With as many characters that we had, I thought we’d have at least one or two amazing, strong, female heroes. No contemplation, no judgment, just icy, clinical observation.” pg 110Īlso, I was unimpressed with the role of the females in this story. It hid in the deepest shadows of his mind, and it watched. Erikson tried to make Paran more than just a simple hero, but it didn’t always work: “When he thought of himself, of that young noble-born man with the overblown faith in honesty and integrity, the vision that came to him now was of something cold, hard, and dark. The author could only build so much detail into each person. I was overwhelmed by it all at times.Īnd, because of the sheer scope of the story, the characterizations suffered. It is a many layered cake of fantasy awesomeness. Also, this story has events taking place in different dimensions called Warrens. Gardens of the Moon contains direct interventions between gods and humanity as well as magical creatures from the past and, I guess no big surprise considering the name but it still blind-sided me, the moon. there is a power struggle, but otherwise, they’re very different. The only similarities between the two tales are that 1. We were going to have a bunch of different characters all fighting for the same thing. So, at first, I thought that the story was going to go like The Game of Thrones.

Paran gets his desire, of course, but so much more than he bargained for… kind of like the reader who picks up this book.

A hero.” “You’ll grow out of it.” pg 5 And so the story begins. You want to live free, boy, live quietly.” “I want to be a soldier. The best life is the one the gods don’t notice. Their conversation: “Every decision you make can change the world. He dreams of being a warrior and tells this dream to the aged soldier with him. The story begins with Paran as a child, gazing down from the walls of his city, towards the destruction being wreaked by Malazan mages. The hero in this tale, one of many, is Paran.

There’s about fifty other main characters that I won’t list here for brevity’s sake.Īrtwork: Gardens of the moon characters by slaine69 The Empress of Malazan, her High Fist Dujek (like a top general), Adjunct Lorn (a magic hating fixer), Whiskeyjack and the Bridgeburners (like the A team for Malazan, they go in and cause chaos before the main army arrives), Tattersail (a Malazan mage), Ganoes Paran (a soldier), and more are on the side of the Empire. The over-arching story: the Malazan Empire (a militaristic conglomeration of nations) is invading the continent and trashing cities as it goes. I’m kidding, there aren’t a million, but there are quite a number. Gardens of the Moon is an extraordinarily complex fantasy about a million different characters.