Dark forces gather in the Malazan Empire as Empress Laseen, malevolent ruler, turns her attention to Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, and Sergeant Whiskeyjack and Tattersail recover from the siege of Pale.
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!
Like many readers, I struggled a bit with Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson's first tome in the Malazan series. Not that it's a bad book, it's merely a bit confusing at times. It hits you with about a hundred names and several storylines that do not touch each other very much before the last chapters.
So, does it all come together? Nearly. Does the book stand on its own to be readable as a novel in its own right? Very nearly, but not quite.
I'd recommend that you approach it the same way I did: Having heard so many positive things about the "good kind of chaos" of the Malazan series as a whole, I decided to read the first book with a view to continuing onwards to the whole series.
Am I going to continue? I suppose I must, now, in order to get the whole story.
And …
Like many readers, I struggled a bit with Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson's first tome in the Malazan series. Not that it's a bad book, it's merely a bit confusing at times. It hits you with about a hundred names and several storylines that do not touch each other very much before the last chapters.
So, does it all come together? Nearly. Does the book stand on its own to be readable as a novel in its own right? Very nearly, but not quite.
I'd recommend that you approach it the same way I did: Having heard so many positive things about the "good kind of chaos" of the Malazan series as a whole, I decided to read the first book with a view to continuing onwards to the whole series.
Am I going to continue? I suppose I must, now, in order to get the whole story.
(Does putting zero stars count as the worst score?)
This is sort of a review (and more) of the magic in the series. I wrote it after finishing the third book (Memories of Ice) because that's when a lot of my thoughts on it crystalized, but the review is only using stuff from this book.
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.
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.
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.
"Interesting" probably best summarizes this book. This was an incredibly dense, frustrating read, but it was interesting enough that I was compelled to stick with it. Although I still think there are some pretty major issues with this book, I'm glad I completed it.
This is not a very reader-friendly book. Erikson doesn't make much of an effort to clue the reader in on what's going on, and a lot of the story relies on reading between the lines. Every character has their own hidden agendas, and its even trickier when all their intrigues are taking place in a brick-sized "cast of thousands" style epic fantasy. At its worst, it's almost comical, with a number of scenes where unidentified characters meet with named (but completely new) characters, mumble some mysterious portents, and then leaves. After finishing each chapter I read the corresponding section on the TOR website's re-read series, that …
"Interesting" probably best summarizes this book. This was an incredibly dense, frustrating read, but it was interesting enough that I was compelled to stick with it. Although I still think there are some pretty major issues with this book, I'm glad I completed it.
This is not a very reader-friendly book. Erikson doesn't make much of an effort to clue the reader in on what's going on, and a lot of the story relies on reading between the lines. Every character has their own hidden agendas, and its even trickier when all their intrigues are taking place in a brick-sized "cast of thousands" style epic fantasy. At its worst, it's almost comical, with a number of scenes where unidentified characters meet with named (but completely new) characters, mumble some mysterious portents, and then leaves. After finishing each chapter I read the corresponding section on the TOR website's re-read series, that helped me grasp some of the more opaque bits. I'm usually a pretty fast reader, but I crawled through this book.
Fortunately, the second half of the book is much more engaging than the first. The action became a bit easier to follow, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't have trouble keeping track of all the characters introduced after the move to Darujhistan. As can be expected in the first volume in a lengthy series, this book mainly serves to get the ball rolling. However, enough happens that it still feels like this book has its own plot arc, with a beginning, middle, and end. In the second half, Erikson cuts back a bit on the bricklaying and finally starts to have some fun with things, presenting some pretty exciting scenes. This served as the dessert to the first half of the book's interminable vegetable buffet. The conclusion really opened things up, making me excited about where the series is headed. It was nice that there was some reward for muddling through, I wasn't sure any was forthcoming.
This book (and apparently the series as a whole, from what I've read) is reminiscent of Glen Cook's Black Company and Dread Empire series. The scale is epic, and focuses on both the primary movers and shakers as well as a more humble group of soldiers. Also like Cook's stories, the tone is a tad on the grim side, with lots of moral ambiguity and a lack of a clear delineation between good and evil. That suits me just fine, but some fantasy readers prefer lighter fare. Those readers aren't going to like this book.
Fans of the series praise the author's mason-like plot-building skills, where vague hints and throwaway lines get a big pay-off later on, often in subsequent volumes. That's fine, I respect cleverness and attention to detail, but there's something to be said for readability. Reviews for this book seem to be pretty polarized, with unsatisfied readers who couldn't get through it and others that struggled with this volume, but came to appreciate it a great deal more after reading the rest of the series. I'm hoping I'll be able to join the ranks of the second group of readers, since the ambitious scope of this series is appealing. I like the direction hinted at towards the end of the book, and I've purchased the second volume in the series. However, I think I'm going to read something less challenging for the next book or two.
