Los jardines de la Luna (Malaz: El Libro de los Caídos 1)

Escrito por Steven Erikson

Narrado por Víctor Viedma

Los jardines de la Luna es el brillante inicio de la saga «Malaz: El Libro de los Caídos», la decalogía originalmente publicada entre 1999 y 2011 que ya es considerada una de las series más ambiciosas del género y que ha convertido al escritor canadiense Steven Erikson en una de las mayores voces de la fantasía épica contemporánea.

Tras guerras interminables y amargas luchas internas, el descontento se ha apoderado del Imperio de Malaz. Incluso las tropas imperiales, siempre ansiosas por derramar sangre, necesitan un respiro. Sin embargo, las pretensiones expansionistas de la emperatriz Laseen no tienen límites, más aun cuando son reforzadas por sus temibles agentes de la Garra.

El sargento Whiskeyjack y su escuadrón necesitan tiempo para llorar los muertos del último asedio, pero Darujhistan, la última de las Ciudades Libres de Genabackis, los espera; en ella ha puesto la emperatriz su mirada depredadora.

El Imperio no está solo en este juego. Las fuerzas siniestras conspiran dentro y fuera de las sendas mágicas, y entretanto, hasta los dioses se preparan para la batalla...

Reseñas:
«La mejor saga de fantasía de los últimos tiempos.»
Fantasy Book Review

«Una de las sagas más enormes y populares de la fantasía épica contemporánea.»
Fantífica

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Penguin Random House Audio
• Traductor: Miguel Antón Rodríguez
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 30 jun 2022
• ISBN: 9788418037528

Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson (Toronto, 1959), arqueólogo y antropólogo, es una de las mayores voces de la fantasía épica contemporánea, gracias a su decalogía Malaz: El Libro de los Caídos, una de las obras más ambiciosas y osadas que el género ha dado en las últimas décadas. Originalmente publicada entre 1999 y 2011, Malaz ha sido desde entonces definida como «una obra maestra indiscutible de la imaginación», capaz de labrarse un público fiel en las principales lenguas del mundo. Los jardines de la Luna, primer volumen de la saga, fue finalista del World Fantasy Award del año 2000. NOVA ha publicado todos los títulos de la serie.

Comentarios para Los jardines de la Luna (Malaz

[zeljanamaricferli · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I don't think I have ever suffered through my reading like with this book. It's not like I wasn't warned. I went in fully invested and finally gave in to my FOMO of not reading Erikson before.

Some moments were great, some insane imagery, and unforgettable scenes that only great fantasy can achieve. There is a larger-than-life story here, many interesting characters, and an incredible, detailed world full of magic.

But, for a reader to enjoy these elements they need to be measured, introduced at the right time and be meaningful to the plot. This novel goes heavily in medias res, as the reader is observing whats going on through the eyes of the characters. This is not a problem in itself, but there is so much redundancy in this novel. I'd even call it bad editing.

I am very well aware that many fantasy readers love this approach, the same way many people like their food with "everything on it". I just don't.

I came across a sort of companion/guide somewhere on forums that had some maps and chapter summaries. It was incredibly helpful because many things you really don't get merely by reading the text. At least not chronologically on your first read. This is a red flag for me. You shouldn't need to have a companion or even take extensive notes in order to understand what is going on. But, in a weird way, it felt satisfying, just very exhausting.

I've been told that this book is the worst in the series and that I shouldn't give up just yet. I may read the second one when I feel patient enough. It better be good!

[lyrrael · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

(Yep. Never read it. Don’t laugh.) Something something epic fantasy reddit favorite.

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. But 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.

I really punished myself with this book. I’d heard so much about how you have to read it so carefully for detail that I began studying it like an academic text rather than reading for enjoyment, and it ended up taking me nearly a month to read. That...that just isn’t feasible in my world. I don’t have the attention span for it. Once I allowed myself to read it for enjoyment and acknowledge that I’m not going to catch everything the first time through AND THAT THAT’S OKAY, I began enjoying myself significantly more.

Do I want to read something light and fun now? Yes. Do I want to return to the world? I dunno. The fog of the first half of the book is currently hovering over my psyche. I need to remember that I need to be fair to myself and my style of reading, no matter what other people say.

[kjc__ · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I've heard online that this book is difficult to read but I didn't find that so. I wouldn't say there is any single protagonist, we get many perspectives from different characters and conflicting parties. The magic isn't explained, though from what I can gleam "warrens" are worlds that also act as sources of power for mages? Ascendants are these really powerful people and creatures but I don't know how they come to be.

To me Laseen, Adjunct Lorn, and the Malazan empire seem to be the antagonists in this story, since it was them that try to kill and foil the plans of the characters we see. It was them that freed the Jaghut Tyrant and spawned that Soletaken.

I like the ragtag group in that recurring inn, consisting of a fat but smart and capable mage, a mostly heartless assassin, a young and horny thief, a husband who was tricked and now devotes his life to the avoidance of sobriety, and a noble dandy who happens to be pretty good at sparing.

I haven't been so invested in a fantasy novel in a while, I'll probably take a small break then read the next one soon.

[n.w.moors-1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I was warned about reading Malazan and everything said about the book is true. Gardens of the Moon is fascinating world-building with lots of characters and a meandering plot, but one of a classic and ambitious fantasy series.
Here's the thing: I love lore dumps. Give me a fat juicy prologue explaining the magic system and world and I'm in heaven. This book is not that. The reader is thrown in feet first to a complex and dense world where not much gets explained. Someone suggested I keep the wiki open while I read, but that seems like cheating to me.
It took me a long time to get through this book. At times it felt like a slough and other times were exhilarating. It stretched my mind and sometimes helped me fall asleep. It was like taking that required high-level college course in chemistry when you're a music major.
I struggled with my rating. Parts of the book are slow and almost incomprehensible. Other parts are fascinating and I can see why so many people love this series. For me, it fell somewhere in the middle. At some point, when I'm in the mood, I'll read on in the series but I think I'll wait a while.

[harpua_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I've finally pulled this off my shelf and am dedicated now to read the whole series. I was a little nervous as I've heard all the stories of this series being difficult and confusing. To be honest, I really didn't feel that way, at least after reading this first book. Sure Erickson drops you into war and by chapter 2 there is a major battle. Sure he can jump around to different viewpoints to follow. Sure the writing style is a bit tough (but I've heard he improves as a writer as the series goes on). But honestly I really didn't have a problem with any of that.

I appreciate the constant moving to action. I appreciate the character and world building, though it doesn't go into grand detail, it gives you enough to follow what is happening. If I had any complaint and perhaps why I dropped it to 4 stars, the ending seemed a bit artificial. As if, I'm getting close to my word count, time to wrap things up.

However, given the less that satisfying ending, I know it's leading to more big and enjoyable things in future books. Sign me up, I'll finish the series. Looking forward to the next book.

[jamestomasino · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

1) Definitely dense, but with a lot of action. I think Erickson did a fine job introducing us to his world without too much exposition. Granted, it was a little confusing in parts, but by the time things really came to a head, I had it pretty well sorted out.

2) His characters are fairly strong, which is good since there are so many.

3) The balance of the "epic" scale was a little skewed. It was really hard to tell which God or God-like being was going to suddenly be more powerful. In this it reminded me a bit of Dragonball Z, with the characters suddenly powering up and showing new hidden strength, but with Malazan, it was harder to tell which was actually more powerful. Perhaps further reading will reveal that balance a bit more.

4) Meh... I'm bored of reviewing. :)

[madcurrin_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

If Zack Snyder made the Discworld into a movie, this is what it would be like: bombastic, cinematic and violent.

This is a series celebrated for its scope and politics. I can see why, but found it hard to care about any of the characters. It was a slog by the end, straining towards a climax that I was less and less invested in. Maybe the next book will grab me.

Maybe I'll just wait for the tv series.

[jefficus-1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

It took me five separate tries over ten years but I finally made it all the way through this one.

I think I can see why it has so many fans, but I'm not able to get on that train with them. We're just looking for different things. If you want huge worlds with ancient cultures and an almost Lovecraftian sense of elder races, then Malazan might well be your thing. But if your jam is nuanced characters with individual personalities and rich emotional arcs, you best keep looking.

Having finally finished it though, I was still curious about why it took me so many tries to reach the end. After all, it couldn't have been the lack of character arcs because there's no way I had picked up on that when I was bailing at the 100-page marker. There must have been something else going on that was pushing me away. Something more clearly evident in those opening pages. So I went back and reread them more closely and I think I've uncovered two things that triggered my repeated early departures.

Floating heads
One of the first things I noticed (when I started looking for it) was how often I felt untethered from the events of the story. I was constantly struggling to picture what was going on. This is not normally a problem for me, and when it does happen, it's usually because there isn't enough description to give my mental camera anything to look at, but that's not the case here. Indeed, Erikson spends a generous chunk of his word allotment on description. But when I looked closer, I realized that there was in fact a gap. Most of what he's describing seems to be big stuff. Things in the distance. He sets his scenes by giving us a sketch of the architecture and terrain that bound the action, which is all good, but after that, he pays almost no attention to what's going on up close; what I call the "choreography" within the scene - the sense of who is standing where and how they move as the action unfolds. As a result, my imagination had no recourse but to show me the characters floating in a gray fog, bounded by all that beautifully depicted ancient architecture.

Still, if it had been just that one problem, I think I might have finished the book long ago. Alas, it was not alone. And I think this next issue has been the real coffin nail for me in those earlier attempts.

Intimatus Interruptus
The story of Malazan is vast and so, of necessity, it is told from multiple POVs. This in itself doesn't bother me. Stories with a large scope often NEED multiple POVs to convey the entire scope, and I've loved many books that do this. (In fact many of my own books do it too.)

But what put me off here is what I will describe as a sort of "jerkiness" in the transitions. It felt like I was often being yanked out of scenes before they were completely finished. Not that we were jumping away before the necessary action had concluded, but I still felt that there was something missing. And that "something," I think, may have been the dimension of "emotional impact."

The point of any scene in a novel is to convey an event or interaction that is important to the story, and by extension, is somehow important to the characters. But time and again, Erikson presents us with an important scene and then jumps away without giving us much sense of the POV character's reaction to what's just happened. Or if we ARE told, it's in the manner of authorial "telling," and we're rarely SHOWN the impact in a way that let's us feel it for ourselves.

This is entirely in keeping with the more distant POV voice Erikson is writing in, but it feels too clinical to me; we are given plenty of facts but not nearly enough emotional resonance. It's as though I'm watching the story through the eyes of an autistic narrator for whom the human emotional landscape is an opaque mystery and so is left almost entirely undocumented.

But since I AM a reader who is interested in those emotional resonances, the dearth of them in Malazan was enough to put me off. And taking these two issues together, I think I have to conclude that in all those previous attempts to read Gardens of the Moon, I was being pushed out for a reason that will be familiar to most IOD followers.

I was unable to immerse.

[electrascaife · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

So, there's a baddie sorceress woman who's made herself Empress, some other unsavory sorcerer-types who want to depose her, a handful of soldiers of various types, a bunch of fighting, and...? Other...stuff? Honestly, I couldn't be arsed to pay the attention needed to sort through all of this business. I like high fantasy. I really, very much do. But this was nuts. Erikson tries to set out his world building all at once in a big brain dump right in the first few pages and it's just too much. Then he seems to realize how unwieldy that is and around page 10 starts trying to lay more of it out in the hint-hint-nudge-nudge way (having characters make off-hand references to geographic and ethnic details and then just leaving them there as foreshadows to be sorted out later), but this is also at best clumsy and unwieldy and at worst just very much more confusing-making. If any of the characters or plot details had grabbed me, I would have tried to shuffle on, but by 50 pages in, nothing had yet seemed worth the massive effort it feels like it would take to sort it all out. And that shouldn't really be my job as the reader, so yeah. I'm jumping ship.

[andy_dimartino · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Not bad. Picked this up on a friends recommendation. First 25% of the book was hard to follow but it all made more sense at the end. Enjoyed it and will pick up book 2 next.

[ragwaine · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

I gave this 180 pages. I really wanted to get into it. I have enjoyed some of Erikson's non-fantasy stuff a lot and this series has a reputation as being the next "Game of Thrones". Unfortunately it wasn't, at least not for me or wife. There was no Tyrion, no characters grabbed either of us with wit or originality (or both). There really wasn't a sense of who the "good" guys were and really seemed like there weren't any. There were some cool ideas and if I knew I was going to live forever I probably would have read the rest of the book before making a decision on the series, but thinking about reading another 480+ pages of this kind of tepid story just didn't appeal to either of us. So I guess if they come up with the immortality drug maybe I'll get around to this series. For now it's a no thanks.

[briandarvell_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Great start to what I'm hoping is an excellent adventure. Lots of characters, interesting plot and magic, great start to what's to come. Most reviews online seem to hint that the first book is the toughest. If that's the case I'm eager to read the next. Definitely recommend to other fantasy fans.

[sanguinius8991 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

The book that started it all. It throws you in the deep end and expects you to swim. And, if you stick with it, you will. And you'll be glad you did. It's not the best book in the series (by far) but it's enough to get you hooked.

[malexmave · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Well, this is kind of a strange book.

First off, I liked it. The final few chapters were brilliant, and the ending satisfying even though it is only the first of ten books (or nineteen, if you are unfortunate enough to read this series in german).

My Problem with this book is not that it is overly complex (although it is), sometimes hard to understand (although it is), or the lack of explanation for a lot of things that happen (that was actually a plus for me, once I got used to it).

So, what is my problem. To be honest, I don't know. I know that 4/5 stars feels right to me. I have no rational explanation for this (which might be because I finished it a while ago, but my PC broke so I am writing this review 200 pages into the next book).

So, now I'm doing something I usually hate: Rating a book without giving an explanation.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, but with a big asterisk. You have to be able to keep reading a book if you don't really like it at first. The magic of the book only begun at page 300 or 400 or so, and I was ready to give up on it several times. In the end, I'm glad I did not, and so far, I am enjoying book two. So, my recommendation: Set aside some time to get through the first 300 pages of the book in as little time as possible (not, like I did, 50 pages a day, or less). The book is not very long with its 500 pages, so even if you don't like it in the end, you still haven't lost a lot of time. And if you do, you can just keep reading an epic fantasy series that is actually finished.

[antao-3 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

(Original Review, 2002)



Steven Erikson's characters are great; the reader is thrown into his world from the off, expected to follow along with who's who and what's what, and while this is initially disconcerting, I realised it was part of the experience Erikson was trying to create - confusion and chaos in the heat of battle. Relationships are already established, his characters already know who they like or dislike, there's no need for clumsy explanations in dialogue of what this magical term means or what that fantastical creature can do - the reader is expected to get on and learn the hard way, it's a bit like being in room full of people speaking French having never experienced the language before (I don't do French; never learned it). In amongst this, the names were really useful as markers and helped me remember who was who; I think sometimes the authors imply something with their character names, a certain personality or habit and sometimes there may be a connection entirely by accident. The mages had some excellent ones, 'Tattersail', 'Tayschrenn', 'Hairlock'. To me, they imply mystery and power, exactly like their respective characters. The protagonist's name, Ganoes Paran, reminded me of the word 'gallows', as he is quite a dark and cynical character, often seeing things from a humorously negative perspective - this is probably an entirely personal interpretation, but it shows you the importance of a good name. The further the reader gets into the Erikson series, the more we stumble across one of the series' greatest charms; in many of the books the plot centres around the marines of the Malazan Empire, who, without going into too much detail, were all given nicknames by the recruiting sergeant Braven Tooth. The real names of the soldiers are never mentioned, and as the plot progresses the reasons for the enigmatic nicknames become apparent, each marine living up to his new title. How Braven Tooth knows the nature of each one of his recruits remains a mystery, whether this is some form of magic is not revealed, but it is just one of the series-long threads that ties this magnificent fantasy together.

I have to say I think Erikson has the edge over Martin for me. It took longer for me to get into the Malazan world, but once I did, it was a total conversion and a revelation. The first book - Gardens of the Moon - is inferior to the rest of the series in terms of writing; and Erikson just throws you into the action, with nothing explained at all. It's a little frustrating at first, but stick with it. Whatever you do, don't give up before the end of the second book, which I know is a big commitment - but totally worth it. Erikson is an archaeologist and anthropologist and (like Ursula Le Guin) uses his scholarly knowledge to good effect in his books. The level of magic used is *much* higher than in Martin; there's no use pretending you're reading anything other than fantasy.

[guide2_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Hard book to review as the first part is just overwhelming with details and so many characters. Fortunately, the second half is better once you start to know who is who and what they're trying to achieve. But there are still many fuzzy plot points and even a bunch a new characters being thrown at you in the last new chapters. So quite an ambitious novel, but on its own, it's not great. Hopefully the next book in the series will be more enjoyable.

[liscarey · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

This is Volume One of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, and there are an awful lot of fallen by the time you're fifty pages into the book. There are maps that I did not find necessary, a list of Dramatis Personae which is quite necessary, and a glossary at the end which is not a frivolous addition. The Malazan Empire is either about to swallow the last holdouts against its power, or start breaking up due to imperial overreach and poor personnel management of military class necessary to its expansion. This is a complex fantasy world, with a multitude of different cultures, different species, gods taking an active role in the world, etc. What's more, the characters are reasonably complex, with a plausible mixture of good and bad tendencies in at least all the major ones, and the conflicting interests between cultures and between factions within cultures are reasonably plausible, too. If there are few too many major ones, well, that's a tendency shared by many fantasy series, and at least each of these major characters appears to be worth spending some time with.

All of which makes it especially unfortunate that all these fairly interesting pieces didn't really come together, and left me not caring how many more volumes there are in the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

[weeturtle · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I don't seem to have found this book as confusing as some other reviewers have, but I happened to have a friend well versed in all things Malazan who was likely helping me out, whether I wanted him to or not. ;)

A lighter book than the following Memories of Ice, and from what portions I've read from other books, the least like a Malazan novel. Frequently compared to Game of Thrones, I would say the books series' are similar in fantasy genre, but Erikson's treatment of his content feels more subtle to me when compared with Martin's.

Gardens of the Moon feels something like an introduction to the Malazan universe. I'm not far enough in the series at writing this to say for sure, but I feel that this first book shows some of Erikson's style of displaying a world still affected by circumstance. There are gods, there are heroes, prophecies, visions, etc, but not every great hero is destined to die a heroic death.

It's hard to speak of the plot as it feels more like a spider web than a line. Characters are there, and they have motivations and goals of varying sorts, often personal, focused around the city of Darujhistan. Perhaps not as concise as it could be for a single book, it introduces us to characters, concepts, events, etc. that shape the rest of the series.

[vinjii-1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This is a hard review for me because I definitely see the depth of the world building, and I can tell there's a lot to discover. But I felt lost? I felt lost despite notes, despite chapter summaries and I had the impression towards the end it just turned into a bunch of chaotic events and none of it really mattered?

For me it almost felt as if I punished myself with this book. I made notes. I read chapter summaries after every chapter. It was a chore. And Erikson did not manage to make me care. A lot of what happened just happened and I wondered, why? And why does it matter? And why should I care?

Maybe I should give up on the note taking, just read the second installment, see where it takes me and once I'm done, at some point revisit Gardens of the Moon. Maybe I should just give up on Malazan, I haven't made up my mind just yet.

Gardens of the Moon is a complicated story. The writing is solid but not memorable. If you like epic and complicated fantasy, please do give this a try, I can see why so many readers absolutely love this and if I read it again I'll make sure to update this review.

[themjrawr · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

I finished this book several weeks ago, but have struggled with how to rate it. It's very frustrating, as I was intrigued by the magic system and some of the cultures. Once I figured out what the hell was going on that is. Hence the low rating. I'm of the opinion that while info dumps are bad in your books, it's worse to just offer absolutely no explanation whatsoever, giving the impression you are deliberately trying to leave your reader as confused as possible. If I hadn't had a couple people urging me to keep going because they were certain I would enjoy it I would have tossed into a forgotten corner after two or three chapters. I may go back at some point in the future and reread, now that I have a better grasp of how the world works, but I have no pressing urge to continue with the series despite the intriguing glimpses here and there.

[joseph_scifres-1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

The first book in Erikson's saga certainly lays the groundwork for a huge, epic fantasy tale. Was it captivating? Yes. Was the magic over the top? Of course. Did the author throw you right into the middle of a narrative with little background information. Certainly. Did I grow emotionally attached to the protagonists/antagonists? Not yet.

My only 'gripe' with this book is that I have to read "Deadhouse Gates" (Book 2) before I can decide how I feel about the Malazan universe. Don't get me wrong, WOT is similar in this regard and it happens to be my favorite series of all time.

Ultimately, I would highly recommend this book. My review of Book 2 should shed more light on my opinions, though.

[renbedell · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I reread this book as the first time I felt like I was missing too much. It is not an easy read and requires a bit more concentration then typical other books. The main thing is that the reader is thrown right into it. There is a lot of information that gets briefly mentioned or other aspects that are not explained at all. The first time I read this book, I didn't realize that and I felt completely lost. On my reread, I took my time to really absorb everything and I loved it. The story and the characters were very captivating. The world is very interesting, especially with the magic system and deities. Although there is still a lot I don't understand, it makes reading the further in the series that more exciting.

[sarah_buckley-1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This book was dense and yet pretty amazing. I ran out and got the next two books and can't wait to read them!

[jkdavies · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Well... difficult to read this without the weight of the series crowding in... plenty of interesting places, people, plots, gods, things going on. A bit overwhelming, and slightly less engaging than I'd hoped, making this read drag a little more than expected. Not sure if I will take the plunge into the rest of the series - probably via second hand books if available

[altheaann · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I got this as it was highly recommended to me by a friend who knows I enjoy epic fantasy.
It was good. It was well-written. However, I think that in its epic scope, it loses something. I usually very much enjoy stories where you're just dropped into the action, rather than sitting through lots of exposition and explanation, but here, often, just not enough clues are given to let you actually know what's going on. There are lots (and lots) of interesting characters, but I failed to be as emotionally involved with their lives as I wanted to be. However, by the end, it picked up a bit, and I think I'll try at least the next one in the series to see if I feel more drawn in to the story.

[irrhapsodi · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Massive. Epic. Ensemble cast. At times, reading this was a drag (not because of a lack of action, rather the confusing melange of plots and character groupings thrown in here). I only persevered out of the expectation of everything somehow making sense in the end. And although threads and characters finally come together in something of a climax, that didn't magically reveal 'the reason for it all'. But the sheer scope and complexity of the world, history, cultures portrayed compelled me to pick up the next in the series.

In the end, my respect and faith in the fantasy genre was renewed. If somebody could create something completely imaginary, breathe that much artistry and reality in it as to make me feel and believe strongly in it, and craft it all into a massive tome that still seems too short...yeah, hats off. Even with zombie armies, wizard duels and puppets, godly avatars in thrall, and dragons flying overhead, it feels real.

[websterhamster · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This book is amazing! Without being a Lord of the Rings copy, Gardens of the Moon manages to reach the height of contemporary fantasy.

If you're looking for high fantasy, a la Lord of the Rings, you might be disappointed here. Gardens of the Moon isn't about linguistics or mythology the way LoTR is - it's more about the tiny, gritty details that Tolkien didn't put into his mythos. Amazing stuff.

[dinadansfriend · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Mr. Erikson is a good writer of gritty fantasy. The books are tautly written and though the overall mood is depressing, his world is consistent. Lacking a new volume of Ice and Fire this is reasonably good stuff.

[robinlythgoenull · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I have heard a lot of good things about this series. There is certainly a lot going on in 'Gardens of the Moon,' but stories of the many individuals involved are so splintered that they are difficult to follow. I am disappointed with the characterization—one fellow seems so much like the other(s) that they were confusing. We join in the middle of the story (which is good), and although I applaud the lack of long passages of exposition, the reader is a stranger in a very strange world and critical information is withheld, including the various motivations. And what is with giving characters such similar names that we can't remember who is who through this complicated weaving? Most of the names are just plain awful. Worse, they lack any kind of cultural cohesion that might help us keep track.

The aspect of world-building leaves something to be desired. A good part of the problem may be because there are so many names and places and events being tossed around, willy-nilly. The places are so huge that I wondered if the author really knew what a 'league' was. The structure of the magic is only brushed upon—apparently the "warrens" (sources) the mages use have specific flavors/abilities, but that is not reflected in what the mages do with their magic. It is amazing to have so much magic going on and still not really know what happened.

The writing style... goes from 'fair' to 'atrocious' to 'funny.' The characters exchange inside jokes the readers have no way of understanding—or make references to things that make no sense to us outsiders. Was there an editor involved in this process? There are misused words, repetitious words/phrases, terrible punctuation, wildly awkward sentences that never will make sense no matter how often they're reread...

And yet...

The revelation of vast powers at work, political and military maneuvering, and tiny glimpses into the lives of pawns of every social station was just enough to keep me turning the pages, wondering how (and if and when!) problems would be solved. The whole is complicated emotionally by having points of view from the side of the conquerors as well as those being conquered. I've heard that the second book involves the characters better, as opposed to laying out the draft of the juggernaut empire. Here's hoping...

[kiddboyblue · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This was not my favorite fantasy novel. I felt like there was a lot going for it, but it fell short in a lot of places for me. It had all the right ingredients, war, magic, different races, epic destiny's, etc. However small things left me feeling frustrated. For example the author failed to really describe anything that was unique to his world, like different races or creatures. He would describe a beast as big and hairy...OK...and? That doesn't give !e much to go on. He described one race as dark skinned and tall; again...its hard for me to form a picture based on that. I felt like he could have given a better idea of what these different creatures and beings looked like to help me.
His action scenes were great and full of perfect detail that really allowed me to get into it!
I think there were too many characters, that sort of distracted from the story.
Still, overall I would say it was a good fantasy novel, but not a great one. I am willing to continue reading the series so its good enough to keep me interested.