Books

The first book is structured differently than the rest of the series as it grew out of a movie script, but neither it nor the rest are particularly difficult to read. There are a ton of characters and a lot of plot threads moving around at the same time, but the transitions between them are handled pretty well and don't make it terrible to keep things straight imo

It's... Different. Like, it's not difficult in terms of what is happening in the moment etc but more, "why are these things happening?" There's also a lot to keep track of over the ten books.

If you take Sanderson at one end, where everyone's motivations are explained out loud, often repeatedly, Malazan is at the other end, with you having to work out what some folks/God's are doing and why.

My second time through was arguably one of my favourite reading experiences of all time.

I feel the Mazalan books aren't difficult; they are information dense, but you get constant reminders of important plot points. I don't think it is a particularly challenging series to read per se. Just very long, took me a few months to initially get through the main series. It gets pretty dark and grim, but I did enjoy the Mazalan Book of the Fallen series. There is a stylistic choice shift between "Gardens of the Moon" and the rest of the series though. I felt that was weird as fuck, as another commenter mentioned it nearly read as a screenplay for a movie (it was based on one), still turned out pretty good! As I liked his world-building; Steven has a background in anthropology/archaeology makes the way he creates quite interesting.

Not very difficult I wouldn't recommend it but not for reading level.

It's not particularly difficult to read, there's just a lot of stuff to keep track of - if you care enough to anyways. Oh and you should probably avoid Malazan if you are squeamish.

~~Please tell us you’ve read more than 2 books or at least provide context. Unless you’re seven years old, in which case your first books are wild.~~

Edit: op said most difficult, I missed that