>>24862903 (OP)
Wheel of Time you need to be in the mood for. It's a lot of specific things: doorstopper epic fantasy, Eye of the World is intentionally a homage and then subversion of LotR, etc. Go back to it later
With Malazan the first book is infamously not great. You've likely heard the advice about how something starts poor but improves, and it's rarely true, but it *is* true with Malazan. The joy of Malazan is being tossed in the thick of things and enjoying both what is happening and puzzling out all the lore. This lore exists in textual form, to confirm or disprove your ideas, so none of your speculation is wasted (like it is in, say, Souls games)
Gardens gets the balance wrong. it tosses you into the thick but doesn't do enough to buy your interest to overcome all the names and locations and stuff you have no context for. he gets the balance right from there onward, and there are some insanely good books in the series. if nothing else give the next book a shot
>>24864760
TBB sucks so much fucking ass man, everyone has to walk on eggshells about every author or fictional controversy. if you recommend too many authors by white men people will call you out on it.
seeing SA catch the reddit disease has been an irritating part of my internet life
