Wow, thanks for this! I've read the first three so far. It was hard to have 90% new characters in book 2 and the climax of book three was incredible but one character death really took the wind out of my sails and I switched to Robin Hobbs books for a while. I think I'm ready to tackle the series again thanks to your article. I will look up the blogs as supplemental material really helps keep track of all the characters and places in the Malazan world. Thanks again.