Everyone hypes up the Malazan series like it's peak fantasy

I got 400 pages into Gardens of the Moon and quit. The way Erikson just drops you into a world with zero explanation feels lazy, not clever. Did anyone else find the first book borderline unreadable or is it just me?

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thea_carter4mo ago

400 pages of Gardens of the Moon and I felt like I was reading a book in a language I almost knew but not quite. What worked for me was putting it down for six months, then coming back with a wiki page open on my phone just to track the characters and timeline. Once I stopped trying to understand everything on the first read, it got easier. The second and third books are way more straightforward, too, so if you can push through, it does pay off. But honestly, nobody should have to work that hard to enjoy a book.

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lindagreen4mo ago

oh man that wiki page trick is a lifesaver. i did the same thing with dune actually, kept flipping back and forth between the glossary and the main text until my bookmark basically became a crime scene of sticky notes. it's funny how once you let go of trying to know everything, the book just kinda clicks. like i was so obsessed with figuring out who the dead seed guy was that i missed half the stuff happening in the first 200 pages.

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