Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Malazan Book of the Fallen series - Steven Erikson

 The Malazan Book of the Fallen series - Steven Erikson

Fantasy Book Review

Overall -  the Malazan series is a very worthy read for someone who has the time to read nearly ten thousand pages. The imagery, action, and imagination are some of the best in all of fantasy. While it would be worth reviewing each of the ten books. I'll let someone else do that. I will say that book four developed one of my favorite characters of all time, Karsa Orlong. Karsa alone makes the Malazan books worth reading.

Creativity - The books are extremely original. Erikson creates an entire universe with countless, varied, and amazing characters, magics, gods, and races. Out of all the authors that I've read, he is the most imaginative.

Dialogue - Overall the dialogue is excellent. Some of the banter between characters, is impressively done. The banter between the characters Bug and Tehol was some of the funniest that I've ever read.

Plot - Overall the plot is amazingly thought out and well put together. The scope of the book is so grand though that some smaller plots get forgotten. There were also some slow points, but that's to be expected in a huge series. The last two books resolved the plot well, but didn't feature a few of the best characters. It was a disappointment to me.

Writing style - It's very good in a lot of respects, but not my favorite. Erikson's dialogue and showing of actions is great. He has an amazing ability to paint scenes. His sentences can be too long for my taste though. I prefer a smoother simpler style like Brandon Sanderson's style.

Other - The series should have been edited more. He could have cut out around 20% to streamline it. It would have been much more enjoyable. There were some unnecessary smaller plot lines that never got resolved. It's not very suitable for younger readers due to the adult nature of the books and the complicated writing style.

Rating -  4 stars. It is a must read for any fantasy love that has time.
I would have given it 5 stars  if it was more streamlined

By Brian Terenna
Brian Terenna's Facebook author page 

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