More Malazan Musings

I keep plugging along at Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, of which nine volumes are currently available. Somewhere back on this blog I discussed Gardens of the Moon, the first book. I may have mentioned reading the second volume, Deadhouse Gates, on my visit to New York City last October. I had plenty of time to read, while riding the coach 75 minutes each way, to and from my friend's house in western New Jersey. Fortunately, Deadhouse Gates was engrossing. I liked it quite a bit more than I did the debut.

Why? Because the characters and locales were more to my taste. The series is built in layers. The first book takes place on the continent of Genabackis. The second introduces many new characters, mixes in a few returnees, and sends them all to the Seven Cities sub-continent. The third then returns to Genabackis, before the fourth picks up the Seven Cities storyline, with the events being concurrent. The fifth introduces the continent of Lether, and again mostly new characters. The remaining books then blend the various storylines.

Why did Erikson do things in this back-and-forth manner? I saw in an interview that much of his in-progress manuscript for Memories of Ice (which became the third volume) was lost due to computer trouble. This depressed Erikson to the point that he felt the need to step away from the Genabackis setting for a while, and start to tell the Seven Cities portion of his overall arc. This made Deadhouse Gates the second book, when it was originally intended to be the third one. If that had happened, then Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice would have been one and two, telling a complete portion of the arc. House of Chains would be book four in either case, and would have continued directly from book 3, instead of from book two, as it now does.

I almost wish the books had been written and published in the originally intended order. Upon finishing Deadhouse Gates, I was eager to see what happened next in the Seven Cities storyline. I didn't really want to return to Genabackis, but I did. I read Memories of Ice bit by bit, over the winter. It is certainly a good book, but I don't share the often-expressed view that it is the best Malazan tale. It is too melodramatic for my taste, and too contrived in places, especially in Whiskeyjack repeatedly refusing to allow magical healing of his injured leg. Deadhouse Gates seems better written, which makes sense in that it is, to an extent, Erikson's third Malazan book. Meanwhile, I know from personal experience that recreated lost writing is never as strong as the original. A bit of magic disappears forever, and that magic was missing from Memories of Ice, even if Erikson had grown in experience since his first attempt at writing the book.

I'm now reading House of Chains, and it is enthralling. I'm near the halfway point, and so far it is the best of the Malazan books. For me. Opinions on its merit seem to vary widely on review and discussion sites. I like that the groundwork has been laid in earlier volumes, so that now the bigger picture is emerging. Erikson is taking fewer heavy-handed shortcuts to play with readers' emotions. I hope the understated quality continues.

It'll be a while yet before I get to book five, Midnight Tides, but I'm looking forward to it. A segment of Malazan fandom considers it Erikson's finest moment. My taste might well match theirs, since it doesn't for those who champion Memories of Ice. Of course, there's no true right or wrong in the arena of opinion. Ultimately, the lack of consensus on which Malazan book is best is really a praise to the strength of the series. I expect Erikson's works, and those of his colleague Ian "Cam" Esslemont, will continue to entertain me for many months to come.