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Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)

Steven Erikson

Start date: November 1, 2012

Finish date: November 30, 2012

Discussion: Book Discussions

Why we're reading this: November 2012 Contemporary Nomination
#81 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.…more
[close] November 2012 Contemporary Nomination
#81 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

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What Members Thought

Jan 12, 2016 Ted Cross rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Even though I knew I would likely enjoy this series, I held off on starting it for ages, basically because it's really difficult these days to commit to reading a ten book series. Yes, I did enjoy it, though I don't love it as much as my favorite fantasy novels, like LOTR or ASOIAF. It reminded me vaguely of Glen Cook's Black Company novels, but a bit more broadly scaled and with a LOT of characters to keep track of. I don't mind complexity, so this is a point in the book's favor. I do think a f ...more

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Jan 11, 2021 Brandon rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson is a dense, action-packed, and engrossing fantasy novel. It begins, seemingly, in the middle of the story of the Malazan Empire. The reader is plunged into a new and massive fantasy world from the beginning, and without any buildup. Very early on we are introduced to a large cast of characters and the siege of a major city by the empire.

A great many details, characters, locations, gods, human and non-human races, and much more are presented to the reader wi Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson is a dense, action-packed, and engrossing fantasy novel. It begins, seemingly, in the middle of the story of the Malazan Empire. The reader is plunged into a new and massive fantasy world from the beginning, and without any buildup. Very early on we are introduced to a large cast of characters and the siege of a major city by the empire.

A great many details, characters, locations, gods, human and non-human races, and much more are presented to the reader without much hand-holding. With that said, I did not find this to be a difficult read. Erikson does often repeat major details and plot points so we know what is going on when it is happening. It's the details and nuances that expand this universe that require extra attention and focus from the reader. Some of these details come to play later on in the story and others we are left to wonder at.

The world created in Gardens of the Moon is very immersive. This is a story for readers who like to dig deep into the lore of the story, and ache for more after the book is finished. Luckily for us readers this is the first book in a long series.

We follow several characters in Gardens of the Moon, some more enjoyable to read than others. The stories of Captain Paran, Tattersail, and Whiskeyjack in particular stood out to me the most. I would like to have gotten more from characters like Anomander Rake and Baruk, but perhaps we will get more of them in later books. There were a couple characters who I didn't connect with, and found myself losing interest during their point of views. I didn't much care for the chapters with Kruppe and Crokus, although both were important for the story.

One of the weaknesses of this book (some may see this as a strength however) was that there is no beginning of the story. We start in the middle, and many readers could feel a bit disoriented.

Overall, I enjoyed Gardens of the Moon and will give it 4/5 starts for its immersive world, action-packed story, and an interesting cast of characters. ...more

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Jan 04, 2019 James rated it liked it

Wow, well this one took a while to get into, and I really struggled to work out what was going on for a while. Not helped I suspect by being on holiday and expecting a much simpler read. Keeping all the characters in my head was a challenge, and the author certainly was expecting the reader to do a lot of the work, which for me was a problem early on.

Towards the end of the book the pacing increased dramatically, but the number of insane boss battles, disasters and gods popping up made the whole ...more

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