Seriously ambitious work of Fantasy
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Read a critics review of Erikson and the words 'complex, challenging and even messy come up, and with good reason. If this book was a religious testimony it would have scholars and clerics studying it for hundreds of years and would have spawned a thousand sub religions. It's scope is immense.
I make it 45 characters of significance some are gods, some demi gods or other beings of power. There are several competing factions and within these factions are competing powers, interests, scores to be settled and double crossings.
In short this is a book that needs a certain amount of commitment and concentration, it is a book to read in a quiet room when you are mentally alert not one to read for 5 minutes whilst being jostled on a bus or read in 3 page installments before falling asleep!
Erikson has mainly ignored most of the other fantasy reference points as laid down by Tolkien, Fiest and others there are 'elder' races but you will find no dwarves, elves, orcs, trolls or fairy folk here but rather the Tiste Andii and Jaghut. No, Erikson and Esslemont have been building the Malazan world for years through their own D&D role playing and it is largely a new world though the roots in D&D game play are there to see.
With so much going on it is a credit to Erikson's skill as a writer that despite the fact my head is jam packed full of other fantasy writing I very rarely had to refer to the two glossary's that prefix and post fix the action. Readers with a bit more mental elasticity may not need to do so at all.
So should you buy it? If you enjoyed LOTR but wished there was less talking and fighting and more magic and intrigue then probably yes. Erikson likes his wizards, witches and sorcerers and magic beings and items. Descriptions of battles are far more about waves of fire, the summoning of demons than sweaty ranks of shield bearing soldiers.
There are more assassinations and attempted murders than heroic last stands. Erikson's world is a giant chess board with 10 players and their favourite peices are assassins and wizards so if traditional sword based confrontation is your 'thing' then you may do better to read Cornwell or Abercrombie.
If you like a clear cut battle between good and evil then again this is probably not for you. The characters are shades of grey and sometimes their motives seem unclear or even muddled. Also if you like to jump in the saddle with a golden haired hero and follow his strivings to glory you will be dissappointed the story jumps all over the place and leaves charactors at times for 100 pages or more, or you may not see them feature beyond the first 200 pages.
Subjectively, I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would after reading the first 20%, though I never once thought of giving up. I enjoyed some of the charactors Kruppe and Anomander Rake in particular though I would say the creation of colourful larger than life personalities is not a great strength of Erikson.
I loved some of the concepts and ideas particularly the magical warrens and Rakes sword which I won't spoil for potential new readers.
For me though I felt it was a little too ambitious. I would have liked less charactors and more charactor development. I would have liked a couple of stronger central characters to thread the story together and pull me in more.
Comparing this book to contempories is a bit like comparing 'The Longest Day' to 'Saving Private Ryan' In wanting to give you the whole picture he perhaps loses some of the potential for emotional attachment and involvement so I never got to that feverish need to turn the pages to find out what would happen next.
But this is a remarkable debut book and very (apart from the odd dragon and a masquerade which I could have done without!) original, also for his ability to get over all the concepts and story lines without explaining or information dumping, is a fantastic achievment for any writer let alone a man writing his first book! So I have scored it 4 stars though my enjoyment of it is more like a 3 and a half.
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An acquired taste
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There was a lot going for this book. Epic scale, both in geographical and historical scope, multiple original plot lines, plenty of action, and well written.
So why only 2 stars?
Because, when all was said and done with the book, there was not one character that i came away caring about. They could all die, or not, i just didn't care, and that is Erickson's greatest flaw.
This book is reminiscent of a '70's movie, which strived for that 'real, 'gritty' feel, where there is no black and white, no good or bad, just shades of grey. Well, I do like a lot of contemporary authors that are writting 'dark and gritty,' such as Martin, Abercrombie, Ruckley, etc. but they still write characters that i feel concern for. This reminded me of 'Apocalypse Now', or 'Serpico', movies that i can appreciate on a certain level, but left me feeling cold. I prefer 'Gladiator' or 'Braveheart.'
I guess it comes down to a matter of taste - I can recognise quality within the work, a keen intelligence has crafted this world, but i could say the same for a lot of classical music or jazz, (much of which i love) but it takes more than that to make a book 'work.'. In all of my favourite books i have been drawn into varying levels of emotional involvement, which is really what i'm looking for in a read. Garden's of the Moon excels on a complex historical/cultural/geographical level, as well as maintaining multiple plot lines and truly original ideas, such as the 'Warren' magic systems, but what it is sadly lacking is interesting characters; ones that you care about or hate enough to want to find out what happens to them. Really the ultimate goal of a book for me is to be moved emotionally, to be transported to a world and characters where my mind keeps returning even when i'm not reading.This is not that kind of book - at the end of the day it just didn't move me.
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Yet another series begins
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Now don't get me wrong, this is a well written, character driven, and indeed action packed book. It has many plot strands which one can see panning out over the series and therein lies it's weakness for me. Can I be bothered to read the rest of the books? Has this book enticed me into the alternative universe that has the Malazan empire at its heart? Looking at the reviews and many discussion forums (forii?) out there thousands have made that investment but can I be bothered? Should you be bothered?
Well you'll either get the picture from the reviews around this one whether you might like this sort of thing or you won't, but I have to say...OK yes, I'll go onto the Deadhouse Gates, but wait for the holidays before I do so.
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Spoiler-free review of the whole set
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Steven Erikson's Malazan series is almost certainly the most powerful and original work of epic fantasy in decades. In savage contrast with modern society, Erikson's meticulously detailed and authentic, brutal world is infused so intensely with meaning that it seeps like blood from every shared gaze, every blade of grass, every act; it seeps from the pages right into the reader's heart. When we come to this chaotic world and its characters, we aren't reading a plot beginning to end so much as sampling a tiny segment of a mammoth, intricate history, most of which Erikson - an archaeologist - no doubt has mapped out in his head. This unrivalled scope makes the work's meaningful nature all the more authentic - everything seems to matter so much more in these novels. There is power in every small gesture, enigmatic forces emanate from the flesh and sinews of the natural world, echoes of past tragedies still cry out like ghosts upon God-bidden gales, the bony hands of old stories hold up every road. The result is a Romantic setting in which tragedy and suffering take on a whole new depth, as do pathos, glory, joy and even humour. Not only does the author have a Homeric mastery of tragedy, but he wraps comedy around it with Shakespearean skill, serving beautifully as counterpoint and companion both. Not since Leiber, I suspect, has fantasy had an equal to this man's sense of humour.
In this setting resides hundreds of diverse, fascinating characters, races and cultures. Be they Gods or soldiers or assassins or scientists or merchants, every individual has complex histories and horrendous burdens written across his/her weathered mein. Each begins as a mystery, a potentiality within which power and wisdom, values and dreams, flaws and weaknesses, flicker elusively and gradually emerge as each adds his/her own layer to the already labyrinthine saga, often with earth-shaking consequences. Whilst a normal author would get lost in all his simultaneous mini-plots, Erikson has such a grasp upon the logistics of his world that he interweaves its various happenings mellifluously, and ensures that the central thrust of the story is so over-arching, momentous and damned epic that it hangs like a shadow over even the most insignificant paragraphs, just as it does over the world itself.
Just about every existential theme you could care to name is explored in great depth by these largely sympathetic characters, monologues of intelligent thought accompany each action, and so we have a drama that not only surpasses most others in scope, imagination, tragedy and comedy, but also rivals the best in its insight and power to change a reader's mindset. Stephen Donaldson himself, arguably the king of epic fantasy surely ahead of Tolkien, has stated as much in his lavish praise of Erikson's work. A theme repeatedly considered is the life and mentality of a soldier; Erikson is clearly influenced by Glen Cook's "The Black Company", which whilst far more light-hearted and simplistic brought more grit to fantasy than anyone before, and focused on a gang of mercenaries not unlike certain Malazan soldiers. Cook, incidentally, is another to throw superlatives in Erikson's direction, admitting "The Black Company, Zelazny's Amber, Vance's Dying Earth, and other mighty drumbeats are but foreshadowings of this dark dragon's hoard."
Now, Erikson certainly does have what could be conceived as flaws - he's not perfect. For starters, a common criticism is that his books are very difficult to follow. I largely disagree; as implied earlier I feel his many simultaneous plots are balanced and interwoven with enough care and diversity to possess a clear definition, and thus not confuse. However, these certainly aren't books you can pick up and read once a fortnight - if this is how you read, this perhaps isn't the series for you. In terms of style, Erikson occasionally makes his descriptions almost too vivid, sometimes a more refined approach would be more effective. Still, his work is so ambiguous in other ways that I can easily let that slide. There are also a few quotes which remind rather too strongly of comic books or movies, I could almost imagine hearing them as voice-overs in Sin City. Not a huge problem, but it doesn't always fit, somehow. Both of these flaws occur less as the series progresses and the author matures. He also has a habit of repeating the odd word, befitting the story and style but nontheless noticeable - in particular "shrugged" and "grunted" are too common. Fortunately, these issues are belittled by the scale, imagination, emotion and sheer evocative power of this endeavor.
To summarize for the impatient; if you like your fantasy ridiculously epic, as well as both poetic and gritty, mysterious and dramatic, tragic and hilarious, original, beautiful and above all meaningful, put "Gardens of the Moon" right at the top of your wish list. It's the first, the weakest and the most difficult to follow, so if you like it, you'll love the next few, and if you love it, then you're in for an absolutely massive treat.
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Never again
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I got about 20% of the way through this book before deciding that I had better things to do. It may be the scene setting start of a series as another reviewer said but to my mind this should be a good reason to make it a good read to get you hooked. Instead, I found it a load of pretentious tosh with poor characterisation and no pace whatsoever. I lost interest, and almost the will to live, around chapter 2 and the fact that I actually got to chapter 4 I can only put down to a very slow night on TV.
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