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A review by sade
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
4.0
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
Spoiler
his "end" was so heartbreaking. I can still hear Nether screaming "Release him, please".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*)