Steven Erikson
DEADHOUSE GATES
Steven Erikson
TOR 2000
Pb 836 pages
ISBN#
0-765-34879-9
Are you looking for a story that is so complex that you can lose yourself in it for a good long while? I stumbled upon this book without realizing that it’s a Book Two in a series--but that doesn’t matter because the storyline of Steven Erikson’s Malazan Books of the Fallen is so huge that Book Two is a different theater of war from Book One, so I wasn’t lost in the plot, just absorbed into it! I’ve since discovered that Book Three [MEMORIES OF ICE] continues from Book One’s plot [GARDENS OF THE MOON], and Book Four [HOUSE OF CHAINS] continues with Book Two’s plot. Some characters do interweave, however, or have relatives in the opposing plotlines.
So: What is DEADHOUSE GATES about? See first my review of GARDENS OF THE MOON to get an idea of the Malazan Empire. Basically, it’s Sword & Sorcery of the highest caliber. DEADHOUSE GATES differs from GARDENS in that, as I said before, it’s a different theater of war. While our heroes from Book One still struggle with their invasion of Genabackis, their friends and family back home in the Malazan Empire are embroiled in a fierce rebellion. Empress Laseen has a new adjunct, Paran’s sister Tavore who ensures her position at court by selling her younger sister Felisin into slavery because this noble family is out of favor due to Paran’s assignment with the “traitorous” Bridgeburners overseas. Feslin survives with the help of an ex-priest of Fener who’s had his hands cut off. Another plotline involves Fiddler, Kalam, Apsalar, and Crokus who have returned from Genebackis. And still another side-plot follows a wandering Jaghut seeking answers to his incredibly ancient past. But the grandest plot in this book is the “Chain of Dogs,” the story about High Fist Coltain who is betrayed yet still manages to march his army and a band of refugees--thousands of people--across an inhospitable desert toward perceived safety, battling their foes nearly every step of the way for hundreds of leagues.
DEADHOUSE GATES is awesome. Author Erikson is an anthropologist/archaeologist, so his writing is thick with references to previous ages and other peoples whose influence continues to this day. DEADHOUSE GATES has a deep wisdom to it that accentuates the horrific and mysterious elements. The world-building and character developments are so interwoven with complex plotting that I consider it my reward each day when I can sit down with one of these books. DEADHOUSE GATES is highly recommended for fans of Sword & Sorcery, imaginative history, desperate battles in deserts [on foot and horseback], and stories with dangerous magical beings and macabre humor.
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