I respect the commitment to books. It's just something wouldn't do but people have many different philosophies when it comes to money. If that's where you like to spend money on is books that you might read someday and the most expensive version then more power to you.
I prefer hardcover and this series either has a completely impossible to find original published set or the way overpriced Sub Press set. This is actually saving me quite a bit of money overall. The trade paperbacks are even harder and worse on the wallet.
I tried reading Gardens of the Moon one time a few decades ago and I just remember being extremely confused and lost and giving up only a little way into it - I think I would have definitely tried again if it were a trilogy or something close to that in length, but 10+ books is insanely daunting
If I ever win the lottery you'd best believe I'm buying the silliest shiniest version of every book ever
like, the first 3 books from Broken Binding are less expensive than the reprints from Sub Press for ONE book
"skill issue" "brother that's just Malazan" "just wait until book 3 to get it" but yes this is a common criticism for a reason lol. starts out convoluted as all hell
I think Sub Press stuff overall can be a little overpriced for what you actually get, and they've had an insane amount of problems with the reprints. I think Broken Binding is great price point for the quality. The Malazan books are BEEFY weight-wise and feel premium.
anyways, sorry, flew off the handle. But I don't really spend my money on much hobby-wise outside of books that I want to collect these days. I could be spending my money on much worse, and if for whatever reason I really hate it, I can sell the set pretty easily.
I remember seeing a subpress edition of Babel that looked incredible then I saw the price and realized I'd never own it. I just know that every year or whatever for the next couple years I'm gonna be forking over 200 bucks for the next 3 books in the series for Malazan if they continue the rollout the same way. My wallet is scared but these covers are so much better than the original and for my favorite completed series it's a no-brainer for me. I have the first 3 Suneater books from BB and still haven't pulled the trigger on the next 2 because the though of buying what amounts to 2 60 dollar books with tax and shipping is painful.
Erickson has some of the best prose and richest themes in all of fantasy which is really what makes it my favorite I agree, it's confusing as hell, especially GotM. The things are all sort of explained but in a roundabout way is what I've noticed and sometimes they just aren't. I will say that the 1st book was written as a screenplay ten years before all the others so they do get better after that one.
lol man, I'm bought into regular 1st/1st hardcovers, broken binding, diamond, and anderida editions of Sun Eater. It's my favorite series and they are prized possessions at this point.
I will literally give anything a try and try really hard to not yuck people’s yum, but Malazan is one where I’m 20+ books deep at this point and I’m still not sure why I keep reading them. But also I’m very interested in the new one coming out in October, haha. The only thing I’ll actively hate on though is Name of the Wind.
I’ll sell you a special collector’s unformatted pre-publication digital copy with a wonky map and bad page numbers for like $100
heck I’ve got the files, I’ll sell you a personalized copy if you want by which I mean you can change the text to whatever you want
when I read Name of the Wind when it first came out at 24 years old I thought it was great. I even liked the sequel a lot and remember wanting to read the 3rd one. I've never gone back and tried to reread them, although I have tried to get my hands on the UK edition audiobooks that are narrated by someone different than the American ones.
I’ve got The Servant and Mourn Not The Mortals on my iPad for after when I finish my best friend’s cozy fantasy.
I just started The Crippled God for my reread which has cemented the series as my favorite thing ever. The ICE books are fucking excellent and necessary if you want to see the end of 75% of GotM’s characters story arcs
One of these days when I've made a trillion dollars off the books I'll make an NFT you can buy Hey wait