History
The history discussed in the novels to date extends back for over 300,000 years and has not been fully revealed. Erikson has stated that he has kept the history of his world purposefully ambiguous.
At the beginning of the series, the reader is uninformed about the nature of the Malazan world. The history of the world is deeply tied to the many intelligent humanoid races that populate the world. By employing the viewpoints of extremely long-lived characters, and through a few scenes from the ancient past, Steven Erikson reveals details of the world, its history, and its inhabitants.
Read more about this topic: Malazan Book Of The Fallen
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)