Malazan Steven Erikson Novels Ranked
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- A ranking of the 13 novels Steven Erikson has written in the Malazan epic fantasy world. Thank you for checking out this, my first of hopefully many booktube videos to come!
For quick reference:
13. Gardens of the Moon
12. The God is Not Willing
11. House of Chains
10. The Crippled God
9. Memories of Ice
8. Dust of Dreams
7. Deadhouse Gates
6. Fall of Light
5. The Bonehunters
4. Forge of Darkness
3. Midnight Tides
2. Toll the Hounds
1. Reaper's Gale
Image rights/credit: Published by Subterranean Press in House of Chains, by Steven Erikson, 2015; artist - Sam Burley.
Its so awesome that someone has Reaper's Gale at number 1! I mean I've seen people say it is their favorite on reddit too, but I've never seen a booktuber rank it that way!
My very rough ranking of Erikson books that I have read so far(I have to mention that all of these books would S-tier in any general literature ranking, except for maybe GotM which eould be a very strong A):
12. Gardens of the Moon(I love this book. But, it simply does not reach the highs of the rest of his books I have read in any aspect whatsoever. It is in a sense a rough prototype of what is to come, even though it is still a fantastic book on its own.)
11. House of Chains(this book is awkward structurally, moreso than any other I have read. In this one rare case it does work against it a bit.)
10. Reaper's Gale
9. The God is Not Willing(ok so the 9th place up and including the 5th place are very very close in ranking. I just ordered them the way I feel like it, but it could change daily.)
8. Dust of Dreams(yeah I LOVED it. Especially considering it is the first part of the final novel)
7. Deadhouse Gates
6. Memories of Ice
5. The Bonehunters
4. Forge of Darkness(I cannot believe how underrated Karkhanas is. I was NOT expecting this book to blow me away as much as it did!)
3. Midnight Tides
2. Toll the Hounds
1. The Crippled God
If I have to pick a perfect novel, I will always pick Midnight Tides. It is IMHO the perfect book. However. If we take into account all of the emotional and thematic buildup of the series, then Toll the Hounds and The Crippled God stand on their own as the peaks of Erikson's writing. Both are very different though and in the no book that I have EVER read in my entire life has moved me like The Crippled God has. I literally cried almost every 100 pages or so, because there would always be a masterfully written scene that was a huge emotional or thematic payoff. Yes, even thematic implications and questions made me cry in this book. It is THAT well written. In a sense kind of like Gael's storyline in Dark Souls 3 can make you cry, not because you are emotionally attached to his character, but because of the core ideas that his character represents. It is the tragedy of his "noble" cause, which is morally questionable as well and that also adds to the tragedy too! But, to be fair, morality in Dark Souls is just as complex as it is in Malazan. There is a lot more that I could say and talk about, but I will leave it at that and I am patiently waiting for AP and Philip's discussion.
I've only read Erikson's Book of the Fallen but it would be roughly like this for me based on my first readthrough:
10. Reaper's Gale
9. Dust of Dreams
8. Gardens of the Moon
7. Memories of Ice
6. Toll the Hounds
5. House of Chains
4. Deadhouse Gates
3. The Crippled God
2. The Bonehunters
1. Midnight Tides
Great video and insights. I'm a Malazan super fan, it's also my all time favorite series, but even after 4 full rereads I've never been able to settle on a definitive ranking. Look forward to hearing more of your thoughts, keep up the good work.
Thank you for commenting and your kind words. I can't wait to see how my rankings will change on successive rereads.
Last re-read TtH has made the top with the Seven Cities trilogy 2nd, 3rd and 4th
It's almost impossible for me to do a definitive ranking of the Book of the Fallen, but going off my gut feelings right now my list is
10) Memories of Ice
9) Bonehunters
8) Gardens of the Moon
7) Crippled God
6) Deadhouse Gates
5) House of Chains
4) Reaper's Gale
3) Toll the Hounds
2) Dust of Dreams
1) Midnight Tides
Have your feelings about any of the books changed since you put out this video?
Yes! Thanks for asking! My opinions have definitely vmchanfed uo a bit. I might put Dust of Dreams higher and MT a tiny but lower but just because I think I like Bonehunters more now than I did when I made this. I might do another ranking and/or just wait for another Malazan "work" to cone out so I can rank EVERYTHING together.
If you wanted, you could use each release of a new Malazan book as an opportunity to reevaluate your feelings on the books as a whole, and talk about the new one(s) in relation to the others
@@kirbytaylor8629 That's aurally good idea!
How dare you rank HoC so low... just kidding. Hey from Uganda, love the channel
Haha, lol! Thanks for checking it out. Any chance it motivated you to get into Fall of Light as soon as you're able?!