I'm probably in minority here. My setup is simple, I chose a good OS like Debian or Alpine to run things on, make sure it's always patched, move sshd to a nonstandard port and harden it.
I do enjoy the series a lot, but I would be lying if I said I find it relaxing. The world building is almost realistic, and as such it becomes quite the task to keep track of all the characters, races and the history of it all. I almost always have the Malazan wiki at hand so I can do some research.
Updated the link, thanks!