Malazan Book of the Fallen Reading Order: Where to Start
June 5, 2026
Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen has a reputation: enormous, demanding, and one of the most rewarding epic fantasy series ever written. It famously throws you in the deep end — no gentle prologue, no hand-holding — but readers who commit tend to call it the best thing they’ve ever read. Here’s how to approach it.
The core series — read in this order
- Gardens of the Moon (1999)
- Deadhouse Gates (2000)
- Memories of Ice (2001)
- House of Chains (2002)
- Midnight Tides (2004)
- The Bonehunters (2006)
- Reaper’s Gale (2007)
- Toll the Hounds (2008)
- Dust of Dreams (2009)
- The Crippled God (2011)
That’s the complete ten-book main sequence. Always read it in publication order — the books interlock in ways that only become clear later.
Why it’s hard (and why that’s the point)
Gardens of the Moon drops you into a sprawling world mid-story, with multiple armies, gods, and ascendants whose relationships you’re expected to piece together as you go. This is deliberate. Erikson, an archaeologist and anthropologist, wrote a world that behaves like a real one — vast, indifferent, and full of history you only catch glimpses of. The reward is a series of staggering emotional and thematic payoffs, especially from Memories of Ice onward.
Our advice: push through the first 200 pages of book one without worrying about understanding everything. Clarity comes. So does obsession.
The wider Malazan universe
Erikson and co-creator Ian C. Esslemont built this world together, and there’s a lot beyond the main ten:
- The Kharkanas Trilogy — a prequel sequence (Forge of Darkness, Fall of Light, and the long-awaited Walk in Shadow). Best read after the main series.
- The Witness Trilogy (The God Is Not Willing, No Life Forsaken, and more) — a sequel sequence set generations later.
- Ian C. Esslemont’s novels — set in the same world, expanding key events and regions.
None of these are starting points. Read the Book of the Fallen first; everything else is for when you can’t let the world go.
Where to start
Gardens of the Moon. Trust the process, keep a wiki handy if you like, and let the scale wash over you.