Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson

[reynaud]

I just finished reading Gardens of the Moon, the first book of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. To begin with, I should just say that, in this case, daysofourknives is my god, mostly for reminding me of the name. This was a fun a read.

The Book of the Fallen (an interesting title for a series, using the singular) is set in a world of high

Comments

[daysofourknives]

Yay! I'm glad you liked it.

[warriorbard63]

Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire must not be mentioned in the same breath ever again. George Martin writes marvelous stories full of rich characters and amazing events. Jordan writes giant tomes of sleep-inducing drudgery that move forward at a pace that make pachyderms look like cheetahs.

I'm just sayin'.

[dcltdw]

Not only that, but Jordan has exactly four characters (strong woman, strong man, weak woman, weak man), whereas Martin has characters with virtues and flaws (and oh my god, do they have flaws).

Unfortunately for me, aSoIaF is too dark for me to re-read.

[reynaud]

Well, I remember the first few Wheel books being fascinating (although I always wanted someone to smack the crap out of the Aes Sedai). But then, as a friend of mine said, Jordan became too big for an editor, and that's when he managed to increase the length of his books while having absolutely NOTHING happen in them. (Which I must admit was quite a feat.)

But they are in the same sub-genre of massively complex and intricate epics, just that one is a GOOD example and one is a BAD example. I suspect that part of what inspired Martin and Erikson was reading Jordan and saying, "I can write better than this!"

[anonymous]

Hah we'll see if you still feel that way a few GRRM books from now...Jordan was pretty awesome in his first three books, too. GRRM's fourth was (excuse me) crap, half a book that took four years with some (Brianna the) boring characters. At this rate ASOIF will finish in 2050

[reynaud]

True, I've only read one book, so we'll see what happens next.

[warriorbard63]

I've read every Martin book in 2 to 5 days. I enjoyed Feast, and saw progress with his characters. I'm amazed that people say Jordan's first few books were the best. My gods, you mean it got WORSE?? I plodded through the first in about 7 weeks and vowed, "Never again!"