Gardens of the Moon

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, and The Crippled God - aka Malazan Book of the Fallen - all by Steven Erikson. Talk about a renewed interest in reading. After getting through Gardens of the Moon, I realized that I didn't really know what was going on or why these characters were doing what they were doing. I found a readalong podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ten-very-big-books-a-m... (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ten-very-big-books-a-malazan-readthrough-podcast/id1461716128)), which really helped me put into context the storylines throughout the series. It's the most epic fantasy series out there. The stories are based on GURPS games that Erikson and his gaming partner Ian Cameron Esslemont ran in the 1980s on archeological digs. And there are an additional 16 novels, written both by Erikson and Esslemont, which continue to flesh out the universe.…

Just finished the second book of this series. I agree with the parent comment - strongly recommend. I also finished book 10 of the Malazan series. Imagine Dan Carlin (Hardcore History podcast) and Quentin Tarantino took both the red pill and the blue pill that Morpheus offered Neo and ground both the pills together, snorted it, shook hands and agreed to create something better than Game of Thrones. I imagine they would have come up with something almost as good as the Malazan series. You’ll have to power through the first book (Gardens of the Moon). It is notoriously difficult - I recommend following up each chapter with commentary on Tor’s Gardens of the Moon reread. I will also guarantee that the way book 1 ends will not make sense. But keep reading - the payoff is waiting as early as the end of book 2. And again at the end of book 3. And again all through books 4 and 5. And it’ll stay that good till the end.