Gardens of the Moon

It was fine. Very confusing most of the time. If I were going off just this book, I wouldn't feel compelled to keep going with the series. But, I'm trusting the Internet that the first book is an outlier and committing to reading the next two books. We'll see.

The world and characters in this are wonderful even if I didn't understand what was happening almost half of the time.

A fantastic first book in the series. It's been a long time coming to read this and I'm glad I've started it as I'm definitely intrigued to read the follow-up books.

If you survive this book you can survive anything.

A trope busting, wildly intriguing story set in a rich fantasy world.

Gardens of the moon by Steven Erickson
I picked up this book as part of the Read along on Mike's book review YouTube channel and likely never would have gotten around to it if not for that.

Many People have found this book at least to be confusing and difficult to follow the story line. I will say that I can understand why that is the case. While I did not find it too difficult to follow there are a lot of characters to follow so keeping track of who is doing what can get confusing at times.

This is a world at war with the malazan Empire and one city (Darikjostam) is left for the Malazan empire to conquer and only one stands in his way Lord of the moon's spawn Anomander Rake

It seems however the Gods are also getting involved in the war as well and have their own plans and agendas

The magic system is pretty basic, sorcerers, allomancers, sorceresses etc.. and I found the world of Malazn to have a very dark shadowy feel which I love! The Shadow hounds particularly peaked my interest and I have no doubt that they will make an appearance in other novels of this series as well

My only real nitpick is the Jaghut Tyrant. The payoff for this characters story arc was not really there in terms of the set up for me, lest I get into spoilers I will leave it at that

I will have a full video review on my YouTube channel in the next few days https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkUMtTLktLQ9BrbI0LRJVdg so check that out if you want

I read this a long time ago, around 2006 I would guess. I remember liking, but not loving it. I also read part 2 and maybe part 3.

Lately I've seen a lot of reviews and discussions that made me want to give the series another try. And I own half of the books anyway, it seems a shame not to read them.

If you had asked me what I remembered from my first read before I started the reread I would have said: a curvy female mage called Tattersail. As well as something of what happened to her. I won't say more - spoilers.

This time I really, really liked it, and am interested in reading the rest of the series.

A bit of a challenge

This book doesn't hold your hand. It expects you to hit the ground running and follow many different characters through a complicated story. The first third of the book is especially tough but if you take it slow and get to the later parts it all starts to make sense. Difficult to get into but rewarding in the end.

One of the rare books where I had to take notes about who is who because the character scene gets crowded very fast. This is probably the main reason why I'm not giving it five stars; characters are introduced into the story really fast, and it can be overwhelming at the times.

Death of Adjunct Lorn was really unexpected, I felt like her character was really promising. Also, the end was a bit confusing, Azath kinda came out of nowhere to handle the Jaghut Tyrant.

Anyway, a nice introduction to the series, I hope that the story would get even better.

My thoughts are pretty divided on this one.

Pros: Gods all over the place actively making appearances, totally epic in scope, interesting magic system, some philosophical nuggets of wisdom, and the Bridgeburners

Cons: Some occasional clunky prose, never truly getting inside characters' heads, oddly withholding information for the sake of drama, failing to give a reason to care for several hundred pages

Overall I ended up liking this quite a bit, but I probably would've DNF'd without all the praise the series gets.

and so begins my foray into what many in the book community have referred to as... the ultimate epic fantasy masterpiece, unrivaled in scope.

this first book was...not very good lol. erikson doesn't trouble himself with trifling norms such “character development” or “world building”, at least not this early on in the series. some folks have referred to these basic writing features as “hand holding” but to me, it's simply good story telling, and it's very lacking here.

i didn't feel attached to any of the characters. the book insisted that some characters went through development that is completely absent from the text. for example, what the hell happened to Paran from the prologue and how does he become such a gritty lieutenant in the first chapter, despite having come from a noble family? this bugged me so much lol, i really didn't like how we were just expected to take at face value that he's this hardened military man now, who for some reason can handle seeing horrifying scenes of carnage without batting an eye, unlike his superiors. maybe we'll find out in later books? who knows

This is my favorite fantasy series of all times. I have read it many times but this is my first listen. The narrator is excellent and in no way diminishes my love for the book. Learned how to pronounce a few words and saw more of the structure of the book. So, worthwhile for more than just the enjoyment.

Most certainly one of the most intricate and genius plots I've ever encountered in all my reads. I have no comprehension as to how a human mind can weave so many characters and moving pieces together. After about 150 pages this turned into quite the page-turner for me, with every chapter and sub-chapters (for lack of a better word) being a new element or twist to the plot. At times I felt a sense of the character depth and complexity I look for in my 5-star reads, but other times I felt the characters were chess pieces to aid the plot. Even though I was definitely confused at times by character names or word choice, (or even by two sentences that rereading didn't resolve), I overall followed the events and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

6/10

Did I barely have any idea what was going on? Yes. Did I enjoy it anyway? Also yes.

This book is a lot. Characters keep getting introduced up until the very last chapter, and even if you managed to keep track of all of them, there is still the story and the world and the alliances and the conflicts to remember. Gardens Of The Moon throws you in its world with very little context, but gives you more information bit by bit, and things do start making sense. I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on things up until around 60-65% in - that's when things started getting just a bit too chaotic and grand for me.

The story has a lot of unique elements here that I hadn't come across yet in other fantasy fare. There's a few developments that happen to characters that really caught me by surprise, such as deaths that are actually way more than just a simple death.
As far as fantasy elements go, this combines so many of them. The story has mages, dragons, shapeshifting, gods, puppets, possession,... as well as so many revelations about characters that it can feel very overwhelming. I don't feel I have a good grasp on what is and what is not possible in this world yet.

I am not super into military fantasy or just fantasy that is very epic and big, unless everything is revealed a little more gradually. This might start making more sense in the rest of the series though.
I however enjoyed the arcs of some of the characters and even though they were many, they all had a role to fill and had something interesting going on, which is a pretty rare feat.

Apparently when it comes to the Malazan series, in order to give it a fair chance you'd have to read the first 2-3 books, and I am eventually going to check out the second one. Right now I am not convinced I will read the entire series, but I am still intrigued enough to at least give that one a try.

Entertaining, but I need more information.

This book was pretty good but incredibly confusing. Erikson introduces so many components of his world and proceeds to explain none of them. Despite the confusion, I was entertained. I have heard that this is the worst of the series, and if that's the case then I look forward to reading the rest.

Extremely difficult to get into but it's an odd feeling to have payoff two books later for the effort put in to this one.

DNF and happy for it

Wow! This book takes you on an epic ride! My favorite thing about this book is really Erikson's prose! This guy is a master wordsmith capable of painting pictures with the finesse of a true literary artist.
I will admit the book does take sometime to get into it. It is filled with lots of characters, more then most epic fantasy books. But halfway through you see where Erikson is taking the story and you're like, “Oh... I see what he did there.”

I understand why people would like this but it's clearly not my cuppa.

What a rewarding endeavor! I knew as soon as I originally finished the series a reread would be in the works, and oh boy! was that fun. Erikson has an unbelievable grasp on his world and it's much more apparent with some insider knowledge. Seriously considering following the suggested Ultimate Reading order...

It took me a long time to work up to the decision to take on the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It's length and hearing that it wasn't an easy read always kept me back, but I finally decided to dive in. I heard prior to reading that the first book Gardens of the Moon is the weakest of the bunch, but if that's the case, then I look forward to what's to come, because I really enjoyed it. The sense of the epic and the intricacies of motivations, whose connected to whom and let's not forget the magic. Much more overtly fantastical than Game of Thrones and I loved that about it. Magical battles, dragons, different races and gods all play significant roles. A lot of things are still vague at this point, but the world and characters have pulled me in and grabbed my interest and imagination. Characterization suffers a bit, only because the details for their motivations are a slow and guarded reveal and some are still a mystery, making it difficult to decide how you feel about certain characters, however, there is a definite sense of so much more to come, so much more going on that will be revealed in future books, that it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. - I guess that's the plus of reading the series knowing that it's finished.
The pace of the book was much faster than I anticipated as well. So much going on and changing that I never felt any kind of dragging or parts where I lost interest. My curiosity was fuelled from beginning to end in all the various storylines, each just short enough not to drag, but long enough to impart important details. Erickson is not an author of description however. Descriptions of people and places are sparse and used only to give a sense of place and no more, the focus instead is on the story and the characters interactions. Very impressed overall and really looking forward to where things go from here.

It feels like you're starting the book in the middle of the story. The characters and places are not properly introduced and there is no attempt to make you care about them. They also all sounded the same. Before you kill someone or destroy some city, make us care about them.

The author clearly have a message to transmit, a big world with a meaningful story. He just does not present them in a readable way. The whole thing is a mess of poorly constructed stories, with no cohesion and no reason to be emotionally interested in them.

Annoying features of the book
- Prologue: they can be interesting and might help to set up the mood of the book. I've seen prologues more interesting then the whole book by a wide margin, thus a misleading way to start the story. Then there is the ones that feels like an excuse to tell a bad short tale, one where you don't have to worry about describing your characters, nor to make sense for the reader, because it is assumed that after reading the book you might have a clue about the importance of what just happened. This prologue falls into the second category.
- Excerpts of other books: each chapter starts with a citation of a supposedly famous book inside the fictional world. Another mood setting tool I believe, again this sometimes might work. It did not work for me in this book, they were too long and boring like a history textbook excerpt. Or just a senseless poem.
- Start with a side-story: and if the preface, maps, list of characters, epigraph, lament (whatever that is) wasn't enough to NOT start the story, the first chapter doesn't do it either.
- Lots of thrown in proper names and/or made up words.

Reading other comments, people tend to agree with my opinion. The book starts slow, bad, confusing, the prose is not great, there are problems with his exposition. However despite of that, he gets 5 stars because if you manage to get pass that, you are rewarded with a deep, complex and satisfying story.

My favorite comments:

“The book is not well written; specifically, it is bad prose written by someone who is very intelligent, but lacks an ear for poetry, or in fact, language in general ... the sentences are disjointed in a kind of technical way that often left me rereading them because I had somehow missed the sense in them as I grappled with their structure.”
Ben

“... There's no story to speak of... it is just a collection of scenes and events that occur in the same “world”. None of it makes sense...“
Becky

Read 13% 3:17/26:03

My first foray into the world of Malaz, and I guess it lived up to my expectations. I was prepared to be confused, and I was right. Steven Ericsson, like William Gibson, makes his readers work for their enjoyment. I did not pre-judge the book, and the more I read the clearer everything became. A thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.

An outstanding intro into the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Hard to say something that hasn't been said before so I'll just go with a hearty recommendation to anyone who thinks himself/herself a fan of fantasy, or just a fan of good literature in general.