[turbolung]

Firstly, I must point out that I have not read fiction for about 7-years. I believed that I was wasting my time with made up stories, and so read a plethora of books on history and science. Prior to this, I read fiction from Steven King to JRR Tolkien. Recently I read The Road which I found brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable.

I then turned to Gardens of the Moon. This book has to be the second worst book I have ever read (the worst being Making Money by Terry Pratchett - I still fail to understand how any of his books are published? Do 11-year olds read this trash?). I am not sure if I have been spoilt by Tolkein, Doughlas Adams and the like, but the style of writing and everything about this book stinks.

Firstly, the book is utterly confusing when it does not need to be. Erikson seems to think that this style of writing is clever. He possibly thinks that there is some type of mystery created with having the first 1/3 of the book written in snippets about 1-million different characters. This alone makes the story an effort to read and utterly unenjoyable. Everytime you get to another paragraph about yet another new character, you pray that the author will just get on with the story.

Secondly, Erikson keeps using the same words and expressions over and over and over and over, which exposes Erikson’s lack of writing skill. Why does everyone scowl, grimace or growl? Some conversations have everyone growling their sentences. “Can you pass me the salt?” growled Tattersail. “Yes, it would be a pleasure,” grimmaced Paran.

Then we have, so-and-so spun their eyes around. For goodness sakes, use another expression. Also, everyone shrugs. Why? It’s like a cartoon. Every ****ing idiot in the book shrugs and at inappropriate times. “Shall we make jam sandwiches?” Shrugged Gear. “Sounds like a good idea, but first let me cast a spell of tastiness,” shrugged Hairlock.

Then there are the absolutely idiotic names. Hairlock, Nightchill, Whiskeyjack… Do I even need to point out how absurd these names are? These are the types of names you would expect from some 12-year old obsessed with World of Warcraft. And while we are at it, why do so many names have apostrophes?

At first, I thought the use of magic was great, then, after a while I realised that there is so much magic at everyone’s finger tips, that when magic was used, it was just plain boring.

And why does Erikson have to make everyone so awesome? I mean, in a story, you might have one or two awesome kickarse characters – not every single one. Again, this makes everyone boring. All the assassins are awesome, all the magicians are awesome, and all the fighter-like characters are awesome… Zzzz… And if all these characters are uber-awesome, why do they die so easily and within one sentence. There is no detailed description befitting their awesomeness. They just simply die. Even funnier, is that they die sometimes by non-awesome characters. WTF?

The story itself makes no sense. Why is Oponn involved? Are Gods really just Gods if anyone can become one and if they can be killed? It is as though Erikson thought of some awesome idea and just jammed it into the story whether or not it fit. I get the feeling he was writing the story and some awesome idea [to him, anyway] came to mind and he tried to push it in somewhere, whether or not it made any sense to the context of the story.

There are so many characters that it is hard to care for any of them. Who am I supposed to care for in this book? There are like 2000 people doing 1-million different things [half of which don’t make sense]. Did anyone find it strange that in one micro-second, Paran had sex with Tattersail and then made it his life aim to avenge her death? Come on. Really? He knew her for a day. He meets this mage, they don’t get along, and out of nowhere they sleep together and then she dies and he risks everything and throws away all to avenge her death? How utterly stupid. And again, Tattersail is set up as this awesome mage that everyone is scared of, and then she just dies without any description. She is found later as a scorched body. :confused:

And a sword that is a gaol/jail? Retarded.

If you haven’t read this book – don’t waste your money and time. Rubbish.

[Rulkez]

So you didn't like it then ?

[End Of Disc One]

Troll topic

*back to topic list*

[kcf]

I wouldn't call it a troll topic - it's a legitamate and well communicated criticism of GotM. I don't agree with it, but that doesn't make it a troll topic.

[The K]

I´m confused...do I start arguing now?

[End Of Disc One]

I wouldn't call it a troll topic - it's a legitamate and well communicated criticism of GotM. I don't agree with it, but that doesn't make it a troll topic.
I don't see why someone would make an account just to spread negativity.

*Now back to topic list for real*

[kcf]

I don't see why someone would make an account just to spread negativity.


the 1 post is suspicious

[Spears&Buckler]

I hear you, turbolung. I was not a fan of this book either. As far as the trolling goes, I don't think this qualifies because there are legitimate points being made (albeit rather harshly) and it's well thought out with examples.

And it was really quite humorous too! Well done, turbolung.

[Seak]

Who had to look up what a "sapper" was? I don't think focusing on a couple words Erikson uses means he lacks in vocabulary.

I agree that Erikson (especially in GotM) was a bit disjointed and tough to follow - to each his/her own. I think if you're willing to work at it, it pays off, especially since the endings are great.

To address the point about all characters being awesome - I love it. It's one of my favorite parts of the series, especially since there aren't too many that do this. With all the magic and power, people have to balance each other out. Superman can't fight Two-Face right. (or insert other lesser powered evil-doer since I don't really know comics well) Erikson's got the highest of the high fantasy going here especially in contrast the the common theme lately of less magic.

I think it's hilarious when someone who is awesome gets killed by someone who's not. It keeps you guessing and that's Erikson's style to keep you on your toes and move away from the norms. Why does there need to be a long, drawn-out fight just because someone's all powerful? I love the last scene in Equilibrium, which has a bit of this type of stuff going for it.

I don't know if this was trolling or not, but them's my .02.

[Majst0r]

I must say I wholeheartedly agree on some points made by the OP.

When I first heard about the series from a friend and started reading the reviews I was really excited about the prospect of delving into a new epic saga spanning ages and continents and with a multitude of awesome characters, gods and lots and lots of magic to boot. Right up my alley, right? Well...

I did have a little nagging voice in my head which took upon itself to constantly remind me about a lot of things said in some of the well worded, but ultimately negative reviews about the series. I suppressed the little bugger because I knew that I'm too awesome a reader :cool: to complain about a book being too complex for my taste and no stranger to books with a plethora of characters and storylines. Noobs writing reviews, what else can you expect? :rolleyes:

When, finally, I got the book (which at that point I started thinking about as 'The Book') I made myself a bucket of coffee, tucked the wife safely into bed and mentally prepared for hating myself the next morning.

Boy, was I wrong! Not about hating myself the next morning. No. I was right about that part. I was wrong in assuming that it will be a worthwhile endeavour. It wasn't.

I just didn't like the authors style, wording and his liberal use of foreshadowing on almost every step of the way. I didn't care about the story, the characters seemed cardboard and their names were a bit off. When I started to get the sense that the story will unfold like some weird origami of a tesseract spanning volumes of words, I had to admit that it was a bit too epic for me. And that was no mean feat for someone who thinks of himself as having the reading equivalent of uber-micro powers when it comes to dealing with characters, appendixes and glossaries in books.

And I got all that from less than a third of the book. How awesome is that? :D