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Title:
Deadhouse Gates
Series:
Malazan Book of the Fallen #2
Author:
Steven Erikson
Rating:
4 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages:
868
Format:
Digital Edition
I am trying to do this from memory,
without looking at all my update posts. Ha.
A rebellion is brewing on a continent
and is led by Sha'ik. It is foretold she will be reborn and lead the
rebellion against the Malazans and blood will flow like an ocean. She
dies.
A bunch of Malazans are running for
their lives to make it to the city of Aren, a port city that is still
under Malazan control. This group is led by Coltaine, a Fist and
former rebel himself. He must lead 40,000 civilians and thousands of
soldiers across a continent where everybody wants to kill them all.
And the High Fist in Aren? Does nothing. A renegade Fist is chasing
them with multiple armies. Coltaine gets the civvies to Aren, then
dies with his whole army due to treachery by the High Fist. Who in
turn is betrayed and destroyed, along with HIS army of Malazans. Not
a good time to be a Malazan soldier.
A noble Malazan girl is imprisoned in a
pogrom and sent to the mines along with some others. They escape,
make their way through the desert, and the noble, Felisin, becomes
Sha'ik Reborn. She also happens to be the sister of the Empresses'
right hand woman, Adjunct Tavore.
A group of characters from the first
book come across 2 powerful beings, one of who is almost 100,000
years old but has memory problems. They follow a path to a Gate in
an Azath House [hence the name of the book] which promises a path to
ascendancy [godhood] for shapechangers. Turns out it is a trap for
all the shapechangers to imprison them in the Azath House. The group
gets lots of clues about lots of things and then goes their separate
ways at the end.
An assassin is out to kill the Empress
for outlawing his friends and their army from the first book. His
adventures as he travels and then the stunning revelation that it is
all a hoax and a plan to unite everybody against an even greater
threat. He chooses to not kill her and goes his merry way.
Various characters are introduced and
either die, have their storyline cut or just fade away. Or, they
might be a major character in future books. You can't tell.
That is it. All from memory. I'd like
to see you do so well. If you want to check, feel free to click on
these old Readalong Posts from
Bookstooge
and
Dragons&Zombies.
This was a readalong with
Dragons&Zombies.
I enjoyed the process and having someone else reading the same stuff
helped motivate me to pay attention and ask questions. That being
said, I took more notes reading this than I have for any other book
in years. Normally, I read a book and then write stuff up after. If
I had tried to do that with
Deadhouse Gates, I
would have missed out on so much that I would have wondered what I
had actually read. The problem is, once I started taking notes, it
became obvious just how dense this book is. My usual review style can
be likened to looking at some architectural plans for a skyscraper.
This time, I wandered the building with DeeZee
from basement to attic and explored all the nooks and crannies. I
came away with 2 thoughts which left me with opposing feelings.
First,
this was some spectacular writing. It is a tapestry of such fine
story threads that it can be hard to keep them separate. In many
cases, they aren't separate, but interweaving in and out and around
and Erikson keeps it all in the air and going well. You can almost
feel the care and effort expended in the story.
Second,
Erikson is a dickhead. There is no other explanation for it. In
Gardens of the Moon we
get dropped into a story without a lot of info, but that can be
sussed out. Here in Deadhouse Gates, Erikson
deliberately writes to confuse. What else can it be when you have
anywhere from 2-6 points of view in EACH CHAPTER and almost no clue
that you are switching pov's except for a double paragraph break? It
didn't feel like he was out to tell a story and didn't care if his
readers didn't quite get it all. It felt like he was gleefully
obfuscating and confusing information just because he could. That
doesn't mean it is impossible or that you can't figure stuff out, but
taking a page of notes for each chapter is not what I want when
reading Escapist Literature. So that pissed me off.
This
book tired me out and took every word I had. In the next book,
Memories of Ice, I am
going to have to find a way to deal with it differently, as I can't
write this much again for one book.
To
end, I recommend this book if you want some complexity beyond
imagining and don't mind heavy doses of Existentialism. But for
goodness sake, have some lighter reads lined up either during it or
right after, you're going to need them.
PS,
This
was my 3rd
time reading this and it still felt like my first. I am also adding
the “Best Book of the Year” tag. It really is that excellent even
with my complaining and bellyaching.
★★★★☆
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