Malazan probably. So many people love it, and it looked like something I'd like, I even had a friend also reading it with me. I wanted to like it so much. After one and half books, I realized I couldn't care less about what happened to any of the characters and I didn't understand anything about the magic stuff, so I stopped reading.

[–] GCanuck@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Ya, I can see that. I really had to stick with grinding through the first two books. Top notch writing and characters (imo), but the confusion about what was going on was a tough slog to get through.

Still became one of my favourite series though. If you’re ever stranded on a beautiful tropical island and happen to have this book, I do encourage you to try it again.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried six times to finish the first book and I couldn't. The tone is too dark, and the characters too unlikable. I didn't care what happened to anyone, and eventually stopped reading each time.

[–] LetMeEatCake@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Malazan is one half of my answer here. Though I did like it. I just expected to love it, especially early on. My disappointment was immense in going from thinking it was one of the best series I'd read to thinking it just barely was enjoyable enough for me to be glad I read it.

The series started off so strong for me. I loved the first four books, book five lost me with it meandering off entirely. Then book six won me back. Books 7-10 were an absolute struggle for me. I barely finished the last two books and have no interest in returning to the world with the side books that exist.

For my tastes, Erikson dialed up the philosophical and sadistic elements way too much in the latter half of the series. I think if books 1-4 and 6 were released as a stand alone set of five, with the rest not existing, it would have been one of my favorite book series of all time.

Also I'm still annoyed that the whole Silverfox plot just... completely disappeared. Such a monumentally important character and she just suddenly ceases to exist in the story.