Oh my sweet “dude”, its a frustrating challenge I know.

..Gardens is always villainized as the main culprit for “new reader” hesitation, second guessing and reticence for Malazan book of the fallen. Dont get me wrong, deservedly so. Its the very first book in the 10 book series, that consists of about 3 million words?...I in this instant gratification information-age we sometimes get spoiled but listen...all the tricks in the bag aren't going to spill out all at once...unfortunately to our dismay..

but dont press the panic button...you kinda want it that way, actually! (well depending what kinda reader you are, I guess) I'm sure glad I tried to do my best to stay spoiler free and skipping ahead already! But it is damned hard..

But now with gotm under your belt and out of the way, its like your Malaz basic-training is done!
You dont want to step out of a movie the just first 15 minutes,, right? Dont be another malazan drop out statistic... believe me when I say that it can be quite rewarding when you tag a "theory" and then later have said "theory" just come back around and slap you silly!

It pays off later, truly...but only with some investment to be sure, everything in life requires that...not many of us have the patience for 10 doorstopper books...minus the shorter novellas....But i take pride in that fact however.

Im pretty new too, after a BAD gotm FAIL

also, the audiobooks rock! You get a lot of unexpected humor from that also.. I feel like they can sometimes be spoilers because you absorb more of the humor and vocal-inflections more when its performed by quality actors. IMO, it gives readers/listeners an advantage by comparing the hearing of the tells, pauses, gasps, accents, etc. Give that a try!! Although it can also rob some readers of imagination at times... But, to each their own. But sometimes the voice acting can be QUITE revealing...and too spoilerish sometimes, agn imo.

Anyways....sorry, I irritate the hell out of everone on this sub for rambling..
keep going, 'dude! happy reading!