Rating: 
Summary: Shooting for radiance and falling far short
Review: After finishing the final pages of Gardens of the Moon, it is difficult for me to appreciate the expanse of critical acclaim that this book has garnered. Unlike many of the other reviewers, I felt this story sorely lacking the richness and magical quality that other writers such as Tolkien, Jordan, and Martin have delivered. While throwing the conventional storyline, stereotypical characters, and magical farce of traditional fantasy into the backseat in a refreshing attempt to create something new of fantasy, this effort falls short of the goals it reached for. While Erikson's world of Genabackis and Malazan seems complex and exciting, the intricate world is hardly explored in depth and seems lacking in its history or feel. A multitude of 'main' characters plague the storylines giving you hardly any chance to become comfortable or understanding of any one character. With a possible twenty-four different characters supplying their POVs at least once to the story, the static characters not only have no depth or complexity, but the omnipresent feel of seeming to know absolutely everything that is going on leaves no room for any sort of surprise or excitement of what may happen next. And though action seethes throughout the book, the storyline runs totally rampant and leaves you behind wondering if there is any sort of plot to the story or what is going on.Unlike many of the other reviewers, I believe that the beginning of Gardens of the Moon, or perhaps the first 'book', Pale, is the best written and most interesting. While not exactly overflowing with action sequences, the first book introduces you to the characters with the most, or should I say, the only characters with depth to them. Paran, Tattersail, Whiskeyjack, and Lorn show promise in the first chapters. However, upon entering book 2, Darujhistan, the previous plot and its characters in Pale are lost to be replaced by a multitude of pathetically-rendered characters many of whom seem like reflections of one another. Any sort of storyline or direction flops all over the place as the story passes through the POVs of nine different characters. Perhaps if six of these characters were not introduced, the plot may have gone somewhere or shown some steady track, yet the farce of switching characters every other page or so leaves the reader feeling confused and choking on a storyline with no seeming purpose. Though some of the characters do seem realistic, there is never enough time to become involved with any characters or understand why they do what they do. This quality makes that most of the characters seem unnecessary, and it takes away from the story because it causes you to not really care what happens to any of the characters. All of their own subplots seem so insignificant and aimless that upon finishing the story, I could not have cared if Darujhistan blew up and took all the characters with it. And while Erikson seems to tell much of the story without direction or focus, the parts of the story that do contain some sort of straightforwardness add nothing to the book and make you wonder why they were added at all. What was the point of Hairlock? Why was the Jaghut Tyrant added and then so effortlessly blown away? The story doesn't revolve around any sort of centralized plot or plots and as the story comes to an absolutely open ended, eventless end, it leads the reader to ask themselves "what actually happened in this book". I have heard that this book is supposedly just one of many in a series, but this book had absolutely no sort of wholeness or conclusion to it that you question why that book doesn't just keep rambling on. The book has no sort of beat or rhythm to it at all. Instead of each chapter bringing about a certain event or idea, each is chopped apart and scattered between characters making it really unnecessary to even start another chapter. So many things aren't explained, whether it be history, or character background, or even the ascendants and warrens, that the reader has nothing to hold on to in order to understand or recognize things. Though I have felt Gardens of the Moon to be only an adequate debut, I feel Erikson will be an author to watch. While this first story was lacking and confusing, I do have a feeling that things may be explained and cleared up perhaps in the upcoming novel. I do wonder what will become of Tattersail, Paran, and Whiskeyjack, so I will perhaps read on. However, to those of you reading this review, this Gardens of the Moon doesn't come close to the quality and intricacy that is found in series like the Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. Yet however, it is a league up from much that fantasy has to offer these days.
Rating: 
Summary: Memories of Ice: Malazan Empire 3
Review: Afficionados of this series have already figured out that the quick way to get ahold of the new one is to go over to Amazon.co.uk and pre-order them there. The third book in the series, "Memories of Ice", is now available for pre-order, and due to be published in Oct. 2001. Good news for fans of book #1 who (like me) were frustrated by #2 (Deadhouse Gates) only following the storyline of some of the characters -- #3 sounds like it will take us back to the main Bridgeburner brigade. No wonder Erikson is going to take 10 books to deal with this series, if he plans on spawning multiple storylines and devoting a book to each thread!
Rating: 
Summary: Rival for George R.R. Martin!
Review: Yes you read it right! George R.R.Martin, the man who has written my favorite fantasy series,Song of Ice and Fire has rival to his throne!Who is the Rival you may ask? The rival's name is Steven Erikson and his saga is called Gardens of the Moon. This epic fantasy novel was unforgettable masterpiece! Erikson's world-building skills has launch him into the ranks of Martin,Hobb, Clemens and Goodkind in this novel.Gardens of the Moon concerns a terrible war being waged between Malazan empire under brutal reign of Empress Laseen and immortal Anomander Rake and his formidable Tiste Andi.This war is fought with both armies and magic.This novel concerns the epic battle between these forces for the city-state of Darujhistan. This book is filled with scenes of brutal combat, sinister intrigue and powerful dark magic and sorcery.Unforgettable characters inhabit this wartorn world like Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of bridgeburners who serve the Empress Laseen and not knowing that she plots to betray them and have them killed.Paran, a young nobleman sent by Laseen and her ruthless Adjunct,Lorn to betray the noble bridgeburners and who insteads helps them.Anomander Rake, a immortal being fighting the Malazan empire for his dying race.Crokus younghand, a teen thief of Darujhistan who finds himself unwilling pawn this battle.This novel also has scenes of scheming and menacing gods who possess the bodies of mortals and manipulate the world to the own ends.And did I mention the action sequences? There are fight scenes in here to put the Matrix to shame! Plot twists as you see betrayal and treachery are the norms in this world where noble soldiers are targeted for death by their own rulers and young woman who can become souless killer.Erikson's world is a intricate and complex as our own as he slowly gives you it's history and his magic system is also very unique as he gives you scenes of conjuring of demons and ancient evil to do bidding of various sorcerers, assasins and powerful gods.I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series:Deadhouse Gates to see if this series will beat Song of Ice and fire as the best fantasy in print!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent 1st Novel
Review: I can understand why this guy got a huge advance from his publisher toward the writing of another 8 novels in this sequence. He's a very gifted wordsmith and this novel is a fascinating read. It's a complex tale of military intrigue and very potent magic and does have a lot of characters, but if you have a brain in your head and are not afraid to use it, you'll find you won't be able to tear your eyes away from the page. For me, this novel stands easily alongside Goerge R R Martin's current series in terms of depth of story and quality of writing and like a lot of the other reviewers listed below, I am looking very much forward to reading this author's future works.
Rating:
Summary: What Fantasy books should be like
Review: This is a superb book, and is quite challenging to read. But once you get used to the way the writer writes, you will be surprised. This is a book full of action, there is always something happening, and you don't just see it through one persons view-point but several. There are several characters it is based around, not just one main character. The story is a fantastic one and can be quite complex. You try to work out what will happen or why it happens before you are told. The beginning may be a bit confusing but later on you start to understand it more clearly. I would say this is probably one of those books where there are some people who will get hooked on it and then those who may not like it at all. But I would say give it a try. I had loads of fun reading this book and recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy books and it is a challenging one. I would also recommend it to any other book reader. This is my second favourite book of all time, and I can't wait to start reading Deadhouse Gates which is a follow on from this one. Well Done Steven Erickson, keep the excellent work up. Overall: Fast pace, astonishingly detailed, innovative, powerfully engaging, massive, panoramic and highly intelligent. An author to watch out for.
Rating:
Summary: Its gets better
Review: I think this was a really good book if you read all. I almost like sime other reviews a read game up on it after the first 100 pages. In the beginning its hard to really get a feel for any of the charecters and Erikson switches to a new one just as its gets excating. After a slow begining the book really picks up pace the charecters get a little more alive and the story begins to pick up pace. The end is really worth waiting for where everthing happens at once i'm really looking forward to the sequal.
Rating:
Summary: Real power fantasy book
Review: Everyone, who just want to experience the rush of adrenaline by reading fantasy books have to read this book! This is the BEST high fantasy book i'v ever read(i'v read em alot) and i cannot wait for sequel. Erikson has a different approach to the whole thing. He jumps right into action...at first its hard to get into it, but once you are there, you cant get enough of it! A MUST READ BOOK for power fantasy ppl! Try also Richard.A.Knaak to those, who enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: By the by...
Review: I have to admit, I haven't read this book (I want to, but being a Uni student means no time or money for fun- I'll wait for it to come to the library). I just wanted to say that I think this book has THE best cover art of any fantasy novel since... well, ever. Can I get a witness?!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best recent fantasy debuts (if you like war)
Review: There's good new and no so good news. The good new is, Erikson's "The Gardens of the Moon" is a fat, intelligent and wonderfully convoluted fantasy novel. Along with Ricardo Pinto's quite dissimilar but equally intelligent "The Chosen", this is one of the best genre debuts to appear in the last two or three years. (As an aside: Erikson is a Canadian, now living in the UK. Pinto is Portuguese, but also lives in the UK. Hmm, wonder if I should emigrate too? After all, look at Poirot... Quite good for the little grey cells, it seems). The not so good news (well, the daunting news, at least) is that "Gardens" seems to be the first of a projected 10-volume series. Oh dear! Not again! Of course, the good news is not going to sound too good if you don't like "military" fantasy. "Gardens" is very much about war, dealing as it does with the Empress of Malazan attempting to conquer, by foul means rather than fair, everything in (and indeed out of) her site. There's a lot of intrigue and a lot of politics, and there's a hell of a lot of (deftly distributed) historical background, but in this first instalment at least, that's what it pretty much boils down to. Conversely, the not so good news is going to sound very sweet if you're the sort of reader who gobbles up each and every of Glen Cook's "Black Company" books the moment they appear. "Gardens" is not only similar to the Black Company series in that it deals mainly with the often magical struggles between irreconcilable and not quite comprehensible adversaries, but also in that it generally depicts events from the viewpoint of the more or less "ordinary" soldier (sorcerous or otherwise). Erikson is, however, better at this than Cook; he is also rather more ambitious. Think of it this way: "Gardens" is reminiscent of Cook, if Cook wrote like George R.R. Martin. That should give you an idea. Finally: this is not a book for the casual reader. If you tend to read a chapter or so every few weeks, don't bother. You're bound to get confused. There're just too many characters, too many deviations, too many goings-on. This is one of those books that demands your attention. Well then, that's that. I'm off to England!
Rating:
Summary: a great attempt in a stiffled genre: sergio ben
Review: I shall be brief. First, i have to say that I enjoyed the book. Second, I have point out that, while the book was engrossing, an original work in an otherwise stiffled genre, the book has proved to be an aggravation at times. I agree with many reviewers who state that the plot, characters and a host of parts are richly imaginative, but in the same vein I have to warn readers that quite early into the book, feelings of despair and irritation grabs bold of you. This is a wonderful book - but one needs to enhance the calm when reading this story. I have also noticed a growing trend with fantasy writers - more often there are crack mercenary groups who infiltrate forbidden zones, steal powerful artefacts etc. this has a very 90s feel to it.And I think this is great. the fantasy genre has finally become available to JOe Public - the average guy who likes action movies etc, but the goody comes in a comprehensive plot designed to sustain the reader and develop an insaitable thirst to know what the heck is going to happen next! I cannot wait for the sequel - the teaser at the back sickened me, but I still want to read it. Cheers!
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