Mouthing off about: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

I can't really do proper, professional, structured reviews, the patience for that just doesn't come easy to me, so, on this blog, I thought I'd try just mouthing off positively or negatively every so often about books I've read. This is one of them and it has me in a chokehold.

So, I hope I can offer something in terms of whether you would like to read a certain book or not, while making you laugh and expressing my enthusiasm for writing in general. Have fun listening to me ramble.

This is one of those book series where I've usually just looked at it and thought 'What the hell, this looks like climbing Mt Vesuvius seven times in row!'

Then I finally got around to reading the first book and thought 'Wow, climbing Mt Vesuvius is pretty fun actually!'

It's not your usual fantasy novel fare of a gradual introduction to the world and characters, this one starts with several of the latter overlooking a burning city, then, in the first chapter, you see someone getting possessed by an otherworldly entity while an old lady with a candle grumbles ominously at a soldier. It tosses you in, starts sprinting, and then expects you to keep up, which isn't the most welcoming beginning for readers new to the fantasy genre, but, for me, it was kind of refreshing not having everything spoon-fed to me. It's also not so obscure that you feel like you need a degree in whatever's going on to understand it (Certain science-fiction authors, I'm looking at you- if you're good at science, well done, but a reader shouldn't feel like they need to catch up on quantum physics to enjoy your stuff!).

It's a rewarding first part to the series, if you can stick with it, because there's a-lot of well-done foreshadowing with some tasty pay-offs even at the end of the first part of a ten part series. (And you best believe, I'm taking all ten parts at once).

It's not just character arcs and stories, the world is steadily revealed to you, not in a plodding, boring way, but you start to get a sense of what a location or landmark is like just by the way characters talk about it and details become clearer through the dialogue and people's histories with each place. It's nice to have a fantasy novel that doesn't treat you like your still in nappies and have only progressed to gumming plastic cutlery.

For example, hardly any actual concrete detail is given about Moon's Spawn, a floating city ruled by one of most powerful (and best named) characters in the book, Anomander Rake, but the location and it's sheer presence, and how it's spoken of with a mixture of awe and fear by some characters, gives a greater air of mystique and history that it wouldn't have had if the author had given us a guided tour for four pages.

Some descriptions such as these will stick with you, because they carry so much weight, like the sorceress Tattersail describing Moon's Spawn as "Ragged as a blackened tooth", or when Kruppe, a mage/thief, reads up on the place's history and he envisions the five black dragons and one red dragon who ascended from the city long ago, it's all incredibly effective.

Which brings me on, almost awkwardly, to the characters themselves, which was a big reason why this book worked for me, if you hadn't guessed. There's Anomander Rake, Tattersail and Kruppe, who I've mentioned, but there's also Paran, the soldier cursed by a twin-deity, Oponn, who made a fun, yet intimidating Loki-ish presence. Sorry, who's an assassin who finds herself with The Bridgeburners, an elite army division, all of whom get moments to shine as well.

Some characters did come across as useless, vestigial udders, which made some POVs in the city Darujhistan section drag on a bit for me, but even that had repercussions for the second book involving a revolution, so they're not to be skimmed over.

Essentially, if I went over why each character is effective, compelling and charismatic, I'd be here rambling for about five pages, and no-one has that sort of time, so I'll move on to the way magic works in this world, which I found intriguing.

There's several massive teleporting shadow hounds, one of which is called Rood (because I assume he doesn't get invited to many dinner parties and is from looney toons), there's a a sorcerer who dies and becomes a creepy, bitter puppet-man, Rake's sword leaks shadows and has a prison realm in it, making it the coolest thing ever, and all magic-users draw their energy from cosmic bum-holes called Warrens... try not to imagine a rabbit in a cosmic bum-hole... although you probably are now, sorry.

So, all in all, it's a bit different from other magic systems out there. It took some getting used to and some time to understand, observing how characters use it and how it impacts the world, which, without spoilers, turns out to be quite a-lot.

There's a particular series of fight-scenes with this magic towards the end involving an ancient, orcish sorcerer, who gets released from his tomb by two characters as part of a war strategy. He ends up battling other ancient sorcerers in their dragon forms, almost destroying a country as he waxes lyrical about how much he hates humanity and nature, it's the stuff of heavy metal album covers and, while the constantly shifting points-of-view made it difficult to follow, I couldn't get enough.

Which brings me to my second major criticism, aside from the less compelling characters. Erikson switches between character perspectives a bit too much for me, so one minute, I was fighting shadow hounds with Paran and pals, and the next I was with a teenage assassin pining after some rich girl like he thought he was auditioning for West Side Story. This structure threw me off at times. which did kind of hamper my enjoyment occasionally. However, it seems like the second instalment is fixing this issue, so, there's evidence of learning from mistakes there- gold star, sir!

Also, while there's enough new terms and names to fill a history book on your granddad's shelf, Erikson's prose doesn't get weighed down with it all and his sentences just flow very nicely. There's no obvious break in the story to dump endless exposition about places and people on you, like he's the world's strictest tour guide and he's expecting you to ace a quiz by the end. Each character has a distinct voice and speaking style which made keeping up with the POV changes a little easier, and made them more fun to read.

Garden's of the Moon, and the Malazan series as a whole by the looks of it so far, has so much worldbuilding and entertaining moments ( and I so like a high-value, entertaining whole, (pun!))

It looks like Erikson is interweaving themes of empathy in hard times, where your loyalties lie when things go to pot, and whether or not we are in charge of our own fates or is there something else moving the pieces of our lives, so there's some philosophical value as well.

So, while there is a learning curve and some patience required, especially if you're new to fantasy, this is a unique read as far as I can tell, with some fantastic characters, intriguing worldbuilding from an archaeologist who knows his stuff and just sheer entertainment value as the icing on a very rewarding, if intimidating cake. But one that only leaves your fingers slightly sticky by the end of the experience and is rather moreish.