Gardens of the Moon [May 19, 2025] > Likes and Comments

Here we go again!



This is a buddy read for Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, starting on May 19, 2025.

Schedule
(main series only)

May 19, 2025 - Gardens of the Moon
July 19, 2025 - Deadhouse Gates [BR link]
Sept 19, 2025 - Memories of Ice [BR link]
Nov 19, 2025 - House of Chains [BR link]
Jan 19, 2026 - Midnight Tides
Mar 19, 2026 - The Bonehunters
May 19, 2026 - Reaper's Gale
July 19, 2026 - Toll the Hounds
Sept 19, 2026 - Dust of Dreams
Nov 19, 2026 - The Crippled God

Previous Discussions

Gardens of the Moon July 2016 BR
Gardens of the Moon Jan 2018 BR
Gardens of the Moon Jan 2019 BR
Gardens of the Moon Aug 2019 BR
Gardens of the Moon Feb 2020 BR
Gardens of the Moon Oct 2020 BR
Gardens of the Moon Jan 2022 BR

I'll set up the first couple of books, and if we can mostly stay on track with the proposed schedule, I'll add the rest of the series later.

I am drastically cleaning up my physical TBR for this. Hopefully I won't lose my excitement to start this series by May 😅

Jenna wrote: "Previous Discussions

Gardens of the Moon July 2016 BR
Gardens of the Moon Jan 2018 BR
Gardens of the Moon Jan 2019 BR
Gardens of the Moon Aug 2019 BR
Gardens of the Moon Feb 2020 BR
Gardens ..."

I knew that this series had been read by the group previously but I had no idea this will be the 8th buddy read lol

This series has probably been started more times than any other series in the group... I think it's only been finished once or twice, tho?... not sure...

This is what happens when your group is created specifically for a series... all the mods are fans/interested, and 2 competition teams were originally named after factions/races in the series... House of Chains became Horns of Hammerad when I took over as team leader from Scott...

Timelord Iain wrote: "This series has probably been started more times than any other series in the group... I think it's only been finished once or twice, tho?... not sure..."

I mean unless I hate it I'll want to finish the series since I own it in both ebook and audio :)

I was part of the February 2020 buddy read but never continued with the rest of the books

Plenty of people have finished the series... they've just generally done it at their own pace... either 1 book per month or 2 was too slow... or it was too fast... either they just binged the series, or did it slower at their own pace...

I'm sure people like you and Nirkatze will keep us on track, this time around ;)

53 of my friends have read book 1... 37 have read book 3... 29 have read book 5... 21 have read all 10 Books of the Fallen...

Spot...

Funny that I started Reaper's Gale this past weekend and the reread for it won't be for a year....

Guess that's too early a start to get the BR bonus in Challenge..

Will be fun to find all I missing on my pile on time 🤣

Iain said this was all my fault...

Well, guess I could say....Sorry

I saw mention of a podcast in the buddy read invites thread. Can someone post a link here or let me know where to find it so I can listen once we get the series started?

I have been wanting to try this series because everyone speaks so highly of it.

Here's the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@TenVeryBigBo...

I listen on Spotify but it's on just about any service with podcasts, I believe..

Should I start again... maybe this time I won't stop at book 9 😂

Yanique wrote: "Should I start again... maybe this time I won't stop at book 9 😂"

Wait, how many times have you read 1-9 and then not finished the last book?????

Timelord Iain wrote: "53 of my friends have read book 1... 37 have read book 3... 29 have read book 5... 21 have read all 10 Books of the Fallen..."

What bad statistics, losing people each book haha

Paula wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "53 of my friends have read book 1... 37 have read book 3... 29 have read book 5... 21 have read all 10 Books of the Fallen..."

What bad statistics, losing people each book haha"

Well, they went from 21 at the halfway point to 29 finishing, so the drop off rate was lower at the back end of the series...

But I'm one of the 8 I guess, having finished through book 6 is all..

I mean... it's the nature of long series to have high attrition rates... the downward trend doesn't even necessary mean people quit, as much as fell behind and are slowly working their way through...

Not everyone reads as much as we do, and not everyone on my friend list is active in this group...

It's generally considered a bad idea for an author to just maintain one never-ending series for their entire career... the ones that get away with long series, generally publish enough that they have a number of shorter series that are easier entry points for new fans, like Jim Butcher's Codex Alera / Cinder Spires, or Seanan McGuire's many non-October Daye series, or the fact that Nora Roberts writes 10 books a year that aren't In Death #60...

Malazan BotF goes 128k/79k/32k, looking at books 1-2-10 on the series page for ratings...

Dresden Files goes 366k/204k/143k/114k/89k/45k from 1-2-5-10-15-17... that 8 year gap between 15-16/17 really hurt fan confidence in his ability to finish the series in his lifetime...

October Daye goes 39k/21k/20k/10k/6k/3k from the same metric (1-2-5-10-15-18)...

In Death goes 200k/70k/36k/34k/28k/26k/26k/12k from books 1-2-10-20-30-40-50-60... and those numbers honestly aren't as indicative... as an episodic mystery series, you can get away with jumping in randomly more, and I saw spots where ratings dipped and then went back up to higher numbers again... also, this series releases so fast that there's a big drop on books from the past 6 months, but if you go back 2-3 books there's still 20-25k people reading the series...

I am one of those who hasn't continued with Dresen. I think I read until book 8 but I got distracted, though I want to continue

I have this book! I didn't realize that it was a series though.

Spot. This has been on my wishlist since 2013.

I'm a complete newbie to the series, BTW.

I've read book 1 and 2, so I'll be jumping in and out the thread to discuss it with you all. I'm starting the 3rd book halfway April.
For now the second book was the best and it brook my heart several times, but that could change, off course.

This should be a fun crew. ^_^

And let's hope not to loose anyone during the adventure 😂

I hope I will survive but it's my first time... How many people actually manage to read this through on the first time? I keep seeing people giving second and third chances and sometimes that's just for the first book 😅

I haven't seen many people fail to read the first book... just fail to continue with book 2-3-4...

Interested; might give me the push I need to read the whole series.

I read the first book on my first try and it wasn't as bad as people say. I wasn't too lost, but I didn't continue with book two.

Unless I hate it I plan on continuing the series to the end. That being said I cannot promise that I will not complain at length about how long they are before starting each one lol

I don't know if you'll have the same issues with Malazan as you did with Stormlight...

For one thing, the books are only 25-45hrs long... that's long, but not Stormlight long... Stormlight is 45-63hrs long...

Also, I kinda feel like everything matters more in Malazan?... maybe that's hyperbole... read book 1 and see... there's no random Interludes at least...

Timelord Iain wrote: "I don't know if you'll have the same issues with Malazan as you did with Stormlight...

For one thing, the books are only 25-45hrs long... that's long, but not Stormlight long... Stormlight is 45-..."

I think you are underestimating my ability to take issue with things lol

Well... with Stormlight, the answer to "cutting the chafe" was cut some flashbacks and make the Interludes into side book anthologies...

With Malazan, everything is generally happening concurrently, and anything happening in the past is timey-wimey hijinks and also happening in the present, like when rituals connect people across 200,000 year gaps for reasons...

Altho, there is an entire flashback book told as a story around a campfire... but it's filling in gaps soon to be relevant to the story, and is then present time within it's own book...

Recently I have been leaning towards books I can finish in a day which I know is not something that can be a thing all the time(Stephen King, DCC, etc.) but like Deathstalker later this week, over 22 hours long? And Sci-fi? Still waffling lol

Just gotta listen at 3.5x speed like me and Nirkatze and anyone else at max Audible speed... or 3x speed in other apps...

That gets a 22hr audiobook down to 6-7hrs... totally doable... if you can dedicate a 16-18hr marathon session to it, you could even do Stormlight Archives in a day at that speed... altho I generally don't...

I hear ya on finishing books in a day... that's generally my goal, too... 1 book on slow days, 2 on normal days... 3-4 if reading some short ones, or just a really good day of normal sized novels...

Honestly, short books barely feel like books at 3.5x speed... Legends and Lattes is barely 2hrs long... Dragon Day is gonna be 1:50ish... Everybody This Christmas Has a Secret is gonna be 1:35ish

That is entirely too fast for me, I have found my sweet spot between 2-2.15xs speed.

Ann-Marie wrote: "I think you are underestimating my ability to take issue with things lol..."

Lol I love this.

But I agree with Iain - even though Malazan is long, it doesn't seem to drag as much as Stormlight has over the last couple installments. I am struggling with the pacing of Wind and Truth right now, and I didn't love Rhythm of War either. Never felt that way with any of the Malazan books.

Jenna wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "I think you are underestimating my ability to take issue with things lol..."

Lol I love this.

But I agree with Iain - even though Malazan is long, it doesn't seem to drag as muc..."

Good to hear, I am looking forward to giving this one a try! And I am hopeful that adding in the podcast Chris linked will make it easier for my first read through :)

I am so up for this! At least for the first book... I have been warned...

I got my special editions of 1-3 from The Broken Binding today:



(Not my pictures, but that's what they look like)

Chris wrote: "I got my special editions of 1-3 from The Broken Binding today:



(Not my pictures, but that's what they look like)

"

Oooooh they are so pretty! I was also considering getting the special editions but couldn't really justify the price when I already own the whole series. :(

I got this one in the mail today. I will take this journey with you all…though I’ll always be very behind.

Waw, these are pretty editions, Chris! I've found the complete serie (not with the side books) in a second book shop a couple of years ago. I was having a really bad day and there they were for a nice price!

Felina wrote: "I got this one in the mail today. I will take this journey with you all…though I’ll always be very behind."

I recommend the podcast I mentioned earlier, with you in mind. The lady on there (India) that's reading for the first time is hilarious and I think you'll relate with her. Especially if you struggle at all and have lots of WTF? moments....

Which we all do, I think...hehe

Fun, I added it to my Spotify.

Hello!
I was looking at books on Vinted and saw this one at a good price, and I remembered it was one I'd wanted to read for a while. I went to Goodreads and looked at reviews to see if it was worth it or not, and I found this post.

Could I join you?
I'd read it in Spanish, but I hope that doesn't matter.

I'm sure it'll be more fun reading this way than on my own without anyone to discuss anything with...

I am looking forward to reading with you Hypatia! This will be my first time reading the book and I think that it will be much better with others.