Malazing Grace

Some books follow a plot with a trajectory as predictable as an arrow, see ‘Kings of the Wyld’ (this comment isn’t meant to be dismissive, there’s a lot of fun to be had in knowing what’s going to happen but enjoying getting there, They made 1026* episodes of Columbo for exactly this reason). Some books are like onions, their plots are layered, secrets and mysteries are revealed slowly at first and then in increasing frequency as the end approaches, see ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’. Some books jump backwards and forwards from place to place and character to character, see ‘Song of Ice and Fire’. Occasionally they also jump between past, present and future, I can’t actually think of any examples of that right now but Pulp Fiction would be the film equivalent.

Then there’s Gardens of the Moon, it’s a multi-layered, but threadbare, patchwork quilt of a story, deliberately opaque and extensively nebulous. Like a turkey voting for Christmas, Steven Erikson seems to have deliberately set out to try and make you put this book down. This book is hard work from the first page, there’s a brief prologue and then bam! You land on a page that’s already travelling and it feels like you’ve missed the first quarter of the book, I kept checking to make sure I hadn’t accidentally started in the wrong place, I hadn’t. There’s a lot going on and not a huge amount of exposition to illuminate the reader (there is a list of major characters and places, if you can print that out or just bookmark the page it’ll make a huge difference. Sadly this is the kind of book for which my trusty kindle lets me down, it’s abysmal at maps. Come on Amazon, make this easier to use, add something in settings to toggle a view of the maps without losing your place).

Perseverance pays off though where this book is concerned, what at first seem to be just random collections of short aimless narratives begin to coalesce (at approximately the speed of glacial drift) into a coherent and enjoyable story. Three quarter of the way through and I find myself in onion territory, layers which previously had been obscured (by the outer layers, the skin, a foot of soil, a scarecrow, an electric fence, and a three mile walk from my front door) suddenly start to reveal themselves in a hurry. I’m familiar with the characters, the settings and the story makes sense.

I read a small piece by Steven Erikson prior to starting this book in which he basically stated that the Malazan Book of the Fallen was the fantasy equivalent of Marmite, some people just didn’t get it, but if you were prepared to roll your sleeves up and put the effort in, you were in for a real treat (note to all, I’m paraphrasing like a demon here). I thought this sounded pretty arrogant to be honest, but having read the first book, I think he was just being honest, this book is hard work, it would be very easy to just shrug your shoulders and walk away, you’d be missing out though, it really is worth the effort required to get to the reward at the end. Mr Erikson, I tip my hat to you, you’ve managed to write a book which is incredibly dense and challenging to read, but still enjoyable and occasionally free flowing.

*Possibly not an accurate number.