u/Boberator44

Let me preface this by saying I originally purchased Gardens in 2018, after seeing a great many recommendations online and thinking it would be up my alley. Then I put it off for 8 years because people made me believe there is no point in even starting unless you are willing to reread every book five times and take extensive notes. Then I finally made the leap of faith.

People: if you are intrigued, read it. Many times I felt confused during the experience, and - I hesitate to admit - occasionally I even asked chatGPT to tell me, in a non-spoilery way, whether I have missed something or I was genuinely not supposed to know something yet. Turns out, in every single case of me being confused, I just had to read on and all my questions were answered eventually. Except for a few I suspect will be answered in later books. So trust the author and your own intelligence, and grab the book.

Overall I found it an extremely engaging and intellectually stimulating experience. Having to close read a novel is not something I've had to do in a long while and it felt refreshing. The prose was utilitarian but evocative, Erikson has a knack for cramming a lot of meaning into short sentences and it rewards attentive reading. The characters were unique, with individual voices, the plot was engaging.

The only slight issue I had was that towards the end, the convergence plotline was a bit too short and a few events seemed a bit convoluted. Raest was killed off too quickly, and then Erikson needed another demon so that Rake could have his "power level 9000" moment. But I didn't mind too much as the whole thing was immeasurably epic.

If this is the worst the series has to offer, I can't wait to see the rest. I am starting Deadhouse Gates tonight and have already ordered the Broken Binding editions, as I feel this might just become my favourite fantasy series ever.

I am nearing the end of Gardens and noticed a very interesting bit of exchange between Paran and Rake I haven't seen mentioned anywhere and that made me chuckle.

After Rake kills the two hounds, Paran says "You just killed two hounds of shadow" to which Rake replies "The rest got away". The ambiguity of "just" here is doing some heavy lifting. Paran clearly is using it as a time adverbial and is expressing surprise and awe, paraphrased as "Wow dude, you have literally murdered two legendary beasts a second ago". But Rake's answer is not congruent with this reading. So Rake understands "just" as a diminutive, as if Paran had asked "Why did you only kill two?". Rake's reply then makes perfect sense.

What's even more interesting is that Rake does not take offense at the perceived diminutive reading. To me this shows that Rake knows he could have killed all seven, and he knows that Paran knows as well. Therefore he does not take Paran's statement as a questioning of his abilities, merely a statement of facts, and he replies likewise in facts, in full confidence of his abilities. To Rake, the exchange is:

- You only killed two

- Yeah, the rest got away

Which shifts the title of "horrific, OP monster" in the scene from the hounds to Rake. I loved this little detail.

Mivel a napokban rengetegen rengeteg faszságot írtak, én meg ma megyek vissza Budapestre, gondoltam ha van kérdése bárkinek, megválaszolom elsőkézből :)

It is a mixture of hungarian and english titles, but even if you don't speak either language, the authors' names will help. I also have another 5 shelves or so I did not photograph yet. They contain Steven Erikson, King, Adam Nevill, a couple of classics like Twain, Hugo and Kafka and some children's books for nostalgia and comfort.

https://imgur.com/a/YybeW86

Long story short, after about 10 years of excuses and putting it off, I decided to bite the bullet and finally read Malazan. I have read the first 50 pages of GotM and already have a feeling I will like this a lot, but I'd like to share the experience with someone who is also on their first read of the series.

I don't have any rules or deadlines or whatever in mind, just looking for someone who would also like to start reading in the very near future or is still at the beginning and would like to sporadically have a chat about where they are, what they think, and to encourage each other to actually finish if the going gets rough. Absolutely zero strings or obligations.

(For the record, I'm 35M, living in Eastern Europe and working full time as a TOEFL teacher and part time as a statistician. My hobbies are nerding around with PC/console gaming, reading/collecting books, playing bass/guitar/ukulele, hiking, and everything that has to do with nature and animals)

If this is something you'd be interested in, drop a comment or a PM. If there are multiple interested parties, we could even make it a small reading group, the more the merrier!