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

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!

Dense but delightful

There is so much detail so that not a single sentence is a throwaway...not a complaint, however. This is the kind of book that you can read 10 times and glean something new from it each time. Beautifully written and the characters instantly grab you.

Engaging, inventive. D&D plyrs wil love the series

Fantastic, well written and comical, this is a softer and slower start to an amazing series. The books get darker as the story and history of this world unfolds, but there are moments when I burst out laughing at the antics and conversations between characters. There are a plethora of characters with intertwining stories, it can be hard to get into at first, especially with the history that is included. But please give it a chance. I was hesitant at first, but this has been the fourth time I've listened through the whole series and I still catch things I've missed before that makes it all the more enjoyable. The conversations and battles are both equally engaging.

Complex - Not For the Casual Listener!

This book has a huge cast, a complex and unfamiliar magic system, and a vast, old, mind boggling world. While I will normally listen to my books at 2x - 3x speed I had to slow this one down to 1X and even then pause some times to try and catch up to what was going on. Even then I spent the first half of the book feeling fairly confused and, to be honest, not particularly attached to any of the characters. So, if you are willing to commit to a book, I think this one can be a real gem, but unlike a lot of other books out there, I found this one to take effort. By the last half of the book I only found myself occasionally trying to remember, for example, who Toc the Younger was.

I expect that I'm going to go back and listen to this again, just so I can pick up on everything I missed the first time around. I'm not sure I would be willing do this with every book I read or listen to, but every once and a while a book that completely alters what I've come to expect out of a fantasy novel is probably a good thing.

A hard series to get into

What did you like best about Gardens of the Moon? What did you like least?

First off I hate these questions. I don't like someone dictating to me my review - With that said. I found that this entire series was hard to get into. Why? Because over the course of the series, many of the characters names change or they get killed or left out of a book or two. There isn't a main character per se as most books. Each book in the series may or may not contain the characters from the previous book or they may appear 1 to 2 books later on. There was times I would start to get into the book and than the author would go to the next chapter and leave you hanging to figure things out. I told myself that the next book would be better, well it wasn't. Maybe this writing style is for some, but it's definitely not for me. I don't like a book that I feel like I have to study it to understand it. This series has to be followed meticulous. If you miss or forget something, you could be lost for awhile. All I have to say is be sure, you like this style of writing before diving into the series.

Would you be willing to try another book from Steven Erikson? Why or why not?

I'm not sure. This series has really turn me against Erickson. The story is just like Game Of Thrones. No main character and mass killing of the characters involved. I just don't like books or authors that have this kind of writing style.

Which scene was your favorite?

N/A

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I don't know, but I doubt it. I didn't like the TV series Game of Thrones and the writing style is the same for The Malazan Book Of The Fallen series.

Any additional comments?

I feel that the rating on this book and series are more than it merits. With that, I'm left wondering how so many enjoyed the book/series that I find so unappealing. I really wanted to like this story and so many times I thought I was starting to get into it.... but, it just didn't happen. P.S. Could someone tell the authors, to stop changing narrators thru out a series. Seriously, you get use to someone and associating a voice to a character and BLAM - Next book a new voice to a character. I don't have any issues with the narrators, they all did a decent job. Authors - Find a single person to narrate your ENTIRE series. Seriously this is starting to become a pet peeve of mine.