MALAZAN | GARDENS OF THE MOON REVIEW AND CHAT | ft. SEAN

My review for Gardens of the Moon will be up soon, but in the meantime, here are my husband Sean's thoughts of the first book in the Malazan series, both spoiler and non spoiler :)

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[cameronturner]

More Malazan, I'm loving this recent trend of Malazan vids over the last few weeks. Great review man

[theriddler]

think of warrens like a river - you can jump in and swim and re-emerge in a different location or you can stick a waterwheel in and draw power.

[ДеянДжундреков]

Great review, I agree with almost everything you said. I really didn't enjoy GotM very much, but decided to give Deadhouse Gates a chance. And it was, in my opinion, very good - both the writing and the storytelling were vastly improved. It was so good that I picked the third one, Memories of Ice, very soon after and it was, simply, one of the best fantasy books I ever read. I really hope you give the series a chance, I would love to hear your toughts on the following books. A lot of the things that bugged you are explained(-ish), Crokus actually becomes important part of the series, and we learn about the magic system throught the eyes of a character that is not familiar with how it works, I think it was in boook 5.

[random]

Fair criticism. I always need some time before I fully adapt to all the new perspectives. He doesn‘t hold your hand, but he will continue to show things that connect to most of the points you found interesting, so you will learn more.
What I find most astonishing is how he weaves events that happen over millenia together into something I have NEVER seen before. And I‘m only four books in. Book three was my favourite so far. That‘s the one where I got full on attached to the characters.

[IronArkadius]

Good review Sean! Yeah I can understand a lot of the issues you had with it but I’m also glad you found some redeeming qualities so that it wasn’t dreadful for you.

Yes Erikson actually wrote the next book ten years after Gardens, his writing does noticeably improve, hopefully you’ll like it more!

Regarding the necessity of the amount of characters, I get where you’re coming from. One way of thinking that helps me is that the main character is the world of Malazan. The people on it are just filling out the story. That’s why we get so many perspectives.

Anyway, looking forward to your thoughts on Deadhouse!

[CooperSummersVA]

One big thing about Malazan is that basically everyone is a glass cannon. The really strong people will go to town, but a cusser can kill almost anything

[bryson]

Raest was able to posses Mammot because the time when Mammont went into the Jaghut barrow though with Warren. There was a conversation between Baruk and Anomander about Mammot making himself vulnerable to that kind of thing while Mammot was unavailable.

[dylearium]

Really dug your first impressions of Malazan!

-Erikson's writing chops take a tremendous leap between books 1 & 2 (he went to Iowa's Writers' Workshop in-between books)

You nailed a lot of the pronunciations!- but Crokus is 'Croak-us"

You mentioned point-of-view & the Baruk scene with Rake- and Erikson's p.o.v.s- while numerous- do some really nifty filmic things. In the first few books you hardly ever see a scene from the most powerful character's pov- you see them through the eyes of others & it gives almost a shot-from-below larger-than-life impression. Just a cool narratve trick of his I enjoy

You do not have long to wait for more answers on otataral

Stick with it- can't wait to hear your reactions to Deadhouse Gates!

[jesse]

Haha so I'm up to book 5, and the reason why I've grown to love this series was inadvertently brought up in your first comment on something you liked; that observation of Rake. The way it's phrased has me wondering if Baruk's description of Rake suggests that Rake might be linked to one of the big running conflicts, if you like, of the series. I hadn't actually considered if there was a link there before until I re-heard that one small bit just now.


I know that's all as clear as mud, but I can't really go into much more detail without it being spoilery, and I may be completely wrong anyway, although I've got a feeling that I'm not. And that's I love so much about this series. There are so many strands and hints of foreshadowing that are subtle. There's so much satisfaction when you think you've stumbled onto something, linking some of those strands together, and then it happens to be right.


FWIW also, characterisation was my single biggest issue in GOTM. I was intrigued by just about everything else, but the characters that were inhabiting it felt flat. But Memories of Ice has many of the same characters, and that book is one of my favourite fantasy books ever, and one of the big reasons for that is because I loved the characters. I guess that's my own personal endorsement of the 'it gets better' argument.


Also, magic absolutely makes more sense later on as does Otataral. Can't say more without spoilers, but I agree that was one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the worldbuilding in GOTM.

[shaunyboy]

Good review. Most of the magic systems/world building/why are they so powerful stuff gets peeled back with each book. By the time you've finished Memories of Ice (book three) your entire perspective on the world so far will have changed (makes re-reads so much fun). Deadhouse Gates really focuses on the history of the Malazan Empire as well as the Azath. so lots of answers to be had (as well as more info about ottataral).


Responding to a few points you brought up: morally grey characters and seeing stuff from various perspectives are pretty much a stable of the series. The writing improves dramatically between Gardens and Deadhouse Gates. Adjunct Lorn's plan was to release the Jaghut Tyrant so that she could weaken Rake and then use the Imperial Demon to completely finish him off (thus removing Darujhistan's main defence). It just didn't work out that way thanks to Fiddle and Hedge and the Azath (helps to think of the Azath as a set of scales keeping the magical world in line). The demon was always part of the plan IIRC.


Anyway, really great seeing people get into Malazan. I know you both ain't really had the best time with Gardens but I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts if you continue onto the next one.

[ZetaStriker]

I think a lot of the complaints are fair, honestly I wasn't too crazy about the series until book 2. I almost didn't continue. Only real thing I feel a need to comment on is the anticlimax in the big fight, I really like it the way it is. The idea that the gods and mythical beings of yesteryear aren't as invulnerable as myths would leave you to believe is a running thing, and things like explosives leveling the playing field is something I find really fun throughout the series.

[kittymachine]

As a new subscriber, I seriously don't know who this guy is. I thought perhaps this was going to be an interview or something. Maybe next time have an intro where you introduce your guest, or have him do so?
I love your channel! Still not sure if I want to tackle the beast that is Malazan.

[robpaul]

Good review, good points.
Good confusion 🤣 and good questions!
I think/hope you're gonna love this once you have all the pieces of the puzzle.

Feel free to ramble away man 😉👍

[danbuter]

A lot of your issues are dealt with in the next books. Moranth are kinda like praying mantises. Jaghut are insanely powerful mages, who can do stuff other people can't.
Also, Shadow and Rope are gods. Many of the characters are basically demi-gods (i.e. Awakened ).
Also, every character is realistic, not just evil or good. Some swing back and forth.

[rileykuhl]

Anomander’s sword, Dragnipur I believe it’s spelt, is a character in itself.

Keep going because everything comes back to this book more than you can imagine!! The world, the magic, the races, the characters, everything builds to an unbelievable scale!!

[Alatlal]

There's a lot of things he missed about the plot and nuances of the story and some mechanics, like the possession. The book is full of subtle foreshadowing, but yeah lots of thing aren't explained fully or even partially but aren't really hard to understand in concept.

[Levels]

Agreed. The pov thing gets better. The thing about paran being written semi annoying is true in this book but tattersail is complicated. She no longer is what she was and you need to read on. Also the fact everyone is a superhero in these books is my biggest critique.

[laiaal.]

One of the things that has bothered me the most is than all the wars are happening because the empress wants to, and we don't know anything about her motivations or anything about her in general. To me it seems that everything was because of her and the characters fighting didn't actually had any real reason. I'm guessing I'll get answers to that in the next books.

[lucaleone]

I feel like I cant continue this series because I barely cared about any of the characters and dont remember the difference between them. There are some exceptions but it's been just a week since I finished and most of the names said I can recall >_<

[MarcusDalgren]

Yeah one of the strange things in this series is that no matter how powerful you are, explosives will totally own you. It's like I'm THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS - cusser - and he's out.