How Long Did It Take You to Read Gardens of the Moon
I am a great fan of fantasy novels. I correct myself: good fantasy novels, which until I read Gardens of the Moon I idea were rare. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson is the showtime novel in his Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which spans thousands of years and ten books, with more existence written.
There are so many characters that the 'Dramatis Personae' section at the beginning of the story which lists the major characters, has a full five pages, so I'm obviously not going to list them here.
You should keep in mind that there are are a lot of private threads and characters in the story, which can sometimes exist difficult to follow.
Gardens of the Moon is ready in a fictional world (no name given) which consists of several continents, though the bulk of Gardens of the Moon takes place in Genabackis. The Malazan Empire is the largest single nation, which is invading Genabackis at the time of the story. The Malazan Empire is capable of spanning continents, considering one of the cardinal elements in Erikson'due south world are the 'Warrens', otherworldy realms from which all magic power is drawn from, though they can also be used for travel, and the gods live in their ain Warrens. In Genabackis but two cities remain unconquered: Pale, a powerful city which has been under siege, and is conquered early in the story, and Darujhistan where the rest of the novel takes place. Moon's Spawn, a mysterious powerful floating rock metropolis governed by the Lord Anomander Rake, and inhabited by the Tiste Andii, one of the major races in Erikson's world, is stationed above Darujhistan for near of the story.
After the fall of Pale early on in the story, Sergeant Whiskeyjack and the remains of his Bridgeburner squad are sent to infilitrate Darujhistan, and brand sure that the gates will exist open for the Malazan Empire to march in. However, life proves hard for the Bridgeburners and Tattersail, a mage of the 7th ground forces, and they first to discover that the gods themselves are playing their hand in this deadly game...
I really loved this book. Most modern fantasy I had read prior to Gardens of the Moon was inexpensive, badly written urban fantasy, or Lord of the Rings rehashes. I didn't have tall expectations for Gardens of the Moon, and those I did have were smashed. Tolkien might have made the most authentic feeling fantasy or sci-fi world I accept encountered, only Erikson is the only writer who tin compare. Erikson's worldbuilding is literally astounding. Maybe it's because I'm tired of the typical Fantasy cliches and races, but I believe that even against other and so-chosen 'fantasy greats' Erikson fares well. I very much enjoyed the way that Erikson manages to slowly drip feed the reader history and lore of his world at a step that allows just plenty time for the reader to comprehend what is going on, earlier introducing a completely new character or a new plot device, without a deus ex machina situation. Erikson manages to make Darujhistan into a teeming city of activity, with infighting, feuds, assassins, secret spys and thieves which feels similar it could accept been plucked straight from medivael Europe.
But Erikson doesn't focus only on worldbuilding. His character evolution is excellent. His characters (human ones at to the lowest degree) feel realistic, and their personalities actually change and arrange through the story. One of the nearly interesting characters for me was Helm Paran. Born to a noble house in the Empire'southward capital of Unta, Paran takes to a soldiering life and becomes a Claw (the empire's underground police and assassins), but eventually betrays the empire afterward becoming a pawn of the twin gods of Luck and Oponn, and nearly killed by Shadowthrone, the erstwhile emperor who was assassinated, merely became ruler of the Shadow Warren, and of Loftier Business firm Shadow. I actually really loved Shadowthrone. He is the sort of villain who you don't want to lose (though he isn't really a villain), and fifty-fifty though he doesn't take any endearing qualities, he is attractive in the at-home efficiency in which he performs. And, to top it all off, he has seven aboriginal hounds in his service, who are awe-inspiring (maybe I merely similar the hounds). Simply, despite all that, he is hard to connect to, due to him being a god.
Paran, nevertheless, is human, so information technology is easier to connect to him. His 'redemption' when he betrays the empire (which isn't a Darth Vader-type dramtic betrayal) really makes him more human and conceivable. His transition from common cold-blooded killer to normal enough human is heart warming in the otherwise dour and grim landscape of Gardens of the Moon.
Tattersail and Sergeant Whiskeyjack are some other 2 characters who I liked, but they are less believable than Paran, and lack Shadowthrone's coolness.
All in all, the characters in Gardens of the Moon were conceivable and interesting. While they aren't the best I've seen (read?), they all the same are excellent, and depart from standard fantasy cliches.
Perhaps my favourite theme from Gardens of the Moon is the fact that Erikson completely avoids the pitfalls of writing good and evil characters. None of the numerous factions tin can be thought of as evil, and I wouldn't describe them equally good either. Instead of having a fairytale type distinction betwixt adept and evil, heroic and cowardly, Gardens of the Moon succeeds in having realistic, human (and otherwordly, of course) characters that aren't stereotypical. You won't find whatever evil genius laughs in this book, thankfully.
Other than the character development and world edifice, I really liked the plot. It is deep and complex, with many, many twists and turns. Imagine a stylish Ferrari or Jaguar (I'one thousand not an expert on cars) going downwards a bendy mountain trail at a breakneck speed, and you have Gardens of the Moon's plot. Put in simpler terms, it is not bad.
Unfortunately, nix is perfect, and Gardens of the Moon is no exception. I found the pacing to be awful. The offset third of the book moves lightning fast, but the second is slow, and at times quite ho-hum. The climatic finale is neatly done, but doesn't make up for the second third which I had problem finishing. Erikson'due south prose is okay. Information technology isn't the sort of stuff English teachers would drool over, but information technology yet has some nice bits of description. My virtually serious gripe is the fact that because the novel has so many individual threads, that y'all will be oftentimes stuck with characters that don't particularly like for long capacity, or worse withal, leave a group of characters merely when they are coming up to some revelation or battle. This might not sound annoying, merely when yous are ploughing through something as massive as Gardens of the Moon it can evidence to exist a major downer. This combined with the erratic pacing knocked a star off of my overall score. Luckily Gardens of the Moon makes upward for it in the other departments, but if you easily get bored while reading a book, beware!
Altogether, Gardens of the Moon is a fantastic book, not merely for fantasy fans, simply also for bookworms and anyone wanting a well written take a chance story. There should exist something in it for anybody. Now, I volition await with eagerness the sequel, Deadhouse Gates (and the next eight books after information technology)!
Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/may/31/review-steven-erikson-gardens-moon
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