A confession of a Malazan hater

"Hater" might be too strong a word. I'm currently a hundred or so pages away from the end of *Reaper's Gale*, so I guess I tolerate it well enough to read up to this point. But I've always had a number of complaints that made me feel more like I'm hate-reading the series than anything else. The dumb names, the ridiculous power level, the overuse of apostrophes, the way the story jumps from one place to another willy-nilly, Tehol and Bugg's stupid banter back and forth...for all the things I think are really well done, like the Deck of Dragons and the twisty history of the Tiste peoples, these and more have always irritated me.

I liked *Gardens of the Moon* well enough to order the remaining books that were out at the time off of Science Fiction Book Club or some such, so I have up to *Reaper's Gale*. I regretted this as soon as I got into *Deadhouse Gates*, though. I'd struggle through one book every few years or so, more because I bought them and felt like I should get my money's worth than anything. There were always some cool parts of the books that I liked, but all in all, I'd have given up the series had I not bought them all at once.

It took me until last year to start *The Bonehunters*, and it...wasn't bad. So not bad that I started up on *Reaper's Gale* as soon as I finished it, rather than read other things for a few years. *Reaper's Gale*, too, hasn't been too bad. But damn, I just got to the part where >!Beak sacrifices himself for the Bonehunters and the Edur army!<, and I actually started to cry. I didn't think that these books could make me care so much about >!yet another stupidly-named marine and all of his friends!<. Well done, Erikson...well done indeed, even if I hate you for >!killing him!<.

So, much to my surprise, I think I'll have to start considering myself a Malazan fan rather than a hater. I'm at least going to start looking for the rest of the main series. I don't think they'll ever be my favorite books--all the things about them that annoyed me still annoy me--but they've certainly grown on me.