It’s been suggested that Steven Erikson might be an author worth seeking out. The problem is that I don’t really like long fantasy series (though I generally like fantasy, the epic stuff has never appealed much).
Is there something in his books that makes it worth the time and effort to read ten volumes?
Does he leave things hanging at the end of each book, or does he resolve issues while still leaving others for the next?
It’s surprisingly difficult for me to answer that question. First of all the first several books are highly episodic, following different plot-lines on different continents with sometimes completely different sets of characters. It all starts to congeal somewhat later and you gradually become aware of the overarching plot(s).
So in that sense it is not like Tolkien’s LoR where it is one big story with a fairly linear plot. Erikson is anything but linear. In general there are resolutions of sorts in all of his books - some more so than others. But there are also always threads left open, as there is an overall plot driving things somewhat obliquely in the background. And no the final book does not tie everything up neatly in a bow - in fact the biggest plot payoff of the series is annoyingly ambiguous if you ask me.
I really don’t know whether they would be your sort of thing or not. If you like fantasy it’s possible you might like individual books enough to enjoy the series, since the early ones are not that closely tied to each other except in retrospect. But it is still a long series at the end of the day. I enjoyed the trip enough to easily make them worthwhile, but I didn’t care for how the finale was handled. And I definitely enjoyed some story lines much more than others.
And just to make it an even more complicated task to judge them, the first book is a little anomalous to the rest of the series and Erikson gives very little narrative exposition to help his readers. You have to figure out how things work yourself, which can take multiple books - for many that’s a feature, for others a bug. So I’m not sure I can even say “try the first one and see how you like it.” It would be better to try the first three or so and see how you feel at that point, which I understand might sound like a bit much ;).
I had a made a similar threadwhich should be of interest.
I’m trying to slog through them at the moment. Which sentence should give you an idea of how it’s going. I’m a big fantasy fan, and I’m finding his books more of a chore than fun. I’m only on book 3, though.
If you’re not into it by the end of book 3 i wouldn’t really bother going on.You might want to give book 5 (Midnight Tides) a try, for all intents and purposes it’s almost entirely a stand-alone novel.
I’m conflicted as to whether to recommend reading the series. I felt the last third of the series lost it’s way, rambling all over the damn place and the ending similaryly so. On the other hand there is some great stuff in the earlier novels. I’d almost say read the first half a dozen or so, then go look up how it finishes on wikipedia.