Throwback Thursday: Gardens of the Moon

"Doorstop fantasy" is the affectionate term for a fantasy series made up of thick, weighty books. Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin immediately spring to mind in this category. British author Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, a projected 10-book series, has come to the States with the breakout first novel, Gardens of the Moon.

The Malazan Empire has been slowly but surely expanding as the years pass, but this world-altering sequence of events has awakened cosmic forces beyond imagining. A young girl named Sorry is possessed by the assassin's god's avatar; a thief named Crokus bears the coin of Oponn, the twin god of chance; and an elder god with no knowledge of why he's awake haunts the dreams of the seer Kruppe.

Mortals are always desperate to control their own fates, of course, and none more so than Col. Whiskeyjack. Commander of the last of the Bridgeburners, an elite fighting force, he and his men know that the Empress has targeted them for destruction for the sin of being the last of the "old guard." But no matter who wants them dead, gods or men, they won't give up easily. Caught between an empire and the gods, their actions may well determine the course of history for all concerned.

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[Book review] Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

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Burning Nation by Trent Reedy

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