OT: Malazan Book of the Fallen

[Agema]

I think they're amongst the best fantasy out there...

Keeping a track of who everyone is, particularly when you read them as they come out and have 18-month-long gaps between each one is a bit of a struggle. Furthermore the pacing of the books can be weak, and the narrative structure shaky, so it's easier to get lost about what's going on than many.

I think they're generally good because the world Erikson and Ian Esslemont (who has only just started getting published) have created is extremely rich. I like them also for the sense that for all that's going on, the characters seem very small, flawed cogs in a huge machine, rather than the world-striding, magic-sword-wielding, square-jawed, dragon-slaying, dark-lord-vanquishing, naive, over-righteous pricks that normally populate fantasy.