Steven Erikson didn't write a "hero's journey." He wrote an archaeological dig. Most people pick up Malazan Book of the Fallen because they heard it’s the biggest, baddest epic fantasy out there, and then they get about 100 pages into Gardens of the Moon and feel like they’ve been dropped into the middle of a foreign country without a map or a translator. It’s brutal. It’s confusing.
Honestly, the series is a monster.
We’re talking ten massive volumes, millions of words, and a cast of characters that makes Game of Thrones look like a small-town play. But there’s a reason it has this massive, cult-like following. It isn't just the scale. It's the fact that Erikson, a trained archaeologist and anthropologist, treats his world-building like actual history. Nothing is explained to you. You just have to survive it.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen Learning Curve is Real
You’ve probably heard people say "just get through the first book." That’s kinda bad advice, but also the only advice. Gardens of the Moon was written nearly a decade before the rest of the series. The style is different. The pacing is weird. You start on a battlefield with a bunch of elite soldiers called Bridgeburners, and before you can even figure out who’s who, there’s a puppet-man, a floating mountain called Moon's Spawn, and gods interfering with the dice rolls of mortals.
It’s a lot.
The series doesn't use info-dumps. In most fantasy, a mentor character sits the protagonist down and explains how magic works. Erikson thinks that’s boring. Instead, you learn how a "Warren" (the source of magic) works by watching someone almost die using one. You learn about the history of the Tlan Imass—the undead warriors who gave up their mortality—by seeing the dusty, tragic remnants of their culture thousands of years later.
This is "high-context" storytelling. It expects you to keep up. If you don't? Well, the book keeps moving anyway. That’s the "Book of the Fallen" experience. It’s a record of people who were lost to time, not just the winners who wrote the history books.
📖 Related: Gwendoline Butler Dead in a Row: Why This 1957 Mystery Still Packs a Punch
Magic, Gods, and the Problem of Power
Magic in this world is terrifying. It’s not "fireball" magic; it’s "tear a hole in reality and let the chaos out" magic. The Warrens are essentially other dimensions that mages tap into. Some are filled with fire, some with darkness, some with literal rotting waste.
But here’s the kicker: the gods aren't distant.
They are active players. And they are often jerks. In Malazan Book of the Fallen, being "ascendant"—basically a semi-god—doesn't mean you're invincible. It just means you have a bigger target on your back. The interplay between the Deck of Dragons (a sort of living Tarot card system) and the actual movements of the gods creates this constant tension. You never know if a character is acting out of free will or if Shadowthrone or Cotillion are pulling the strings from the Warren of Shadow.
Why the Bridgeburners Matter
While the gods are playing chess, the soldiers are in the mud. This is where the series finds its heart. The Bridgeburners and later the Bonehunters are the emotional core. Erikson spends a lot of time on the philosophy of the common soldier. These aren't faceless grunts. They are poets, sappers who love explosives a little too much, and cynical veterans who have seen empires rise and fall.
Whiskeyjack. Kalam. Quick Ben. Fiddler. These names become iconic for a reason.
They represent the human (and non-human) cost of all this grand magic. When a mage levels a city, Erikson doesn't just show the explosion; he shows the soldier trying to find a clean drink of water in the ruins afterward. It’s gritty, but not just for the sake of being "grimdark." It’s empathetic.
👉 See also: Why ASAP Rocky F kin Problems Still Runs the Club Over a Decade Later
Subverting the Tropes You Love
If you’re looking for a clear "Dark Lord" to defeat, you’re going to be disappointed. Or maybe thrilled. The primary antagonist of the series, the Crippled God, isn't a Sauron clone. He’s a tragic figure, a god from another world who was pulled down, broken, and chained. His presence is a literal poison to the world.
The "heroism" in these books is often just the act of showing compassion to someone the rest of the world has forgotten.
- The Jaghut: Usually depicted as Orc-like tusked giants, but they are actually solitary, highly intellectual beings with a dry, cynical sense of humor.
- The K'Chain Che'Malle: Imagine sentient, technological dinosaurs with swords for arms. Yeah.
- The Forkrul Assail: Beings with too many joints who believe in "peace" through the absolute extinction of anything that causes conflict.
The diversity of races is staggering. Erikson and his co-creator Ian C. Esslemont (who writes his own Malazan novels) gamed this world out using GURPS and other tabletop systems for years before writing the books. You can feel that. The world has a "lived-in" quality because it was actually played through before it was typed out.
How to Actually Read This Series Without Quitting
Don't try to memorize every name. Honestly. You’ll go crazy. There’s a dramatis personae at the front of every book for a reason. Use it.
The best way to approach Malazan Book of the Fallen is to treat it like a mystery. You are gathering clues. By book three, Memories of Ice, things start to click. You’ll realize that a throwaway line in book one was actually a massive foreshadowing for a continent-ending event 2,000 pages later.
If you get stuck, the "Malazan Reread of the Fallen" on Tor.com is a godsend. It breaks down chapters without spoiling the future. Bill and Amanda (the readers) give a "new reader" and "veteran reader" perspective that helps ground the narrative when the philosophy gets too dense.
✨ Don't miss: Ashley My 600 Pound Life Now: What Really Happened to the Show’s Most Memorable Ashleys
The Reading Order Debate
Stick to the main ten by Steven Erikson first.
- Gardens of the Moon
- Deadhouse Gates
- Memories of Ice
- House of Chains
- Midnight Tides
- The Bonehunters
- Reaper's Gale
- Toll the Hounds
- Dust of Dreams
- The Crippled God
Some people suggest weaving in Ian C. Esslemont’s Novels of the Malazan Empire, but for a first timer? That’s a recipe for burnout. Save the side quests for when you’re already addicted.
The Philosophy of Compassion
For all the blood and dragons, the series is deeply philosophical. It asks big questions: What is the value of an empire? Can civilization exist without cruelty? Why do we keep fighting when the outcome is already decided?
Erikson doesn't give easy answers.
One of the most famous lines in the series is "Witness." It’s a command. The books demand that you witness the suffering, the humor, and the strange beauty of a world that is constantly dying and being reborn. It’s a heavy lift, but the payoff is a sense of scale that no other fantasy series—not even The Wheel of Time—quite manages to hit.
Next Steps for the Aspiring Reader
If you're ready to dive in, start with Gardens of the Moon but make a pact with yourself to reach at least the end of Deadhouse Gates. The second book moves to a new continent (Seven Cities) and introduces the "Chain of Dogs," a military march that is widely considered one of the greatest sequences in all of fantasy literature. If that book doesn't hook you, the series probably isn't for you.
Keep a fan-wiki or a reading guide handy for the "Warrens" and "Deck of Dragons" terminology, but avoid the character pages to stay clear of spoilers. Most importantly, embrace the confusion. The feeling of being lost is exactly what the characters are feeling too. You're right there with them in the dust.