malazan ultimate reading order | The Obsessive Bookseller

Title: House of Chains

Author: Steven Erikson

Series: Malazan #4

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: In Northern Genabackis, tribal mountain warriors raid southern flatlands. Years later, Tavore, Adjunct to the Empress, enters the last Malazan stronghold. New to command, she must hone 12,000 recruits to resist the Whirlwind of her sister Sha in the Holy Desert. The power struggle of the seer’s warlords threatens the soul of the rebellion. -Goodreads

The Review:

Well, it only took me a year, but I finally finished House of Chains.

Granted, all Malazan books I’ve read so far have been dense, but the back half of this particular one gave me some extra sass. I’d heard it was the first half that most people struggle through, as the story and tone were vastly different than anything we’d seen up to that point. I, for one, found it a delightful Malazan vacation to only have a handful of characters to keep track of for a while. It was when we started getting back into the relative continuation of the series with an overwhelming mix of new and old characters that I starting losing momentum.

By all accounts, everything was still interesting, but compared to the slam-dunk brilliance that was Memories of Ice, the back half of House of Chains felt a bit lackluster. It was rather talkie/talkie and seemed to be more set-up than plot-advancing. And the few things that did happen to resolve conflicts from Deadhouse Gates hit me as anticlimactic.

The structure of this series so far is fascinating. Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice were linked, whereas House of Chains was more a direct sequel to Deadhouse Gates. But they’re all interconnected and overlapped, so you really do need to read them all (not that you’d likely skip if you’re committed to Malazan). I think it part of the brilliance of the series and it’s one of the reasons I’m interested to keep reading.

…I just wish fewer names started with a “K” sound.

Overall I’m still willing to put myself through more literary torture and will be continuing the Ultimate Reading Order with “The Healthy Dead” next.

Recommendations: I can’t in good conscience hand this to anyone without a laundry list of disclaimers, but it’s good. Read it if you’re a masochist. :P

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by Niki Hawkes

Title: The Wurms of Blearmouth

Author: Steven Erikson

Series: Bachelain & Korbal Broach #5

Malazan Ultimate Reading Order: #5

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: Tyranny comes in many guises, and tyrants thrive in palaces and one-room hovels, in back alleys and playgrounds. Tyrants abound on the verges of civilization, where disorder frays the rule of civil conduct and propriety surrenders to brutal imposition. Millions are made to kneel and yet more millions die horrible deaths in a welter of suffering and misery. But leave all that behind and plunge into escapist fantasy of the most irrelevant kind, and in the ragged wake of the tale told in Lees of Laughter’s End, those most civil adventurers, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, along with their suitably phlegmatic manservant, Emancipor Reese, make gentle landing upon a peaceful beach, beneath a quaint village at the foot of a majestic castle. There they make acquaintance with the soft-hearted and generous folk of Spendrugle, which lies at the mouth of the Blear River and falls under the benign rule of the Lord of Wurms in his lovely keep. Make welcome, then, to Spendrugle’s memorable residents, including the man who should have stayed dead, the woman whose prayers should never have been answered, the tax collector everyone ignores, the ex-husband town militiaman who never married, the beachcomber who lives in his own beard, the now singular lizard cat who used to be plural, and the girl who likes to pee in your lap. And of course, hovering over all, the denizen of the castle keep, Lord–Ah, but there lies this tale. -Goodreads

The Review:

Wurms of Blearmouth was the weirdest of the three Bachelain and Korbal Broach novellas I’ve read towards my Malazan Ultimate Reading Project, which is saying something because Lees at Laughter’s End was a doozy.

Weird as it may have been, the dense writing, bird’s-eye format, and multiple POVs resembled the main Malazan series the most, so in a way the familiarity made it feel more integrated into the series than novellas 1&3 even though the story was most certainly a tangent. There were a couple of story elements that jumped the shark a bit (going outside what had been established as possible thus far in the series), which made me roll my eyes a few times. I have a hard time with ridiculous elements in books, especially in a series as hard-core as Malazan. This one came close to making me want to put it down, but ultimately pulled me back in with other gritty, interesting elements. There are some things that happen here that have already added substance to the background of Memories of Ice (the next book in the Malazan URO), so overall I’m glad I stuck with it.

But would I recommend it with a kindle price at $11.99 USD for just a short story? Perhaps not strongly unless you’re a completionist like me.

Recommendations: this short story goes a few steps further to solidify the backstory of these side characters within the Malazan world. Because it’s pricey and a bit wild, it’s not as recommendable as Blood Follows (a must-read), so if you’re only planning to read a couple of companion works, stick with that one.

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