Product Description

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10274 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 688 pages

Amazon.ca
Sometimes books are big because the author doesn't know how to stop, and writes right over that line where more becomes less. Other books, though, are big because they have to be, because the story, the drama, and the characters are just too large to fit into a compact volume. Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon is that kind of big book. Gardens of the Moon, first volume in the Malazan Book of the Fallen, is an epic fantasy story of war, sorcery, politics, and revenge. There is an Empire that must be thwarted, as well as gods desperate to prove they still count for something in the world of human beings. The main story concerns intrigue surrounding the Malazan Empire's coming assault on the city of Darujhistan. Characters include Whiskeyjack, leader of a military band pushed to the edge; Baruk, an alchemist and leader of the mages of Darujhistan; and Sorry, a young woman possessed by a vicious killer.

Erikson brings a gritty realism to his fantasy that sets it apart from most others. Magic is difficult and dangerous, often harming its practitioners. Erikson's world has a long history of violence and struggle: people get dirty and tired, and there are not many lives without suffering. The realism makes the characters that much more sympathetic and their successes and failures more meaningful. Gardens of the Moon amply fulfills the main requirement of a big fantasy novel: the world it creates is so compelling that it pulls you right in and leaves you wanting more. --Greg L. Johnson

From Publishers Weekly
In this sprawling fantasy epic of the Malazan empire at war with its enemies and itself, the first of a projected 10-volume series, Canadian newcomer Erikson offers many larger-than-life scenes and ideas, but his characters seem to shrink to fit the story. Perhaps they need to stay small enough for the reader to keep them all in mind. Jumping often between plot lines, the novel follows Ganoes Stabro Paran from his boyhood dreaming of soldiers to his escape from imperial service. Paran travels on journeys of body and soul, going from innocent to hardened rebel against gods and empire without losing his moral core. Other characters may go further, to death and back even, but none is as sharply portrayed. The book features a plethora of princes and paupers, powers and principalities, with much inventive detail to dazzle and impart a patina of mystery and ages past. The fast-moving plot, with sieges, duels (of sword and of spell), rebellions, intrigue and revenge, unearthed monsters and earth-striding gods, doesn't leave much room for real depth. Heroes win, villains lose, fairness reigns, tragedy is averted. Erikson may aspire to China Miéville heights, but he settles comfortably in George R.R. Martin country.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In the first of a projected 10 volumes of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, the Malazan Empire is up to its eyebrows in the intrigues of mage Anomander Rake and his sorcerous minions, the Tiste Andii. The empress Laseen pursues her grisly ambitions with the aid of the Ninja-like Claw assassins, but Erikson focuses on the grunt-level fighting of military engineers Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners and the field-grade mage Tattersall, who are more than ready to go home, when the empress commands a battle in and around the Free City of Darujhistan. Erikson portrays this hurly-burly--something very like the Lord of the Rings' Battle of the Pellenor Fields--from the perspective of those who had to get out of the way of the charges and exchanges of spells and sometimes died anyway. It remains to be seen whether Erikson's excellent writing will carry through nine more volumes of this gritty, realistic fantasy in the manner of Glen Cook's Dark Company series. Wager on fantasy readers' robust appetites, however. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Those who persevere with this will be rewarded BIG TIME...
"Mane of Chaos...Anomander Rake. Lord of the black-skinned Tiste Andii...who has looked down on a hundred thousand winters, Who has tasted the blood of dragons, who leads the last of his kind, seated in the Throne of Sorrow and a kingdom tragic and fey...a kingdom with no land to call its own." - Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon

So Steven Erikson introduces one of his major characters. This series is quite simply outstanding, grandiose, magnificent - the word epic is often used as a cliche but if ever a series is worthy of being called that, this is it. It's staggering in its scope.

Erikson's narrative style is to throw you in the thick of the action with minimal background information. This can be quite disconcerting when starting this book - you just don't, and won't, know what the hell's going on. You won't understand how magic works, what a Warren is, where the Malazan empire actually is and what the hell is a Tiste Andii anyway??

It'll be like that for the first hundred pages or so. Keep up or be left behind. You'll find yourself rereading various passages, trying to glean some tiny seed of understanding. It can be pretty frustrating, not knowing a damn thing about anything. But Erikson gives you enough teasing glimpses of quality under the survace for you to feel that understanding is just around the corner if you keep perservering with it, even if you don't initially understand what's going on - Erikson's world is incredibly rich in detail and history, and this is slowly revealed as you get further into the book.

And the more this world - and the storyline set in this world - is revealed the more and more impossible it gets to put the book down. The originality is quite amazing, and it's a MAJOR rush when you start to piece things together. Everything starts to fall into place. It's called approaching comprehension - and it creeps up on you, till you get to the last page of the book and realise that you can't wait to go back to the bookstore to get the second in the series, Deadhouse Gates, just so that you can find out more about this world and the people who live in it. Then when you finish that you'll want to get the third, Memories of Ice. And the fourth, House of Chains. And the fifth, Midnight Tides. And so on and so on...and the best thing? It gets better and better and better as you get deeper into the series - if ever there's a world and a series to lose yourself in, it's this one. Not only that, the rereadability quality of this series is amazing - better than anything else I've read before. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Highly intriguing and well conceived.
If you like intrigue and complicated, interweaving storylines then "Gardens of the Moon" is the next book you should read.

Set in a land torn apart by an invading empire, "Gardens..." follows a variety of characters, from various groups, who would eventually collide through the interferance of gods, elder races and politics.

Erikson has an excellent grasp of character development (often sorely lacking in Fantasy) as events alter the perspectives of each character. This enables the reader to empathise with these believable characters.

I found the most intriguing aspect of "Gardens..." was the ambiguity of the characters. Never had I read a Fantasy novel which blurred the lines between good and evil so well - the characters are not your typical good guy battling the typical bad guy. Erikson writes from all persectives: the invading army soldiers who are ordered to complete their missions without question. For example, the officers in the invading force not neccessarily agreeing with the job they had to do, but completing it nonetheless. We read the perspectives of various political factions in the targeted land; both for and against the conquest, and also the persectives of civilians caught up in the struggle to save their city. What makes this book interesting is that I can now really envision war through similar perspectives.

I had been told a number of times that if I like George RR Martin, then I would also enjoy Steven Erikson as their style and subject matter are similar. This is true. They both have an excellent technical grasp of the English language; not poetic, like Kay or Wolfe, but like Donaldson, they always seem to write the correct word when needed every time. For this reason, you need to read "Gardens of the Moon", and the whole series for that matter.

Step out of your life and into the Malazan Empire!
Okay, let me preface this review by saying that by picking up this book you will be obliged (by your own need and curiosity) to buy and read the other 4 that are out so far (namely Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, House Of Chains, and Midnight Tides {with The Bonehunters set for release in March '06}). It really is THAT good of a series.

Gardens of the Moon will likely do to you what it did to me and countless others. Whereas other 1st books in fantasy series (A Game of Thrones, Assassins Aprentice...ect) spend alot of time setting up the world and it's characters, and making you feel quite comfortable in it before moving you foreward. Gardens of the Moon simply grabs you by the shirt collar on the way by and pulls you along at a lightning pace. The characters and setting get introduced to you almost in passing, as if you should already know them whilst Erikson is pushing the intricate plot foreward at an alarming pace. This is the sheer brillinace in Eriskons writing. Though you have to just keep reading and take alot of strange words and ideas at complex face value, you get to understand them later, so by the time you are ready to start Deadhouse Gates you have a DECENT grasp of the world he has created, but you'll likely never know it all till the whole series is out, and in this lies the key to these books holding up to multiple reads.....it keeps you guessing and intrigues, beyond anything I've read anyway. The world is HUGE, and the cast of characters is staggering in this series, and Erikson continuously introduces you to new characters, but the difference between him and alot of other authors is that almost all mentioned characters have a purpose related to the plotlines, whereas other authors throw names at you of charcters you needn't really care about.

Trust me when I say READ this book. Enjoy it, and don't worry about explanations....you'll get there in time, after a few books are under your belt, and that's the fun!! You won't put it down, I promise. As far as I am concerned Erikson is the best author I have read in years (if not ever)!

Oh, and Erikson doesn't miss his deadlines. Meaning no long waits.