1) TtH 2)TCG 3)MoI 4) Reaper’s Gale 5) The Bonehunters 6) Midnight Tides 7) Deadhouse Gates 8) House of Chains 9) Dust of Dreams 10) Gardens of the Moon
My ranking (with spoilers): 1. Reaper Gale - The peak for the series in terms of political fiction, so easily what I enjoy the most as a fan of political fiction. Just great all around, though I do prefer the first half a lot more, before the Malazans come in a derail these plots) 2. The Bonehunters - While Reaper's Gale is like a 10/10 in the first half and a 8/10 in the second, I think this is consistently a 9/10. Still my favourite book ending in the series. 3. Memories of Ice - Where so many elements that got me exited to see where to series was heading are really introduced and highlighted here (the less I say about the resolution to these points the better...) 4. Gardens of the Moon - With how much crap this book gets, I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed it. It's quite different to the following books, has an almost swashbuckling feel with Cutter in Darujhistan, but I thought it was great. 5. Toll the Hounds - Darujhistan is perhaps my favourite setting in all of fantasy, so getting a deep dive into the inner workings of the city and it's underbelly was a treat. Hot take, as I know many see the ending of the book to be the peak of the series, but like Reaper's Gale I was actually enjoying it a lot more before certain events derailed many of these stories within Darujhistan. So much of the Darujhistany set up isn't resolved in this book, which was disappointing (but don't worry, read book 4 of this other authors other series and you can see these plot points destroyed!) 6. Midnight Tides. 7. House of Chains. 8. Dust of Dreams. 9. The Crippled God. 10. Deadhouse Gates - I genuinely believe how much I enjoyed Gardens of the Moon kinda spoiled this book for me. With how often it's said that you just how to power through book one and book two will blow you away, then given how much I adored GotM, I expected this to be an all time great. It's not really fair to the book, but it's just how I felt reading through it. I have no doubt that this will shoot up when I eventually do a re-read. All I can say it, Malazan community, be nicer to Gardens of the Moon!
People usually don’t read malazan for the political stuff as well, I would say the biggest groups in the fandom would be the ones who like philosophy the most, the ones who like military fiction the most and the ones who are just here for the awesome fantasy elements mainly.
I also enjoyed the end of bonehunters less than the first half myself personally and think memories of ice, bonehunters and gardens of the moon have the worst endings of the books.
I totally agree about Reapers Gale. I LOVED the first half and everything about it. And then those pesky Bonehunters show up. ha. I loved Reapers Gale. I think ill be nicer to Bonehunters next time. As far as Deadhouse, I think I like the setting of Gardens so much more the sand, but I think I started to like the characters first in Deadhouse. I am definately team Genebakis. And I agree that Gardens was more fun than maybe it gets credit for.
@@danielgwynne7266 This I put at the feet of people endlessly recommending the series when I said I wanted some like A Song of Ice and Fire. I would say I like big, expansive political fantasy, and so many would tell me the politics in Malazan is amazing and it'll blow me away. In the end I'm glad they recommended it anyways, and I thoroughly enjoyed it overall (likes 6-7-8 is a great sequence) but great political fiction Malazan is not (though Reaper's Gale comes close, hence it's placement).
Very nice. As I mentioned on discord, your ranking is actually pretty close to mine, outside of your insane issue with the last 2 books 😂 I’ll put my ranking below for… reasons But just fyi, having TtH first is absolutely not weird. It tends to be a divisive book, in that it usually ends up at/near the top OR bottom of people’s rankings. Usually not in the middle. So yeah don’t worry you’re not unique 😛 1. The Crippled Dream 2. MoI 3. TtH 4. MT 5. DG 6. RG 7. tBH 8. HoC 9. GotM
It’s weird how I can agree so much with a person and disagree so much too, currently reading the crippled god and toll the hounds is my favourite with dust of dreams a bit behind it.
I think for me it would go 1. Toll the hounds 2.dust of dreams 3. Reapers gale 4. Midnight tides 5. The bonehunters 6. House of chains 7. Memories of ice 8. Deadhouse gates 9. Gardens of the moon Read about 7 chapters of the crippled god so far and with how much I’m enjoying it so far compared to the others I would put it at roughly 3rd atm.
A book of parables compared to a series of short stories, both with overarching themes. I can appreciate that. The archaeological and anthropological aspects of this series are an obvious standout and a real feast now that you can divert focus from the main story elements. A post first read reaction to changes in location, persona, timeline and writing style through subsequent books in the series would be a fun discussion. I remember how jarring it was to start MT and HoC only to get hooked on all the newness after a few chapters. Your enthusiasm for TtH at the time was contagious. I enjoyed it even more while following along. Thanks for that!
I am looking forward to scanning other reviews and discussions and things to find what others feel about the books I didn't love as much. Especially the last one that didn't really hit me like it has for others.
This is a really great video where you explained so well why some books didn't connect with you and why the others did, that too in a non spoiler way. Kudos.
Thx for this have not been able to watch recent vids as I got exams so can't read TCG rn but stoked that we have reached the finish line (well not me but you get the point)
Where I am right now my rankings would go HoC > TTH > MT > MoI > DoD > DG > RG > TBH > GotM - It is intresting me and you both had our expectations raised for TBH but it kinda missed, for me the ending chapters are some of my fav in malazan while I actually hated chapter 7, while it is the flip side for you. I totally was with you in how I felt for RG at one point because that first book and some of the commentary is the best in the series, but the book personally felt as if it had stretched a bit beyond the themes and how it started to feel as if we were simply returning to similar ideas or whatever which did sour the ending for me personally. But yeah TTH... what more can be said, the most quotable malazan book arguably with Midnight tides
Will you be continuing with Kharkanas? It has a different style and Erikson is exploring something unique, but it basically takes what you love about Toll the Hounds and runs with it as far as possible. Can't make any promises though, it might be too much for you, as it is for lots of people.
The character ranking will be full spoilers, but I think doing a breakdown of some of the specifics to why each is ranked where it is would be a great idea. Because there are some big reasons for each of these placements.
yes. here for all of it.
I enjoyed our Malazan journey, Dan.
1) TtH
2)TCG
3)MoI
4) Reaper’s Gale
5) The Bonehunters
6) Midnight Tides
7) Deadhouse Gates
8) House of Chains
9) Dust of Dreams
10) Gardens of the Moon
Very similar to mine! I think The Crippled God will rise on a re-read when I know where it is heading. Thanks for sharing.
@@DanExploresBooks and thank you for sharing your thoughts!
My ranking (with spoilers):
1. Reaper Gale - The peak for the series in terms of political fiction, so easily what I enjoy the most as a fan of political fiction. Just great all around, though I do prefer the first half a lot more, before the Malazans come in a derail these plots)
2. The Bonehunters - While Reaper's Gale is like a 10/10 in the first half and a 8/10 in the second, I think this is consistently a 9/10. Still my favourite book ending in the series.
3. Memories of Ice - Where so many elements that got me exited to see where to series was heading are really introduced and highlighted here (the less I say about the resolution to these points the better...)
4. Gardens of the Moon - With how much crap this book gets, I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed it. It's quite different to the following books, has an almost swashbuckling feel with Cutter in Darujhistan, but I thought it was great.
5. Toll the Hounds - Darujhistan is perhaps my favourite setting in all of fantasy, so getting a deep dive into the inner workings of the city and it's underbelly was a treat. Hot take, as I know many see the ending of the book to be the peak of the series, but like Reaper's Gale I was actually enjoying it a lot more before certain events derailed many of these stories within Darujhistan. So much of the Darujhistany set up isn't resolved in this book, which was disappointing (but don't worry, read book 4 of this other authors other series and you can see these plot points destroyed!)
6. Midnight Tides.
7. House of Chains.
8. Dust of Dreams.
9. The Crippled God.
10. Deadhouse Gates - I genuinely believe how much I enjoyed Gardens of the Moon kinda spoiled this book for me. With how often it's said that you just how to power through book one and book two will blow you away, then given how much I adored GotM, I expected this to be an all time great. It's not really fair to the book, but it's just how I felt reading through it. I have no doubt that this will shoot up when I eventually do a re-read. All I can say it, Malazan community, be nicer to Gardens of the Moon!
It isn’t a bad book but I just found everything to be worse in gardens of the moon than in every other book.
People usually don’t read malazan for the political stuff as well, I would say the biggest groups in the fandom would be the ones who like philosophy the most, the ones who like military fiction the most and the ones who are just here for the awesome fantasy elements mainly.
I also enjoyed the end of bonehunters less than the first half myself personally and think memories of ice, bonehunters and gardens of the moon have the worst endings of the books.
I totally agree about Reapers Gale. I LOVED the first half and everything about it. And then those pesky Bonehunters show up. ha. I loved Reapers Gale. I think ill be nicer to Bonehunters next time. As far as Deadhouse, I think I like the setting of Gardens so much more the sand, but I think I started to like the characters first in Deadhouse. I am definately team Genebakis. And I agree that Gardens was more fun than maybe it gets credit for.
@@danielgwynne7266 This I put at the feet of people endlessly recommending the series when I said I wanted some like A Song of Ice and Fire. I would say I like big, expansive political fantasy, and so many would tell me the politics in Malazan is amazing and it'll blow me away. In the end I'm glad they recommended it anyways, and I thoroughly enjoyed it overall (likes 6-7-8 is a great sequence) but great political fiction Malazan is not (though Reaper's Gale comes close, hence it's placement).
Very nice. As I mentioned on discord, your ranking is actually pretty close to mine, outside of your insane issue with the last 2 books 😂 I’ll put my ranking below for… reasons
But just fyi, having TtH first is absolutely not weird. It tends to be a divisive book, in that it usually ends up at/near the top OR bottom of people’s rankings. Usually not in the middle. So yeah don’t worry you’re not unique 😛
1. The Crippled Dream
2. MoI
3. TtH
4. MT
5. DG
6. RG
7. tBH
8. HoC
9. GotM
Great list. Obviously with 1 glaring difference.
It’s weird how I can agree so much with a person and disagree so much too, currently reading the crippled god and toll the hounds is my favourite with dust of dreams a bit behind it.
On any given day i think it would shift around for me. My bottom 2 are pretty stuck there until a re-read, but the rest could shift easily.
I think for me it would go
1. Toll the hounds
2.dust of dreams
3. Reapers gale
4. Midnight tides
5. The bonehunters
6. House of chains
7. Memories of ice
8. Deadhouse gates
9. Gardens of the moon
Read about 7 chapters of the crippled god so far and with how much I’m enjoying it so far compared to the others I would put it at roughly 3rd atm.
I never recovered from the chain of dogs
Crippled god,
Toll the hounds
Gardens of the moon
Memories of ice
Midnight tides
Midnight tides was so much better second time round
A book of parables compared to a series of short stories, both with overarching themes. I can appreciate that.
The archaeological and anthropological aspects of this series are an obvious standout and a real feast now that you can divert focus from the main story elements.
A post first read reaction to changes in location, persona, timeline and writing style through subsequent books in the series would be a fun discussion. I remember how jarring it was to start MT and HoC only to get hooked on all the newness after a few chapters.
Your enthusiasm for TtH at the time was contagious. I enjoyed it even more while following along. Thanks for that!
I am looking forward to scanning other reviews and discussions and things to find what others feel about the books I didn't love as much. Especially the last one that didn't really hit me like it has for others.
This is a really great video where you explained so well why some books didn't connect with you and why the others did, that too in a non spoiler way. Kudos.
Glad to find your channel. I’m about to start malazan. I’ll check out your videos as I go along.
The videos start at book 3. Haha. But I will be going back through sometime and do videos for books 1 and 2 when I do a re-read.
I am here to confirm you are right Dan, House of chains is the best malazan book and it is not even close :)
Definately. I only have it where i put it to appease the corporate overlords.
Thx for this have not been able to watch recent vids as I got exams so can't read TCG rn but stoked that we have reached the finish line (well not me but you get the point)
Where I am right now my rankings would go HoC > TTH > MT > MoI > DoD > DG > RG > TBH > GotM - It is intresting me and you both had our expectations raised for TBH but it kinda missed, for me the ending chapters are some of my fav in malazan while I actually hated chapter 7, while it is the flip side for you. I totally was with you in how I felt for RG at one point because that first book and some of the commentary is the best in the series, but the book personally felt as if it had stretched a bit beyond the themes and how it started to feel as if we were simply returning to similar ideas or whatever which did sour the ending for me personally. But yeah TTH... what more can be said, the most quotable malazan book arguably with Midnight tides
Will you be continuing with Kharkanas? It has a different style and Erikson is exploring something unique, but it basically takes what you love about Toll the Hounds and runs with it as far as possible. Can't make any promises though, it might be too much for you, as it is for lots of people.
Yes. I will be getting to Kharkanas. Not sure if right away though. Will see how things go.
Do a spolier ranking now please
The character ranking will be full spoilers, but I think doing a breakdown of some of the specifics to why each is ranked where it is would be a great idea. Because there are some big reasons for each of these placements.