Fantasy Masterclass

With the phenomenal success of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones in mainstream media, it is evident that fantasy literature is no longer the sole purview of game playing, sword wielding, dwarf baiting geeks obsessed with magic. Tolkien is widely considered the father of epic fantasy, and indeed he's a master world builder, scrupulous in filling in pages and pages of 'unnecessary' details, going so far as to devise a complete Elvish language. He's spawned countless imitators, inspiring legions of writers who essentially inhabit the world of dwarves, elves and orcs which he first created.
The high watermark of epic fantasy however, in my opinion, is Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, a ten book extravaganza which can easily put to shame the now defunct Encyclopaedia Britannica for sheer bulk and gravitas. This is world building on a mind boggling scale. There are gods, dragons, demons, alien races, evolutionary dead ends who refuse to die, a vast and organic magic system – an actual mythology which roots back millions of years!
The most striking thing is that every single aspect of this world is original. There are no Elves. No dwarves. No Orcs. This is not a retelling of the Crusades, or the War of the Roses. This is not dressed up Norse mythology or some other easy rip-off. Erikson is an archaeologist as well as an anthropologist, and these disciplines shine through in some solid, technical foundation work which underpins the massive stories. His empires ebb and flow, his ancient races evolve, there is a sense that everything is moving and changing, ancient gods and civilizations ground up and replaced by new powers.
Aside from all of this, the stories themselves are awesome. The Malazan Empire is in the throes of a battle for succession, after the founders ascended to Godhood. As the various armies of the empire wage war across the known world, they are caught up in the machinations of the Crippled God, an alien deity pulled down by ambitious humans, broken up in the descent, still alive and seemingly intent on vengeance. This is not a linear series. The stories go all over the place, and any one of the major threads is worthy of a stand-alone novel.
One final reason to start reading: Quick Ben -- one of the best characters ever written in fantasy. While there are a massive number of outrageously potent players, the books often centre around a squad or two of ordinary, weak mortals, struggling, often failing, to survive in a violent world, straining their ingenuity to cheat their way to victory. Quick Ben is arrogant and devious, almost honour bound to cheat in every contest, the quintessential mage bluffing his way into the big game.
While the series should be read in sequence, the first book is a tight, focused story which is an excellent introduction to the Malazan world, but not as large in scale or ambition as the rest of the volumes. Books Two and Three are both stunningly good and one could start with either. I started with Book Three: Memories of Ice, and it remains my favourite to this day.  

Saad Z Hossain is an entrepreneur and author of “Baghdad Immortals”. He is currently working on his second novel.