My Interest in Malazan is waning. (possible spoilers)

Shryke

For a what must be a good few years now I've been a big fan of Steven Eriksons Malazan Book of the Fallen. The world is fresh and new. The magic is raw and powerful and there is more than enough of it to go around. There are mysteries surrounded by buried history surmounted in culture and geography. There are some very cool characters along with some fairly hum drum ones. The series could use some serious editing but all in all it is, as a single work, simply great. Or it was.
For me the series has gone on the slide. I could suffer through all of the Heboric stuff (no spoilers there, I think) and the Felisin stuff. I can take the contemplation and all of the whiny nihilism because when things get good they get good.
But now with Reapers Gale being finished and RotCG being published I find I still don't have a copy. I would have jumped at the chance for more Malazan even last year before RG but not now. The Bonehunters didn't impress me greatly either I should say.
It feels as if the series has been stripped of an important element and it's fairly obvious to me that what I'm missing is the mystery, the not knowing, the histories and events of thousands upon thousands of years ago that only now are resurfacing. The old guard and the Claw. The Talon. All of these things that were once shrouded. Now that most of this stuff has come to light I find the story itself just isn't sustaining me. Any of the characters I was attatched to are either out of the story or completely changed. Some feel as if they're no longer the same characters without there even being much of a difference. Maybe Eriksons gone off his game or he just wants to hammer this thing out and get it done but it's become too mechanical and forced...
Alright. Now I'm just tapping out random ramblings here on my laptop. I read a lot and this certainly isn't my first series but it's the first time I've felt this way about one that I've been invested in, perhaps because it simply is so long.
Whatever the reason I'm sure that I'll finish the series as I've come this far but I won't be running to the shop as soon as the next one hits the shelves.
Does anyone else feel similarly?

ixoy

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't quite agree. If you want a series where interest has really waned, I'd point at 'The Wheel of Time' where mystery and intrigue turned to endless conversations, tedium, and cut-out characters (and the Wheel turns).

The problem may be simply the sheer scale of the work - he's not content with just creating a few countries, but instead continents replete with many different cultures. It's almost a bit too much I find at times, that there can be a lack of focus on some of the original events and threads we started with. I also think that there's still lots of mystery there - we still don't really know how the Warrens work or what they are really, for example. Instead we get teased with hints, and one liners almost dropped and I think that's quite intruiging.

Having said that, I think the danger - for me - is the power of some of the characters. Few are fully mortal, manhy weaving extreme amounts of power (and a good few are still not who we think they are). There's a sense of almost power-gaming going on here - "I can open five Warrens!" "Well I can open EIGHT and use spirit magic!" "Yeah, well I'm going to incinerate a continent". It's very enjoyable but a tad wearisome at times - having said that, if I want something far more low-key and character based I've got say Robin Hobb.

I think Eirkson got a little bit too carried away prose-wise in his last, but I'd still recommend it and also would for RotCG (which has some very interesting plot developments). Maybe it's with the end in sight, you know the journey's winding down and that now plot developments are seeming more final and there's less room for twists?

Shryke

I would say it's more to do with tedium than the lessening twists. I agree with the D&D aspects of the series also but when you're in the mood they're half the fun. While I suppose there are some mysteries remaining

Jade statues, Otatoral Dragon, the crippled god being an elder god

I just don't see them as particularly relevant.
The question of what the warrens are... it just isn't as much of a question to me. We know that they are Kruls blood. That they are derivitaves of the holds that have been shaped to fit humanity through humanities use of magic in the first place. Though even the inseption of the holds and warrens isn't that interesting now that we understand them so well. It's like gravity. We know the nature of it but give me an explanation for it?
This is part of what has made me tired of the series. There is too much structure and explaining. It's too systemised to be anything but a great big game board. The thing is earlier on we didn't know there were all of these rules and restrictions and as you said, the power leveling type stuff so typical of RPGs. Now with so much information we're looking more at pieces than characters. More at hexagons on a board than at an imaginary land. I might be sounding too negative there but I want to get my meaning across.
I think Malazan has its fair share of card board cut out characters too. They may not be standard shapes but the majority are rather two dimensional.
It's all of these things that weren't an issue earlier but that have really crawled their way to the fore. Looking at a picture with your nose against it you can appreciate the colour and brush stroke but take a step back and you're not looking at a great painting.