Steven Erikson: Gardens of the Moon

First and foremost - this is not my nightly.  I just felt like adding some more content, and what better than my favorite fantasy series to lead the way?  A classic example of a novel that Doesn't Suck, to stand firm against all comers.  I've read through it enough times that I remember it, too. Well most of it.

Steven Erikson is a bastard.  I firmly believe that. Every interview, every bit of info I have read about the man only serves to reinforce the opinion.  He's an arrogant Canuck with a chip on his shoulder.  But despite that, or perhaps because of it, there is a good chance I may be just a little bit in love with him.  The scale and scope of his series - The Malazan Book of the Fallen - is unprecedented in the fantasy genre.  And it seems I will forgive much for that, even down to Canadian colloquialisms and an ego you could launch fighter planes off of.

What Doesn't Suck: This book is extremely unapologetic.  You are dropped headfirst into the thick of things.  You do not know the players, you do not know the rules, hell, you don't even know what game you're playing, and it doesn't let up in the slightest.  This may turn off some readers before they get a grip on things, but for me the mystery only added to my enjoyment. When I recommend this to friends, I make them promise to get passed the first hundred pages before deciding that it sucks.  You're simply not doing the book justice otherwise. 

The central concept behind this book (along with every other book in the series) is simple; convergence. You are introduced to a huge cast of characters, some mundane, others outrageously powerful magicians or warriors, and then in the end mashes them all up together in one huge battle. It's pretty epic. 

The greatest strength of this series is without a doubt the cast.  You have something like a dozen different races interacting on the same world, all with unique abilities, gods, beliefs etc.  All with a hundred thousand years of back story.  Some are immortal, some are nearly mundane, but all have their various heroes.  And a shocking proportion of them are just downright badasses.

This one may be a quirk unique to me, but I freaking loved the names in the series. Anomander Rake.  Andarist.  Silchas Ruin.  Sheltatha Lore.  A hundred others.  I have a friend who tried to get his first born son named Anomander, and he's never even read the series.

What sucks: Well it can't all be roses.  First, don't come in expecting poetry.  Erikson is a competent writer, but he seems far more concerned with his deliciously over-the-top characters than he is with making it all read pretty. And, as much of a fanboy as I may be, there are few Erikson fans who will argue that Gardens of the Moon was anything but the worst book in the series.  It's riddled with plot holes that don't quite sync with the rest of the series, most likely on account of the ten year lapse before the second book was written.

Something else to pick at; the plot itself is not a strong suit.  A synopsis would read like a pretty standard scramble to stop the Big Bad from taking over everything affair.  It seems boring, but really, it isn't.  Honest.  

I suppose some will be turned off by the fact that there are roughly a billion characters in this book to keep track of.  I have friends who have resorted to hand written notes to keep tabs on them all. But if someone with my memory can remember them, you should be able to as well...or at least the cool ones anyways, and those are the ones that really matter.

Deep Thoughts: All in all, GOTM has all the depth and history of The Lord of the Rings, and adds to that  the over-the-top action of a Dragon Ball Z episode.  Now I hate DBZ as much as the next guy, but somehow the ridiculous aspect works perfectly here.  Read it.  

Rating: Doesn't Suck