OT: good fantasy books

[MaxWilson]

Teraswaerto said:

While Gardens of the Moon is not the easiest book to read or get into, and Memories of Ice indeed is the best in the series so far, I would still say that is very bad advice. There is a lot a reader wont understand, a lot that will not have the impact it should, if the reader skips the first two books.

I agree, but I think you'll have that problem no matter *where* you start. There are things in Memories of Ice (book 3) that you won't fully appreciate until you've read Midnight Tides (book 5). (The series definitely benefits from rereads.) If you can accept that you're coming into a story in medias res, Memories of Ice has a nice theme about compassion and gives you a good grounding on the background of the Malazan universe that will help you understand Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates (books 1 and 2). If you start with Gardens of the Moon, you may feel like you're starting in the middle of the series anyway.

YMMV.

-Max

P.S. I think that's why I dislike Gardens of the Moon--I still can't figure out what it's ABOUT. Erikson started out as a painter, and he says the title and theme of the book come to him first. Memories of Ice is about compassion and redemption, House of Chains is about different responses to failure, Deadhouse Gates is about... I'm not sure, but I like Coltaine's story enough that maybe his theme carried me through the other, more puzzling parts. (I don't know what Fiddler's and Cutter's story was about.) I have no idea what Gardens of the Moon is supposed to be about, or why it has that title. If someone could explain that to me my attitude towards GotM might improve.