You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
carduelia_carduelis 's review for:
House of Chains
by Steven Erikson
An entry that ends very abruptly but is still better than 90% of what's out there. Spoilers below of couse.
House of Chains is the 4th installation in Erikson's epic and felt to me like he was trying to subvert expectations. The first three books taught us to expect a sprawling ensemble and a plot that only becomes apparent in last the third of the book. But in House of Chains we spend the first 270 pages with a single character: Karsa of an ancient race. On his quest we see him cross teh seas and plenty of this felt like an Elric of Melnibnone reference.
Something that never worked from me from the beginning was believing that Karsa would entertain the idea of joining the Crippled God. He is nothing if not dogged self-belief whereas the CG relies on characters who feel trapped or losers and manipulates them. He misjudged Karsa. Karsa is an excellent person to follow because he's so brutal and dogged. Erikson sets him up such that you wan his bluffs to be called and you want him to fail - but that's not what happens at all. Instead we watch as Karsa joins Shai'ik and with it we rejoin the characters from Deadhouse Gates.
The book absolutely feels like a direct sequel to DG and I wonder what the experience is of reading it directly after instead of going to Memories of Ice. As it was I had to go back and read my character notes and a few plot synopses because I couldn't remember a lot of the finer details from my DG reading last year.
After Karsa joins the rebellion the book progresses like a typical Malazan book.
Overall though this is a build-up to the Paran sisters coming to clash.
And here's where the structure deviates again.
In all prior Malazan books the last 100 pages or so have been reveal after reveal in an epic battle with brutal losses. But here? Here it's a bait-and-switch. All the setup of the rebellion, the efforts of Leoman to remove the threat: all come to naught as the goddess abandons Felisin and she is cutdown as she reaches for her sister. That was a very nice piece of writing. Made even better by the fact that Tavore has no idea what just happened - yet.
The final 100 pages felt very confused. I think what happened is that the Bridgeburners ascended and rallied all of the dead souls of Raraku to fight for Malazan - against the Whirlwind. And this because Raraku was annoyed that the goddess had stolen their water in her plot? And now the desert is being flooded? Did I get that right?
One of my final notes from this book sums up the reading experience: Lostara and Pearl have uncovered Felisin's fate, Kamal has found the Hounds of Dark, and Apsalar has discovered Shadows plan, maybe, Fiddler has gotten one over on them, and we got some lore drop on the Tlan UMass and the Nameless Ones. The Azath would seek to capture the Imass if they got the throne? Or just paranoia. So many threads to keep track of. How the hell Erikson keep this straight? Writing is great.
This, more than any of the prior books, feels transient. So I am compelled to pick up book 5. This is not quite as good as the previous books because of the style and plotting choices but it's still incredible. I have no concerns about continuing.
House of Chains is the 4th installation in Erikson's epic and felt to me like he was trying to subvert expectations. The first three books taught us to expect a sprawling ensemble and a plot that only becomes apparent in last the third of the book. But in House of Chains we spend the first 270 pages with a single character: Karsa of an ancient race. On his quest we see him cross teh seas and plenty of this felt like an Elric of Melnibnone reference.
Something that never worked from me from the beginning was believing that Karsa would entertain the idea of joining the Crippled God. He is nothing if not dogged self-belief whereas the CG relies on characters who feel trapped or losers and manipulates them. He misjudged Karsa. Karsa is an excellent person to follow because he's so brutal and dogged. Erikson sets him up such that you wan his bluffs to be called and you want him to fail - but that's not what happens at all. Instead we watch as Karsa joins Shai'ik and with it we rejoin the characters from Deadhouse Gates.
The book absolutely feels like a direct sequel to DG and I wonder what the experience is of reading it directly after instead of going to Memories of Ice. As it was I had to go back and read my character notes and a few plot synopses because I couldn't remember a lot of the finer details from my DG reading last year.
After Karsa joins the rebellion the book progresses like a typical Malazan book.
Spoiler
Alongside the Whirlwind characters we follow Tavore and her response to the rebellion, Loren the redblade shadow-dancer and Pearl the assassin are on the trail of Felisin at Tavore's request, there's a band of Tlan Imass looking for renegades that have made a deal with the Chained God, the Tlan Imass throne is under seige (and we learn that shadowthrone carries that name for a reason), Crokus and Apsalar are back for a little bit as is Cotillion - they encounter the traveller and lots of Tiste, we learn that Shadow and Dark are different things and that they are all related to warrens. There's a Tiste Eidur and an Imass travller. Karsa goes on a sword/horse sidequest and finds another Azath house with a woman growing as a tree. He also liberates some Jhag in a warren, which feels important but is instantly forgotten.Overall though this is a build-up to the Paran sisters coming to clash.
And here's where the structure deviates again.
In all prior Malazan books the last 100 pages or so have been reveal after reveal in an epic battle with brutal losses. But here? Here it's a bait-and-switch. All the setup of the rebellion, the efforts of Leoman to remove the threat: all come to naught as the goddess abandons Felisin and she is cutdown as she reaches for her sister. That was a very nice piece of writing. Made even better by the fact that Tavore has no idea what just happened - yet.
The final 100 pages felt very confused. I think what happened is that the Bridgeburners ascended and rallied all of the dead souls of Raraku to fight for Malazan - against the Whirlwind. And this because Raraku was annoyed that the goddess had stolen their water in her plot? And now the desert is being flooded? Did I get that right?
One of my final notes from this book sums up the reading experience: Lostara and Pearl have uncovered Felisin's fate, Kamal has found the Hounds of Dark, and Apsalar has discovered Shadows plan, maybe, Fiddler has gotten one over on them, and we got some lore drop on the Tlan UMass and the Nameless Ones. The Azath would seek to capture the Imass if they got the throne? Or just paranoia. So many threads to keep track of. How the hell Erikson keep this straight? Writing is great.
This, more than any of the prior books, feels transient. So I am compelled to pick up book 5. This is not quite as good as the previous books because of the style and plotting choices but it's still incredible. I have no concerns about continuing.