Gardens of the Moon

Did I barely have any idea what was going on? Yes. Did I enjoy it anyway? Also yes.

This book is a lot. Characters keep getting introduced up until the very last chapter, and even if you managed to keep track of all of them, there is still the story and the world and the alliances and the conflicts to remember. Gardens Of The Moon throws you in its world with very little context, but gives you more information bit by bit, and things do start making sense. I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on things up until around 60-65% in - that's when things started getting just a bit too chaotic and grand for me.

The story has a lot of unique elements here that I hadn't come across yet in other fantasy fare. There's a few developments that happen to characters that really caught me by surprise, such as deaths that are actually way more than just a simple death.
As far as fantasy elements go, this combines so many of them. The story has mages, dragons, shapeshifting, gods, puppets, possession,... as well as so many revelations about characters that it can feel very overwhelming. I don't feel I have a good grasp on what is and what is not possible in this world yet.

I am not super into military fantasy or just fantasy that is very epic and big, unless everything is revealed a little more gradually. This might start making more sense in the rest of the series though.
I however enjoyed the arcs of some of the characters and even though they were many, they all had a role to fill and had something interesting going on, which is a pretty rare feat.

Apparently when it comes to the Malazan series, in order to give it a fair chance you'd have to read the first 2-3 books, and I am eventually going to check out the second one. Right now I am not convinced I will read the entire series, but I am still intrigued enough to at least give that one a try.