Gardens of the Moon

Don't give up on this series. Gardens of the moon is where people usually quit. You are thrown into a world with thousands year of history in a middle of all and good luck, try to understand what is happening. Steven Erikson is expecting from you to explore on your own he wont hold your hand and explain every single thing. And believe me he will write like you should already know all that. (I have checked few times if this really is 1st book) Unfortunately that is what throws most readers. I have struggled through GoTM and almost didn't contine with second book. Thank god i did because Deadhous gates was something else, everything starts making sense (little by little) And in the end this become my favourite series. GoTM shines in reread!

Reads like book three of a litrpg series. Names, places, and concepts all pile on with no background or explanation. Lots of contradictions.

Well conceived fantasy world, with a full suite of characters, histories and cultures. Not all are human. I loved how women are integrated into this world as equals. I needed the Malazan maps and wiki to help me navigate this complex story but it was well worth it.

Definitely well written and keeps you sucked in from the start. A big bag of standard cliche fantasy fare, a cast of characters covering volume 1 of the New and Extended Character Class Handbook. Lots of old and older and even more oldest gods and pre-human races that are almost all comically shallow. Women characters exist even in prominent roles, though they either are (a) ice-cold and calculating or get a healthy dose of (b) male gaze. An enjoyable read for sure, but nowhere near different or imaginative beyond the fantasy-gatekeeping of adolescent white boys.

Read it a long time ago, but this time I listened to an audio book. It's good, but I had difficulty following some plot lines, especially initially when we reach Darujistan. Also, the ending was kinda confusing, so much happened all at once. Will have to check out some external resource to figure out what all happened.

I must admit to purchasing this book a while back on recommendation, attempting to read it, and not being able to make it through. It was densely packed and twisting in its plot, and I wasn't able to rip throught it as I was normally wont to do. I decided to give it another try, and discovered a story that was layered and well crafter, that demanded my full attention and pulled me into the rich background that was crafted. It does take a bit more thab most books in the reading, but I can say at this point that it is well worth the effort.

Some of my favorite fantasy characters of all time populate this mythical place ... if you haven't read it, prepare for an ambitious endeavour in reading all 10 books. Or as the preface starts: "There is no point in beginning something without ambition."

On my first reading I rated this book 3 stars sometime after reading it in relation to the other books of the series. My second reading, while reminding me of some weaknesses (a few sluggish chapters and descriptions I tend to skip), proved to be 4.5 stars worth of fun. I am glad I decided to come back to this series.

This is the first in 10 novels, but reads like it is about novel number 6. About halfway through he finally settles on a group of characters to follow — at least, it seems that way, but he keeps introducing new characters and even new unknown baddies right up to the final chapters! I don't know who edited this book, but that person needed reinforcements. Erickson has a million ideas for world-building, and every time I was about to give up on the book, he would keep me around for some intriguing concept or set piece. However the lack of any narrative build just renders this story as overly complex and disorienting. I am not likely to pick up the second.

What an utterly stunning fantasy novel. All the characters have such depth and complexity to them, there's no boring sense of black-and-white good guys vs bad guys, there's an enormous sense of richness to the lore and world this takes place in, and the twisting storyline with its many threads is consistently fascinating and exciting.

Second read through of Erikson's epic. I remember what a slog this was the first time though, and though it was one of the most difficult books I've ever gotten through, I'm glad I did.
His series is now one of my all time favorites. Highly recommended, though not for everyone.

I think I liked this book? It was hard to tell because I didn't understand much of what was going on. I knew that Book #1 in this series was going to be a struggle, and it was.

Once a character was introduced and they continued to appear in later chapters I was able to grab on to them and get a bit of enjoyment from the story, but there is still a lot I don't know about this universe that makes it hard to follow along. I got in the habit of reading chapter summaries for chapters I just read to bring some clarity, but that always didn't guarantee understanding. I will continue with this series because it gets better, but this was a bit of a challenge.

Honestly, not as bad as I was expecting it to be. I just didn't have a whole lot of spare time to read it in a reasonably short timeframe.

As I've seen other people say, the author throws a lot of characters at you with no explanation of who they are. The glossary at the end helped somewhat after I was done reading. I suspect this is a book you'd have to read again (after reading the entire series) to really appreciate.

Definitely better than any of the Wheel of Time books, at least. Just kind of hard to follow. And I think you need to be kind of nerdy to stick with this series. It's no Game of Thrones.

Dizzying at first because there are so many characters to follow. But stick long enough and the pay-off is worth it.