Its been 5+ yrs since I started reading this series. I started strangely enough with the third book in the series when I was in germany. I used to have these long 2 day weekends all alone with nothing to do and weekday evenings when I used to either watch MTV or CNN ( the only two english channels on tv). At this time I would goto bookshops and look for the fattest book available in fantasy and pick it up.
That is how I ended up picking up Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson and what a book it turned out to be. That book was just astounding and I had to read more from this author! Slowly over the next couple of months managed to get Gardens of the Moon(book 1) and Deadhouse gates (book 2) when I got back to India.
Since then Steven Erikson has been my favourite author trumping Tolkein etc. Where every fantasy author till date has tried to ape Tolkein in some way with Elves/dwarves and a do-gooder hero and an all evil Enemy, Erikson follows a completly different track. His characters are not easily slotted as good/bad. Most of the characters are in the grey area and the scope of the novels is just crazy. The timeline spans over 300,000 yrs+ with characters that are immortal(Ascendants), gods who have died, gods who walk amongst us, Undeads and above all the Bridgeburners.
The Bridgeburners are an elite Marine force of the Malazan Empire and most of the characters are just amazing. Erikson's humour is best described as satirical. Since Erikson himself is an anthropologist and archaeologist by training his settings are described in such detail that it makes Tolkein's world creation small. The other part which I love about the Malazan Series is the fact that magic has been treated very differently. Magic is bound into a hierarchy of what are called different aspects eg, light,darkness,shadow etc. At the top is chaotic magic, then magic of dragons (Starvald Demelain), then elemental forces(Elder Warrens as they are called) like light,darkness(Kurald Galain),shadow (Kurald Emurhlan),fire (Tellan), Ice ( Omtose phellack ) -Elder Warrens and finally the more refined magic like denur(healing),mockra(illusion) and others.
I would highly recommend this series to anyone who has the stomach for a bit of gore but wants to explore High Fantasy and move beyond the Tolkein wannabe novels. There is one other author who has taken a step away from tolkein style namely Scott. R. Baker. But I will reserve a review of his books for later!.
Read further for review of Reaper's Gale (some spoilers).
