Name: Gardens of the Moon
ISBN: 9780765310019

Gardens of the Moon

The opening chapter in an epic fantasy masterpiece....Bled dry by interminable warfare, infighting and bloody confrontations with Lord Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, the vast, sprawling Malazan empire simmers with discontent.Even its imperial legions yearn for some respite. For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners and for Tattersail, sole surviving sorceress of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, still holds out - and Empress Lasseen's ambition knows no bounds. However, it seems the empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister forces gather as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand... Conceived and written on an epic scale, Gardens of the Moon is a breathtaking achievement - a novel in which grand design, a dark and complex mythology, wild and wayward magic and a host of enduring characters combine with thrilling, powerful storytelling to resounding effect. Acclaimed by writers, critics and readers alike, here is the opening chapter in what has been hailed a landmark of epic fantasy: the awesome 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen'.

What Hacker News says

NoNotTheDuoDec 2023

Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, House of Chains, Midnight Tides, The Bonehunters, Reaper's Gale, Toll the Hounds, Dust of Dreams, and The Crippled God - aka Malazan Book of the Fallen - all by Steven Erikson.

Talk about a renewed interest in reading. After getting through Gardens of the Moon, I realized that I didn't really know what was going on or why these characters were doing what they were doing. I found a readalong podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ten-very-big-books-a-m...), which really helped me put into context the storylines throughout the series.

It's the most epic fantasy series out there. The stories are based on GURPS games that Erikson and his gaming partner Ian Cameron Esslemont ran in the 1980s on archeological digs.

And there are an additional 16 novels, written both by Erikson and Esslemont, which continue to flesh out the universe.

I became completely enamored with the books. I couldn't put them down. It took me from about February through October to finish all 10. There's so much content, and they really shine on a readthrough.

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dilippkumarDec 2021

My recent favorite books:

Epic Fantasy: The Malazan series. (Gardens of the Moon, the first book is a challenging read and has a bit of an anticlimatic end. Don't judge the series till finishing the first three books. They get easier to read starting book 2).

History: The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes. (The title is misleading - it's not about the manhattan project really. The book traces the history of nuclear physics, starting from Rutherford realizing that most of an atom's mass must be concentrated in a nucleus - and step by step, follows all the turns and surprises as a group of people pieced together what an atom must be made of. The book makes an unavoidable turn into the manhattan project and ends with Hiroshima/Nagasaki, so yes the Manhattan project does make a significant part of the book, but it's really not the focus of the book).

Design: The Elements of typographic style by Robert Bringhurst. (A beautiful book about typesetting beautiful books).

Nature: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. (A fascinating book about fungii. I'll never see trees the same way again).

Autobiography: A man for all markets by Edward O Thorp (Claude Shannon shows up and helps the author try to cheat at Roulette using wearable computers! A lot of fascinating stuff).

More history: The Anarchy by William Dalrymple. (A book on the British East India company went from being a merchant company to eventually becoming the British Raj).

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ta2345252666fFeb 2020

Was a bit disappointed to see Malazan Book of the Fallen #1 - Gardens of the Moon so far down. It'd be interesting if they took the series as a whole. One example is The Lies of Locke Lamora, I think it's a good first book but almost everyone I've spoken to/read comments from agrees is bottoms out in book 2 and 3. Personally think the same of Rothfuss' work. Conversely a lot of people say MBotF improves past the first book (I think its excellent from the start), so it's a tough list to base the entire experience on.

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dilippkumarSep 2019

Just finished the second book of this series. I agree with the parent comment - strongly recommend.

I also finished book 10 of the Malazan series.

Imagine Dan Carlin (Hardcore History podcast) and Quentin Tarantino took both the red pill and the blue pill that Morpheus offered Neo and ground both the pills together, snorted it, shook hands and agreed to create something better than Game of Thrones. I imagine they would have come up with something almost as good as the Malazan series.

You’ll have to power through the first book (Gardens of the Moon). It is notoriously difficult - I recommend following up each chapter with commentary on Tor’s Gardens of the Moon reread. I will also guarantee that the way book 1 ends will not make sense. But keep reading - the payoff is waiting as early as the end of book 2. And again at the end of book 3. And again all through books 4 and 5. And it’ll stay that good till the end.

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jatsignJul 2018

You may want to try the audiobook version of Gardens of the Moon. I've been listening to it and have quite enjoyed it, but can definitely see how reading the book might be a bit of a slog. There's a lot of posturing going on, talking about how powerful so many characters are, that it remind me a bit of dragonball z.

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r_smartDec 2016

Just read Locke Lamora and it was quite good.

I'd add in the Malazan series by Steven Eriksson. Gardens of the Moon is the first one. Great books, but definitely a long undertaking.

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