Review Page: Gardens Of The Moon by Steven Erikson
| Title: |
Gardens Of The Moon |
| Author: |
Steven Erikson |
| Format: |
Novel |
| Genre: |
Fantasy |
| Publisher: |
Bantam |
| Date of Publication: |
1999 |
| ISBN: |
0-553-81217-3 |
No. of Reviews: 1
Av. Rating: 9/10
Buy this book from the Amazon website.
26.09.2000 - Agema - 9/10
List of Reviews |BioBio
In the wasteland that is modern fantasy writing, it is a genuine pleasure to run across an oeuvre which when you finish, you regret that you have.
Erikson paints the picture of a far campaign of the Malazan Empire; a huge power bestriding many lands, but crippled by her recent wars and internal strife. The empire is struggling badly in this distant conflict, and we are introduced to the tattered, out of favour elite division, the Bridgeburners, and the mission they are entrusted with against the last major city opposing the empire. Amongst these mortal travails, meddling greater forces are at work carrying out their own designs.
Foregoing the tired staple of good versus evil, Erikson populates his world with characters that live by a multitude of concerns. Instantly you feel you are sitting in a living, breathing world; one that you sense time, and more crucially imagination, has gone into being contructed; rather than cut-and-pasted from innumerable sub-Tolkein sources and conventions.
The heroes also are not so clearly moral, nor the villains immoral - in as much as the book has either. This book is about a war, and there is little room for moral high ground, just a series of rounded characters playing out their part.
An original and convincing debut. Excellent.