Before reading Gardens of the Moon, I wasn’t really into fiction, let alone fantasy or high fantasy. I typically spent my time reading non-fiction. A couple of years ago, though, I decided I wanted to start getting into reading fantasy and stumbled upon suggestions for Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Gardens of the Moon is the first of the series, so I ordered it.
I’ll be honest, it took me a long time to get through it. A year and a half, I think. Right from the start, I was dumped into the middle of a rapidly evolving story and needed to keep track of more characters and events than I’ve ever had to in a book. I battled for over a year to get just a third of the way through. Eventually, things just clicked and I found myself not able to put the book down. For me, the learning curve of Erikson’s storytelling process paid off massively.
I now have a favorite fantasy series and a lot of fantasy books I think I’ll like now fall short. Thanks, Mr. Erikson.