Thank you for your gracious review. Yours may be the first one to pick up on the influences of other genres in the approach I took for Gardens of the Moon in particular. I was a reader of Ludlum, Clancy, King, Chesterton (The Man who was Thursday), Dumas, George MacDonald Fraser (Flashman), etc etc. And SF, of course. Along with all the more regular classics of the canon. All that being said, I had fun writing the novel and hopefully that peaks through every now and then. There's more than a few sly winks to the reader, I guess, especially the reader well-versed in fantasy tropes. For Deadhouse Gates, you can think Anabasis (Xenophon) along with the first Flashman novel (eponymously named) which recounts the British retreat from Kabul, and the Long March, the pursuit of the Gros Ventre, and so on. It never occurred to me that techniques and structures from outside the fantasy genre were verboten. Who knew? I'm looking forward to your comments on the rest of the books (and hoping you stick around for them!). Cheers, SE

Welcome to what could possibly become the greatest literary journey of your life.

You have un-intimidated me.

This might be the best spoiler free review of GOTM on the platform, you did it man, this was absolutely fantastic. You managed to put in words so many of my feelings and musings on this novel. Now you must walk the Chain of Dogs!!

Truest Malazan quite of 2024 so far 00:50 "it might be everything I want in fantasy" It doesn't always hit for every reader but when it does it hits you like a dragon.

Loved your thoughts. You caught on a lot of things which many new readers struggle with, and that has to do with the structure. It takes time to adjust to this new structure of storytelling. I just want to hear your thoughts once you finish Deadhouse Gates.

You are in for an absolute treat, this series just continues to get better and better as it goes along.

I really enjoyed listening to your points. Thanks for such a great video. I hope that you enjoy the rest of the novels as much.

You nailed it. Best First Time Reader review I've ever seen. Malazan is just so cool. Once it grabs you, there is no turning back.

Buckling of swashes 😂 Your enthusiasm is compelling. I have Gardens of the Moon on my TBR and shelf, and I shall read it, eventually. Time! Liveship Traders first.

Fantastic! I love your thoughts on this. Looking forward to future takes on the rest of the series.

Loved this review-I feel like I really gained insight into the book and what it’s doing, and it’s getting me excited to reread it. Man I think you’re gonna love the rest of the series so much.

Great review! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on my favorite book in the series, Deadhouse Gates. I think you being "well read" in different genres really helps with the on-boarding in Gardens of the Moon. I also really like how you talked about the book being so fun and epic. Most people don't mention that but I was sold on the series as soon the chaos puppet showed up 😎

This is an exceptional review on an exceptional book. Excellent job Carlos. There is so much in the twittesphere regarding this series that it can be overwhelming for some. This is a perfect review for those thinking about jumping into this series. Excellent job man.

3:30 THIS! I 100% agree. A lot of people recommend chapter-recaps and wikis and all kinds of outside material. And if you want to do that, that is fine, but I found myself enjoying the ride more by just going along with it, trusting that things will clear up later, or on a re-read. Following the main movements (?, it feels wrong to call it a "main plot") is something that you pick up quickly imo and if you miss some obscure reference here and there, who cares? That is just additional flavor for "new game plus".

Hell yeah! The “confusing” bits were more intriguing to me which kept me hooked. If more booktubers talked about how it isn’t as difficult as people make it out to be, I would have started it a long time ago. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Deadhouse Gates! It is one of the most incredible books I’ve ever read.

I so want a new book obsession 😢 This was not it, but I still want to love it, I think I will read it again. There’s so much potential here I fell in love with the writing style from the very first page story just didn’t grab me even though I struggled through the end. I think you just convinced me to try again. ❤️ Oh, and your accent, it’s a pleasure listening to you!

One of the best spoiler free reviews of this book and now I'm so hyped to finally dive into this series!

Glad you enjoyed this Carlos! I really did, and eventually I’ll be picking up Memories of Ice again to finish it.

I've read MBotF, its my favorite series, and i think you cut to the heart of why Gardens of the Moon is actually great - and more people should read it. Great job highlighting the special qualities of this book, there are so many, I wish a million readers could hear your points. It IS fun and hilarious, its also refreshingly different but also ticks so many boxes from traditional fantasy and sword and sorcery. This is like the Platonic ideal of a review of Gardens of the Moon, in terms if rendering it digestible and lowering the intimidation factor that some unfortunately get disuaded by. I'll be subscribing and checking out your future vids, good luck on the journey, you're about to embark on something special!

Seemless review, I felt much the same. Great job, Carlos 🤘🏽

Alright, I'm convinced, I'll read Gardens of the Moon this year. I've put it off for so many years, but this was a damn good review. Well done, sir.

Glad you liked GotM. Malazan is awesome. I agree that it isn't necessary to understand everything that's going on. I remember being completely lost when I started, but I was totally along for the ride.

just popped up on my feed, and boy am I glad! I listened to Gardens of the Moon, and I think that was a mistake. I loved what I could grasp, but I think this one deserves a physical read. So thank you for that push, and excited to follow along with you!

I was laughing here and there all through the first 4, but it wasnt til book 5 that I realized Erikson is actually hilarious and his humor is his greatest strength for me. He is usually quite restrained with it - it is largely a dour and serious series, so when he interjects with moments of levity it makes the jokes land harder then, and the tears flow harder later.

I had similar reqction to the Gardens. You will love the whole series, guaranteed. It's a mileston in fantasy lit, this one here. Enjoy the ride.

I so love love love these books. My favorite ever! My husband is going to start them soon. Hope I can explain his questions lol

yea!!!!

I absolutely love GotM. Its so underrated. Great review, would love to see your take on Deadhouse Gates.

I might be the only person but Gardens of the Moon is actually my favorite book out of all of them.

Erikson regularly makes me laugh out loud. Out loud! I’m about to start book 7 and loved it all so far.

Scholars will be discussing the Malazan Book of the Fallen hundreds of years from now(like Shakespeare). Subbed! BTW I was reading this series as it was being published at about book 5. Nobody that I recommend this book to finished GotM. It is not accessible to most readers. Cheers

I’ve read all of MBotF (twice) and I can confidently say you nailed this book! Better than 99% of first time readers, including me. Idk if you’ve seen the DLC Bookclub videos for Malazan but I always tell them they’re the target audience for Malazan and I’m now expanding that to you - this is your series 😍 Regardless of most people not hyping this one up as much as you, I promise you it is in fact the worst in the series 😂 so prepare yourself!! You’ve begun an epic journey you’ll never forget. Can’t wait for you to finish walking the Chain of Dogs! Then you’ll truly be one of us 😁

I just started my Malazan journey this month and ended up finishing Gardens about a week ago and I gotta say I couldn't agree more! I was super intimidated by the series and felt like I wasn't going to understand anything at all and went into the series almost over prepared if that makes sense and it turns out even myself (not the smartest reader) can follow what's happening and keep track of the general gist of what's happening and I had a great time doing it!

I really enjoyed this book! I’m wanting to return.

You might appreciate the Lonesome Dove-like “cattle” drive in book two…

Hey sir, I watch just about all the Malazan stuff on KZfaq, but I don't always hit that subscribe button and I'm definitely subscribing to your channel. Loved your thoughts. Made me really want to reread Gardens. And is it wrong that the casual profanity endeared me even more to you? Lol I'm usually missing that from my Booktubers 😂

The way I like to describe the writing in Malazan is that it's the exact opposite of the writing in TV police procedurals like Law and Order where you have two grizzled, worn down detectives talking and one says, "We need a warrant!" and the other says, "But we can't get one because we don't have enough probable cause, and we need to get more evidence in order to have probable cause, and then we can call a judge and get a warrant!" That is not how two experienced homicide detectives would actually talk to each other, but it's obviously all handholding for the audience who might not know about how warrants work. Malazan doesn't do any of that. It's much more like the show The Wire where the two detectives just exchange an exhausted glare at each other and say, "Aw shit..." and get back to work. You might not know exactly what's going on, but you can gather the main feeling from the clues and what is expressed.

What I love about Malazan is everything that can happen, will probably happen lol happy to see you enjoyed it so much! Hope you continue to enjoy it. Deadhouse Gates is a personal favorite....so don't say anything bad about it.

I found it to be less "hard" than I was expecting. While I'm enjoying Deadhouse Gates a lot, for some reason I'm finding it harder to keep track of everyone in that book. But that's probably a me thing. I've read Erikson describing this as postmodern fantasy and it definitely fits.

Sounds like another TBR list shot to hell. 😅 And some people are even blue.

Malazan sounds amazing! I've been looking for a Fantasy to give me 'Dark Souls' in a book. It's been so hard lol. I want something that will engross me, pull me into a deep chasm of Lore, great characters and world-building, but not hold my hand every 3 seconds to TELL me the story. Erikson is/was an archaeologist, and I don't mind digging to peel back those layers.

LFG!!!!! ❤

Only real characterization according to me was in house of chains Karsa orlong This is where the real characterization takes place

I loved GoTM too. Hot take: *whispers* even more than DHG 😮 although mappo and icarium still my favorite duo so far Edit: okay Tehol and Bugg might actually be my favorite but for completely different reason 😂 if you know you know

Can't wait for you to get to Midnight Tides and Bonehunters. The humor in those books is unbelievably good. Bonehunters got some good gallows humor. Memories of Ice, though, goes real crazy with its magic. Erikson and Esslemont's imagination is insane

Nice. Glad you loved it. The best is yet to come. Its my favourite completed Fantasy series. From my experience the difficulty is overblown and I'm an eejit 😅 You are right, the entertainment factor is often overlooked / not discussed as much as it should. I appreciate that Erikson refuses to hold my hand and actually treats the reader like an adult, which I don't get from more popular, more beloved authors *cough* Brandon Sanderson *cough*. GotM is a lot of fun, and it is one of my least favourites in the series.

Favorite character? Mine has to be Fiddler and quick Ben

I picked it up a few weeks ago. And it's been a slog. I don't really care for the magic system. It's a physics engine magic system, and i like linguistic magic. The plot structure makes the story being told rather obvious. Not predictable, obvious. Meaning that where as i can't tell you what's going to happen next, i can tell you what won't. The reliance on power structure analysis makes the dialog come across as rather "thin." Humans aren't as simple as all that. And I've found the theme to be simple and silly. Compassion sounds great until you read about its adapted function, and you realize it's often not. But whatever. I suppose I'll try reading until book 3 or so when most people say it gets good. It's just so far it's had all the problems common in post-modern writing, and the fantistical elements really haven't carried it for me.

I got to about chapter 10, and was like, What the hell am I reading? So I went to the youtube's and I got this great video where the guy said to read chapters summaries from Tor. So i started again. That helped a lot. I knew where I was, I knew who was talking, I knew what was going on, for the most part. It just got too much like homework and I didn't get back to chapter 10. I need to take a couple week's regroup and start again.