this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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Malazan Book of the Fallen was like this for me. Great worldbuilding. Big ideas and loads of characters. Lots of obscure detail, all the way down to potsherds and verdigris.
When I finished, I had a powerful impulse to reread the series immediately after finishing it.
I binged books 1 through 4 absolutely loved them. Then book 5 happened and I forced my way through it. And now starting Bonehunters, no energy to go on. I just needed a break is Midnight Tides exhausting for everyone? I was so thrown off with a whole book being a flashback.
Steven Erikson makes a lot of bold choices throughout the series that go beyond plot structure and character deaths. If you don't like something about any particular book, it will probably be absent in the next book.
There are several times where (after 1000+ pages of build-up) he shifts to an entirely different set of characters on a different continent. You get thrown into the deep end and have to start over with no immediate clues about where you are, when you are, who the people are, and what it has to do with what you read before. A book or two later threads start to intersect.
A later book has Kruppe as the narrator, which is fantastic if you love Kruppe as much as Kruppe loves Kruppe.