Source
r/Fantasy•
psofimis

Malazan's Tor Re-Read and Dramatis Personae. What's the most helpful and safe first read?

So I ve finally decided to pick this monstrous series but since it's more than average complex and I can not read it in my native language I ve looked for some spoiler-free help. When I finished the prologue and the first chapter I went to the infamous Tor's re-read to check out the Chapter summaries and Amanda's newbie commentary ignoring ofcourse all the rest(Bill's and reader comments) but I've found out that the Chapter summaries are not completely spoiler-free.An example is the Brigdeburner Commander of the prologue. While he remains nameless in the book so far, Tor's summary ignores that and gives his true name spoiler anyway. I probably could have learned his name by just checking out the Dramatis Personae but I have the suspicion that it contains unnecessary spoilers. Finally Amanda said that she reads all the reader comments and that she doesn't mind the spoilers so I'm afraid that even her first-read commentary will be more than possible insightful in the future posts. So what's your advise? Should I ignore everything and try to continue alone or should I stick with just Amanda's commentary? I really don't mind to be confused(even if I am more than that atm) but I think by reading another's first-read experience in the same time it could make it even better. I hate spoilers though...

Thanks!

Edit: Thanks for your comments guys! I decided to continue alone and to not risk any spoilers. I ll stay away from Tor and Goodreads because I consider a spoiler even the excitement on certain parts of the story from guys that have read the book. Maybe I will just have a look at Amanda's commentary on a particular difficult chapter I ll find in the way.

Posted Feb 23, 2014, 3:13 AM UTC · edited

156
mmSNAKE•

Hmm, can't comment much on the tor re-reads. I never bothered. I found out about it after I already read the series about three times so I didn't see the point.

I will say Whiskeyjack's being the commander from prologue is not a spoiler. There are lots of characters that have more than one name and sometimes it would spoil who is who, but for the most part I doubt that anything like that would be spoiled.

Perhaps I'll go over the re-reads just for curiosity sake.

6
grixa•

I recommend the Goodreads discussion groups for every Malazan book. For me it is an excelent alternative to the Tor rereads, with which I got a bit annoyed since I caught some minor spoilers and didn't like the commentaries, either, since it seemed that I was experienceing the books through someone else's perspective. The Goordreads groups have a spoiler-free thread for each chapter and there is always a summarie, and it is very helpful to clear some confusions you might have.

(http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/85396-the-malazan-fallen

Also, you can come over r/malazan for anything you need.

5
ZuFFuLuZ•

I read the entire series in English, which is not my native language and never looked at any re-reads.
Since you say that you don't mind being confused and you really hate spoilers, I'd say try reading it alone. You will get confused no matter what, especially in the first book. That's just how it is. And spoilers can only be completely avoided if you read it alone. So try that. If it doesn't work, you can still go back to the re-read.

4
RonnieRim•

I found the TOR reread to be really helpful on my first read. I never really remembered it spoiling anything large. By the time I got to Memories of Ice (3rd book), I didn't need the help of the reread as I had pretty much everything down pat.

TLDR; I would definitely recommend it for someone on their first read, especially one that isn't amazingly fluent in English

3
p0x0rzWorldbuilders•

The TOR reread shouldn't have any huge spoilers, as far as I remember. Amanda's sections are meant to be the thoughts of someone whose never read the series before, and she writes each one after reading each chapter, so she SHOULD be at the same point you are if you read her commentary concurrently.

Also, things like Whiskeyjack's name in that part isn't a spoiler that effects the plot in any real way, so don't worry about that. :)

3
FreddeCheese•

Honestly I've always checked the name list and house standings before each book, and I've never felt anything was spoilt. Not sure about the TOR stuff though.

1