Thoughts on Gardens of the Moon after finishing

Finished Gardens of the Moon today as a first time reader and thought I'd give my thoughts and ask some questions because no one I know in the real world reads fantasy :( and I need to talk about it.

I read this book in like 1.5 weeks which is an insane pace for me who is usually a very slow reader. The prologue and maybe chapter 1 were probably the hardest for me to get through but once we hit chapter 2 it was smooth sailing... until book 2 which threw me for a loop with all new characters. Especially after the epic intro that was the siege of Pale, Kruppe and the gang just pissed me off really but I grew to love them by the end of book 2 and beyond.

Given this series's reputation, I was expecting to be thoroughly confused by a lot of stuff but I was only thoroughly confused by some stuff. I did part audiobook and part physical and I found I was able to digest the physical stuff like way better than audiobook. For the audiobook, the chapter summaries on the wiki and the new readers' read along thing really helped. I'll do a "things I'm still confused by" list because that sounds fun. Some of these I probably shouldn't know the answer to by this point in the story and that's ok:

  • why are Kruppe's dreams so influential?
  • what is an Azath house? that kind of came out of nowhere at the end. and what happened to Rallick in the end?
  • I guess just magic in general? I understand Warrens and stuff but like are there specific spells? Right now it seems very soft magic but maybe there's more to it that I don't know
  • I didn't understand who the Imass and Jaghuts were for a while but I think they're just two really old races? who had conflicts between them in the past?
  • I'm gonna be honest I don't know who the fuck Orfantal or Korlat are. I guess they're Tiste Andii but I literally only caught their names at the end of the book. were they in the rest of it?
  • The biggest part of confusion for me was probably the rebirth of Tattersail which happened in Kruppe's dream which happened in the past but also the future? and with the help of some random elder god? I don't know...
  • and what was the "other tool of Oppon" (besides Chance) that the Crone mentioned to Rake that he didn't want mentioned in front of Paran? Are we supposed to take this to mean the coin or something else?
  • speaking of the coin, why was it so important? does it just kind of give someone good luck? I don't remember if it was explained why the coin bearer was so important to either kill or keep alive

My favorite parts of the book were definitely:

  • the more military-fantasy ish parts like the siege of pale.
  • the humanizing, emotional beats for the characters (i.e. Whiskeyjack realizing he has friends, Paran doing the "i have no enemies" thing, Lorn questioning adjunct vs. woman identity, even Tattersail doing the self-denial thing of being in love with that first guy who died (i forgot his name) and also realizing she's in self-denial)
  • the funnier parts (all of Kruppe, also silly things like imagining Anomander Rake getting dressed up to go to a party). I've been told the next book is very dark so uh oh
  • just the plot in general. I had no clue where the story was going but I was so invested in the world it didn't matter and every new thing that happened was exciting
  • Anomander Rake was very cool and I'm interested in finding out more about him, morally speaking
  • Kruppe

Things I didn't like:

  • I don't much care for Crokus. I think he's kind of a weird little shit and I know he's supposed to be but I just don't fully enjoy when he's on screen.
  • some of the Darjuhistan plot with the guilds and council members didn't really land with me. I usually love politicking in fantasy books but I didn't really connect with many of the purely Darujhistan characters. for example i don't know if he was much in the book before this point but I only really noticed that Coll was a character in the story when he met Paran. I do have mixed feelings on it though because as a whole, I think the "Phoenix inn crew" is really cool and super fun and I loved them all together as a group, it was just individually I didn't really connect.
  • that's it

So anyway I really loved this book and the world it's set in. I started Deadhouse Gates immediately after and am already on chapter 2. Very excited to read on.

Last note: Why were like all the Bridgeburners talking about how hot Apsalar is? Isn't she like 14?? I know she's part old woman but like damn. There were like at least 3 different comments about it and (DG chapter 1 minor spoiler) now Fiddler is fucking thirsting after her !If i remember right, even whiskeyjack made a comment like damn dude. i know it's been a while but she's literally a child.