Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson Review









I feel like this is going to be a very difficult book to review. First off, I should mention that I mostly listened to this on audiobook, which was fantastic. This might be one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to so far, the narrator, Ralph Lister, does such an amazing job. His voice is extremely easy to listen to, and he somehow manages to give every character a different and suitable voice. I especially liked the voice he gave Kruppe, it was just so perfect for the character and often made me laugh out loud. He really made the story come alive and gave the people more substance and depth with his narration. So I really want to recommend the audiobook here! 

So now to the story itself. I don’t think I could explain it in any way. I knew going in that this is generally known as a very confusing book, and I now see why that is. Nothing is really fully explained, the reader is dumbed in the story and learns something here and there as he goes along. Maybe I’m not the most attentive listener and would have understood more had I read the physical book, but especially the beginning was very sparse on the information and heavy on the action. Surprisingly, however, I wouldn’t say this is a bad thing for this particular novel. You don’t need to understand everything to go along with the plot, and later on things will become a little bit clearer.

I also really liked the magic in this book. This is finally a fantasy novel that features very many different kinds of magic, we have alchemists, seers, wizards, sorcerers, and so on and so on. The divine aspect was also very cool, I usually love stories where gods and divinity play a role and we certainly have that here. This, along with the chaotic character of the story and the fairly short scenes made for a very fast paced reading experience as well. The characters themselves were also quite enjoyable, we don’t get too much characterization, or at least I didn’t pick up on it, but what was there I really liked. I think Tattersall and Kruppe were my favorite characters in this book. 


Overall it was a pretty cool and fun fantasy story. The whole story seems to be concerned with the theme of humans destroying themselves and pulling each other down, from what I gather, and I think it will be fascinating to see where this goes in future books. I do think I will read them in physical form, however, as I need to understand and learn more about this interesting world! 

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