Steven Erikson
Steven Erikson
b. 7 October 1959 · From Canada- Books
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About
Steven Erikson was born Steve Rune Lundin in Toronto in 1959 and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He trained as an archaeologist and anthropologist — completing fieldwork on Indigenous sites in the Canadian Shield — before earning a graduate degree through the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He writes under a pen name adopted to avoid confusion with the American novelist Steve Erickson.
The world of the Malazan Book of the Fallen has its origins not in a manuscript but in a tabletop roleplaying campaign.
In 1982, Erikson and his flatmate Ian Cameron Esslemont began building the Malazan world through Dungeons & Dragons sessions at the University of Victoria; by 1987 they had switched to GURPS, whose flexible rules better accommodated the scale and moral complexity they wanted.
The setting was a decade old before Erikson adapted it, first as a screenplay that found no takers, then as a novel. Gardens of the Moon was completed around 1991. Publishers rejected it for eight years — consistently citing it as too complicated, with too many characters — before Transworld (a Random House imprint) finally published it in April 1999.
The ten-volume Malazan Book of the Fallen was completed with The Crippled God in 2011. Esslemont has written his own parallel series set in the same world. Erikson has continued the universe through the Kharkanas Trilogy and additional novels.
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Fiction Fantasy Dark Fantasy Epic Fantasy High Fantasy
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Featured works
Start here4.2
Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen #1
4.5
Deadhouse Gates
Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen #2
4.7
Memories of Ice
Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen #3
4.2
House of Chains
Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen #4
5.0
The Bonehunters
Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen #6Series
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Frequently asked questions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.