Lamron Lit Corner - Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon: Learning how to read the largest fantasy saga ever written

Move aside Tolkien, Sanderson, and Sapkowski—you may have the sales, but when it comes to sheer content, nothing can come close to Steven Erikson’s world of Malazan. To any literary fantasy fan, that name alone should strike a confusing mix of fear and love into your heart. For myself, I’ve only scraped the surface of what Malazan holds with its first book, Gardens of the Moon, and yet I can already tell that there is something wholly unique about this series.

Starting with Gardens in 1999, the Malazan Book of the Fallen spans ten novels by author Steven Erikson, the tenth being published in 2011. Since then, a number of side stories, prequels, and sequels have been released with the latest being The God is Not Willing in 2021. Its other author, Ian Cameron Esslemont, is another contributor to the series, with both he and Erikson’s combined page count making it the longest hard-fantasy series ever written. 

So, with such an astonishing reputation, how does the first book set up such an extraordinarily expansive world?

The first thing a reader will notice about Gardens of the Moon is that it is not for the faint of heart; in the world of Malazan, you have to be your own guide. You cannot rely on the characters, timeline, or even narrator to help you to understand what is happening and why it all matters. This fact alone likely accounts for why there are so many low reviews for the books in the series on Audible, as that form of reading is just not how Gardens was meant to be consumed. You will be flipping back and forth to the maps, character lists, index, and previous chapters frequently, and that’s part of the experience for better or worse.

Now, for those of you who haven’t been turned away, here’s why such intensive reading is a good thing. Gardens is not a small book, so through the act of reading, annotating, and flipping around, you will ultimately feel like you know Malazan well. Now, whether you know what actually happened in this specific book, that may differ. I for one had to read some plot summaries online as I read to make sure I had it all down. Even so, Gardens moves at lightning speed. In this way, it breaks away from what Tolkien set up with his classic novel; there is no long prequel, no long rising action, not even a clear climax in the midst of everything that happens. You go from reading about a tavern fight to a God controlling his armies in the blink of an eye and are expected to remember it all. Again, you cannot expect help from the narrator—you have to be committed to the novel’s peculiarities.

Now, here’s why that may be a bad thing. Having spent so much time reading plot summaries, indexes, and character lists, the events and characters of the story start to disassociate in your mind. It’s hard to see these things as “real” when you have to read the book as though it’s something to be studied rather than enjoyed. There are definitely moments when it feels like you are right in the action with the characters, but there are plenty more moments where you feel as though you are trying to cram for a history final rather than read for fun.

So here’s my recommendation: if you’ve read this far out of interest, I would give Gardens of the Moon a shot. You’ve shown at least a hint of interest, and for a book like this, it is truly all-or-nothing. If you dislike it, no harm done. If you like it, you have a lifetime’s worth of material ahead of you with more on the way nearly every year. Malazan is not for everyone, but those who love it will never need to read anything else.