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A review by zeph1337
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was an excellent book. I think I liked it overall more than Gardens of the Moon. I really enjoyed the much darker tone which honestly made this whole thing just pretty damn tense and gripping. Overall this a very gory and violent book and I can see how that can put off many people but it felt very appropriate for the story it was telling.
The reason I am not giving it the full 5 stars is because I struggled a lot with one major POV and that's Duiker. The main issue here for me was the whole Military Fantasy part. I don't know I am really not a big "war and battle strategy guy" and combining that with Erikson's writing which is far from the easiest to process: I really had troubles visualizing a lot of what was happened during the many battle sequences within this book and that made these chapters into more of a chore than anything. And without reading aids and watching visual presentations of the battles I would have been completely lost. The climax for this particular arc was probably the biggest highlight of the book though. So there is big redemption for all the early struggles imo.
All the other arcs had me pretty excited the whole way through. Only a fraction of the characters in this book also have been part of the first book but we meet many many new cool characters with my favorites probably being Mappo and Icarium.
The worldbuilding of this series continues to be some of the best I have ever read and I am so curious about what else it has to offer and to discover the many Mysteries lying within it alongside the equally confused and clueless POV characters.
Next month onto Memories of Ice!
The reason I am not giving it the full 5 stars is because I struggled a lot with one major POV and that's Duiker. The main issue here for me was the whole Military Fantasy part. I don't know I am really not a big "war and battle strategy guy" and combining that with Erikson's writing which is far from the easiest to process: I really had troubles visualizing a lot of what was happened during the many battle sequences within this book and that made these chapters into more of a chore than anything. And without reading aids and watching visual presentations of the battles I would have been completely lost. The climax for this particular arc was probably the biggest highlight of the book though. So there is big redemption for all the early struggles imo.
All the other arcs had me pretty excited the whole way through. Only a fraction of the characters in this book also have been part of the first book but we meet many many new cool characters with my favorites probably being Mappo and Icarium.
The worldbuilding of this series continues to be some of the best I have ever read and I am so curious about what else it has to offer and to discover the many Mysteries lying within it alongside the equally confused and clueless POV characters.
Next month onto Memories of Ice!