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r/Malazan•
Math2S

[NO SPOILERS] Reading Order (Including Novellas and ICE)

I haven't seen any reading order suggestions that include the novellas. The order of release was what I was planning, but I was unsure of the placement of Return of the Crimson Guard. Here's what I have right now, any suggestions?

  1. Gardens of the Moon
  2. Deadhouse Gates
  3. Memories of Ice
  4. Blood Follows
  5. House of Chains
  6. Midnight Tides
  7. The Healthy Dead
  8. Night of Knives
  9. The Bonehunters
  10. The Lees of Laughter’s End
  11. Reaper’s Gale
  12. Return of the Crimson Guard
  13. Toll the Hounds
  14. Dust of Dreams
  15. Crack’d Pot Trail
  16. Stonewielder
  17. The Crippled God
  18. Orb, Sceptre, Throne
  19. The Wurms of Blearmouth
  20. Forge of Darkness
  21. Blood and Bone
  22. Assail

Posted Dec 5, 2014, 1:58 AM UTC

23
SageOfTheWise•

Honestly I would read all the series on their own. They just slow each other down. And you're really going to have your hands full with keeping everything in the main series straight without adding more on. Just my opinion though. (Assuming this is your first read. If not, hey go nuts).

If you do want to mix them together, nothing on this list immediately strikes me as an issue (besides my prior warning). Publishing order is pretty safe. Your placement of Crimson Guard is fine, it should definitely be after Reaper's Gale.

I guess if I had any other suggestions (besides don't do it :P), I'd take the books between Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God and either read move them before Dust of Dreams. DoD and TCG are really one large book. You aren't going to want to jam other books into the middle of that. I believe Blood Follows takes place before Memories of Ice. Might be interesting to read first, as a lead in to one of the MoI plots. But it also works fine as it is, as a sot of origin story after the fact. And lastly, I'd probably just leave Forge of Darkness until last. Everything you're going to be reading is roughly in a time line order (give a few years here or there), but then that one is like hundreds of thousands of years before everything else. It's starting its own separate thing and best to keep it separate.

4
MoranthMunitionsAlchemy•

I agree with all that, though I think it doesn't really matter if RotCG before RG as RotCG/RG

The only thing I'd add though is I wouldn't read the novellas interspersed like that, just read them separately at the end or after MoI. They have no plotlines that fit in with the others, but are generally a continuation of each other so they're better off read together.

1
Math2SOPMeanas•

I had read that some of the ICE books give you more background on some of the groups that Erickson didn't explore, which is why I had them mixed in with Erickson's books.

1