Reviews - House Of Chains | The StoryGraph

894 reviews for:

House Of Chains

Steven Erikson

4.26 AVERAGE

lazylucid's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

House of Chains acts more like a sequel to book 2; however, the book focuses entirely on a new character.

We follow Karsa Orlong, who had an extremely disturbing start at the beginning and is not someone I’d think to be rooting for; this is where Erikson’s character work shines the most, and it is his best by far. With just a few pages, Erikson was able to humanize Karsa and draw sympathy from the reader; his journey was by far my favorite, and I’m excited to see where it's headed next.

House of Chains is full of compelling characters and dynamics. I loved Lostara and Pearl’s hilarious verbal sparring, Onrack and Trull’s bromance, the tragic Felisin and Tavore, and Apsalar, Crokus, Fiddler, and Kalam already being favorites from past books. I was glad to be back with them.

While I think this book is brilliant, I do think it is a weaker Malazan book so far; a lot of it is spent building up to the convergence, the clash between Tavore and Felisin, only for it to be resolved within a few pages and feel anticlimactic. A lot of this feels more like a classic fantasy adventure book than an epic fantasy.

Content Warnings

christiano's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I take my time with Malazan books and don't read them as my main book. This time I got too distracted by other big books, which led to me taking a long break in between, somewhere in the middle of the book. But now I have finished it.

What House of Chains did not really have is the emotional gut punches that especially Deadhouse Gate and Memories of Ice had towards the end. What happens is epic, though, and will surely have consequences down the line.

My favourite part of House of Chains is the tale of Karsa Orlong. That whole first part was amazing and to then discover how he fits into the larger story was great. I am sure we will meet him again.

cryopariah's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

medusasrockgarden's review against another edition

5.0

4.5 stars because I hated Karsa so much that I had to force myself through the first part. I didn't enjoy the start (263 pages) much at all.

But I did absolutely love the Bridgeburners povs, as always, and the new ones of Trull and Onrack. Who make up for the lack of Toc and Tool. Plus some Pust fun.

I also really had fun with the many "ohhhh so that's..." revelations scattered throughout this book. Random pieces and people falling into place.

There were also many moments of wonderful humour. The scorpions. The sudden desire to face a dragon instead of Gesler and Stormy. And just everything that happened to Corabb. And, thank the gods, no reason to cry for hours on end. Probably a temporary break I am sure.

jordanloyalshort's review against another edition

4.0

House of Chains is different from the preceding novels in style and execution. While I was deeply disappointed with the anticlimactic ending, much of the book was still mysterious and engaging. Erikson is undeniably one of the greats. Still, while I’m sure many a Malazan diehard will disagree, this one nearly soured me on the rest of the series. The downside of taking it on faith that all of the confusion will pay off in the end, is the disillusionment when it does not. I’ve enjoyed most of the narrative enough to keep plowing through, but my faith is now tempered with a healthy skepticism. 3.5/5

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