ducat 's review for:

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I think the in media res and noun soup work in the books favor as a dash from one point of intrigue or battle to the next, to keep the reader as muddled as many of the characters. That said, I found it hard to care about any of the characters themselves at all. Dozens of cool guys with a secret cooler guy past and everyone several schemes deep at any given moment. It's an fun enough read, I will probably continue the series, but if it relies on making you care about these characters long term there is work to do. It's sort of anti-Sanderson, instead of reading like a source book it reads like a post about one mid-campaign TTRPG session, and now that I think about it that might literally be what it is.