Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson drops you into a world with thousands of years of history, dozens of factions, and ancient gods casually moving mortals like chess pieces — and offers no orientation whatsoever. The Malazan Empire's war-weary Bridgeburners, the conspiracies of the free city of Darujhistan, and the machinations of ascendants all collide in a novel that is morally ambiguous from first page to last. No faction is simply good or evil, and the world-building depth is genuinely unmatched in epic fantasy. That same density is also the honest warning: many readers abandon this book in the first hundred pages. Contains significant violence and crude language; not for younger teens. For readers willing to invest — and who don't require hand-holding — the payoff is extraordinary.