A review by literaturesciencealliance
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Did not finish book.
challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Video Review (Spoiler Free): https://youtu.be/1yX4POOgddE

Spoiler Reaction Vlog: https://youtu.be/oPss20_r75A

This was a very unique experience and I am really glad I read it. Not a perfect book or a new all time favorite but I am really glad I finally picked it up!

How to begin a review of this book....I will start by saying that I am really satisfied with how it ended. I was not expecting this to be a complete story and was so happy to see how all the threads in this chess board of a book came together at the end. The world building is really the part I loved most about this experience. Its so full of magic, and lore, and Gods, and global/cosmic political intrigue that was so fun to fit together. BUT I don't think that puzzle is for everyone and it makes this a very dense and slow read. The characters that we get to spend time with I found pretty interesting, I would have liked more time on page exploring character relationship dynamics but even with so many players I felt really interested in all the threads. The biggest critique I have is how dense this work is. I spent 20 days reading this work when normally I take at most 7 days to read a work this long. That didn't make it a bad experience but it is not the experience I am use to having while reading fantasy.

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