Steven Erikson was born on the 7th October 1959 in Toronto, Canada. Erikson is his writing name, his real name being Steve Rune Lundin. Educated in Canada, he trained in both archaeology and anthropology before graduating from the acclaimed Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has a wife and son and they currently live in Cornwall, UK.
Erikson is best known and he is in particular famous for the fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen. As an author he always attempts to go against the grain of fantasy convention when writing his novels and does not favour the good versus evil approach that many authors of the genre use. His characters are multi-dimensional and posses both the positive and negative traits that are prevalent in all human beings. It would be fair to say that no one can easily predict what will happen next in an Erikson novel. He also uses his his training as an archeologist and anthropologist to give his books a realistic feel and depth.
"One of the things both Cam and I were agreed on regarding this series, was to write in a style that conveyed a sense of vastness, with a strong flavour of realism where not all answers are forthcoming, not all truths survive their utterance, and sometimes mystery abides no matter how desperate we all are for an end to the questions. That said, there will be plenty of resolutions, but the world will not be wrapped up with a pretty bow. As for the events that have been recounted in the books, well, things are always open to interpretation, and I am also rather pleased to learn from readers that the books fair well in re-reads. I am a writer obsessed with layering my narrative, so there’s plenty to find for the reader even after the raw events of the story are well-known."
An excerpt taken from an interview we conducted with Steven Erikson in 2009. Read the full interview here.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen series started in 1999 with Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates followed this in the year 2000. Memories of Ice (2001), House of Chains (2002), Midnight Tides (2004), The Bonehunters (2006), Reaper's Gale (2007), Toll the Hounds (2008), Dust of Dreams (2010) and The Crippled God (2011) complete the series.
Erikson began writing fiction when he was in his early twenties and this was when he wrote what was, in is own words "a bad fantasy novel". Then followed a few years of archaeology and travelling plus two writing courses. Then, unemployed and with a pregnant wife, he started and completed the first draft of Gardens of the Moon. It was another 9 years until the book was published.
Erikson's enjoyment in turning the fantasy genre on its head shows in the vitality of his books. An example of his unique style can be found in the way he opened the series in the midst of an ongoing story rather than at the beginning, as convention usually deems necessary.
Erikson has taken the fantasy to another level and the genre is all the more fresh and worthy for it. The author has been short listed for the World Fantasy Award.
The official Steven Erikson website - http://www.stevenerikson.com
Steven Erikson influences
Steven Erikson also mentioned, in an interview, a book called The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton which he says "proved very influential in my writing, although in a most subversive way".
"Steven Erikson afflicts me with awe... vast in scope, almost frighteningly fecund in imagination, and rich in sympathy, his work does something that only the rarest of books can manage: it alters the reader's perceptions of reality" Stephen R. Donaldson
"Complex and powerful ... the best fantasy novel I've read since George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, bar none ... Superb stuff" Waterstones
Steven Erikson's ongoing fantasy series, the Malazan Book of the Fallen has brought new life and originality into the fantasy genre. Steven Erikson kindly spoke to Fantasy Book Review in September 2009, shortly after the publication of the ninth novel in the series, Dust of Dream [...]
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 1 written by Steven Erikson
Bled dry by interminable warfare, infighting and bloody confrontations with Lord Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, the vast, sprawling Malazan empire simmers with discont [...]
Published: 1999
Our rating: 9.2 | 39 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 10 written by Steven Erikson
The Bonehunters march for Kolanse, led by Adjunct Tavore. This woman with no gifts of magic, deemed plain, unprepossessing, displaying nothing to instill loyalty or confide [...]
Published: 2011
Our rating: 10.0 | 9 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 2 written by Steven Erikson
In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Un [...]
Published: 2000
Our rating: 9.2 | 14 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 3 written by Steven Erikson
The ravaged continent of Genabackis is a terrifying new empire, the Pannion Domin, that devours all. An uneasy allliance resists: Onearm's army, Whiskeyjack's Bridg [...]
Published: 2001
Our rating: 9.8 | 7 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 4 written by Steven Erikson
In Northern Genabackis, tribal mountain warriors raid southern flatlands. Years later, Tavore, Adjunct to the Empress, enters the last Malazan stronghold. New to command, s [...]
Published: 2002
Our rating: 9.2 | 3 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 5 written by Steven Erikson
After decades of warfare, the five tribes of the Tiste Edur are united under the implacable rule of the Warlock King of the Hiroth. But the price of peace is a pact with a [...]
Published: 2004
Our rating: 10.0 | 6 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 6 written by Steven Erikson
The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha'ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y'Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoma [...]
Published: 2006
Our rating: 10.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 7 written by Steven Erikson
All is not well in the Letherii Empire. Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chan [...]
Published: 2007
Our rating: 10.0 | 2 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 8 written by Steven Erikson
In Darujhistan, the city of blue fire, it is said that love and death shall arrive dancing. It is summer and the heat is oppressive, but for the small round man in the fade [...]
Published: 2008
Our rating: 10.0 | 3 positive reader reviews
A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen: Book 9 written by Steven Erikson
In war everyone loses. This brutal truth can be seen in the eyes of every soldier in every world… In Letherii, the exiled Malazan army commanded by Adjunct Tavore be [...]
Published: 2009
Our rating: 10.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Book 1 written by Steven Erikson
Set in the awe-inspiring world of the Malazan Empire, three tales of the enigmatic and eccentric necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach collected in a single, readily av [...]
Published: 0000
Our rating: 8.5 | 0 positive reader reviews
Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Book 2 written by Steven Erikson
The necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach - scourges of civilization, raisers of the dead, reapers of the souls of the living, devourers of hope, betrayers of faith, sl [...]
Published: 2018
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Book 3 written by Steven Erikson
Tyranny comes in many guises, and tyrants thrive in palaces and one-room hovels, in back alleys and playgrounds. Tyrants abound on the verges of civilization, where disorde [...]
Published: 2014
Our rating: 8.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
NA written by Steven Erikson
These are the voyages of the starship, A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if nece [...]
Published: 0000
Our rating: 7.8 | 0 positive reader reviews
NA written by Steven Erikson
An alien AI has been sent to the solar system as representative of three advanced species. Its mission is to save the Earth's ecosystem - and the biggest threat to that [...]
Published: 2018
Our rating: 7.0 | 0 positive reader reviews
The Kharkanas Trilogy: Book 1 written by Steven Erikson
It is the Age of Darkness and the realm called Kuruld Galain - home of the Tiste Andii and ruled over by Mother Dark from her citadel in Kharkanas - is in a perilous state. [...]
Published: 0000
Our rating: 8.3 | 0 positive reader reviews