The Journey into Malaz by Ian C. Esslemont
The question of the
journey of the Malazan Empire up to now is of course impossible to answer in
any short form. However, I suppose I could trace out a few ideas that
Steve and I pursued, or hoped we’d managed to pursue.
Of course we both grew
up on fantasy literature. We love the genre; and as fans and budding
writers and scholars of literature, we hoped to contribute to it, while, at the
same time, providing something new – or at least different.
So, in sculpting our material
(consciously and unconsciously), we decided to take from the extant fantasy
genre the elements we enjoyed, while at the same time excising those elements
we wished to leave behind (such as moral absolutes).
Then, we looked at
other genres for models or other desirable elements, and we ended up importing
aspects of war fiction, historical fiction, so-called ‘realism’, hard-boiled
detective fiction, noir, ancient classical fiction, and others, to compile an
approach that we hoped would set our particular world apart.
Therefore, we ended up
with a narrative that is at the same time gritty, street-level, and unblinking,
while also containing aspects of historical sweep, political intrigue, mystery,
and a concern for the relationship between humanity, its mythology, magic, and
the pre-formalized religious (or spiritual) experience.
Whether we achieved
any of this, or how close we might have come, is of course not up to us.
We gave it a shot, and we hope some of that lurks there between the
lines.
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