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| Cover image Tor Books |
Fantasy and Science Fiction provides audiences with a genre
that forces its audience to image the world created by the author. Some of the
most famous fantasy authors include: J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin,
Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Raymond E. Feist, and Terry Goodkind. Though the aforementioned authors are the backbone of excellent fantasy novels available, there are a tremendous
amount of newer authors breaking into the fantasy genre carving their
place in the fantasy pantheon. One of these authors is Steven Erikson, the creator of the Malazan Book of
the Fallen series.
Erikson’s first novel in the Malazan Book of the Fallen is Gardens of the
Moon published by Tor,
an imprint of Macmillan. Tor
is arguably the best fantasy publisher in the world with works to their name
include, Robert Jordan’s Wheel
of Time Series, Terry Goodkind’s epic series Sword of Truth and Brandon
Sanderson’s novels. Erikson’s breakthrough novel brings a new face and
style to epic fantasy that will grab readers and have them languishing for
more.
Gardens of the Moon contains excellent characters that are believable and will have the reader love and hate them due to Erikson’s fantastic building of his characters. Few
authors create strong female characters in their fantasy novels, Stephanie
Meyer’s Twilight set female characters in fantasy back to the fifties, Erikson
breaks this mold throughout his series with female characters in strong roles
as high mages, generals and on the front lines in his military descriptions of
battles. This first novel in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series is a necessary
read for Glen Cook fans with Cook an obvious influence on Erikson’s work.
Erikson’s style is unique and does not conform to the conventional
rules for writing style in the fantasy genre. As I stated earlier, Glen Cook’s The Black Company novels influence
Erikson’s which will make reading Erikson’s work a little challenging for the
reader whom did not read Glen Cook’s novels. Once the audience can digest
Erikson’s unconventional style, the story will accelerate through the audience's
hands. On top of the style difficulties, Erikson’s first novel, understandably,
has some dry and slow parts but nothing that will make one want to watch paint
dry.
Gardens of the Moon is
an excellent entry novel into epic fantasy from a new author. Erikson completed
his epic series within reasonable time, unlike George R.R. Martin, publishing
the final book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series this past year. With interesting
characters that develop throughout the book, fans of George R.R. Martin or any
other epic fantasy author will be intrigued by Erikson’s first novel.
Grade: B
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