Steven Erikson

The thrilling novel of war, intrigue and dark, uncontrollable magic that confirmed Steven Erikson as a new master of epic fantasy. The second book in 'arguably the best fantasy series ever written' FANTASY BOOK REVIEW The Malazan Empire teeters on the brink of anarchy. In Seven Cities - in the Holy Desert Raraku - a seer named Sha'ik gathers an army around her in preparation for a long-prophesied uprising. Unprecedented in its size and savagery, it will prove to be a maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust that will shape destinies and give birth to legends . . . In the Otataral mines, a young woman dreams of revenge against the sister who sentenced her to a life of slavery. Escape leads her to Raraku, where her soul will be reborn and her future made clear. And the now-outlawed Bridgeburners, Fiddler and the assassin Kalam, had vowed to return the once god-possessed Apsalar to her homeland, and to confront and kill the Empress Laseen, but events will overtake them too. Meanwhile, Coltaine, charismatic commander of the Malaz 7th Army, will lead his battered, war-weary troops in a last, valiant battle to save the lives of thirty thousand refugees. Together they will secure an illustrious place in the Empire's chequered history. And into this blighted land come two ancient wanderers, Mappo and his half-Jaghut companion Icarium, bearers of a devastating secret that threatens to break free of its chains... Set in a brilliantly-realized world ravaged by anarchy and dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is the thrilling, brutal second chapter in the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Malazan Book of the Fallen 2

Deadhouse Gates

Deadhouse gates

The suffering I saw in this book, I’m never gonna forget it 

Mara

In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha'ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends . . . Set in a brilliantly realized world ravaged by dark, uncontrollable magic, this thrilling novel of war, intrigue and betrayal confirms Steven Erikson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality--the author who has written the first great fantasy epic of the new millennium.

Book Two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen

Cody Degen

Mitch Stewart

I loved this book 50x more than Gardens of the Moon. The first third is really slow and boring but once the characters start to converge it gets good.

a tale of the Malazan book of the fallen

An Epic tale set in a well constructed fantasy world. Very enjoyable.

Stephen Gill 

Prashanth Srivatsa

Fantastic! Quickly growing into my favorite fantasy series. The epic scope, the writing style, the elements of fantasy and the characters, all top notch. Eriksen is as good as Martin or Rothfuss, if not better. Next up, Memories of Ice..

Sade A

Buddy read with the amazing edge

Deep Breaths*
I was going to go for 3.5 stars for this book, BUT Coltaine!! His character which we mainly saw from Duiker's POV was absolutely, gaddamn, breathtaking (I never thought i could enjoy battle scences until Coltaine) side note: i think i'm in love with his character. He single handedly made this book 4 stars for me.

I think i'll start with some of the stuffs i liked:
This is a major improvement from book 1. Characters are easier to understand, the plot is more engaging and even though there are additional characters characters, it's actually easier to remember them in this instance. 

Mappo the Trell and Icarium. Can i just say Friendship fucking Goals

  "I wish, Icaruim said slowly, i wish i could understand. This war i see within you breaks my heart Mappo. You must realise by now...
Realise what? the Trell creaked still unable to meet the Jhag's eyes.
That I would give my life for you, my only friend, my brother"

oh the feeelssssssss (cue the music please, i'm thinking Queen's You're my Best Friend or Randy Newman's You've got a friend in me. But i digress). Mappo's struggles to protect his friend but do what is "right" comes out practically bleeding from this book. I sincerly hope we see them again. 

The battles. Lord above! Look book 1 didn't really have a shit load of battles, well there was the whole mage battle thing but magic was involved and Anomander with that was it a dragon? at Darajhistan (however it's spelled). The battles here were EPIC!! Like imagine the final episode of Game of Thrones battle with Jon Snow and Ramsey Bolton Epic x1000000000000 (Too much?) Nah!! I've never really been interested in battle scences but it's a testement to how good this book is that you are at the edge of your seat for all the battles with Coltaine's chain of Dogs and the Apocalypse army. 
p.s: Karbolo Dom i hope your death is painful and gaddamn messy.

WICKANS WICKANS WICKANS specifically Uncle and Nephew.I think i feel in love with Uncle's character aka Bult when he referred to Laseen as "the short haired woman" lol i think everyone almost died from shock especially Duiker. 
Then Coltaine. 
 
Look Coltaine practically carried this book! That guy was breathtaking. and what's really crazy is that you never really get his POV. All you glen about his character is from Duiker's eyes. Which is exactly why (view spoiler)[his "end" was so heartbreaking. I can still hear Nether screaming "Release him, please". (hide spoiler)] Damn *sob* (I'm not crying). Everything about the measure of how bad ass Coltaine was in this book is summarised in this Coltaine Commands. We Obey

My main issue with this book and really with all books that do this is, what is the point of calling a book a certain name that really doesn't have anything to do with the plot. Sha'ik was practically absent for her own freaking rebellion. Going to Deadhouse almost seemed like an afterthought to the characters involved. Except Deadhouse Gates were supposed to be something symbolic in which case it totally went over my head. Could have named it Chain of Dogs, that would have made more sense. Just saying.

Also, these chapters were freaking long. I dunno what kind of balance the author was trying to make. Maybe he thought, make it short and you have a lot of chapters as a whole which may put people off... dunno. but i kinda expect loads of chapters for fantasy books. I mean having 24 chapters seems really small to me for a fanatasy book especially for this kind of fantasy book and the trade off for smaller chapters as a whole seems to be never ending individual chapters, which let me tell you was really tiring at some points.

All in all, a major improvement from the first book cannot wait for more revelations in Book 3 (Although, somehow i'm already sure it won't have anything to do with Ice, Sigh*)

Alice Hyman

This one was definitely more grimdark, the Chain of Dogs was utterly and hopelessly brutal. It was an incredible depiction of rebellion, invasion and retreat from ground level. There was no detachment from being the commander, they were no “way out”, no overview of mindless troops. You felt the helplessness, confusion and chaos - all the way from the high fist to the lowest soldier. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more realistic and individual look at being part of a large army - I mean I say realistic tho wtf do I know lol, but what I imagine is realistic ? Like the leaders get tired and confused, and theres miscommunication through the thousands of people. Also stuff like food, water, latrines and cattle are dealt with. Basically it was an amazing study of a giant military movement.

Kalam got some fricken epic scenes - especially at the end ! I wish we got more of Apsalar and Crokus but hopefully we will see them more in the next books. 

Apt is fully too precious for this world like omg. Stay tuned for 3 legged demon fanart because theres going to be a lot of it

That is literally my only complaint with this book - part of Felisins pov - and it is only a part of it. Its great once it moves on and I can’t wait to see what becomes of her character. 

Being a huge sucker for any animals in stories I love so obviously I have to mention the Wickan cattle dogs - Bent and the cockroach dog. I have so much trouble making these reviews non-spoilery while also being like I love all of these spoilery things.

Icaruium and Mappo have such an adorable friendship and tbh romance they are in love okay I don’t care if its canon or not. Icariums story arc is such an interesting use of time and immortality. I have a slightly better understanding of the Azrath houses but ... only very slightly.

So basically I’d give this book five stars but I need to take a incy little bit off for the beginning of Felisins storyline... apart from that it was amazing. 

I will definitely be writing a second part to this review as there are so many more events and characters I want to discuss !

Erikson was really flexing his politicking with this one. It expounded on the little nuggets of knowledge and events that we got in GoTM and definitely added more. Also we got to see more on the ground politics with Pomquel and Mallick Rel - and their movement around Seven Cities as well as the politics of the rebellion itself - from the leaders and their true faith to the bandits who get to carrying banditing(?) just in the name of a cause. Again I am surmising but there is such a flavour of realism in these books. Each act of heroics and tempered by the realitiy of the situation. You can do the impossible, but there will still be tremendous losses and all may have just been for nought.

Humans are still humans when it comes down to it 

Duiker is an easily likeable character to keep coming back to in this book. His job itself is just wild when you actually stop and think about it. Does he recount the losses as well as the defeats ? What comes first ? The Imperial or the historian. There were a few points towards the end where I was literally yelling at him to do something, like holy hell dude you could have changed the outcome.

Heboric - I need all the history on him. What even was the message in the prologue !? He some how manages to be caring old man - grumpy old bastard and mysterious master all in one character - and to the same people ? I feel like if he and Kruppe met their would be a nuclear explosion.

Icaruium and Mappo have such an adorable friendship and tbh romance they are in love okay I don’t care if its canon or not. Icariums story arc is such an interesting use of time and immortality. I have a slightly better understanding of the Azrath houses but ... only very slightly.

Kirsten Simkiss

I have quit this book at just shy of half way through. 

While the world building remains superb, the author does not do a great job of introducing you to his fictional regions and towns. There are so many places that they fly over your head and are generally pretty insignificant in the long run.

I also had a gripe about the characters tending to not have much of a personality. Some did, granted, but a lot of them just tended to be viewpoints into the world and lacked any sort of individuality aside from their name. While others have praised the fighting in the book and how well written out the battles were, I just found myself wishing they were over after so so many character names of tiny side characters get flung at you. I miss the significance of characters in the first book. And, while some characters carry over, they rarely appear and when they do, it doesn’t seem to bear any significance to the world events that take up the majority of the book.

I can see how some would enjoy this, but I just feel like there isn’t enough here to make me really care. Besides that, this book is hopelessly dense. I find my self wanting to set it aside after ten pages. Gardens of the Moon has this book beat for sure. I’m cutting my losses and ending my reading in this series here.

Anastasia 

Pushed my ratings in the last 30% of this book , i didn't have as much fun with this compared to the first one I'll admit that 

I loved the new characters like Coltaine and Felisin but apart from that there's nothing that really improved on the first book enough for me 

I did enjoy Kalam's journey the most i felt it was the most intriguing part of book 2 and i hope he keeps on getting amazing scenes like the one with the other claw assassins

The prose was good as always , pacing was great as well i just wished more happened that i could really connect with in this book .. If it did it would've been a 5 star read

Abdul H

Starts off with a nice change of setting from the previous city of fire, and introduces many new characters while still keeping a few of the ones we already met. The set up for the book was nice, some parts dragging out at times but it was all worth it for the second half of the book. The last stretch made most of the book for me, and I’m excited to see where the next book takes us.

Celeste Richardson

I think this just might be the bleakest book I’ve ever read. It physically hurt me to read large chunks of it. But the story was so, so good. It was dense, yes. And reading it was work, never just flowing effortlessly. There were times when it was emotionally almost more than I could handle. However, it was worth the effort. It was worth the heartache. Just the mention of the Chain of Dogs will probably be enough to give me chills for the rest of my days.

Joshua S. Rayner

After reading Gardens of the Moon, Erickson's style and talent really shine through in this book. The are four main stories being told, and everyone one of them is compelling and worth the time invested.

Jeremy Sheridan Wells

This was my second reading of Deadhouse Gates and it was a much richer experience than the first. Partly, I had some time to understand the structure of the story. The novel takes several different parties of characters and follows their travels across several continents, both through worlds both physical and magical. The journeys eventually come together and eventually tie back to some of the events and characters from the first novel. The underlying motif of this novel is labored, steady movement.

Erikson's scenes can be horrific, and the scale of suffering and carnage that we experience throughout the story can be quite taxing. There are also moments that are refreshingly absurd and humorous. A second readthrough also helped me to delve into the complexity of characters like Kalam, Mappo and Felisin. When given careful consideration of their experiences, we get very deeply realized characters, complex and contradictory. I imagine further reads may reveal more from other characters as well.

From Gardens of the Moon and now Deadhouse Gates, it's clear that these books, despite their sizes, require slow, careful reading. I tend to read longer - 800 to 1,000 page books - quite briskly. It may work for Stephen King or Ken Liu whose clear prose and descriptive styles allow for their long stories to be traversed easily. That is not the case with Steven Erikson. As a former anthropologist, Erikson's expectations of the reader seem similar, the scenes of the stories are artifacts and evidence, some details are realized but much else is hidden, lost. Sometimes we have enough information to piece together the meaning of what we're seeing, other times we collect little pieces of information that are only clear several hundred pages later - or maybe in a subsequent book? Or maybe not at all?

As a reader, when I was ready for this unusual expectation, and when I was ready to slowly make my way through each scene, re-reading when certain details seemed too opaque, stopping to puzzle out the connections, then I was able to really understand the richness of these books. They are engaging, but they are slow. They are demanding.

That said, I wonder if I'll make it through all of Erikson's Malazan books some time in the next decade, though I absolutely want to.


(Original Review, September 2021)
I really wanted to like this series. I've really enjoyed the interviews with the author that I've listened to. His ideas are fresh and insightful. The imagery and situations in this novel and the previous entry in the series are also amazing as well as some of the social and ethical situations that Erikson posits. 

When I read discussions from the Malazan community, the comments generally indicated that this series is extremely difficult and expects a lot of the reader. I've also read many people write that the first entry Gardens of the Moon isn't written quite as deftly as the rest of the series as the story originated as a script. However, by the time Erikson delivered the second and third entries of the series, his craft was much improved. 

From my experience of laboring through Gardens, then arriving at Deadhouse, I still had a lot of difficulty getting into the characters and understanding them and their motivations - I just didn't find enough depth in the reasons behind their actions and this contributed to the overall confusion that will naturally come with the vast scope of the story. I ended up looking up chapter summaries several times and finding that there was just a lot of details that just weren't coming to me. 

In all, I think my lukewarm review says more about me as a reader and that I just don't have the amount of time and degree of focus necessary to really enjoy this series. Maybe I'll continue it in the future as I still can't get over my intrigue.

Jenna Kathleen

What another wonderful adventure through the Malazan Empire - misguiding warrens, sorcery driven ships, and very very long walks through the desert.

After getting a feel for Erikson’s writing style with Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates is so delightful to read and you can just jump into to all the action with the awesome prologue. I think it might possibly be one of the best prologues I have read.

Of course, being Malazan, you are thrown in with a whole bunch of new characters, but I was really happy to see some continuity between GotM and DHG with Crokus and Apsalar through the eyes of Fiddler. Crokus was my favourite character from GotM so I was glad to have him back.

But there are so many great characters: Felisin stole the favourite character position for me. I just loved to see her develop through her journey. I felt her reactions to her experience were very realistic: (view spoiler)[ not many women could withstand her treatment in the mine pits and come out unscarred, and she is no exception. She is snarky and rude and expects the worst in every situation, all while masking deep emotional scars. Her journey through the desert with Heboric was just so wonderfully done that even half a book of just them walking was interesting. Then, of course, she became Sha’ik Reborn which is pretty cool  (hide spoiler)].

I wish there was more of Kalam in this book because he was also amazing. I felt his storyline had me turning pages the most while I took my time through the rest of the book.

The world of Ascendants and mages and warrens is slowly unveiling itself more and more which is great because I was still confused about the magic system after GotM.

Reading Deadhouse Gates was a pleasure and I loved it right from the first page up to the last.

Ben Nathan

Great world (still), great writing, great characters. The only reason I don't 5 star this is it takes a while to get going. On that note, I love how each of the first two books have a different feel in many ways, though there is clear connectivity between them. The world is huge and interesting. The magic system is fascinating. Everything is top notch. I have a feeling that I'm going to love this whole series, but it's such an undertaking that I'll spend a whole lot of time on it. Looking forward to some faster lighter reads.

Deadhouse Gates Malazan Book of the Fallen 2

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