Steven Erikson

Frequently asked questions

• Did the Malazan world start as a roleplaying game?

  Yes. Erikson and his flatmate Ian Cameron Esslemont began building the Malazan world in 1982 through Dungeons & Dragons sessions at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. By 1987 they had switched to GURPS, whose rules better fit the world's scale and moral complexity. The setting was nearly a decade old before Erikson adapted it into prose — first as a screenplay, then as a novel.

• Why was Gardens of the Moon rejected for eight years?

  Publishers consistently found it too complicated and populated by too many characters. Erikson submitted it to major houses and waited 12 to 18 months for each rejection. It was finally acquired by Transworld (a Random House imprint) and published in April 1999, nearly eight years after the manuscript was completed. The novel that was considered unpublishable went on to anchor one of the most acclaimed epic fantasy series of its era.

• What is Steven Erikson's real name, and why does he use a pen name?

  His legal name is Steve Rune Lundin. He adopted the pen name Steven Erikson to avoid confusion with the American novelist Steve Erickson — the names are spelled differently but sound identical. Both were active in the literary world at the time Erikson began publishing.

• How does Erikson's background in archaeology shape the Malazan books?

  Erikson trained as an archaeologist and anthropologist and completed fieldwork on Indigenous sites in Canada. The Malazan world is built from the perspective of civilizations in motion — empires rise and fall, cultures collide, and power structures are interrogated from the ground up rather than through the eyes of royalty. Erikson has described his anthropological training as inseparable from how he constructs fictional societies, their myths, and their histories.

• Is the Malazan Book of the Fallen finished?

  Yes. The main ten-volume series concluded with The Crippled God in 2011. Erikson has continued writing in the Malazan universe through the Kharkanas Trilogy (a deep prequel sequence) and additional novels. Ian Cameron Esslemont, co-creator of the world, has written his own parallel Malazan series of comparable length.

• How difficult is Malazan, and where should new readers start?

  Gardens of the Moon is famously demanding — it drops readers mid-campaign with no orientation, no glossary pause, and no concessions to unfamiliarity. Many readers start there and persist; others begin with Erikson's novella Blood Follows for a less overwhelming entry. The series is routinely cited alongside Tolkien and George R.R. Martin as a landmark of modern epic fantasy, and its difficulty is generally considered commensurate with its depth.