Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this guide to The Culture. I hope it has inspired those of you who haven’t read it yet to pick up a book and reminded those of you who have how great this…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Five: A Parting Word
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Book 8) Matter - This is one of the denser books within the series, but if you’re looking for something that scratches a deep itch, Matter will definitely do the trick. It starts off in the middle of a medieval revolution on a shell…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Four: Books 8-10
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Book 5) Excession - When I was doing some initial research on The Culture to get some grounding before diving into this huge piece, I came across a surprising number of people who claimed that this was the weakest Culture novel. Those people can…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Three: Books 5-7
Why You Should Read The Culture - Part One: The Hub Book 1) Consider Phlebas - Much like Malazan the Book of the Fallen's hotly debated first book, Consider Phlebas is thought to be a rough first book. Forums and Reddit posts have been dedicated to whether Consider Phlebas is a good fit for The…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part Two: Books 1-3
After the stunning popularity of our “Why You Should Read Malazan” post, I sat down and thought about what other massive series could use a deep dive guide for new readers. While there are a ton of series that we love, there are only a few that are complex enough in their wonder that they…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read The Culture – Part One: The Hub
Previously - Part 4: The Characters While the ten core Malazan books are filled with tons of awesome plot, memorable characters, and more laughs and tears than you know what to do with - Erikson also made sure to pack in some consistent themes and messages that are ever present. There is not enough time…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 5: The Themes
Previously - Part 3: The World So, a long time ago when I was only just beginning to think about making The Quill to Live, one of my co-editors (Will) asked me to make a list of my 100 favorite fantasy characters of all time. I started making my list, but then turned to him…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 4: The Characters
Previously - Part 2: The Plot One of the longest-standing go-to complaints I hear when I read fantasy book critiques is “lazy world building”. What this refers to is an author taking people and cultures that exist in either our real world (such as Russian or Middle Eastern) or popular established worlds (such as elves…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 3: The World
Previously - Part 1: The Introduction Malazan’s plot is huge and sweeping, but let me see if I can help ground you. The first thing to understand about Malazan is that the protagonist isn’t a person, it's a people. The Malazan Book of the Fallen follows the story of the Malazan empire - and their…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 2: The Plot
So I am going to do something I swore I would never do: review my favorite fantasy series of all time - The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The reason I am breaking my self-promise is the lovely people at Tor sent me copies of the new Malazan spin-off stories to review, Dancer’s Lament and…
Continue reading ➞ Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 1: The Introduction
