UPDATE: I've just reread this book so I've updated my review, which you can find at the end of my little lovenote here. :)

Why Read The Malazan Book of the Fallen, or A Love Note to Steven Erikson (Okay, not really the latter)

If you've even attempted to read Gardens of the Moon, the first book in the 10 book epic that is the Malazan Book of the Fallen, you'll see very quickly that you're not given much as a reader. It's confusing, it's complicated, it's full of mysteries and myriad of characters More...

3.5 stars

Due to the acquisition of GoodReads by Amazon on March 28, 2013 and my existing and continuing boycott of all things Amazon, the review I wrote after reading this book has been relocated to my blog and can be found in its entirety by following this link: http://bit.ly/Z8GFJ8

Update 10/19/11. After my second reading I love this book even more. Any confusion I had before was cleared up. And I cannot believe how much more I got out of it. I love the style. The world. The characters. I think this could end up as my favorite fantasy series. Period.

First I have a confession to make. I was a pre teen reading high school melodrama when I picked up my first fantasy book. It was a Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman Dragonlance book. And I quickly fell in love with the world of e More...

This is my second reading of Gardens of the Moon. I’ve long suspected that the best way to read Erikson’s Malazan series is to read it again. I can now confirm that suspicion has been proved correct as far as this book goes. I loved rereading this book. There were so many times reading the series initially that I felt certain information and story arcs and characters just came out of left field. But having read this first book again I am astounded at the sheer level and volume of foreshadowing c More...

i feel like i'm being pretty generous in giving this 3 stars. okay, it is my good deed for 2011. now don't say i never did nuthin' for you, steven erikson!

the cons: so much, where do i even start. (1) the dialogue is a joke, a sad flailing uncomfortable joke, the kind that just goes on and on and i start to look away from the joke teller in embarrassment. corny corn, beyond belief. (2) and the characterizations - so flat! so trite. and when they weren't trite - just entirely unrealistic. there a More...

So I finally got around reading the infamous Erikson - finally got around reading the first book that is. This book is definitely not a standalone, but the start of a massive series and, honestly, every paragraph oozes its epicness. You can't miss it!


I had been warned about getting confused and this series being very complicated, but I actually thought it was all right. It's not a fast read, that's true, and you can't skim anything at all. I've also realized that I needed to get my chapters in e More...

I have to say, I was prepared for what was coming with Gardens of the Moon - although, still, not quite. A dear friend of mine has chattered about Malazan Book of the Fallen for ages (years) and told me over and over again how great a novelist Steven Erikson is. I have always listened eagerly, and sure, been intent on reading his novels. At some point.

I should have read them sooner!

I was quite blown away by this book. It is a fantastic read in so many ways I hardly know where to start. Steven Er More...

I truly can not recommend this book enough. Though Erikson's style of plopping down right in the middle of the story might throw some people off, I appreciated the lack of obvious exposition as we switched from view point to viewpoint and patiently wait for the pieces to 'click' together. Yes, there is a large cast of characters, and yes, you will have to refer to the list of them at the beginning of the book, but when it all clicks into place it is a truly wondrous world.
It's also important to More...

Somewhere between 2-3 stars, shading to the lower end because it was initially pretty good with an innovative structure and a lot of possibilities, but failed to capitalize on that and read like the author was just making new stuff up every few pages by the end.

Random thoughts:

1. The story starts in media res and the reader isn't given many clues about what is going on, who the players are, what is important, what isn't. This left me completely clueless about how the story was "supposed" to play More...

WHY THE LACK OF A PLOT SUMMARY -

One of the things I loved about this book was that the plot and its many sub-plots are a continuous mystery. You the reader are solving this "mystery of the plots" throughout the book. Who did what when and where. Erikson does not spoon-feed you a story with a nice begining, middle, and end. You must work for the details of the plot. I like this challenge. I found it refreshing and would not spoil it for anyone. However, when people saw that I was reading Gardens More...

For those of you that follow my reviews please bear with me, as I will be re-reviewing a book in this posting that I reviewed here over two years ago. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson is an amazing novel on so many levels, and I guess part of my rationale in providing another look at it is to encourage more readers to discover the incredible world and story that Erikson has created in his ten-volume series known as "The Malazan Book of the Fallen". So, the following review will largely focu More...

Technically speaking I read this book and the Ice and Fire series as work-related research. I think that the cover alone might have been enough to scare me off otherwise. This book is quality, though not *great* fantasy fare. By and large I enjoyed it in the role of fantasy geek; my more literary aspect was full of frowns as smiles throughout the course of it.

The book is not well written; specifically, it is bad prose written by someone who is very intelligent, but lacks an ear for poetry, or in More...

This was my second read of Gardens of the Moon, I had read the book in June 11 so it was relatively fresh in my memory. I remember when I was half way through this series thinking to myself, i cannot wait to start this again. I was less than 5 pages into this re-read when i realised just how much I was going to enjoy the story with the knowledge I had.

Erikson is a brilliant story teller, There are a number of 'Epics' out there, to be honest, there probably needs to be another honorific that tra More...

To say this book pushes the envelope of Epic Fantasy is an understatement. It would be best to go ahead and just simply state this collection redefines the genre.

Story telling on the grandest of levels.

World building so vivid and colorful it is unparalleled

Characters that will remain with you long Long LONG after you put the book down

Dialog that somehow vibrates the inner ear

I am only into my 4th book of this series, and I cherish the time I spend with each one. Note these are not works that ca More...

Excellent book. Erikson may not be quite as good a writer as George R. R. Martin, but he's plenty good enough to hold the rapt attention of this reader. I have just Amazoned the other seven novels in the series that have been published thus far, and I look forward to many (many!) hours of deaf-to-the-world reading.

Concerning some of the comments of other reviewers: "Gardens of the Moon" is complex and is definitely sink or swim at the outset (but who wants to be spoon-fed anyway?). The beginning More...

Executive Summary: This is not a book for the feint of heart, or the first time fantasy reader. Mr. Erikson makes you think, and READ. No skimming allowed. Every word can be important. It's certainly not for everybody, but if you stick with it, I think most people will find their efforts greatly rewarded.

Full Review
This is a case of, you were right Good Reads recommendation engine. Why didn't I listen to you?

Shortly after joining good reads last year and putting all my books in, I checked out t More...

4.5-Stars

Steven Erikson's first entry in the ten book series The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a brilliant opening entry for any series. It is also a masterclass in how to create entertaining gritty fantasy fiction. There were visible flaws in dialogue and it took a brief time to adjust to the novel's unique method of showing events but once I did it was very much worth it. I feel that over the next nine novels everything will improve even more and have some sense of wrapping up in a conclusion. More...

I've been trying to find a new fantasy series to read. Most of the ones that I've been reading since high school are winding down (Wheel of Time), unbearable (Sword of Truth), or else being written once every four years (A Song of Ice and Fire). So I thought I'd give this a go.

Frankly, Steven Erikson's writing is worse than most fantasy writers, but his plotting is unusual. Unwilling to tell a slack-jawed yokel story, the text starts in media res and readers have to start the book determined to More...

Gardens of the Moon is the first in Steven Erikson's gargantuan and oddly named fantasy series, Malazan Book of the Fallen. What's odd about it is that it took me THREE tries to get through this first volume. The first two times I tried, I got one or two hundred pages in and just lost interest, mainly because I was confused and didn't know what was going on. But the third time I tried it just clicked and I enjoyed it. Figuring out why this is the case took some thought, and I believe it boils do More...

I like this book. A lot. The author says he was inspired by Glen Cook's Black Company, and it shows. This is not an easy read. There are a lot of names to keep track of, places, races, etc. The glossary of major players in the beginning helps a lot; my advice for new readers: use it every time you encounter a new name, or forgot who this once mentioned person is. It does not help that as soon as a subplot gets really exciting (fortunately, this happens a lot), the author switches to another, muc More...

I started this book because I heard the author had completed the series and it has been on my TBR list for awhile. Wow was I blown away by this story! I am a huge fan of Glen Cook Black Company books and I never thought I would find anything similar but based on this one book if the rest of the series is the same then I have a second series that is as good as Cooks work. The first book introduces the world of the Malazan Empire and all the intrigue, magic , and battles that go on with in this wo More...

This is the first novel in a now-completed 10-novel epic fantasy by Canadian writer Steven Erikson. It's an impressive enough first novel that I look forward to reading future installments. I wouldn't have to, though: unlike many epic fantasy series, this novel looks like it could stand alone, with all of its major plot threads pretty well wrapped up; there are certainly things for each character and for the world as a whole which could be explored in future volumes, but there's no real cliff-ha More...

What a hard beginning, or maybe even first third! So many names, too many to keep track of. But I had nothing else to read on my vacation, and I found the world intriguing, so whereas at home I might have tossed away, I plugged away, and oh what a world what a world. Everything started to come together, I stopped having to keep track of all the strange who what when and wheres in the index and appendix, and completely dug in. Great reading experience. I'll be reading the next in the series for s More...

An outstanding, remarkable debut by an extraordinary writer whose creative vision and world-building is astonishing!!

The first book in the series ‘the Malazan book of the fallen’ is truly breathtaking, as Steven Erikson’s creation is nothing short of fantasy at its very best. Inspired, original and so imaginative, the Malazan Empire is so vast and interesting that I was glued to the pages lost within the most amazing world. This fantasy masterpiece is beautifully rich, cleverly complex and exqu More...

If only I hadn’t put on that little black dress. Perhaps that would’ve saved this one for me. I mean, not only did I put on the little black dress, the one cutjusttothere. I did the hair. I put on the heels too. Everyone who has that little black dress or is dating someone who does knows what heels I mean. You guys have been in that mood where you really just want to go out- paint the town red like you’re Sinatra and are just, as they used to say of kings, in the mood to be pleased, right? Whoev More...

Without any reservations, the best book I ever read. Steve Erickson is a master of fantasy. When I evaluate a book I ask myself these questions, is the author gifted at story telling? Was the plot intriguing? Where the characters memorable, good and bad? Did the author inject too much of his or hers philosophy in the story? The author more than surpassed these questions and if I could I would rate it six stars out of five. The book evolves around the Malazan Empire and the power hungry Empress L More...

I read Martin's A Game of Thrones, and at the end I had exactly the same thought that I had at the end of Gardens of the Moon: "Ahhhhh, things are getting started!" But unlike Thrones, I didn't feel like Gardens could have done without the middle four or five hundred pages. Almost every section of every chapter in Gardens is important in ways that become apparent within the book itself. I'm given to understand that some of those hundreds of middle pages in Thrones pay off two or three books late More...

I read the book in 2009 for the first time.
On 2nd of January I started my 2013 reading adventure:
To read all 10 Malazan of The Fallen Books by Steven Erikson and the five by books Ian C. Esslemont.

And the means I reread Gardens of The Moon!

The re-read has been a great experience because I understood a lot things better and discovered new connections.



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This is the first volume of the MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN series by Steven Erikson. Ninth boo More...

This book/series is a bit more pure fantasy than George RR Martin's work. That said, the ending of Book 2, and two points in book 3 are the most choked up I've been when reading a book in a long time. This first book is a bit hard to get through, and I was frequently checking the glossary of characters in the back for the first 200 or so pages. The reason for this is that instead of slowly introducing you to the world and the characters, Erikson starts smack in the middle of a continent spanning More...