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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not as dark as Game of Thrones, but as epic, with Tolkienian levels of lore
It's a long read though, 21hrs for me where most books fall in the 12-15hr range
It's a long read though, 21hrs for me where most books fall in the 12-15hr range
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
Early doors for Malazan and its aspirations come with the pros and cons of debut writing. Ambitious, at times too much so (without the experience to handle its weighty setup) and at others not enough (without the ingenuity or perhaps the viciousness to follow through on the subversion it aspires to). Its setup is where its strength lies, its convictions of a vastly spread cast and a corresponding loftiness as an anti-Great-Man device are promising, but pure subversion only works when you’ve the experience to cushion the whiplash with an alternative satisfaction (either a contrarian narrative pleasingness or a sophistication potent enough to outweigh the anti-climax) GotM doesn’t quite manage this, its resolutions simultaneously insufficient payoff and overly hasty and insubstantial ‘faux-conclusion’. Still, an appealing enough opening chapter, mostly less weak than I was led to believe
Here are my notes from the read, I might whittle some of these into actual review material in future but for now:
- Tropes swirl around the Oponnic epicentres of Garan and Crokus, the naïveté apparently inviting exposition and shoddy romance, the favours of fortune sheltering hero wannabes, smitten with affairs and consumed with revenge, twin faces of romantic trite
- Crazy how much more compelling it is to be around Darujhistan with the Phoenix Inn gang and Baruk and the assassins and stuff than anywhere else
- We thread through perspectives as the level of information degrees, the more we learn the more we have to see others learn and others know already. Each character learns what they do organically in their own narrative and we jump between them learning at our individual rate rather than following any one of these perspectives
- With this, the burden of exposition falls to the few, and excesses of information are free to convey only respective knowledge and machinations; as Erikson says, slight of hand channelled through layered perspectives
- Explicitly anti-‘hero’, anti-Great-Man-Theory
- Deliberate loftiness, jumping times and characters so as to see them all separately from us
- Agent Paran, unchained the hounds despite everything; to what end, to what fate? Who knows, but it cannot be worse than it was. A single free action
- Book 5 is largely the ‘just doing bullshit’ part, kinda burning through payoffs and potential (mainly concerning Shadowthrone and Sorry) and heavy-handedly swinging themes around, but credit where credit’s due the ending Paran and Coll convo was real nice, and the former’s characterisation hit some pretty good notes during the section
- “We left too early” unruly convolutions
- “Do you see the irony” yet still shackled by overtness with a complacent audience
- Maybe Rake should’ve died: casting off tropes and the influence of the story is all well and good but it still needs to feel right, or else be intrinsically clever enough to compensate
- Banking on it in future cleaning up the messiness, or rather, getting it under control and wielding it
Here are my notes from the read, I might whittle some of these into actual review material in future but for now:
- Tropes swirl around the Oponnic epicentres of Garan and Crokus, the naïveté apparently inviting exposition and shoddy romance, the favours of fortune sheltering hero wannabes, smitten with affairs and consumed with revenge, twin faces of romantic trite
- Crazy how much more compelling it is to be around Darujhistan with the Phoenix Inn gang and Baruk and the assassins and stuff than anywhere else
- We thread through perspectives as the level of information degrees, the more we learn the more we have to see others learn and others know already. Each character learns what they do organically in their own narrative and we jump between them learning at our individual rate rather than following any one of these perspectives
- With this, the burden of exposition falls to the few, and excesses of information are free to convey only respective knowledge and machinations; as Erikson says, slight of hand channelled through layered perspectives
- Explicitly anti-‘hero’, anti-Great-Man-Theory
- Deliberate loftiness, jumping times and characters so as to see them all separately from us
- Agent Paran, unchained the hounds despite everything; to what end, to what fate? Who knows, but it cannot be worse than it was. A single free action
- Book 5 is largely the ‘just doing bullshit’ part, kinda burning through payoffs and potential (mainly concerning Shadowthrone and Sorry) and heavy-handedly swinging themes around, but credit where credit’s due the ending Paran and Coll convo was real nice, and the former’s characterisation hit some pretty good notes during the section
- “We left too early” unruly convolutions
- “Do you see the irony” yet still shackled by overtness with a complacent audience
- Maybe Rake should’ve died: casting off tropes and the influence of the story is all well and good but it still needs to feel right, or else be intrinsically clever enough to compensate
- Banking on it in future cleaning up the messiness, or rather, getting it under control and wielding it
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is incredible, and at the same time not for everyone.
Steven Erikson is a poet; he makes you think, he makes you feel and he makes you reflect upon his thought process. His every word is a note in a symphony that is his character's thoughts, and he manages to put into words things you instinctively understand yet cannot describe.
In this story he throws you in the middle of a wild war full of mysteries and intrigues. In truth, most of the story is happening behind the scenes, and you get to see the smaller part each character takes in the never-ending, brutal cycle that is the very existence of the Malazan Empire, and as you're shown, the existence of human civilization altogether.
When you read Gardens of the Moon, you have to accept you will not be able to understand and grasp every part of the story, and that it's okay. You just have to focus and maybe have a look (safely) online every now and then to make sure there's nothing important you may have missed. Sounds bothersome, I know, but it's worth it.
Remember, the characters understand what's at stake and what's going on, you walked in at the middle of their story, and now it's up to you to pick up the pieces and connect the dots.
If you have the patience, it pays off.
I won't give this a 5-star as there were a few bits that I wasn't specifically a huge fan of, though they weren't bad.
Still, this book is genius and I can't wait to read through the rest of the series.
Steven Erikson is a poet; he makes you think, he makes you feel and he makes you reflect upon his thought process. His every word is a note in a symphony that is his character's thoughts, and he manages to put into words things you instinctively understand yet cannot describe.
In this story he throws you in the middle of a wild war full of mysteries and intrigues. In truth, most of the story is happening behind the scenes, and you get to see the smaller part each character takes in the never-ending, brutal cycle that is the very existence of the Malazan Empire, and as you're shown, the existence of human civilization altogether.
When you read Gardens of the Moon, you have to accept you will not be able to understand and grasp every part of the story, and that it's okay. You just have to focus and maybe have a look (safely) online every now and then to make sure there's nothing important you may have missed. Sounds bothersome, I know, but it's worth it.
Remember, the characters understand what's at stake and what's going on, you walked in at the middle of their story, and now it's up to you to pick up the pieces and connect the dots.
If you have the patience, it pays off.
I won't give this a 5-star as there were a few bits that I wasn't specifically a huge fan of, though they weren't bad.
Still, this book is genius and I can't wait to read through the rest of the series.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
