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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I've always been leery about starting this--in part--because most people (even huge fans of the series) say that it wasn't all that good. And I'm one of those who's not really willing to trudge through an entire bad book just because it might be necessary for what comes in the later "good" books. In short: I don't give whole bad books "free passes" simply because they're part of something "better."
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Ok... This is *my* take on the first book. The writing isn't *bad*, but the first three or four chapters are confusing. You are dumped into the middle of something with no explanation of the events or the characters involved. *Almost* everything is explained as you continue, but even at the end of the book I still had questions.
The book has 24 chapters in 7 books and by chapter 8 I was fully hooked and the final 5 chapters were difficult to put down.
I've read a lot of reviews from both fanboys and haters. If you can't make yourself get past the first confusing chapters, you're probably not going to like the book.
Now... I'm pretty easy to please. It takes a truly excretable or truly boring book to get me to put it down, so you can take my recommendations with as large a pinch of salt as you wish. In the end, I enjoyed the book and I'm eager to see where the story goes from here.
Edit: A Steven Erikson quote from the reissue of Gardens of the Moon:
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In the years and many novels since, certain facts have made themselves plain. Beginning with Gardens of the Moon, readers will either hate my stuff or love it. There’s no in-between. Naturally, I’d rather everybody loved it, but I understand why this will never be the case. These are not lazy books. You can’t float through, you just can’t. Even more problematic, the first novel begins halfway through a seeming marathon – you either hit the ground running and stay on your feet or you’re toast.
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