stevenguglich's review against another edition
4.0
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 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."
readerxxx's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't finish this book although I did read two thirds of it. It just got to the point that it felt like work to get through it rather than something fun.
glaivz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
hoidismyspiritanimal's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
rahul_pati's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
For quite a few years now, I'd been hearing about this 'infamous' fantasy series which has polarized fantasy readers. It's unlike anything else for those who love it. Or straight up DNF'd out of frustration. Nothing in between. It's complexity and difficulty is legendary which had made me stay away from it. Yet, curiosity got the better of me and I finally took the plunge.
What's this about -
Gardens of the Moon is the first novel of Malazan Book of the Fallen, telling the tale of expansion of the Malazan empire as seen through the eyes of several characters. It's completely bonkers with crazy shit happening! Soul stuffed into a puppet. Shapeshifting into mythical creatures. Meeting people from the past and future in dreams. Gods meddling in human affairs. This is as fantastical as fantasy gets!
What worked for me -
1) I read that it was originally written as a screenplay for a movie and later turned into a novel. That aspect definitely shows in the way the paragraphs are written as visual scenes. There are multiple "scenes" within a chapter which in a traditional novel would've been segregated into seperate chapters.
2) It might be the writing style or the fact that this was originally a screenplay, but the novel, unlike traditional fantasy novels, doesn't have a narrator. It feels like you're watching the action unfold infront of you. The story doesn't pause to explain or exposition. There definitely are explanation but not immediately after something new is introduced.
3) The magic in the book is a very soft magic which was very refreshing for me. It had qualities of awe and wonder which is often missing from hard magic systems. Anything and everything can and does happen within this single book. It all works well within the universe and never feels out of place.
4) Traditional epic fantasy novels that follow multiple characters have the problem of maybe having one or two POV characters that are a chore to get through their chapters. But not here. The structure of this novel prevents any particular character from taking up a whole chapter. Each chapter has short scenes from a different character's POV, which made it very fast moving.
What didn't -
1) The sheer number of characters and places introduced initially is overwhelming. Took me a while to keep track of. The biggest challenge was getting back into the book after a day or two. I needed to take some time to remember what had happened and who was where doing what.
2) The issue with screenplay like approach, that I felt, was that we'd have known characters X and Y, separately, in the earlier chapters. Later we see a scene from character X's POV where he meets Y for the first time. In the scene, Y is not mentioned by name but only through description, which makes sense as X doesn't know Y's name yet. If it was a movie/show, we'd have recognised Y in the scene. But the way it's written here, makes for unnecessary confusion and I didn't like this particular choice from the author.
3) The novel doesn't have any traditional protagonists which readers could follow. Many of these characters have complex histories and are just trying to navigate through all the shitshow around them. The plot is mysterious and intriguing but at the cost of withholding much of the information. I can understand why so many readers have trouble getting through this book.
Final thoughts -
The difficulty level is certainly exaggerated. Ofcourse it doesn't hold your hand like traditional novels, but it's not that difficult to understand if you're willing to accept that not all things are meant to be fully understood at the moment. Doesn't mean you'll be completely lost.
There are a LOT of small details and references which are sure to be missed out, since those are presented without any explanation or context. I believe that's what fans of Malazan refer to as re-read-ability of these novels. I can see that re-reading the entire series would definitely unveil nuggets of information and foreshadowing planted throughout these books.
This was a challenging but ultimately satisfying read. Rated 4 stars on Goodreads and Storygraph.
What's this about -
Gardens of the Moon is the first novel of Malazan Book of the Fallen, telling the tale of expansion of the Malazan empire as seen through the eyes of several characters. It's completely bonkers with crazy shit happening! Soul stuffed into a puppet. Shapeshifting into mythical creatures. Meeting people from the past and future in dreams. Gods meddling in human affairs. This is as fantastical as fantasy gets!
What worked for me -
1) I read that it was originally written as a screenplay for a movie and later turned into a novel. That aspect definitely shows in the way the paragraphs are written as visual scenes. There are multiple "scenes" within a chapter which in a traditional novel would've been segregated into seperate chapters.
2) It might be the writing style or the fact that this was originally a screenplay, but the novel, unlike traditional fantasy novels, doesn't have a narrator. It feels like you're watching the action unfold infront of you. The story doesn't pause to explain or exposition. There definitely are explanation but not immediately after something new is introduced.
3) The magic in the book is a very soft magic which was very refreshing for me. It had qualities of awe and wonder which is often missing from hard magic systems. Anything and everything can and does happen within this single book. It all works well within the universe and never feels out of place.
4) Traditional epic fantasy novels that follow multiple characters have the problem of maybe having one or two POV characters that are a chore to get through their chapters. But not here. The structure of this novel prevents any particular character from taking up a whole chapter. Each chapter has short scenes from a different character's POV, which made it very fast moving.
What didn't -
1) The sheer number of characters and places introduced initially is overwhelming. Took me a while to keep track of. The biggest challenge was getting back into the book after a day or two. I needed to take some time to remember what had happened and who was where doing what.
2) The issue with screenplay like approach, that I felt, was that we'd have known characters X and Y, separately, in the earlier chapters. Later we see a scene from character X's POV where he meets Y for the first time. In the scene, Y is not mentioned by name but only through description, which makes sense as X doesn't know Y's name yet. If it was a movie/show, we'd have recognised Y in the scene. But the way it's written here, makes for unnecessary confusion and I didn't like this particular choice from the author.
3) The novel doesn't have any traditional protagonists which readers could follow. Many of these characters have complex histories and are just trying to navigate through all the shitshow around them. The plot is mysterious and intriguing but at the cost of withholding much of the information. I can understand why so many readers have trouble getting through this book.
Final thoughts -
The difficulty level is certainly exaggerated. Ofcourse it doesn't hold your hand like traditional novels, but it's not that difficult to understand if you're willing to accept that not all things are meant to be fully understood at the moment. Doesn't mean you'll be completely lost.
There are a LOT of small details and references which are sure to be missed out, since those are presented without any explanation or context. I believe that's what fans of Malazan refer to as re-read-ability of these novels. I can see that re-reading the entire series would definitely unveil nuggets of information and foreshadowing planted throughout these books.
This was a challenging but ultimately satisfying read. Rated 4 stars on Goodreads and Storygraph.