Humor in the series
I am a new Malazan fan, currently in the first half of BH on my very first read of the series!! So far i have been obsessed, just grinding book after book whenever time allows. Constantly on the wiki and the subreddit immersing myself in the world and the community, it has been my favorite reading experience I have had in years. But I digress, my main point in this post is to talk about my awkward relationship with the general humor in the series as it progresses.
I fell in love with the series hard while reading DG, Erikson's prose and character work just kind of clicked for me over the course of that book. It was brutal and upsetting and beautiful, with some of my favorite fictional characters ever (soft spot for you, Duiker </3). But I knew this series couldnt be this depressing the entire time, so obviously I welcomed the increase in brevity and tension cutting moments in the following books. The series has always had "comedic relief" characters such as Kruppe, Pust, bridgeburners, and general soldier banter, and I loved every minute of it!
But I noticed that the humor keeps increasing with every subsequent book post DG. I could obviously tell what Erikson was going for in MT, and I genuinely laughed out loud at some conversations between Bugg & Tehol. But then I started BH and noticed that the comedy has stayed at a higher level, which so far has felt like it's almost ruined a decent amount of tension for me. I know it sounds biased because DG was my favorite, but I felt like I didnt have this same problem in GotM, MoI, or HoC??
I guess my question is, does this continue on in a similar fashion through the next 4.5 books? Are there some books that are super dreary comparatively? Am I the only one that was thrown off by this in the second half of the series? Do I sound ridiculous and out of my mind?!!?
Obviously this will not be a deal breaker for me, I'm absolutely finishing it. Regardless of what happens in the rest of the series it will still hit top 10 AT LEAST on my all time list.
Let me know what you guys think! Sorry this post was a bit longer, appreciate yall <3