69beaneater420 's review for:

House of Chains by Steven Erikson

5.0

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I think at this point I've gotten really comfortable with what Malazan is as a series and what Erikson has to offer as a writer. I think with House of Chains in particular, we find ourselves at a weird point with the story. A kind of in-between when it comes to the plot points we are building towards. HoC diverges from Erikson's usual style for the first 200 or so pages for example, and I think the rest of the book is kind of similar in execution when comparing it to the first three entries in the series. In no way is it a bad book. I think it is suffering from the "middle book syndrome" found in trilogies. There's certain plot points and characters that we need to either visit or tie up before we can progress further into the series, and I think Erikson realized this and delivers a very entertaining story, just not one as fulfilling from an overall plot/narrative perspective.

Ranking the books I've read so far in order from least to most favorite.

HoC< GotM < DG < MoI

Top 5 POVs for HoC
1. Fiddler
2. Kalam
3. Lostara Yil
4. Karsa Orlong
5. Cutter

Favorite Characters Rankings Overall
1. Toc the Younger
2. Duiker
3. Paran
4. Kruppe
5. Cotillion
6. Fiddler
7. Kalam
8. Quick Ben
9. Pearl
10. Tool
11. Felisin
12. Cutter
13. Apsalar
14. Anomander Rake
15. Whiskeyjack

-Just going off of what comes into my brain first. Could change literally in the minute after i post this tbh.