House of Chains: Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 4

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House of Chains is broken into four parts, each of which is book-length on its own. The first part of House of Chains is the story of Karsa Orlong, a barbarian from the Teblor tribes of the far north of Genabackis, the continent so disastrously invaded by the Malazan Empire in Gardens. Here Erikson owns up to a little Robert E. Howard influence, as Karsa, despite his brutality and single-minded pursuit of fame and glory on the battlefield (a lot of which seems to involve hacking up the entirely defenseless), is put right into a protagonist role out of which we are led to expect a character arc. And the awesome thing is that he gets one. Up until now, even Erikson's most well-drawn characters have mostly felt as if they exist merely to play out their roles in the vast, epoch-making history he is envisioning. Karsa Orlong is as unabashedly archetypal as fantasy characters come. Yet he's the first upon whom Erikson focuses and allows to grow as a person.Karsa is literally the viewpoint character for the whole first quarter of the novel. So when we get into part two, and it's back to business as usual with enough folks to fill the Superdome playing out the fate of nations, you have to do some serious mental gear-shifting. This is maybe what those aforementioned fans dislike. However, as the first part is set in the series' continuity concurrent with events in Gardens, and the remainder of the book takes place right after Memories of Ice, I don't see how Erikson could have done much different structurally. Erikson might have improved matters had he followed Martin's narrative strategies more closely, and given us shorter chapters, each with its own viewpoint character. (I'm not talking mimicry here, just a similar approach.) Instead, Erikson lets his chapters run long — typically 30 pages or more — with numerous story threads interwoven. The result is like the reading equivalent of channel surfing. And inevitably some shows will be more interesting than others.The rest of the story involves the culmination of the war between the Apocalypse of Sha'ik and the Malazan Empire introduced in Deadhouse Gates. That book was largely taken up by a nightmarish, Bataan-to-the-nth-power death march called the Chain of Dogs, and reading that book often makes you feel like you're part of it. In House of Chains, the story, to Erikson's credit, is much more fluid. The work he has poured into building Karsa Orlong's character, who has taken the name Toblakai and is now part of Sha'ik's camp, means we get better work on many of the other characters as well. Adjunct Tavore has come to the Seven Cities subcontinent with a mandate to take the war directly to Sha'ik, holed up in the desert of Raraku behind the Whirlwind, a swirling, sorcerous wall of sand. Not only are Tavore's armies a bunch of pitiful, inexperienced raw recruits, she also still doesn't know that Sha'ik is none other than her sister, Felisin, whom she arranged to be banished to a bleak and wretched penal mining colony. (Felisin's escape from said colony was a major thread in Deadhouse.)It turns out Tavore was acting, not out of cruelty or betrayal, but a desire to protect Felisin from the violent culling of the nobility taking place in Malaz City. This says something for how bad things must have been there, if Felisin's banishment to hell on earth was the lesser of two evils. Meanwhile, Sha'ik, the former Felisin, knows full well her sister is coming, and eagerly awaits her shot at vengeance. But she in turn has to deal with potential treachery on the part of some in her armies, as well as the fact that the Whirlwind Goddess whose powers are responsible for Sha'ik's transformation is simply using the woman for ends that are all the Goddess's own. (Not to get spoilerific, but I thought that led to a fairly anticlimactic reveal.)House of Chains could have snagged another entire star from me with ease had Erikson let the book focus with ruthless precision on this conflict, and reduced or cut from the book entirely all the subplots that bog down the middle. Arcane doings galore among the Elder races Erikson has created, their magical warrens (which I had to keep looking up), a battle between the Ascendent gods over the Throne of one of these warrens (Shadow). While there's no doubt that the resolution to all of these conflicts will figure in the series' overall climax — the tenth novel is titled The Crippled God, so it's pretty clear he'll be the final boss battle — I think it would have been better overall to give these story threads their own book. Played out on the sidelines the way they are, with Erikson's often infuriating fondness for caginess and keeping too much information close to the vest, the scenes feel like a weak story interfering with a strong story. I mean, when Erikson is on message, his stories are strong. The last hundred pages are riveting and at times quite emotionally gratifying, and Erikson isn't above some button-mashing when the occasion calls for it. (The book is violent throughout — too much so for some readers — but nothing compares to the fate-worse-than-death one villainous mage suffers at Karsa's hands.)Maybe a later volume will let House of Chains' subplots take center stage and coalesce into a tight narrative all their own, as opposed to what they are now: padding that turns what could have been a long but rock-solid military fantasy adventure into an overlong and overwritten case of literary gigantism that's too easily distracted by its own detours and tributaries. While Steven Erikson remains one of fantasy's most formidable creative minds, I still can't call him one of its greatest novelists, and I won't until he figures out that, however monumental your vision, sometimes as a writer you have to learn when and how to get out of the way of your own story.

Once I get to the end of one of these books it feels like this huge accomplishment. Mostly because they are really so very dense and maybe it is close to 1000 pages but it seems like so much more.It took a lot to get to where we were going in this book. Mainly the overall arc is that Tevore and the Malazan’s are going to march into the desert to fare Sharik and her appocolyptic sands. So that is where the various lines all converge by the end of the story. It took a long time to get there and at the end I will say that again most of my feelings are bittersweet. At least this one didn’t gut my insides out like the previous two books but again there seems to be no such thing as a happy ending when you are in the world of the Malazans.I’m really never sure where the book is going to take me and this one again starts off with a culture and people that we don’t really seem to know. Karsa Orlong how I hated you. This started as a really difficult read because I completely hated Karsa and his cultural ways. It was difficult to real all of Book I since it was just about him and his beginnings to where we left off in Deathhouse Gates. The good news is that even though I still don’t like him per say I was rooting for him later in the book. His character went through a lot of changes so by the end of this book I grew to enjoy his arc and I have high hopes for him. “You have learned much, Karsa Orlong." "I have, T'lan Imass. As you shall witness.”The good news about travelling with Tevore and the Malazans is that we get to be with what is left of the Bridgeburners, Coltain’s wounded that were saved and some of the other wiccan clans. I don’t really like Tevore if only for what she was prepared to do to her sister. So while she isn’t my favorite I did love being with Strings a.k.a. Fiddler and some other all stars from the prior books.Sharik, Heboric, Felisin and a slew of others had an strange and interesting tale. I will say that while Sharik wasn’t my favorite I did like Heboric and Felisin the younger quite a bit. Heboric’s change in this was actually one of my favorite parts since I really did want the once priest to find purpose again and it seems that maybe another god saw something in him too. But the most memorable point driven home again was that if in a fantasy world of any kind never drink the tea, it doesn’t go well fore anyone. Just ask Alice, Nynaeve, Egwene or the ever murderous Marquel.There is some stuff with Apsalar and Crocus but they didn’t get a lot of time and in the end I didn’t really understand what happened between them. But the crazy dude who is a priest for Shadowthrone in middle of the desert and his many spidered wife are hilarious. So I did enjoy when they ended up there.There is the big buildup going into the end and then it sort of fizzled out when we were supposed to get a big battle. I know that SE did it like that on purpose but still I guess I just wanted a bigger battle sequence after all that time getting to it. Don’t get me wrong there is still some very cool stuff that happens and I especially liked what happened to the Dog Killers but I wanted Tevore and Sharik’s story line to end a little differently I guess.One of the more followable books in the series for me. But between warrens, gods, ascendants and races it is so hard to keep track of everything.

Steven Erikson plunges the reader into an immersive, expansive and mysterious world that is virtually devoid of fantasy cliche and full of memorable characters, exciting action, complex plotting and glimpses of humour.His writing is vivid and compelling, never overtly moralistic, and leaves the reader satisfied and with a distinct impression that there was much more going on than the author chose to reveal.Erikson rarely explains things directly, leaving the reader to put it all together for him- or herself. The Malazan Empire and surrounding continents are realised with originality and unsurpassed complexity, which really bring the places, civilisations and people to life in the mind’s eye.With not an Elf or an Orc to be seen (at least, Erikson would never explicitly call them by those names), this is a fantasy writer deserving of much wider acclaim. The whole series of novels is inspired and (literally) fantastic, but this particular book stands out: Karsa Orlong stands head and shoulders above Conan!

Book 4 of the Malazan book of the Fallen and it is yet another corker. I am running out of superlatives to describe this series: more new characters, more history, more gods, more heroes and villains and each character a real, independently developed individual.Each strand exists separately and yet I know there is a grand construction being pulled together here, with as many new strands emerging as there are strands coming together to form the fabric of the series.Details, descriptions, emotions: all are present in a novel you'd expect to be studied in an A Level class rather than a standard fantasy - heavy on action, light on literature. These tales are a pleasure to read and once more I highly recommend this book even as I race onto the next!fleecy mossAuthor of the sci-fi fantasy series Folio 55, Books 1 & 2 (End of a Girl, Undon), available now on Amazon.

It is astonishing how every book in this series seems to get better than the one before. The sheer size of the cast is phenomenal however it seems like each character has an important role to play in the grand scheme of things and there are no 'bit-part' players. New characters such as Karsa Orlong, L'oric and Trull Sengar become favourites straight away and that is down to Erikson's skill as a writer. I will admit that I go a bit sentimental when we find out what characters such as Quick Ben, Kalam and Fiddler are up to when reading.. To the extent where it transpires that Strings is Fiddler I actually did a mini fist bump and silent wooop to myself lol. In the first few books the world Erikson was describing was so vast and complicated it was sometimes confusing and I had to read certain sections more than once. Yet, now that we are revisiting some of these places again it adds to the overall creation and heightening of the picture that Erikson is trying to paint for us. The book takes place after the events of Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice. A lot of the story is almost the opposite of the path Coltaine walked on the Chain of Dogs. As previous books in the series I love finding out about the God's motives and as a previous reviewer stated - these sections are 'Homeric' when the God's converse with humans/mortals. I am interested to find out more about Cotillion. This book made him seem more human and emotional than we were given witness to before and that intrigues me. I won't delve too much about the plot. I will say that I am looking to start reading Midnight Tides straight away as I can't wait to be thrown headfirst back in to Erikson's world. Peace. James x [...]

In the aftermath of the chain of dogs, adjunct Tavore, sister of Felisin arrives with an unblinded army to take seven cities back for the empire. Or so the idea went....The issue with the novel is, that the back would give you the idea that it was a showdown between Tavore and Felisin, whilst it really isn't. The first quarter of the book is a flashback, explaing the character and presence of Toblaki in Deadhouse gates. The rest is so concerned with various storylines that the promised showdown falls flat on its face. This only jars me because I was led to believe that this book was a "end to the first half" of the series, and I was hoping to take a break to let my wallet and my studies recover....sadly not so, I remain gripped as ever. And in truth, the climax was still excellent, just more a battle of assassins in which giant dogs, ghosts and a very angry Toblaki wander into the mix. There is little else in the book that I can openly criticise, the plot lines remain as strong as ever, and as always, erikson gives us copious amounts of philosophical musing, bizarre comedy and sheer randomness. As we have come to expect from him, not everything is answered, and thus we must keep reading until the bitter end. The next novel in the series is excellent, and I believe that the Bonehunters is currently residing in my postbox.

After the epic genius of Memories of Ice, we return to the rebellion-hit continent of Seven Cities. That is, after a bravura sequence that follows one apparently new character as he embarks on a violent, bloody quest.It's quite a departure for the series to follow one protagonist fo so long, although when we finally catch up to the main storyline, we realise that Erikson has pulled off the trick of giving an incidental character from the second book a full and rich backstory.It's also great to follow one old friend as he leads a brand new squad into yet another war; the new soldiers have the potential to become just as interesting as the Bridgeburners.As well as the Malazans, we follow their opponets in the Whirlwind's camp as they undergo their own travails and feuds. Events build to a climax that, as is typical with Erikson, is both tragic and confounds traditional expectations.If I have a criticism of the book, it is that the plot and developments seem slightly more stately in pace compared to the breakneck speed of the first three books. Still, when the overall quality of the writing is this good, that is a minor quibble.