Gardens of the Moon

As soon as you turn the first pages of this book you know that you are in the high fantasy genre. You are thrown in medias res, and have to cling to the sentences to understand what all those names and concepts mean. There are some very pictorial scenes of magical battle that fascinates and some rather quirky characters who amuses... but it is a bit of a mouthful.

Then you start realising that this is not the common high fantasy fare after all. There are no direct analogue in human history, as is otherwise typical of fantasy universes (ie. those are Romans, those are European medieval kingdoms etc.). There's an originality to the people and customs described, and beneath it all the complexity of the history of not one, but several ancient civilisations lurks.

The tone might at times be a little too heroic and grandly, and there's a lot of recurring inner dialogue used to characterise that might have been skipped. But all in all the sheer richness of the world and the originality of the characters compensate these minor flaws. The book is hard to get hold of, but you have nine more books in which you can get familiar with the universe, so read slowly and enjoy being in a world that only resembles ours in its cruelty.

Definitely recommended.