Erikson started publishing the Malazan Book of the Fallen series in 1999 with Gardens of the Moon and completed it in 2011 with the publication of The Crippled God. He has also written six spin-off novellas (The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach), two prequel novels in the Kharkanas series and is now working on a sequel trilogy, called Witness. His co-creator Ian Cameron Esslemont has also published eight novels in the same world (the six-volume Malazan Empire sequence and the first two books of a series called Path to Ascendancy) and is working on more. These figures apply to the original ten-book series alone.
Sales of the series passed 1 million in 2012, which was quite a long time, but the fact that the series has tripled its sales in just six years is very good going. Erikson's sales are of course better than 99% of authors will ever experience, but he's still a fair way off the likes of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (sales c. 90 million) or Terry Pratchett's Discworld (sales c. 85 million). Erikson's first novel, Gardens of the Moon, is infamously a novel that many readers find "difficult" to get into, so it's even more impressive that so many readers have stayed the course and gotten into the whole series.
The reasons for the booming sales in the last few years may be down to social media, such as strong recommendations for the series on Goodreads and Reddit, and also the fact that the original series is both long and complete, making it an appealing alternative for epic fantasy fans waiting for the next Song of Ice and Fire novel.
The next release in the Malazan series will be The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Volume II, which collects the fourth through sixth Malazan novellas. It will be published this autumn. Ian Cameron Esslemont's third Path to Ascendancy novel, Kellanved's Reach, is due in 2019. Erikson is now working on The God is Not Willing, the first Witness novel, with no publication date yet set.
IMHO the best fantasy series ever. Crazy that it hasnt sold more.
ReplyDelete300,000 copies of Gardens of the Moon, 77,700 copies of the next 9? I mean a LOT of people probably gave up at some point during the first book :D
ReplyDeleteI didn't care for the first book but trudged though it and read the second. I didn't really care for that book either, and that's where I stopped. I'll probably give the series another shot at some point.
ReplyDeleteI have struggled with this book and just could not get into it. The only other series I struggled this much to get into was Black Company...I am a HUGE Wheel of time, Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson fan and have loved Scott Lynch and Rothfuss... Malazan seemed like the main series as a big fantasy fan I haven't read...do others struggle with this one as much? Any other recs? I feel like I have read all the great fantasy series out there and have been struggling to find a new one!
ReplyDeleteI struggled with gardens of the moon alot. I think it took me 4 different times of starting reading 100 pages and stopping. The fourth time I got through it and by the end of it I was hooked. Book 2 had me weary because it's different characters from the first but from that point on the series just takes off and is one of the best reading experiences I've ever had. I read pretty much all the major fantasy series out there and Malazan is the most memorable. It's probably the only series I've read where I wanna reread it!
DeleteEveryone struggles to get into it. Just read it. I warn you though when your done you'll have a feeling of there's nothing else, that's as good as it's gonna get. You might as well start reading sci fi!
DeleteCommenting on this site would lead me to assume that you’ve heard of R. Scott Bakker’s Second Apocalypse series but if not, that would be my highest recommendation providing it wasn’t the density of Malazan that put you off.
DeleteConsidering I wrote a 150-page book about the SECOND APOCALYPSE series, yup :)
ReplyDeletehttp://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/history%20of%20earwa
Thanks for the recs! I have heard of the author but have never had his work recommended, will definitely check out R Scott Bakker. I have gotten into audiobooks over the last few years and all my attempts with Malazan have been though that...perhaps it was just too confusing in that format although not all are like that...the narrator for Abercrombie's First law is simply the best thing ive ever heard and I cannot imagine the series in any other form that read by Steven Pacey...check those out if you haven't! PS from one Adam to another, your blog is great!
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I really, really enjoyed Gardens of the Moon. I guess it just worked for me. I do think, however, that following GoTM, Erikson must have tweaked his writing style slightly, because the next few books in the series are much more readable.
ReplyDeleteBeat fantasy series ever - blows GRRM out of the water and I'm a huge fan of his - read it - it takes chances that other series just won't do.
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