Gardens of the Moon: The Infinite Potential of Fantasy

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I've been meaning to write this piece for a while now, and yet every time I put the task on my to-do list it inexplicably goes undone. This is chiefly due to the enormity of the Malazan Book of the Fallen (and secondarily caused by overloading my to-do lists). It is difficult to find words sufficiently to qualify this wonderful series. Don't believe me? Write a short blog post that encapsulates the entirety of human life on Earth; that's what writing about Malazan can be like.

Gardens of the Moon is the first entry in Malazan: Book of the Fallen, a sprawling ten-book series by Steven Erikson. The Malazan world has only grown since the main series was finished, with further standalone novels and spin-off series created by Erikson and co-author, Ian C. Esslemont. Total, there are over 20 books set in this world, with no end in sight. When it comes to Malazan, however, quantity rarely offsets quality, as this setting--and the myriad stories within--have been carefully developed by the authors' joint effort for nearly 50 years.

Kicking off the epic, Gardens dives into the colonial imperialism of the Malazan Empire, centered on the conquest of the last free city-state on a continent far away from the Empire. Erikson displays in full daylight the horrors accompanying colonialism, and leverages the narrative to depict perspectives on all sides of the conflict.

Written like a series of interconnected short stories, the book is composed of small chunks, separated by deliberate line breaks and chapter headings to form a greater whole. The plot is non-linear, driven by a machine of moving parts that can be hard to follow for the first time reader.

This is not an insult towards Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont's masterworks, it's quite the opposite. The sheer scope of the Malazan setting is what pulls me back in year after year. In my (heavily biased) view there is nothing comparable to these books; their breadth dwarfs even Tolkien's legendarium.

Working in perfect harmony with the wide, angry world of sorcerous warrens, comedic-relief elder gods, and a shape-shifting prince of darkness, is a body of (fabricated) literature making up the world's history and mythoi. Every chapter is introduced by an excerpt from a fictional textbook or religious tome, poems written by prophets of old or soldiers on the ground. This series oozes with flavor and uncompromising verisimilitude.

The Book of the Fallen is the core inspiration behind the creation of The Arcanist and our Literary Fantasy Magazine. In my view, it stands as a formative body of work to the Literary Fantasy genre, ready and willing to be analyzed and revisited for years (probably decades) after the first read.

"The first read" is the magic phrase. Often regarded by fans as the "worst written" entry in the main 10-book series, Gardens still stands out on top compared to others of its ilk. A Game of Thrones released in 1996 to critical acclaim and eventual adoption into pop culture, yet the prose is riddled with incessant "hads" and "thats" in nearly every sentence, making for a distracting, sometimes frustrating read. Released just three years later, Gardens of the Moon's prose is concise and profound.

The most common complaint from newcomers is the hardcore approach to world building; they feel lost and hopelessly confused. The world is presented organically to the reader, but is never outright explained. The text is saturated with context and callbacks, but details are omitted unless relevant. Yet so much is relevant, so simply trying to follow the narrative can become tiring.

Gardens of the Moon remains one of the hardest fantasy books to get through on a first read for a simple reason: readers are presented with so much information, and given little guidance on how to navigate it all. Once learned, the weaving plots are a breeze to follow, but this book poses a strong barrier to entry with its daunting structure and presentation. It is an experience akin to waking up in a new, unfamiliar country, surrounded by people speaking a new language, showing you new items you've never seen before. On top of that, some people can fly, so your understanding of physics has just gone out the window.

The strongest component lies in the reread; once you've assimilated into the Malazan culture, understand the words, connect names to places and peoples and eras, Gardens of the Moon becomes an electric tale of swashbuckling adventure (and also gritty, morally-stilted guerrilla warfare).

The narrative focuses on a few different bands of misfits, who sometimes run into each other and commingle. The characters essentially boil down into typical D&D adventuring parties, albeit approached with literary sensibilities. The characters drive the narrative, they have incredible agency (some to the point of defying fate itself), and soon ascend (pun intended) beyond the stranglehold of character classes (Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, etc.).

This could be a symptom of the setting's humble table-top roots. Many of these stories and characters were conceptualized at the game table between the co-authors, first using Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D), and later using Generic Universal Role-Playing System (GURPS). AD&D is a much more prescribed experience, assigning strict roles to characters and a short-sighted nine sided axis of morality called alignment. GURPS provides players and game masters more flexibility in character creation, throwing away linear character-class progression in favor of a modular system. GURPS acted as a catalyst to free Erickson and Esslemont's characters from the bounds of pop-culture stereotypes.

This aspect fascinates me. There are countless books following the AD&D formula. Some were contracted by the developers (i.e. Salvatore's The Legend of Drizzt and The Cleric Quintet; Weiss and Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles) and countless others are inspired by the author's love for the game. Many modern Fantasy stories (especially in other mediums) are retelling of actual campaigns (The web-comic, Mara, comes to mind).

My own fantasy has roots in table-top gaming, serving as the backdrop for the last D&D 5e campaigns I GM'd between 2021 and 2023. This is a great way to test ideas to get a sense for what it's like to live in a fictional place, but I will always appreciate the Malazan co-authors striving to surpass the limitations of RPGs for the sake of crafting a compelling written narrative.

Gardens of the Moon has a different approach to its sequels; where the world started out as an RPG setting, the manuscript began as a screenplay. Gardens is heavy on dialogue, but remains filled with detail, wit, and charm. This first entry of the series acted as a proof of concept, written about a decade before the follow-up since it took so long to find a publisher willing to shoulder the risk of a complex narrative. It's only natural Erikson's chops changed (and improved) during this time.

Would I recommend Gardens of the Moon? Absolutely, but with a big asterisks. This book, and the series as a whole, will never appeal to everyone. It is rife with material to study, especially for those interested in creating Literary Fantasy for The Arcanist, but for some it can be a chore to get through as it is designed to be difficult.

We do not live in the Malazan world, and we know nothing about it. Just as strangers on the street won't explain their customs to us, neither will the Kanese or the Darus. The Book of the Fallen is an artifact of its secondary world, not ours. If that sentence excites you, then this should be on your list to read soon.

On a scale from The Last Unicorn to A Game of Thrones, Gardens of the Moon is on par with Westeros in terms of mature content. This is the case for all books in Malazan Book of the Fallen, aside from Deadhouse Gates (Book 2) and Dust of Dreams (Book 9), which each contain some of the most sickening and chilling depictions of human cruelty I've personally read. This series tests the limits of the reader's boundaries, but the author takes us to these dark corners with a watchful eye and sincere reverence for those victimized in our real world. These scenes exist to enhance the narrative and to make us think. That being said, those unaware should be informed of trouble on the horizon, should they embark on this first entry.

For poets: If nothing else, there is a host of excellent Fantasy poems scattered within these books. Check the beginning of each chapter for excellent inspiration.