Malazan

Reading order

Much has been said about the right reading order for the Malazan series. I have no authority on that but I like this one from The Wertzone, modified to include the newest published books and the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas):

  1. Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1)
  2. Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2)
  3. Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3)
  4. Blood Follows (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #1)
  5. The Lees of Laughter’s End (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #2)
  6. The Wurms of Blearmouth (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #3)
  7. The Healthy Dead (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #4)
  8. Crack’d Pot Tail (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #5)
  9. The Fiends of Nightmaria (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #6)
  10. Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #7)
  11. Untitled (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #8)
  12. Untitled (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach #9)
  13. House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen #4)
  14. Midnight Tides (Malazan Book of the Fallen #5)
  15. Night of Knives (Novels of the Malazan Empire #1)
  16. The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen #6)
  17. Return of the Crimson Guard (Novels of the Malazan Empire #2)
  18. Reaper’s Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen #7)
  19. Stonewielder (Novels of the Malazan Empire #3)
  20. Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen #8)
  21. Orb Sceptre Throne (Novels of the Malazan Empire #4)
  22. Dust of Dreams (Malazan Book of the Fallen #9)
  23. The Crippled God (Malazan Book of the Fallen #10)
  24. Blood and Bone (Novels of the Malazan Empire #5)
  25. Assail (Novels of the Malazan Empire #6)
  26. Dancer’s Lament (Path to Ascendancy #1)
  27. Deadhouse Landing (Path to Ascendancy #2)
  28. Kellanved’s Reach (Path to Ascendancy #3)
  29. Forge of the High Mage (Path to Ascendancy #4)
  30. Untitled (Path to Ascendancy #5)
  31. Untitled (Path to Ascendancy #6)
  32. Forge of Darkness (Kharkanas #1)
  33. Fall of Light (Kharkanas #2)
  34. Walk in Shadow (Kharkanas #3)
  35. The God is not Willing (Witness #1)
  36. No Life Forsaken (Witness #2)
  37. Untitled (Witness #3)

The Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas can be read anywhere after Memories of Ice. The above order is the chronological, not the published one.

Notes

As a great fan of the Malazan Book of the Fallen fantasy series, I like to collect small notes and facts during my rereads. Here they are, as a curiosity or starting point of further researching.

The notes are separated by the book they are in, and ordered by page count.

Gardens of the Moon

  • pg 352-359: K’rul helps a Rhivi woman and P’ran Chole to give birth to Silverfox in a dream of Kruppe.
  • pg 386: Hood, Dessembrae, and all the Tiste Andii were present at the first Chaining.
  • pg 577: 800 years earlier, Rake last met with Icarium, with Mappo and Osric also present. Icarium and Osric had an altercation.
  • pg 596: Raest considers the Soletaken as aliens.

Deadhouse Gates

  • pg 84: Seven Cities were named so after 7 ascendants that founded them.
  • pg 92: The Emperor fought both Treach and Ryllandaras outside Li Heng, with Fiddler being present.
  • pg 327: Heboric cures Gesler, but also passes him something else, power of some sort.
  • pg 428: Sormo claims that Jaghut ice magic destroyed the Forkrul Assail civilizations and K’Chain Che’Malle mechanisms and edifices.
  • pg 652: Legends tell how Icarium emerged from Raraku.
  • pg 648: 94000 years before, Icarium destroyed a city in Raraku, with its 7 thrones, but spared a large mechanism he developed.
  • pg 738: Cotillion ordered the Talons to kill all Nameless Ones they could find.
  • pg 813: Dassem Ultor’s daughter was left in Tremorlor “after Hood was done playing with her” by his father.

Memories of Ice

  • pg 189: Once Anomander Rake killed a score of Seguleh, before being forced to retreat. He is considered the 7th Seguleh.
  • pg 193: There has been a mage called Nightchill for hundred years in the Malazan army.
  • pg 349: Gothos has a brother, Gethal, who was Herald of house Death, before deciding to join the Crippled God.
  • pg 355-362: Quick Ben absorbs the 11 souls of other mages that were his companions while escaping the Bridgeburners in Raraku. The Bridgeburners were born that day when Quick Ben decided to join Whiskeyjack’s company after finally being caught.
  • pg 406: Toc the Younger is son of Toc the Elder and Cartheron Crust’s sister.
  • pg 442-443: The Barghast fought the Tiste Edur at sea, east of the Genabackis continent. The Tiste were forced to retreat south-east, perhaps to Assail.
  • pg 443: The Moranth are kin with the Barghast but despised by them. They made peace with the Tiste Edur, learnt their arts, and separated from their Barghast cousins.
  • pg 748: Anomander Rake explains how when Heboric was punished, Fener denied him and his hands. Then when Heboric touched the jade statue on the Otataral island, which contained the souls of the followers of the Crippled God, its chaotic magic fought Fener’s. It eventually pushed the God out of his realm, into the mortal one
  • pg 799: Kellanved ordered the Logros clan to look for all other T’lan Imass clans. The quest was unsuccessful
  • pg 967: Kurald Emurlahn is a shattered warren, inaccessible to mortals. The part that Shadowthrone rules is only a fragment, a sort of gatehouse to the rest
  • pg 969: The real Throne of Shadow is accessible from Drift Avalii. It is sought after by the Tiste Edur, sworn to destroy Mother Dark, and defended by a group of Tiste Andii
  • pg 972: Draconus created Dragnipur to preserve the Throne of Darkness from the assailing powers of Chaos. The more, and more powerful, souls that are sent into it, the faster the internal carriage moves away from Chaos. Eventually Draconus claims that the sword must be shattered to prevent Chaos from ever reaching the Throne

House of Chains

  • pg 295: The ship of the Emperor apparently sunk in Malaz City harbour the night of the “assassination”
  • pg 296-297: Admiral Nok recounts how the Empire started:
    • Kellanved and Dancer were the first partners. They teamed up to bring down Mock, a pirate ruler of Malaz island
    • Nok Ameron and Hawl, Nok’s wife, joined them.
    • They all had access to the Deadhouse on the island, using it as a base and benefitting from its powers. They were granted longevity, immunity to most diseases and “other things”.
    • Next to be recruited were the Napan brothers Cartheron and Urko Crust, Surly, Dassem Ultor.
    • Toc the Elder, Tayschreen, at the time a renegade high septarch of the D’rek cult, and Dujek were the last to be recruited into the “family”, as Nok calls it.
    • Surly was of the Napan royal line.
    • When Surly became Laseen and “killed” Kellanved and Dancer, the first to disappear and abandon her were the Napan of the family, the Crust brothers and Ameron (an half-Napan to be correct).
  • pg 480-481: Kimloc the Spiritwalker associated a Tanno song with the Bridgeburners. The song needs to eventually be sanctioned, and for that are both necessary a Bridgeburner and the place where they were born, thus Raraku.
  • pg 481-482: The giants of jade have created otatarale when they fell from another realm, due to the powerful magic necessary to pull them (or rather the Crippled God). So far 3 giants have been discovered.
  • pg 587-592: in a drugged dream Heboric has a vision of the jade giants. He sees how they follow the Crippled God through a large flaming sash in the sky, and how they contain thousands of its followers.
  • pg 674: Onrack painted Kilava in a cave, somehow trapping her and rendering her thus immortal, before the Tellan ritual. He was for this condemned to die but escaped punishment thanks to the menace of four Jaghut Tyrants allying together. Kilava in turn would tun on her clan, killing them all but for Onon T’oolan, her brother, that resisted her.
  • pg 778-779: Logros T’lan Imass moved the First Throne away from the Nameless Ones because they feared that if one of them were to sit on it, he would order all T’lan Imass to permanently move inside the Azath Houses and in all practice disappear from the world.
  • pg 779: Kellanved sought for and in the end discovered the First Throne. He claimed it but commanded the T’lan Imass only sparingly.
  • pg 817-818: Osric tells his son L’oric how the Deragoth domesticated some of the Eres, the Imass and humans progenitors. They fought against the K’Chain Che’Malle, destroying their skykeeps. Later, after the Eres extinction, the Deragoth allied with the First Empire of Dessimbelackis.

Midnight Tides

  • pg 25-26: Mael asked Gothos to preserve the field of battle between the Tiste, Andii and Edur, and the K’Chain Che’Malle. It caused the Gothos Ice Fields in north Lether and presumably blocked the development of magic on the continent to our days.
  • pg 206: in a vision Udinaas sees a Forkrul Assail inside the Letheras Azath House, next to the corpses of a murdered Jaghut family.
  • pg 278-279: Udinaas has another vision in which a dialogue between Ossric and Menandore, Sukul Ankhadu, and Sheltatha Lore reveals a couple of facts:
    • Ossric mated with Mother Dark and was the father of the three above-mentioned sisters
    • Sheltatha Lore had two daughters with Draconus, Spite and Envy
  • pg 538-539: Silchas Ruin tells Kettle a few facts about the Forkrul Assail:
    • They usually lived separated from the other races, but occasionally allied with them, namely with the Jaghut
    • The draconic kins of Silchas Ruin took care to exterminate most of the FA
    • Not many free FA remains. Most are imprisoned, but those who are free are worshipped by mortals
    • Kettle has a FA soul
  • pg 541: Silchas Ruin talks with Kettle of her second soul, beside the first that was of a Forkrul Assail. This one is from an Eres, and the Nerek of the Letheri continent worshipped her/him with the name “Nameless One”.

The Bonehunters

  • pg 90-95: Cotillion speaks with 3 pure Eleint dragons, chained by Anomander Rake in Kurald Emurlahn, gathering a few news and facts:
    • The dragons wanted the Shadow Throne
    • Anomander Rake invaded Kurald Emurlahn in answer to Scabandari’s betrayal, and chained the dragons
    • The dragons claim that Shadowthrone is not sitting on the true Throne of Shadow
    • The Elder Gods are not of one world, and were present as elemental forces before Darkness and Light
  • pg 95: Edgewalker tells Cotillion that he can consider him an elemental force
  • pg 146: Mebra believes Heboric to possess the power to destroy the world
  • pg 194: The Soldier of House Death appears to Cutter and Heboric while hunting Skinner. He is surprised that Darujisthan is not ruled by a Tyrant with a Seguleh army. The Soldier himself was a Seguleh in life, and one that speaks freely and much more than his modern compatriots.
  • pg 280-282: Mappo and Icarium reflect on the murdering of Sorrit, an Elder Dragon. They come to the conclusion that a Jaghut or the Tiste Edur committed the murder.
  • pg 475: Ganath, a Jaghut, tells Paran of how the Errant’s became the enemy of stagnation, ennui. He became an ever changing divinity, and in this transformation attracted the ire of the Forkrul Assail, as it opposed their world view. They tried to murder the Errant and all his followers, mostly Imass, Barghast, and Trell worshippers.
  • pg 561: Dessimbelackis made a pact with the last 7 Deragoth while trying to become a God. Far more Deragoth existed in ancient times, when they domesticated the Eres’al.
  • pg 597-598: Taralack Veed reveals a few facts about Icarium’s past while traveling with him. He was driven by the need to free his father trapped inside an Azath house. In attempting so, he shattered a wounded warren, destroyed an Azath, and released an host of demonic creatures. Ultimately Icarium failed to free his father, and attracted instead the attention of the Nameless Ones, Azath worshippers. They bound Icarium, who had lost all memory of his past after his bout of rage against the Azath, to a series of companions that were put beside him to guide and prevent the half-Jaghut to unleash his rage ever again. These companions were gifted with longer life-span than their similars.

The Return of the Crimson Guard

  • pg 239: Stoop tells other Crimson Guard recruits how years ago in Stratem the Malazan Empire sent 40000 troops to exterminate them. The Guard was vastly outnumbered but managed to survive the assault of the Malazans. Skinner fought Dassem Ultor “to a standstill” and the Duke Davore disappeared. It was chosen to start the Diaspora to avoid the Malazans to ever corner the Crimson Guard all together in a single place, risking extermination.
  • pg 412: One of the top twenty Seguleh, Oru, claims that the Seguleh are searching for something that was stolen from them a long time ago.

Reaper’s Gale

  • pg 4: Gothos mocks Kilmandaros that their children have lost their ways, at which Kilmandaros does not seem surprised but rather indifferent. Their “children” may either be the Tiste Edur or, more probably, the Forkrul Assail.
  • pg 40: The K’Chain Che’Malle initially built keeps open towards the outside, only later building those close like Moon’s Spawn.
  • pg 41: Wither and Silchas Ruin continue observing a destroyed K’Chain Che’Malle keep. They come to the conclusion that pure blood Eleint, a dozen, destroyed this particular keep because the K’Chain Che’Malle wanted to end all life in spite, because they were bound to extinction themselves and did not want any other to survive them.
  • pg 330-331: Udinaas sees in a dream an old temple, with many bodies of Forkrul Assail killed in front of it. From the temple emerge the Errant, covered in blood. It is not clearly stated that he killed all those Forkrul Assail but it is implied that he did it.

Toll The Hounds

  • pg 253: Cotillion and Shadowthrone surmise that Mael wanted to delay Traveller confrontation with Hood, but not impeding it altogether