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spentcello's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Being an overhyped book seems hard. I find it difficult to separate my disappointment into what was from missed expectations and what was actually sub-par. I can see why people like Gardens of the Moon and perhaps I would have liked it years ago, but I want more in a book than just action, a whole lot of cool monsters and way too many characters. Really, much the same as how I felt about Game of Thrones.
Lots of people praise Erikson's world-building, but I disagree. The world felt artificial and skeletal, lacking almost all expression of culture. A society cannot exist in a cultural vacuum, and language, art, music, customs, political systems and morals all feed into each other. This book is devoid of most of these elements, and the slim pickings that are there are generic and uninspired. There was no distinction between any of the different races/cultural groups except for the headline "warrior society" or "nomadic society". As Erikson says in his introduction, an author shouldn't always spell it all out for the reader, but I would add that an author should have some consistency, and the lack of any expression of distinct culture (or even peripheral inferences) is inconsistent with having distinct cultural groups in your book. There are some very limited references to some cultural elements (mainly to do with the Rhivi) but they all rely so heavily on stereotypes that Erikson may as well have not bothered.
Delving down to the character-level, there is not any sort of sensible psychological integrity in the characters. There are so many of them, that making them distinct would be a Herculean task, however, it would be nice if their decision making wasn't quite so unbelievable - often in the form of being so ridiculously superficial. I felt entirely disengaged with the characters because I just couldn't accept them as coherent, instead, they were all cardboard stereotypes making the necessary decisions to put them in the right spot for some cool event later on which invariably featured some spontaneous cool monster. The dialogue is also laughably poor. If a character finds a locked door, you can be sure that the next line is "I found a door", you can also be sure that the line after that is "It's locked". I got over my annoyance with this about halfway through by just skating over most things in quotation marks because most of the dialogue doesn't need to be there anyway.
I'm aware that to some extent I'm judging this book on what it's not intending to be. If you are interested in sprawling adventure in a violent land filled with exciting monsters without much moral challenge and for some reason want this in book format instead of just playing Skyrim or Elden Ring or DnD or any other similar fantasy RPG, then this book will probably be quite enjoyable. However, if you're like me, and you're looking for a little more to draw you in, you'll likely be disappointed.
Lots of people praise Erikson's world-building, but I disagree. The world felt artificial and skeletal, lacking almost all expression of culture. A society cannot exist in a cultural vacuum, and language, art, music, customs, political systems and morals all feed into each other. This book is devoid of most of these elements, and the slim pickings that are there are generic and uninspired. There was no distinction between any of the different races/cultural groups except for the headline "warrior society" or "nomadic society". As Erikson says in his introduction, an author shouldn't always spell it all out for the reader, but I would add that an author should have some consistency, and the lack of any expression of distinct culture (or even peripheral inferences) is inconsistent with having distinct cultural groups in your book. There are some very limited references to some cultural elements (mainly to do with the Rhivi) but they all rely so heavily on stereotypes that Erikson may as well have not bothered.
Delving down to the character-level, there is not any sort of sensible psychological integrity in the characters. There are so many of them, that making them distinct would be a Herculean task, however, it would be nice if their decision making wasn't quite so unbelievable - often in the form of being so ridiculously superficial. I felt entirely disengaged with the characters because I just couldn't accept them as coherent, instead, they were all cardboard stereotypes making the necessary decisions to put them in the right spot for some cool event later on which invariably featured some spontaneous cool monster. The dialogue is also laughably poor. If a character finds a locked door, you can be sure that the next line is "I found a door", you can also be sure that the line after that is "It's locked". I got over my annoyance with this about halfway through by just skating over most things in quotation marks because most of the dialogue doesn't need to be there anyway.
I'm aware that to some extent I'm judging this book on what it's not intending to be. If you are interested in sprawling adventure in a violent land filled with exciting monsters without much moral challenge and for some reason want this in book format instead of just playing Skyrim or Elden Ring or DnD or any other similar fantasy RPG, then this book will probably be quite enjoyable. However, if you're like me, and you're looking for a little more to draw you in, you'll likely be disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Colonisation
Minor: Genocide
lvl52_grant's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book is dense, but rad. The setting is so interesting, and Erikson's dedication to making the world feel alive and we are only witnessing one slice of it is what makes it difficult but intriguing. The reader gets thrown into a conflict with implications going back over thousands of years of history and you just need to work through it until it makes sense. I'm very excited to see what happens next with the Bridgeburners and the Malazan Empire.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Genocide, and Colonisation
annapox's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Medical content, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Cursing, Genocide, Rape, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism
nerdkitten's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
Minor: Genocide, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
literaturesciencealliance's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Video Review (Spoiler Free): https://youtu.be/1yX4POOgddE
Spoiler Reaction Vlog: https://youtu.be/oPss20_r75A
This was a very unique experience and I am really glad I read it. Not a perfect book or a new all time favorite but I am really glad I finally picked it up!
How to begin a review of this book....I will start by saying that I am really satisfied with how it ended. I was not expecting this to be a complete story and was so happy to see how all the threads in this chess board of a book came together at the end. The world building is really the part I loved most about this experience. Its so full of magic, and lore, and Gods, and global/cosmic political intrigue that was so fun to fit together. BUT I don't think that puzzle is for everyone and it makes this a very dense and slow read. The characters that we get to spend time with I found pretty interesting, I would have liked more time on page exploring character relationship dynamics but even with so many players I felt really interested in all the threads. The biggest critique I have is how dense this work is. I spent 20 days reading this work when normally I take at most 7 days to read a work this long. That didn't make it a bad experience but it is not the experience I am use to having while reading fantasy.
Spoiler Reaction Vlog: https://youtu.be/oPss20_r75A
This was a very unique experience and I am really glad I read it. Not a perfect book or a new all time favorite but I am really glad I finally picked it up!
How to begin a review of this book....I will start by saying that I am really satisfied with how it ended. I was not expecting this to be a complete story and was so happy to see how all the threads in this chess board of a book came together at the end. The world building is really the part I loved most about this experience. Its so full of magic, and lore, and Gods, and global/cosmic political intrigue that was so fun to fit together. BUT I don't think that puzzle is for everyone and it makes this a very dense and slow read. The characters that we get to spend time with I found pretty interesting, I would have liked more time on page exploring character relationship dynamics but even with so many players I felt really interested in all the threads. The biggest critique I have is how dense this work is. I spent 20 days reading this work when normally I take at most 7 days to read a work this long. That didn't make it a bad experience but it is not the experience I am use to having while reading fantasy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Genocide, Torture, and Blood
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Grief