The Malazan Fallen discussion
Series Discussion (SPOILERS)
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Rank the books (of the fallen)
date
newest »
newest »
1. Memories of Ice2. The Bonehunters
3. The Crippled God
4. Midnight Tides
5. Toll the Hounds
6. House of Chains
7. Deadhouse Gates
8. Gardens of the Moon
9. Dust of Dreams
10. Reaper's Gale
All these books still are 4 or 5 stars though!
Top tierToll the Hounds, Memories of Ice, The Bonehunters, Deadhouse Gates
Second Tier
House of Chains
Midnight Tides
The Crippled God
Gardens of the Moon
Honorable Mention
Reapers Gale, Dust of Dreams
Mod
Personally those two are the ones that only got 3 stars for me and Reaper's could have easily been a 2 if it hadn't ended so much better than it started.
Hello! I am a relatively new member of the group. I think it's my first post so please be kind, since I'm afraid I'll have to mess up things too. You see, the parts with Tehol and the ending of Gale left me breathless.1. Toll The Hounds
2. Memories Of Ice
3. The Crippled God
4. The Bonehunters
5. Reaper's Gale
6. Midnight Tides
7. Gardens Of The Moon
8. Deadhouse Gates
9. House Of Chains
10. Dust Of Dreams
1. Memories of Ice2. Midnight Tides
3. The Crippled God
4. Reaper's Gale
5. House of Chains
6. Deadhouse Gates
7. The Bonehunters
8. Dust of Dreams
9. Toll the Hounds
10. Gardens of the Moon
I seem to be in a minority that finds Reaper's Gale to be very good. I'm new here, so I'm curious as to what people disliked so strongly about it.
For me it has to be1.Memories of ice - simply awesome
2.Deadhouse gates - Loved mappo and icarium
3.The bonehunters
4.Toll the hounds
5.Gardens of moon.
6.House of chains
7.Reaper's gale
8.Midnight Tides - I hated lethar.
9.Crippled god.
10.Dust of dreams - Worst book in the series.
It has been a while since I read the earlier ones, but off the top of my head:1. The Bonehunters
2. Reaper's Gale
3. Toll the Hounds
4. Memories of Ice
5. The Crippled God
6. Dust of Dreams
7. Deadhouse Gates
8. Gardens of the Moon
9. Midnight Tides
10. House of Chains
Might change the ordering on a re-read. Not to say I actually disliked any of the books, they're all a solid 5/5 for me :)
1. Deadhouse Gates- You can't beat the Chain of Dogs.2. Memories of Ice- A 950 page shot of pure adrenaline.
3. The Crippled God- Hard to decide on this slot but really... lots of heartbreaking and warming moments, a more or less worthy conclusion to the series.
4. Reaper's Gale- AKA Weeper's Gale. You know what I mean.
5. The Bonehunters - Y'Ghatan. 'Nuff said.
6. Gardens of the Moon- Confusing and incosistent with the rest of the series at times, yet I'm quite looking forward to my reread.
7. Midnight Tides- almost gave up early on. I feel kinda bad about giving it such a low ranking especially since it had Rhulad's transformation and Tehol.
8. Toll the Hounds - long-winded and dull for much of its length, with several storylines that just don't seem to matter.
9. Dust of Dreams- Also a bit of a slog, amazing climax though.
10. House of Chains- A transition book to be sure, yet it was a bit repetitious and the climax was a bit of a confusing cheat at first sight.
I love this series and would give it a 5/5 overall, with none of the books below a 4/5 individually. I'm going to do a chapter-a-day reread when school starts (possibly also reading the ICE books for the first time interspersed) so this may definitely change.
1. Memories of Ice2. The Bonehunters
3. Reaper's Gale
4. Deadhouse Gates
5. House of Chains
6. Toll the Hounds
7. Gardens of the Moon*
8. Midnight Tides*
9. The Crippled God
10.Dust of Dreams
*Both of these books will probably be a lot better on a re-read.
I have only read through the series once, but am planning to do so again. UPON FIRST READ:1. The Crippled God- The best possible ending for this series.
2. Memories of Ice- First introduction to how awesome, epic, and VAST the series is.
3. Midnight Tides- Terrific, with plenty of substance and meaning behind the action.
4. House of Chains- The Introduction of Karsa Orlong. Although the overarching plot might not've been as strong as Bonehunters or Deadhouse Gates, Karsa made the book.
5. The Bonehunters- Quick-paced, battle-packed, not a page wasted.
6. Toll the Hounds- Loved the Black Coral plot line, and loved the book even though parts of it were unnecessary. The ending was also too important to put this any lower.
7. Reaper's Gale- might have drawn on unnecessarily at times, but still Malazan.
8. Deadhouse Gates- Intimidating to be thrown into a different continent, but a strong, substantive plot.
9. Gardens of the Moon- Still good, but obviously confusing and hard to get into during first read through.
10. Dust of Dreams- Took too long for not a lot to happen. However, this is probably just because of the two-part finale setup.
What I think my opinion will be after reread:
1. The Crippled God
2. Memories of Ice
3. Midnight Tides
4. House of Chains- I just loved this book more than most people for some reason.
5. Deadhouse Gates- Just have a feeling that I will appreciate it more after a second read through.
6. The Bonehunters
7. Toll the Hounds- (May be interchangeable with The Bonehunters; I just love Anomander Take)
8. Reaper's Gale
9. Gardens of the Moon
10. Dust of Dreams
1. The Bonehunters2. Deadhouse Gates
3. Gardens of the Moon
4. Memories of Ice
5. House of Chains
6. Reaper's Gale
7. Midnight Tides
8. The Crippled God
9. Dust of Dreams
10. Toll the Hounds
1. Memories of Ice (Best fantasy book ever written).2. Deadhouse Gates
3. The Bonehunters
4. Gardens of the Moon
5. House of Chains
6. Midnight Tides (As a stand alone book, this would have gotten a higher rating. It is awesome).
7. The Crippled God
8. The rest
Midnight Tides would work as a standalone book. It's a great twist of the colonizing of America and the eventual Westward Expansion (tensions with the natives). In fact, does anyone think this could serve as an opening point to the series if someone had trouble getting into Gardens of the Moon? Some of the things with the Tiste Edur might be confusing, but then again the first time you're introduced to that it's a bit confusing no matter what. I might be forgetting something else important though, since I haven't rea these for a while.
Lundos wrote: "1. Memories of Ice (Best fantasy book ever written)."
Totally agree. And Itkovian being the best character on that book, that guy brought me to tears.
My 2nd would be "The Bonehunters"
1. House of Chains2. Midnight Tides
3. The Bonehunters
4. Memories of Ice
5. Gardens of the Moon
6. Dust of Dreams
7. Reapers Gale
8. Toll the Hounds
9. The Crippled God
10. Deadhouse Gates
All in all, the greatest work of fantasy fiction ever created.
Where would everyone rank Forge of Darkness in relation to the other books? I know it's a separate work and the trilogy is uncompleted, but I'm still curious.
I rather enjoyed Forge of Darkness. I liked it better than a few novels in the Malazan series, particularly Toll the Hounds and Gardens of the Moon (which, also including Dust of Dreams, rounds out my 3 least favorite Malazan novels). I enjoyed the more concise story, philosophical discussions and exploring some of history (some of which seemed contradictory to what we learned in Malazan, also). In all, a promising start to a new series.
I'm barely on deadhouse gates. So I've nly two books to rate. But so far, deadhouse gates is much slower, almost night/day difference. Gardens of the moon has my vote.
If you like Gardens of the Moon more than DeadHouse Gates, you will almost certainly enjoy Memories of Ice more than either of the first two.
Within each section, they are in no particular order.The Best:
Deadhouse Gates
Loved:
House of Chains
Bonehunters
Memories of Ice
Midnight Tides (I loved the sudden expansion of the series to a whole new continent)
Really enjoyed but dragged in parts:
Reaper's Gale
Toll the Hounds (I wasn't sold on the "authorial voice")
Gardens of the Moon
Less excellent:
The Crippled God
Dust of Dreams
As you can probably tell books 2 through 6 (DG to BH) I thought SE was writing the best fantasy fiction (or you can replace those last four words with "some of the best fiction") I have ever read. Book 1 is infamously clunky and from Book 7 on as the series begins to converge together gets a bit bogged down.
It is the best series I have read but I don't have the chops of some of you when it comes to racking up epic series.
I am surprised to see Deadhouse Gates halfway down or lower on . some lists. I haven't finished this series, but found Deadhouse Gates to be amazing.
Brent wrote: "I seem to be in a minority that finds Reaper's Gale to be very good. I'm new here, so I'm curious as to what people disliked so strongly about it."I also loved Reapers' Gale.
Rob wrote: "So as I'm reflecting on the series as a whole, I was thinking how I felt the last few books weren't nearly as good as the earlier ones for me personally, so as I'm prone to do, I made a list.I li..."
For me, Gardens of the Moon is number ten, everything else is tied for number 1.
Damn, this is harder than I thought it would be. I've always thought of the series as one long, huge book. 1. Memories of Ice
2. The Bonehunters
3. Reaper's Gale (I expected to hate this book but I loved every minute of it)
4. The Crippled God
5. Gardens of the Moon
6. Deadhouse Gates
7. House of Chains
8. Toll the Hounds
9. Dust of Dreams
10. Midnight Tides
So hard ranking this book since I loved them all for one thing or another. Midnight Tides takes the last spot because it took me forever to get through it, and it kind of made me mad for a long time. I was missing our main crew... I think on a reread, knowing it's coming, I'll like it more
For me:1. Memories of Ice
2. Gardens of the Moon
3. Toll of the Hounds
4. Midnight Tides
5. Reaper's Gale
6. The Crippled God
7. Dust of Dreams
8.The Bonehunters
9. Deadhouse Gates
10. House of Chains
For me it's:1. The Bonehunters
2. Toll the Hounds
3. House of Chains
4. Gardens of the Moon
5. Memories of Ice
6. Midnight Tides
7. The Crippled God
8. Dust of Dreams
9. Reaper's Gale
10. Deadhouse Gates
My rankings:1. The Bonehunters (Y'Ghatan anyone?)
2. Deadhouse Gates (Oh Coltaine!)
3. Memories of Ice
4. Reaper's Gale
5. House of Chains
6. Toll the Hounds
7. Gardens of the Moon
8. Midnight Tides
9. The Crippled God
10. Dust of Dreams
All novels are rated at least 4 stars in my book, so not a big difference in quality from one book to the next, although The Bonehunters and Deadhouse Gates are by far my two favourites. If I include all novels I've read so far by both authors, then the list would be:
1. The Bonehunters (Y'Ghatan anyone?)
2. Deadhouse Gates (Oh Coltaine!)
3. Forge of Darkness
4. Memories of Ice
5. Reaper's Gale
6. House of Chains
7. Toll the Hounds
8. Gardens of the Moon
9. Midnight Tides
10. The Crippled God
11. Dust of Dreams
12. The Return of the Crimson Guard
13. Night of Knives
14. Stonewielder
I actually enjoyed the ICE novels, they just don't live up to Erikson. Once I finish the first Mistborn novel (which kinda sucks to be honest), I plan on reading the final three ICE novels before re-reading Forge of Darkness. I'm really excited about Fall of Light and Dancer's Lament!
I only finished 7 books but i will rank them anyway:7:DG, half the book was boring but the first and last 20% were great
6:GOTM, the writing style wasnt very clear and good as the other books
5:HOC, i think the book should have been longer and gave more time for the 14th army, because the whole book felt like its only an introduction for new characters
4:MOI, the book was great but i dont think the events after Capustan were as interesting as before
3:RG,* spoiler alert* what bother me about this book is something SE done in all his books but only annoyed me in this book and that is the many meaningless deaths in the book, especially fear sengar, the three sisters who seemed really important and feather witch. I mean all this build up for them and in the end they just simply get killed without doing anything affecting the story, i also got really angry when fiddler ordered his squad to kill everyone in the palace without any reason, and this kinda ruined all the book ending for me, but the book over all was great
2: MT, the best book in the series in terms of the story
1: BH, ofcourse because of the bonehunters
Yousef wrote: "I only finished 7 books but i will rank them anyway:7:DG, half the book was boring but the first and last 20% were great
6:GOTM, the writing style wasnt very clear and good as the other books
5:H..."
Based on your rankings and reasoning for them Yousef, I'm not sure you'll enjoy Toll the Hounds very much (and I hope I'm wrong, because I thought Toll the Hounds was amazing)... There's a lot more meaningless pondering in TH, although in my case, that's a good thing when reading an Erikson novel. I like the more philosophical moments in his books (Forge of Darkness was even better at this than TH). In any case, prepare yourself for a very slow paced novel, the slowest one in the entire series. On the bright side, Anomander's storyline gets much more development in this one.
Joey wrote: "Yousef wrote: "I only finished 7 books but i will rank them anyway:Well i have just started the book and i actually have high hopes for it, because it focus on darjhistan, one of my favorite places in the whole series. And i am also so much intersted about rake and his sword, so i dont care much if its slow paced as long as it is enjoyble. btw unlike you i reall hate those philosophical moments in the series :)
This is my first time seeing this and I loved Reapers Gale lol
Gonzalo wrote: "This is my first time seeing this and I loved Reapers Gale lol"*high five* Reaper's Gale Rules!
1- Midnight Tides2- Reaper's Gale
3- Memories of Ice
4- The Crippled God
5- Deadhouse Gates
6- Bonehunters
7- House of Chains
8- Gardens of the Moon
9- Toll The Hounds
10- Dust of Dreams
Ps. that was difficult as I love them all
Mod
1: Memories of Ice (average of 8.62 on people's lists)
2: Bonehunters (7.86)
3: Reaper's Gale (5.45)
4: Deadhouse Gates (5.42)
5: Crippled God (5.35)
6: Midnight Tides (5.38)
7: House of Chains (5.33)
8: Toll The Hounds (5.16)
9: Gardens of the Moon (4.95)
10: Dust of Dreams (2.26)
Thanks, Rob! That's neat! And I'm glad to see Reaper's Gale in the top 3
Mod
Wow! Thanks again for doing this. You've satisfied my love for Malazan and numbers
I'm on bonehunters now. Without spoiling the plot why did everybody hate Dust of Dreams, or at least not love it?
Mod
For me, lack of Malazan & something called the Snake.
It's also basically the first half of Crippled God and it's a lot of setup.
And through the first 5 for me it's DHG, MOI, MT, GOTM and HOC. If TBH continues on the arc it's on through the first third of the book it will be the new #1.
Rob wrote: "Scott wrote: "I'm on bonehunters now. Without spoiling the plot why did everybody hate Dust of Dreams, or at least not love it?"For me, lack of Malazan & something called the Snake.
It's also basically the first half of Crippled God and it's a lot of setup."
Good to know, thanks.
This is my second favorite series, so please note that while my comments on Dust of Dreams seem harsh, I still liked it in comparison to many others. Dust of Dreams is a slog. It's all set up with little fulfillment (that comes in the Crippled God). It's still a great book and the ending is jam packed with action and surprise (and some truly great visuals), but the rest of the book seemed to do the opposite of what most penultimate books in a series do. It became bogged down in tedium and (even more) new characters that somehow didn't seem important, especially considering this should be the building of a climax. It's very good, as all Malazan novels are. It's just a door stopper of exposition with little payoff. I just consider it the prologue to the Crippled God, as Erikson intended them to be one boom split into two, but it's "first half" nature makes it a little hard to love as as individual.
Finished TCG this morning. Simply amazing series and ending. 1. The Crippled God
2. The Bonehunters
3. Deadhouse Gate
4. Memories of Ice
5. Midnight Tides
6. Dust of Dreams
7. Reaper's Gale
8. Gardens of the Moon
9. Toll the Hounds
10. House of Chains
Really 1-4 are 1 A-D
Midnight Tides is just a notch below those and then 6-8 are all the same.
Toll the Hounds and House of Chains were below everything else. House of Chains would have ranked much higher but that was the worst ending of the series and it's not even close. Toll the Hounds was the worst book of the series but redeemed but that ending which was at the top.
1. The Bonehunters2. Midnight Tides
3. The Crippled God
4. Memories of Ice
5. Toll the Hounds
6. Deadhouse Gates
7. Gardens of the Moon
8. Reaper's Gale
9. House of Chains
10. Dust of Dreams
Never been wrong before.1. Deadhouse Gates
2. Memories of Ice
3. The Bonehunters
4. The Crippled God
5. Gardens of The Moon
6. Midnight Tides
7. Reaper's Gale
8. Toll of Hounds
9. House of Chains
10. Dust of Dreams
The Malazan Fallen
Books mentioned in this topic
House of Chains (other topics)Gardens of the Moon (other topics)
Deadhouse Gates (other topics)
Memories of Ice (other topics)
Midnight Tides (other topics)
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I liked the last book, though it's far from my favorite.
1. The Bonehunters
2. House of Chains
3. Memories of Ice
4. The Crippled God
5. Gardens of the Moon
6. Deadhouse Gates
7. Toll the Hounds
8. Midnight Tides
9. Dust of Dreams
10. Reaper's Gale
So what's your list?