Memories of Ice [Malazan Book of the Fallen #3] - Spoiler Free Review

[@demidrek-heyward]

Good stuff! Thanks

[@slidenaway]

Glad you liked it so much!! Common opinion, it is just an amazing book, and possibly the most self-contained "traditional" fantasy book of the whole series. I'll have more to say about specifics in your spoiler-filled video (can't wait for that!!) but here's some stray thoughts: -- correction, GotM is 7 books, but they start following the pattern of 4 books from Deadhouse Gates on, and you're right that structure lends itself well to naturally strong pacing and it just makes sense. Erikson is brilliant in many ways, including "minor" ways like structure -- MoI has probably the best prologue of the series. Even people who don't rate it their favorite will admit how bad ass it is -- on the subject of if it's all downhill from here -- no. Even if this ends up being your favorite, I promise it won't feel all downhill from here. There are plenty of people who LOVE the whole series who cite MoI as their favorite. It's usually the top ranked in polls, in fact. However, I assure you those people didn't hate the rest of the series lol. The thing is, each book is amazing in its own way. Erikson somehow finds something unique (or multiple unique things) to do with each one. Picking a favorite is really hard and for most people, changes depending on the day (not for me, the combined 9/10 I call The Crippled Dream is always my fave 😎). Anyway enough rambling, but I agree with Daniel's comment here that you should try not to have specific expectations for HoC -- it is different. And even though it ranks low in the whole series for me, it's still a fantastic book, it's just that the others are that much better for me. And some people rank HoC first -- it's not at all unheard of. It's amazing at what it does -- just go in trusting Erikson, and with as little expectation as possible. Meet it where it is. I think you'll love it!!

[@SouravUldyssian]

Great to see that you loved it. Memories of Ice is usually people's favorite because this book is the closest to traditional fantasy structure and storytelling and pretty straight forward with clear good and bad guys. Every other book will subvert your expectations in different ways. You talked about structure, well you are in for a surprise. While the format of each book being broken into 4 subbooks will always continue, the other things that you expect about structure will always be subverted, and each book plays with structure in a different way. You may end up liking all of them for different reasons and some more than others. House of Chains is a divisive book and usually towards the bottom of people's favorites, but many people love it, its different. So no pressure, just go in and enjoy. Can't wait for your spoiler review.

[@danielgwynne7266]

While memories of ice is on average the highest only around 17% in the latest voting had it at no 1. It was pretty evenly spread across around the top 5 before it dropped off a bit.

[@danielgwynne7266]

I would also withhold expectations for house of chains since it will break a lot of them.

[@slidenaway]

good advice, I cited you and agreed with you in my comment :)

[@danielgwynne7266]

Personally I found every book after memories ice better than it. I very much prefer what malazan becomes over what it starts as.