malazan update

_posts/techblog/2024-01-26-malazan.md

@@ -5,23 +5,23 @@ layout: default
 categories: techblog
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-I just finished a very, very, very long read of Steven Erikson's _[Malazan Book of the Fallen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen)_ series. This is the second-longest (by word count) series I have every read, the longest being _The Wheel of Time_. _Malazan_ is perhaps the most unusual, most unique, and most impactful series I have ever read. Allow me to explain a few ways that this series sticks out to me...
+I just finished a very, very, very long read of Steven Erikson's _[Malazan Book of the Fallen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen)_ series. This is the second-longest series I have every read, second only to _The Wheel of Time_. But _Malazan_ stands out as perhapas the most unusual, most unique, and most impactful series I have ever read. It has been a long time since a piece of writing made me think this much. Allow me to explain...
 
 <!-- readmore -->
 
-# Length
+## Length
 
 It's long. Hella long. 11,000 pages across 10 books. 3.4 million words (over three Harry Potters, 7 Lord of the Rings, and 0.8 Wheel of Times). And it's not just pulp fiction that allows you to churn through a book in a week if you have the time: it is dense. At my very fastest reading pace between jobs, with no commitments during a dark, rainy couple of weeks, I think I finished a book in three weeks. And it was _exhausting_. Fast readers might pull off a month per book, slower early on.
 
-# Style
+## Style
 
 It all starts with prose: Erikson might be an Ent. He rumbles along, describing characters, settings, historical events, personal backstories, historical events, and internal philosophical monologues almost in spite of the reader. You're along for the ride, but only if you run alongside the tracks, match the train's pace, and jump onto the caboose like some early 1900s vagabond. And you'll spend the next 11,000 pages fighting your way up to the engine, [Snowpiercer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer) style. The magic system, geography, races, names, cities, streets, command structures, transportation, and more all show up with the barest explanations. You will become a detective, figuring out what's going on almost purely through context clues. Upon writing that, I'm not sure that sounds that great, but trust me, if you love a rich fantasy universe or a reading challenge, it's an immensely satisfying way of digging deeper and constantly proving that Erikson really has thought all of this out.
 
-# Breadth
+## Breadth
 
 The sheer breadth of the magic system, civilizations, races, timespan, food, characters, major events, battles, gods, and realms of this series is genuinely breathtaking. As in you will run out of breath just trying to explain the breadth, let alone listing everything in any of those categories. At the end of each book, you assume that the series can't possibly sprawl any further, or tease another mystery, or expose another layer of complexity... until the next book does. And then the next book does it again. And again. Literally until you reach the final book. The breadth of _Malazan_ makes the Silmarillion look like the Hobbit.
 
-# Execution
+## Execution
 
 I do not trust authors implicitly. This review, and of course the _Malazan_ series itself, promises a lot. Enough that I mistrusted the author, even with the lofty recommendation of a close friend. I've read a lot of broken promises: A Song of Ice and Fire. [The Name of the Wind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Wind) (and the sequel). So I understand that sometimes authors bite off more than they can chew. The Wheel of Time (which I read partially as a shibboleth of commitment to epic fantasy series) doesn't break promises, but the original author _did_ pass away before he could finish it and a lot of plot threads were severed or lubricated to make a clean ending.
 
@@ -31,15 +31,15 @@ But I can say that _Malazan_ satisfied me in a way that few series ever have. Th
 
 This is the thing that really convinced me that Malazan is something special, something more than just another epic fantasy: I felt like I had just finished _literature_. Something at a higher level of writing than any other fantasy book or series I have ever read. I haven't read all of Infinite Jest, Finnegan's Wake, or Ulysses, but I suspect the feeling is similar.
 
-# Heart
+## Heart
 
 Empathy and compassion are deeply important to the core conflict of _Malazan_. You can tell how much Erikson believes in that core argument because of the sheer number of perspectives presented throughout the series: [according to highly reputable online source JaminJedi, 453 separate POV characters](https://old.reddit.com/r/Malazan/comments/ludjoj/how_many_povs/).
 
 Some characters seem interchangeable, such as the large number of soldier POVs that are used in aggregate to present battles, troop movements, and tensions. In these mosaic slice-of-life scenes, we bounce between different characters every few paragraphs, often spending less than a page per character. But the combined thoughts, words, and views of each character produces something richer than a commander going over a battle plan or even a single scene where one character moves around the troops. This feels like a new level of character writing I've never experienced before: instead of just writing individual characters (which Erikson absolutely does, don't worry), he's also characterizing _groups of characters_. And just wait until you get to the banter -- some of Erikson's best group writing happens in duos of two characters, be they friends, enemies, lovers, or all of those things combined.
 
 Some characters show up early in the series and stick around for the full 10 books (don't worry, I won't spoil who). The grow, they change, and you find yourself rooting for them -- good or evil (not that anyone is truly evil in this series -- like ASoIaF, everything is about shades of grey).
 
-Some characters show up for a single scene and either die or or never seen again.
+Some characters provide a POV for a single scene, then disappear, never to be heard from again.
 
 And sometimes you don't even know which character provided a perspective. Hard to imagine, I know. But it does happen (only occasionally -- and you can usually figure out who it was later on from context clues).
 
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ The sheer number of POVs was a big challenge for me. It's hard to keep the chara
 
 Anyway, there's a huge amount of characters in these books. And they're somehow all unique, thoughtfully explored, and full of rich detail that helps expand the universe even further than you thought possible. You can write the coolest magic scenes and the most epic battles imaginable, but you need an emotional core of characters to grant weight to those scenes.
 
-# Conclusion
+## Conclusion
 
 So if you've made it this far and you love epic fantasy (or just great fiction), give _Malazan Book of the Fallen_ a try. You may wonder what the hell the titles means; you'll figure it out (at least twice, if not three or four times) eventually. I promise that it is a good name for the series, and you'll probably like it too once you understand.