I give in!!

[Sparks the Knave]

okay okay, so it's taken me a while since the seed was planted in my head by the members of this site, but today I brought Gardens of the Moon. I guess theres no turning back now, shortly after this post I'll make a coffee, dim the lights and settle into a comfortable corner to begin my quest.

the Members of the site were more then right about A song of Ice and Fire which is my favorite series to date, so hopefully this series will be up thereabouts also.

[Culhwch]

ASoIaF is one of my favourite series, too, but after three attempts at GotM I still haven't gotten past a hundred pages. I'll be interested to see how you go...

[dwndrgn]

Culhwch - GotM is easily the hardest (and shortest) of the entire series to get through (well, of the 4 that I've read so far). I think if you persevere you may find the next books worth the while. Of course, that is just my opinion.

[HoopyFrood]

Yes, Gardens of the Moon is quite difficult at first, what with all the name places and the multitude of characters all over the place. I really had to rely on the dramatis persona at the front of the book. And I'm on the second book (well, I was until course books intervened!) and I still get mixed up the different races and etc. But Gardens of the Moon was an excellent book, I was thoroughly enjoying it once I'd got my head around the epic scale of it all!

[Jason_Taverner]

its a really good book

[Rane Longfox]

hurray!! Provided you don't get sacred of the fact that it can be confusing, like some people seen too, you should really enjoy it. The key is to agknowledge that some things won't be explained until ouch later in the series and just get on with it

[Sparks the Knave]

well work and house inspections/valuations have gotten in the way somewhat, so I'm only at around page 75 but am about to continue on.

I must say while not all bad and in the books defence so far it has had some parts that I have really liked, it's not been the best start to a novel I've read (kinda bland and hasn't gripped me like many stories seem to be able to from the beginning and the characters are mostly hard to relate to/sympathize with in some ways at this point due to the lack of I guess detail. not necessarily however confusing, and this may all been a planned move by the author + I was warned about the first part of the book being slow going).
so far I've only really taken a liking to Paran, and I seem to find Tattersail annoying and boring though I can't justly say why.

With all this said, I plan to keep going with an open mind and wait for the hook to come, sometimes thats all it needs and previous annoyances may fall away quickly.

[Culhwch]

I'm still intending to give Erikson another shot. I have to say it wasn't any confusion on my part that drove me away, but rather just a lack of interest and a failure to engage on any level with the story or characters. Which is a shame because Erikson is clearly a gifted writer. I do come up against the 'persevere, it gets better' argument fairly regularly here, but honestly I do think this is a failing by the author. You shouldn't have to be promised better things to come to get you through the mire of the introductory book. I wonder if GotM was that little bit more accessible, just how much more popular Erikson would be...

[Green]

I agree about that - if a book doesn't grab you, it's hard to justify reading another one. I thought Gardens was pretty good, nothing more, but it was a lack of anything else to read that made me read DhG.

[GOLLUM]

I would say quite a few have missed out because of the way GOTM is structured.

[murphy]

Am I the only one on this board that had no problem with GotM? Loved it.

[Rane Longfox]

yeah, i loved gotm too. It alternates with moi as my favorite in the series. But a lot of people seem to have problems with it.

I loved the way you're dumped into the middle of things and have to work it out as you go. It's not like a quest story where there's a nice easy place to start, certainly, so a certain amount of ambiguity is to be expected. I love it though.

On the other hand, at last count i'd read it at least 15 times, so i'm a bit disconnected to new erikson readers, possibly

[Sparks the Knave]

Well the good news is it's certainly getting better, which I am very glad of as I had already ordered Dead house gates haha.

I have to say though the start was pretty bland, the characters with the exception of Paran for me, were not engaging, their actions and thoughts thin and annoying (tattersail I still have a problem with, as she seems to be a main character I hope she can get her head into gear, stop dithering about like a cow). Complexity and Ambiguity weren't a problem, in fact I like that sort of thing as it builds up interest, If anything the gloss over of characters descriptions seemed to let things down. but as said, it seems to be getting better, so I'm fairly happy that I decided to keep going. It can't be everyones fav or second fav series for no reason and I think theres enough here to build on and keep getting better as I go

[Green]

I didn't think it was overly complex, just a bit average. Too many clichés in there (big hounds of shadow, floating mountains, magic system based on a deck of cards, crazy puppet, etc).

The rest of the series got a lot more sophisticated/interesting - a result of the length of time between writing GotM and DhG, I think. A lot of the clichés I disliked in Gardens were given much more interesting or believable footings.

[Rane Longfox]

don't worry about tattersail... She changes