894 reviews for:

House Of Chains

Steven Erikson

4.26 AVERAGE


Yet another great tale from Erickson...the more I read this series, the more I love it.

He's setting up for a big-blow out further down the line. The only thing I can complain about is losing some characters I really liked. But that is how he keeps the realism in place so although I don't like it, I understand it.

the ending to another major arc in malazan botf and i have many many thoughts….

for one, i went into this book with lower expectations since it seems to be one of the lower ranked books among fans, at least for first time readers, and i actually ended up loving the first 50%. i found karsa to be an immediate favorite character of mine and simply one of the series standout major povs. i found the first part of the book absolutely riveting since it was told completely from karsa’s pov. even when part 1 ended around 25% the next 25% still kept me completely captured since we spent a lot of time catching up with our friends from deadhouse gates and setting up for an epic battle.

unfortunately from 50% to about 90% i was incredibly bored. don’t get me wrong, there are still some really great moments in that chunk. i found two new favorite characters in lostara and pearl who i adore and can’t wait to see more of those two. but a big chunk of this book was missing the exceptional character work ive come to expect from erikson. i was bored and thought there were way too many uninteresting characters taking up so much page time and for the first time in this series i was bored with a lot of the worldbuilding as it is nearly impossible to comprehend on a first read. i found onracks chapters to be beyond sluggish and i was struggling to find something to care about there. i also think thematically house of chains is far too repetitive which is a shame because i really love eriksons books on a thematic level and i enjoy how each entry takes on something new thematically.

with that being said, the end of this book was so strong with so many emotional beats that erikson always hits. lots of really awesome character moments and the resolution between sha’ik and tavore was gut wrenching. i can’t think of anything so far in the series that was this devastating and disturbing. im truly at a loss for words and just feel so upset and emotional. finally, eriksons prose is top tier and will forever work so well with me. i’m excited to see how this book improves upon reread and i’m even more excited to continue the series. a 4 star malazan book is still leagues above your average 4 star fantasy and i can still confidently say this is one of my favorite series of all time
adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No