Malazan: Gardens of the Moon by: Steven Erikson

The one fantasy series which is spoken of in hushed whispers for its brilliance yet stone faced difficulty is the massive Malazan universe.  Created in the 1980s by Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont in a tabletop role playing game, the universe first came to the public in 1999 with the first installment in Malazan: Book of the Fallen, Gardens of the Moon and since then 20 further novels and 6 novellas have been published to critical acclaim and success.  Erikson and Esslemont, however, have been criticized for creating an overly complex world that is difficult for new readers to enter and understand everything.  Malazan is a commitment to read to be certain, however, critics and fans laud it for its characters, world, plot, and themes, claiming that the difficulty is worth it, especially upon rereads.  While I am not here to make a definitive judgement on these claims, as I’ve only read the first book that I am reviewing, this review is going to be the first in at least sixteen reviews of the series to evaluate each book on their own merits and hopefully to serve as an introduction to the series for anyone who is interested.  The intent is to review the Book of the Fallen by Erikson and Novels of the Malazan Empire by Esslemont generally in publication order (excluding Night of Knives which will be read second).

 

With that prologue taken care of, Gardens of the Moon is the first novel in the universe and the Book of the Fallen sequence.  Written by Steven Erikson in the 1980s as a screenplay and later converted to a novel, it was rejected for publication multiple times until 1999 where it was picked up by Bantam Books, and later Tor for the United States release.  When picking up Gardens of the Moon prospective readers should be aware of several intrinsic problems which do in fact drag this novel down in quality.  Converting a script to a novel is as difficult as changing mediums and there are several points in the book where Erikson’s style feels like it is a screenplay, especially near the end as the point of view begins to shift more rapidly in each chapter making it slightly more difficult to follow who is speaking.  It feels like a description of something in a film, often expecting seeing the characters to allow the reader to know who they are.  It also can make some of the descriptions of action feel like cues for stage direction and not an organic description.  This is relatively minor, but it does muddle things as Gardens of the Moon begins in media res and does not ever really jump back to the beginning, leaving the reader to wonder just what happened before the events of this novel.  Being written in the 1980s, over a decade before it would be published also has an effect on the way it is written.  This was Erikson’s first novel, and there are hallmarks of an author’s first novel throughout.  The pacing of Gardens of the Moon is odd as it is split into seven segments, some longer than others, some shorter which makes reading odd.

 

Outside of this, there is in general a lot of Gardens of the Moon which demands the attention.  The reputation of being a difficult novel to read is apt, but luckily much of this is not due to a lack of skill on Erikson’s part.  Erikson is a talented writer and while this first book is flawed there are great things here: he’s writing a story where there are a lot of moving pieces and there is a refusal to get bogged down in exposition.  The reader is thrown into the story with no expectations of what the world of Malazan holds or how the magic system works or even the history of these characters, but careful attention to how they interact will reveal much in the way of exposition in the subtext.  There is also the intention that this is the first in a long series, so not all of the answers are meant to be revealed here.  Erikson employs unreliable narrators for several points in the novel to further leave the reader on their toes.

 

The actual plot of Gardens of the Moon is pretty simple: the Malazan Empire has had its emperor assassinated and an empress on the throne whose goal is to conquer the continent of Genabackis.  The city of Pale is under siege and it is this conflict that serves as the inciting incident and centerpiece of the novel.  Each of the characters introduced in this book have their own allegiances in the siege of Pale and the further conquests.  Allegiances are formed and broken, and then reforged over the course of the book.  Characters go to war, die, are resurrected, and have their worldview changed with the exposure to new ideas and factions.  The world is vast and Erikson makes it feel like this is an empire spanning conflict, but doesn’t forget that there are also the little people on the ground who get swept up in conquest.  The magic system he introduces here involves alternate dimensions which give people power due to allegiances with different gods, gods who aren’t afraid to interfere and meddle to their own ends.  Writing gods and godlike characters, Erikson gives the point of view from those on the ground, in the impact zone.  This gives the gods their own power over the reader and the characters as we don’t quite know what powers they have.  The standout gods, to me at least, are Cotillion aka the Rope, a sort of acolyte to a god of death, who spends most of the novel possessing a young girl and maneuvering her into the army and into a position where he can take power, and Anomander Rake.  Rake is not a god, but a member of the Tiste Andii race who are very long lived.  He is the lord of a floating fortress called Moon’s Spawn and while integral to events, especially in the climax, is not in much of the novel.  Erikson ensure that when Rake appears the reader gets an impression of who he is and who other characters think he is.  He is both feared and respected, and there is a twist with Rake at the end of the novel which is excellent.  He has a Great Raven called Crone which does his bidding and provides the oddest comic relief in the book.

 

The mortal characters also have their own struggles and each major character leaves a lasting impact due to their wants and desires.  Readers will attach to many of them, although ambiguity in their actions is key to Erikson’s themes.  This is a book about conquest and does not shy away from the fact that these characters are doing horrible things.  They may be likable, but few of them can be called good.  There are characters like Quick Ben or Kruppe who work on the outside for their own manipulative ends throughout the book, or like Tattersail who is trying to keep her regiment together after the siege leaves her and her squad broken.  There are people like Paran who became a soldier for glory, but has become a pawn in an even greater game, dying and being resurrected by a god for their own ends.  They’re all excellent and Erikson is not afraid from using the genre of fantasy to its fullest, even if he intends to deconstruct tropes.  Overall, Gardens of the Moon has a lot going for it.  The world is one which you can get lost in and it will stay with you after you finish, as you ask questions, but it is a first novel.  As a first novel, it does quite a few things that make it excessively difficult to read, even by the standards set by the author, but if this review has intrigued you, I will say give it a shot.  7/10.