Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

6 reviews

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Genocide, and Colonisation

vcap1952's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The book is hard to follow. The author author takes for granted you know the characters and the magic system and just runs with the story. So you have to reread sometimes to understand where you are. The second part of the book is quite good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, and Blood

charlinem's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Blood, and War

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

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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

tjm1618's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

literaturesciencealliance's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Genocide, Torture, and Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Grief