Good But Slightly Confusing
How do I rate or even review this book? I cannot summarize it. I can maybe pick out the most import aspects of the book. Maybe. I can’t offer any quotes of passages that stand out. And, as it is like no other book that I have ever read, and I have read many, I can’t say what it’s similar to. There were many moments I was able to follow along with no issues, and many more I admit to myself I have no idea what was going on. There were many vivid and likeable characters, but there were some who were just names to me. This recipe sounds like an unsavory dish, yet I am glad I read it, and I am more than likely going to read the sequel . . . a sequel that has no characters from the first book and takes place in an entirely different area than the first. But the next book does have a kickass title – Deadhouse Gates. I have no idea what that means, even though the word deadhouse was mentioned toward the end of Gardens of the Moon. Also, there were many different classes or races of beings in the book, some of which I don’t understand. This is a book that I’ve heard about for years and never attempted to read due to what I’d heard about it, mostly because it was a difficult book to read and I was not going to understand a lot of it. Boy, were they correct! I attempted to read this book about four or five years ago and made it about halfway before walking away from it. It was too much for me then. With this second attempt, I finished it, and the parts I read before were much more easily traversed. I do have a few favorite moments that I will not include with a spoiler tag. But I can list a few of my favorite characters. In no particular order: • Whiskey Jack • Tattersail • Ganoes Paran • Crokus Younghand • Kruppe • Sorry I’ve read that after the third book, you will know if you like the series or not. That’s a hefty task just to find out if the series will be for me. Deadhouse Gates has about fifty less pages than Gardens of the Moon, but the third book, Memories of Ice, has nearly thousand pages. Today, I’m just glad I finished this book. My goal was to finish on the 15th. Here we are. At the moment, I feel like this is a three out of five stars book. Yet I wonder, as there are other three-star books I’ve read and enjoyed much than this. Do I recommend this book? I don’t know. That statement itself might be the answer for you. But I can say that if you like fantasy and you want to read a book that is unlike anything you have never read before, give it a try. You may like it. Or you may walk away and come back in a few years and read it all the way through.