62 pages • 2 hours read
Steven EriksonGardens of the Moon
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 6: “The City of Blue Fire”
Book 6, Chapter 17 Summary
Councilman Turban Orr hires an assassin to kill Coll. Rallick plans to stop the assassin before he can reach Coll.
At Baruk’s house, Mammot is trapped in a deep sleep. Baruk and Rake study him and realize that he’s become trapped in a Warren inside the Jaghut’s barrow. Rake worries that the Jaghut will possess him, which will later prove true.
Meese, one of the Phoenix Inn regulars, intercepts Crokus and Apsalar shortly after they arrive in Darujhistan. She tells them they need to hide because the guards are after Crokus for killing someone at the D’Arle estate, although it was actually Apsalar, then Sorry, who killed that night. This leads Crokus to erroneously believe that Challice betrayed him by sharing his description with the guards. In truth, Meese is protecting him at the Eel’s orders because he is the Coin Bearer.
Book 6, Chapter 18 Summary
Paran and Coll reach Darujhistan, Coll barely conscious from days of riding while injured. He asks Paran to take him to the Phoenix Inn.
Whiskeyjack, Kalam, and Quick Ben plan to make one more attempt to contact the assassins’ guild before they move on to the next stage of their plan, setting off their explosives around the city.
Paran arrives at the Phoenix Inn where Kalam recognizes him. Paran demands that Kalam help him by sending the Bridgeburner’s healer to Coll. Once Coll is with the healer, Paran and Whiskeyjack finally meet.
Whiskeyjack has a magical tool for communicating with Dujek across long distances. He and Paran use it to speak with the High Fist. Dujek is planning a rebellion against the empire with Whiskeyjack’s help. Paran agrees to join as well.
Rallick finds the assassin hunting for Coll. The two fight brutally. Rallick kills the other man, but not before the assassin also stabs him.
A Tiste Andii sorcerer is stalking Crokus, looking for an opportunity to kill the Coin Bearer.
In the Jaghut’s barrow, Adjunct Lorn finds an acorn-shaped object called a Finnest, which stores the Jaghut’s powers. Lorn takes it, and the Jaghut begins to wake.
Book 6, Chapter 19 Summary
Crokus and Apsalar sneak out of the hiding place where Meese is keeping them. The Tiste Andii sorceress who is trailing them moves to attack, but she is rebuffed by an unseen spellcaster. It will be revealed later that this spellcaster is part of the Crimson Guard, sent by Caladan Brood to prevent the killing of the Coin Bearer. Crokus and Apsalar hide out in the tower of K’rul’s ancient temple. Looking up at Moon’s Spawn, Crokus sees five giant flying creatures. These are Moon’s Spawn’s dragons, which will later fight the Jaghut.
Rallick, injured after his fight with Coll’s would-be assassin, makes it back to the Phoenix Inn to rendezvous with Murillio. The next step in their plan to reinstate Coll to his noble title is to challenge Councilman Turban Orr to a duel at Lady Simtal’s upcoming party.
Whiskeyjack and Paran discuss strategy. Paran wonders why Whiskeyjack is still moving forward with his original orders to disrupt the balance of power in Darujhistan. Paran concludes that Whiskeyjack plans to destabilize the city so that Dujek can take control and use the city’s riches to fund his rebellion against the empire. Whiskeyjack confirms Paran’s theory and tells him that there is a dangerous power growing in the south, one that they will all need to band together to fight.
Book 6 Analysis
In Book 6, Erikson uses Paran’s confusion as a narrative device to clarify complex character motivations and ambiguous narrative arcs while deepening the theme of Rebellion Against Conquest. In a Chapter 19 conversation between Whiskeyjack and Paran, Paran voices questions about ambiguous plot elements: Why would Whiskeyjack still want to cause chaos in Darujhistan by setting off explosions and taking out the local leaders? On its face, it seems like Dujek would instead want to seek alliances with the leaders of Darujhistan to support him against the empire. Using dialogue between two trustworthy characters, the author acknowledges and resolves the narrative ambiguity. Whiskeyjack reveals his plan to use the empire’s strategy for toppling a city—hiring the local assassins to take out the city leaders while also sowing chaos through destroying important infrastructure—to Dujek’s advantage rather than the empire’s. Whiskeyjack hopes to lay the groundwork for Dujek to take control of Darujhistan without too much bloodshed. This conversation clarifies the motivations for the Bridgeburner’s actions in the city and also establishes the conflict for the next novels in the series, a conflict of an even grander scale than that in Gardens of the Moon. As Whiskeyjack puts it, “Something’s growing down there [in the south], so ugly it makes the Imass look like kittens. When I say we’re in trouble, I don’t mean just Genebakis, I mean the world. We’re all in for a fight, Captain” (394). By highlighting the complexities of preparing for a revolt, Chapter 19 enhances the theme of Rebellion Against Conquest as Whiskeyjack and Dujek’s plans for rebellion are laid bare, and Paran agrees to take their side.
The Jaghut’s Finnest, introduced in Chapter 18, is both significant to the novel’s plot and symbolic of the creature whose power it holds. The Finnest is a repository or prison that holds the Jaghut’s powers while the Jaghut is entombed in the barrow. Adjunct Lorn is surprised to find that the Finnest is in the form of an acorn. That this powerful magical object is disguised as an acorn is an example of the recurring motif of masking or concealing identities. The Finnest’s shape foreshadows some of its behavior in Book 7: Adjunct Lorn will plant the acorn in a garden where it will grow into a violent tree-like form before being contained. The acorn shape is also symbolic of the Jaghut’s stasis and potential power that is currently entombed or encapsulated. The acorn shape is also a nod to the ancientness of the Jaghut race, one of the early races that defined the history and future of this fictional world. The Jaghut society and conflicts were foundational seeds for the modern world in which Gardens of the Moon takes place.
