other one being a made-up Malazan world."</ref>

Critical reception

The series was positively received by critics, who praised the epic scope, plot complexity and the introspective nature of the characterization, which serve as social commentary. Fellow author Glen Cook has called the series a masterwork of the imagination that may be the high water mark of the epic fantasy genre. In his treatise written for The New York Review of Science Fiction, fellow author Stephen R. Donaldson has also praised Erikson for his approach to the fantasy genre, the subversion of classical tropes, the complex characterizations, the social commentary — pointing explicitly to parallels between the fictional Letheras Economy and the US Economy — and has compared him to the likes of Joseph Conrad, Henry James, William Faulkner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky.<ref name=Author1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Author2>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Author3>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Reviewing for SF Site, Dominic Cilli says, The Malazan Book of the Fallen raises "the bar for fantasy literature", that the world building and the writing are exceptional.<ref name= Cilli>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cilli claims the series is written for the "most advanced readers out there.", going on to state that "Even they will have to make two passes through all ten books to fully comprehend the myriad of plotlines, characters and various settings that Erickson presents to us." Reading Erikson's "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" might be "the most challenging literary trial" a reader has ever tried, yet "the payoff is too enormous to ignore and well worth taking on the endeavor. Steven Erikson doesn't spoon feed his readers. He forces you to question and think on a level that very few authors would even dare for fear of finding and perhaps losing an audience."<ref name= Cilli/>

References

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