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The fantasy genre offers select practitioners a measure of job security unparalleled in most areas of fiction, with the possible exception of mystery. Piers Anthony's output of Xanth novels, which first appeared in 1977, is approaching thirty volumes. Terry Pratchett has turned out as many works exploring his Discworld, first visited six years later, in 1983. Robert Jordan has turned out eleven volumes in his Wheel of Time series - including the prequel - over the last decade and a half. Steven Erikson is a relative newcomer to these prolific ranks, and a first-time fantasist. Erikson's series, The Malazan Book of the Fallen, is projected to run to ten volumes before all is said and done.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen has actually been going strong since 1999, the year Bantam released Gardens of the Moon in the U.K. Four volumes followed, Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, House of Chains, and Midnight Tides, with books six and seven slated for release in 2005 and 2006. Gardens of the Moon was released in the U.S. earlier this year - it's first appearance in hardcover on these shores - under the Tor publishing imprint.
Among the prerequisites to creating a fantasy series that will entice readers to stay onboard, are the ability to create a world readers will enjoy reading about - that should go without saying - one which is drawn in sufficient depth that future volumes don't endlessly rehash the same themes and plots.
Whether Erikson succeeds on the first point is a matter for opinion, though most opinions seem to be favorable thus far. On the second point, that of creating a world complex enough to withstand repeat visits, there is little doubt that Erikson succeeds admirably. Erikson's background in anthropology and archaeology has obviously influenced his world building skills - the author has said as much - and it probably doesn't hurt that he is an avid gamer and an "insatiable" consumer of fantasy novels.
Ultimately, that quality which will endear Gardens of the Moon to so many - the sheer scale of the work and the intricacy of the world Erikson has created - will make it something of a slog for casual readers. One presumably becomes more skilled at reading doorstop epic fantasy with practice, but readers like myself, who are not as not as experienced at navigating such complex works, may find themselves floundering. It was not until two-thirds of the way through this book that I felt that I finally had a firm grasp of the material. Erikson has acknowledged elsewhere that Gardens of the Moon is not an easy read, but includes ten to fifteen pages of maps, glossary and dramatis personae to help the epic fantasy-impaired in their quest for understanding. Readers who stick with the series will most likely find future volumes to be easier going.
Erikson points to the Iliad as the primary inspiration for the Malazan Book of the Fallen - the series title itself is a reworking of Napoleon's Book of the Fallen. Each volume will have a stand-alone plot, a direct result of the author's marked dislike for cliffhangers and serial plots that span several books.
Gardens of the Moon is such an expansive and multifaceted work that no synopsis can do it justice, but here's a cursory overview nonetheless. The brief prologue, set in the waning years of the reign of Emperor Kellanved, introduces readers to the noble-born Ganoes Paran, who more or less serves as protagonist. As the story proper begins, Paran has become a captain with the Malazan forces and the Emperor has been deposed and done away with. The Empress Laseen - who remains offstage throughout the work - is zeroing in on the city of Pale, which is about to fall hard to Malazan troops after a long siege.
After taking Pale, the Empress sets her sights on Darujhistan, the last of the Free Cities located in the northern region of the continent Genabackis. The rest of the book concerns the many and convoluted intrigues, infightings, maneuverings, and battles - of both the physical and sorcerous varieties - as a massive cast of soldiers, politicians, gods, monsters, wizards, mercenaries, alchemists, spies, prophets, assassins and thieves attempt to further or thwart the Empress's aspirations, while advancing their own agendas.
Among the most notable players are Anomander Rake, Lord of Moon's Spawn, a great floating mountain of black basalt inhabited by the Tiste Andii, a sorcerous Elder Race; Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, a Malazan fighting force whose loyalties seem to be in question, as are those of Dujek Onearm, commander of Malazan forces on Genabackis; Tattersail, a cadre sorceress of the Second Legion, and Hairlock, her nemesis, who is turned into a puppet early on, but still manages to wreak havoc; Lorn, Adjunct to the Empress, who heads the assault on Darujhistan; Kruppe, a seemingly amiable buffoon, whose lighthearted facade conceals a more serious purpose; Crokus Younghand, a lowly thief for whom greater things are in store; and Baruk, a high alchemist of the T'orrud Cabal.
Erikson has stated that one of his goals in writing Gardens of the Moon - and presumably in subsequent volumes - was to put to the sword some conventions of the fantasy genre, particularly when it comes to drawing characters in well-defined shades of either black or white. He succeeds admirably, creating a host of characters possessed of a complexity not often found in genre fiction. One of the few drawbacks, at least for me, were the lengthy scenes in which characters converse, seemingly for no other reason than to advance and explain the intricate plot - the old info dump, if you will. And, while it is ultimately futile to quibble over publisher's choices of cover art, the cover for the UK release of Gardens of the Moon certainly gets the nod over Tor's domestic version, a mix of visual elements common to high fantasy of the most generic sort and bodice ripping formulaic romance novels.
But put all minor quibbles aside and what remains is a very solid effort. If you're of the mind to amuse yourself whiling away a few hours - or weeks - with a well-written, exhaustively conceived work of epic scope, then you probably wont do much better than Gardens of the Moon and The Malazan Book of the Fallen. But you'd better get started now. Three thousand plus pages of Erikson's saga await your pleasure - and we're only halfway there.
William I. Lengeman III is currently at work on a comedy screenplay and the first book in a trilogy of young adult horror novels. Check out his web site at http://wileng.home.mindspring.com/.
© William I. Lengeman III
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