I've gone through 8 of the Malazan books and mostly loved them. I love the word-building, the depth (in terms of time spans of thousands of years, the otherwordliness of the warrens,holds, Azath houses etc.) and the interweaving story lines. But I also feel like the novels have so much filler, which would be fine except that it makes it hard to remember everything that is going on, especially since I can only read a few pages a day. Also, the dialogues and relationships that I guess serve as comedic relief can be better (or nonexistent, I don't mind reading grimdark books).

The series most similar that I have read are:

• The Prince of Nothing (really disappointed in the third book though)
• The First Law (absolutely most favorite books of all time)
• The Black Company (it's what got me re-hooked on Fantasy)

While I loved those series, they don't really have the intricate world-building and incredible depth that Erikson has. So does anyone have recommendations? I don't want to read the Game of Thrones books, and please no YA. SF recommendations work too (The Expanse series is pretty good, I gave up on the second Dune book, and I might continue with The Broken Earth series)