One month of my life I’m never getting back, and to think there are 9 more of these!

I wanted so badly to love this book. I hear nothing but good things about Steven Erikson, his world-building and writing skills.

Gardens Of The Moon

But what a stupid way to write. It's like a chef using a bread knife instead of a chef's knife just for kicks while hipsters rejoice re-reading a chapter that should have just been written properly. Does it have a good story? Yes. Is it well written? No.

"Gardens of the Moon is epic fantasy of the highest order"

I'm sorry, but I could not possibly disagree more.

Honestly, the characters are pretty much all the same. They talk the same way. Every assassin is basically the same person, just with a different name, and they all have the exact same sense of humour. The big problem is that you just don't care about any of them.

The Good:

Huge and ambitious, with huge lore and world.

I wanted to add more good things, but the bad writing style and confusion are so severe that they hindered my enjoyment.

The Bad:

The book is over 600 pages long, and noticing a certain pattern, I counted pages. Every 200 pages, there is a battle scene lasting a couple of pages. Then it's more trekking through the desert for 200 pages. Battle, rinse, repeat.

• The quantity of characters does not trump the quality of characters, and there is so little character development I frankly don't care about anybody.

• Women are all witches or worse, magic is used only for wiping out armies and does zero for society other than the mandatory "healer" attached to the army.

• The magic system is never explained and seems to be used more to fix holes in the plot than anything.

• The map is not helpful at all, and there is no real description or explanation of geography, flora, fauna or several different races that just pop up with no history or explanation.

Steven Erikson has just about the strangest writing style in this book that I've ever come across. It is simultaneously overly wordy and, at the same time, lacking any vivid expression or literary quality.

It all culminates in characters that feel flat, occupying the same default voice, in locations that are only given definition by one or two outlandish features, otherwise lacking any distinction.

There's no exposition whatsoever, and even the dialogues fail at rendering a clear picture of what's going on here.

“Alas, the very same dream propels these many-toed implements beneath these wobbly knees.”

What!? I think he's talking about his feet, or maybe about how his goals in life are compelling him to walk, or something --- I'm sorry, but this is terrible.

I love plunging into a novel and getting immersed in it, letting the writer guide me through their world and their characters, getting to familiarise myself with them with every page I turn.

I hoped this book would be my next Sanderson, an epic story with enticing characters in an intriguing world with a unique magic system, a complex worldbuilding and larger-than-life stakes and trials for the characters to overcome. God, was I wrong.

While I can appreciate that a writer doesn't think I'm stupid by overexplaining every single detail, this is the extreme opposite.

Too many ellipses, going back and forth between the POV characters, and not telling things chronologically just make the story incoherent and a hell of a mess to follow.

And after 200+ pages, I like a book to start making some kind of sense; it wasn't the case here. I ended it still confused about basically everything.

It doesn't happen often, usually even when I didn't like a book, I can at least tell you the story, who the characters are, how the magic works ... here I have nothing.

On top of the events / magic system/world mythology not being clear, the characters are barely introduced. They are way too numerous and completely interchangeable for the most part.

A few stand out (mostly because of their ass stupid names), but the vast majority will just leave you completely confused as to who they are, what their motives are, what they want, or just what their personality or what they look like is.

That's all bad enough in any book, but Gardens of the Moon is over 600 pages long, which makes getting through to the good stuff an absolute slog.

And don't mistake me, Gardens of the Moon does have some incredibly engaging moments. There is something special that comes from the characters of Malazan being compelled into magic battles and the whims of gods in physical form, and there's an inherent creative quality to the world being built here that most people should be able to find at least one thing that sparks their imagination.

But I can't in good faith recommend this book. It's poorly paced, poorly explained, and unsatisfyingly written, with an unsatisfying conclusion. Malazan Book of the Fallen is worth all the hype when you're 3, 4, 5 books in...but asking anyone to endure Gardens of the Moon for it is too big of an ask.