Gardens of the Moon

The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1

By: Steven Erikson

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 26 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Vast legions of gods, mages, humans, dragons and all manner of creatures play out the fate of the Malazan Empire in this first book in a major epic fantasy series

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.

For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, yet holds out. It is to this ancient citadel that Laseen turns her predatory gaze.

However, it would appear that the Empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister, shadowbound forces are gathering as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand....

Conceived and written on a panoramic scale, Gardens of the Moon is epic fantasy of the highest order - an enthralling adventure by an outstanding new voice.

©1999 by Steven Erikson. (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Erikson is an extraordinary writer. My advice to anyone who might listen to me is, Treat yourself to Gardens of the Moon. And my entirely selfish advice to Steven Erikson is, write faster." --Stephen R. Donaldson

"I stand slack-jawed in awe of The Malazan Book of the Fallen. This masterwork of imagination may be the high water mark of epic fantasy. This marathon of ambition has a depth and breadth and sense of vast reaches of inimical time unlike anything else available today. The Black Company, Zelazny's Amber, Vance's Dying Earth, and other mighty drumbeats are but foreshadowings of this dark dragon's hoard." --Glen Cook

"A world that is both absorbing on a human level and full of magical sublimity...a wonderfully grand conception...splendidly written...fiendishly readable." --Adam Roberts

The 5th time listening was the best

This story compelled me to write a review. At first I struggled with trying to remember all the names and dates as well as factions in the book. I soon chalked it up to a cheap audiobook that would fill a lot of time. I made it to the end and was able to understand quite a lot (believing that I missed a lot) of the outcome. The characters are so rich I wanted to know more of quite a few. My job allows me hours of time to fill with audible. I decided to give it a second listen. Within the first five minutes I knew the story soo much better. The book flew by the second time. It has now become a reoccurring favorite to play on stressful days. The rest of the series is similar,(for me) I basically skim listen the first time, then go again for the full effect. I hope this helps anyone who is hours into this and wonders if its just them that doesn't follow it. No I struggled too and it was well worth it.

Good long story

The characters are pretty interesting. The plot holds up. Magic and world building are pretty cool. It's not an amazing book, but definitely solid.

Wonderful world

So many epic things happen. This is one of the best worlds I've entered in years!

Best series ever

This book picks up a little slow but just power through because this series is one of the best I’ve ever read.

Awesome book, a bit hard to get into.

Hard to get into at the beginning third, so many characters introduced and his accent is a bit hard to get used to. Once you know the characters and the story takes off it is an amazing book. Take the time to learn about some stuff on a wiki without spoilers and it makes it all the better!

Great Narration and Story

The narrator does such a great job in this wonderful book. I can't turn it off!

Complex listening

WOW! Be prepared to rewind frequently, or like me, buy the book to follow along at times. Luckily the book edition has a glossary of the the seemingly thousands of characters and places to keep track of. Overwhelmingly confusing at times, the story becomes clearer as it progresses; along with the development of some very cool characters, Anomander Rake in particular. Hard to describe, so I won't even try, but if you're in to epic fantasy with mages, dragons, witches, and political power playing to rule them all, then this is a story for you.

Nothing short of incredible

In my opinion this book is the new standard in high fantasy. An incredible world, intricately tied together with characters that have surprising depth for such a large cast. An incredible book requires an equally incredible narrator and they managed just that. For anyone who loves fantasy, do yourself a favor and read this book. Now I need to block off the next 2 months to finish this series!

So much work and worth it for the payoff!

This is NOT the series for everyone especially if you don't have a few epic fantasies under your belt. To be clear I had to read this book twice to really get everything that was going on in this first book of Malazan. It is busy with tons of characters to keep track of, history you don't understand yet, a world so large I had to stare at the map while listening sometime just to get context for place. That being said this book is laying the groudwork for what is lining up to be one of the biggest epic fantasy worlds both in scale and numbers of books in the series. I really appreciate what Erikson is trying to do here but, this book was work to get through. I was very confused until I just dove into this world and even took notes.

With that part out of the way, this was a great read once I understood the plotline, connections between events that are taking place across the contenent, and the plots of the gods. There are some great characters (not the best character work I've seen but, I respect the amount of world building in this book to the extent that I forgive it. As we spend more time with the characters in following books Erikson does great work fleshing them out and making them feel like real people.

Last but certainly not least, the battles and magic in this series are EPIC. The battles of The Pale and outside of Darujhistan are on a scale that is worthly of the world Erikson is building. The magic is terrifying and mysterious while being explained well enough in this first book that you get a bit of a feel for how mages do what they do.

If you are a fan of epic fantasy and want to dive into something even bigger and quite a bit darker than The Wheel of Time give it a try during your isolation in these interesting times. If you put in the effort Erikson will weave you a tale that is truly epic.

Excellent performance and a thrilling tale

This book was constantly interesting and well performed. If anything too many climaxes, if there is such a thing. The characters and the weaving of their paths are refreshingly original. The worldbuilding is excellent, and the premise of gods meddling among the lives of men reminiscent of classical epics. I can't wait to listen to more in the series!