Jardins da Lua

After creating a first impression that resembles a labyrinth Kurald Galain invoked by Anomander Rake, we can somehow transcend the aura of respect imposed by the book and by then, it becomes inevitable to get entangled in this world created by [a:Steven Erikson 31232 Steven Erikson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1219169436p2/31232.jpg].I say this because in fact my entry process in this book was difficult, and that feeling lasted for at least the first 100 pages. I found myself reaching for the front and back covers and see if the new characters that were being presented were among the illustrated portraits that this edition has. From the beginning to the end of my reading, there were also many visits to the glossaries.This is essentially due to three situations:1. Although the narrative focuses only on some characters such as Paran, Lorn, Crokus, Baruk, Quick Ben or Kruppe, there are many different characters that the book recurrently refers to. Making it often difficult to understand what their role and importance are in the general plan of the events of this book and the nine other volumes of the saga.Other than the characters in the “earth realm”, we also need to add Gods and Ascendants, who in most situations have a proper name but also have a denomination within the House they represent. We have for example Cotillion which is also known and often called “The Rope” or “Lord of Assassins”.If we consider the various Houses and the hierarchy of the members that each one has, the more than 10 different Magic Labyrinths and the many races that exist in this World, the creativity of [a:Steven Erikson 31232 Steven Erikson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1219169436p2/31232.jpg] is really praise-worthy, and I thank god for the good idea that someone had when they decided to include the glossaries I referred to above.2. With so much variety, sometimes we have sentences that in my point of view become confusing by consecutively using so many terms characteristic of this world.3. Throughout the book, we have characters coming out of the real plane and transitioning into dreams, magic labyrinths or alternative realities, and it is common for transitions between these various locations to not even have as their origin the real plan.Sometimes these changes are not perceptible with a first reading and require that you turn back to try to perceive when exactly the jump from one plane to the other happens.I should point out that these points should in no way be a genuine obstacle to reading this book. With a little patience to go back a few lines when necessary and with a marker for quick access to the glossaries, you easily overcome these “hurdles” and as soon as you can get “in the flow” of reading, the pages begin to fly by.— Going back to the characters and trying not to get too much into spoiler territory, some characters die. Others disappear and leave the doubt if they disappeared forever or only until a convenient time in upcoming books.This leads me to talk about how death is treated in this story, and this kind of treatment leaves me somewhat divided.On the one hand, even characters who are considered to be important to perish in an anti-climatic way and thus seeming to reduce their role and power just after being deified by the author's descriptions. On the other hand, this detachment for the characters manages to bring to the narrative a very practical and realistic vision. There are so many events to occur and with so many characters involved, that at the end of the day, no matter how powerful or important, your death becomes just one more among many and the world goes on indifferently with more wars, revolutions and intrigues. However, in my view, this does not excuse the resolution that the conflict with the Tyrant Jaghut has. After having the story revolve around him and the fact that he was practically (and literally) the sleeping terror of this book, his defeat turned out to be too quick. I must admit that I waited with some anticipation for what he could do if he acquired his power altogether.The conclusion given to Raest may be a sign that this World will achieve the prowess of the next books to have characters even more powerful than an ancestral race or many Gods and this promise, fills me with expectation.It is also with renewed curiosity that I hope for a more effective presence of the Empress Laseen in the upcoming books. The mind behind the Malazan Empire and the events reported in this saga, has no more than two brief appearances throughout the book, and everything you know about her personality comes essentially from the references made by the other characters.—Taking into account what has been written in this review so far, the four-star rating I gave the book may be called into question. However, regardless of the complexity of the book and the grandiosity of the world created by [a:Steven Erikson 31232 Steven Erikson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1219169436p2/31232.jpg] sometimes catching me off guard and making me go back a paragraph or two in order to really understand what happened, I found myself quite enjoying this narrative.The characters have a balanced moral balance. There are no characters that are innately good or bad. Their actions derive largely from their goals and beliefs. In all of them, there is at least one argument in their line of thinking with which I can easily identify myself. This makes the characters realistic and, above all, human.This balance in the representation of the characters is also conveyed in the different relationships reported in the story. There are different kinds of romance, friendship, respect, fellowship. All of them are described without exaggeration and without haste, culminating in interactions that we could easily witness in real life.It should also be noted the author never goes out of his way to give the reader a hand. There are no complete explanations of why and how many things happen, but it is refreshing to read a book that does not feel the need to.I strongly recommend this book to lovers of epic fantasy, lovers of well-built worlds and characters.In a saga with ten books, and taking into account the events in this Gardens of the Moon it is difficult not to look at this volume as “just” a prologue which spurs the reader for how much is yet to come.I read somewhere here in Goodreads a book review in which the person claimed that after reading the ten books of the saga, never again could look at fantasy books in the same way, that no other book has managed to offer the complexity and richness of the Malazan Book of the Fallen Saga.If such a thing happens to me, it will be a bad habit that I'll gladly welcome.