Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven Erikson

The worldbuilding is unparalleled, the characters are well-etched, and the magic is excellent, even if it sometimes gets difficult to digest.

“The closest held secret is the one that never sours with age.”

I started this book, and after 50 pages, I stopped; my head was bursting, and confusion was killing me. I stopped reading, wrote my angriest review on Goodreads, and decided I’d never read this series again.

… and it soured.

I consider stopping a book halfway as a personal defeat, so I picked it up again the next day. I had watched several reviews where they said it gets better as I read. Still, I was cynical.

And then I absolutely finished the book over the next week!

It was magnificent! The worldbuilding is unparalleled, the characters are well-etched, and the magic is excellent, even if it sometimes gets difficult to digest. Steven Erikson’s prose is not for everyone, but I really loved it.

Reading Gardens of the Moon takes up every ounce of attention you can muster. And yes, I’m not ashamed to say I read it with a slideshow guide. Yes, it is painful and exhausting to get through the first 100 pages of the book, but PLEASE CONTINUE. Mr Erikson himself forewarns that readers of the book will either drop the series before finishing Gardens of the Moon or continue until they finish The Crippled God.

Although not everyone might like this book, high-fantasy lovers must read this series because it’s arguably the best illustration of the subgenre to date. While reading Gardens of the Moon could be difficult for fantasy newbies, you could warm up by reading series like A Song Of Ice and Fire and Dune before arriving at The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Gardens of the Moon is an absolute banger!