The Malazan Book of the Fallen is an epic fantasy series written by Canadian author Steven Erikson. The series depicts a period of turmoil in the history of the Malazan Empire and the other nations that share its world, such as Lether. The series incorporates a vast number of characters (human, immortal and non-human), storylines, subplots, themes and locations. Unlike most fantasy series, which depict one large story divided into lesser volumes, the Malazan sequence mostly consists of single novels with their own self-contained storylines with only subplots and some characters continuing between volumes. The closest thing to a main storyline in the books follows the machinations of an alien deity called the Crippled God, which has been imprisoned upon the Malazan world and seeks to escape.