House of Chains - Steven Erikson

   2002; 1,015 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book #4 (out of 10) in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.  Genres : Epic Fantasy; Sword & Sorcery; Military Fantasy.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    A convergence is coming.  A gathering of forces building into an epic conflict.  A select few can feel it, and even  sense its location: it will take place in the barren wastes of the Raraku Desert.

 

    At the earthly level, it will pit two massive armies against each other.  On one side, the army of the Malazan Empire, commanded by the Adjunct Tavore, the Empress’s Chosen One.  Facing them, the Army of the Apocalypse, commanded by Sha’ik, the Whirlwind Goddess’s Chosen One.  A number of fringe characters will also be drawn into the fray, few in number but great in impact.

 

    But some of the mages can sense a higher level of convergence as well, involving the “Houses” of various gods and goddesses.  A new House trying to establish itself, which complicates things.  No one, not even the resident gods, is quite sure what new deity is behind this.

 

    But stirring beneath all of this is an even deeper level of convergence, one that has an “elemental” feel, one that could easily sway the battles between both the puny mortals and the petty deities.  Its source is the Raraku Desert itself.

 

What’s To Like...

    House of Chains, Book 4 in Steven Erikson’s epic fantasy series, is the sequel to Book 2, Deadhouse Gates, which I read three years ago and is reviewed here.  Books 1 and 3 are thus far a separate storyline, and I’m getting the feeling that this “alternating settings” technique is going to continue through most of this series.

 

    Here we follow the trials and travails of a number of characters, often traveling in pairs or small groups (a necessity if you want to inject dialogue into the text), as they are drawn slowly and inexorably toward the impending mega-battle. The opening portion of the book  introduces a new character, Karsa Orlong, who cuts a path of blood and destruction through various tribes that have the misfortune of being neighbors to his own clan.  In effect this amounts to a giant prologue, spanning about a quarter of the book, before we get to the main “convergence” storyline.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, with the usual weird-looking (to us Yanks) spellings like ageing, behaviour, offence, armour, no-one, and abraiding.  Yet oddly enough, the “ize-words”, such as realized, apologize, and recognize are spelled the American way.  This puzzled me until I discovered that Steven Erikson is Canadian.

 

    As always, the world-building, character-development and wittily thought-provoking dialogue are all superbly done.  That’s not an easy undertaking when you have a gazillion beings wandering all over the place on their way to Raraku, but Steven Erikson is up to the task, and I deeply appreciate the inclusion of a Dramatis Personae in the front and a Glossary in the back. 

    The ending is a mixed bag.  After more than 800 pages of herding the combatants to a meeting point, the final battle turns out to be somewhat less than epic.  But it does take around a hundred pages to cover it, and it kept me turning the pages the whole way.  It says something about Steven Erikson’s writing skills that he can pull this off, again and again, in this every-other-book storyline.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 1,415 ratings and 381 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.34*/5, based on 41,219 ratings and 1,393 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word…

    Knout (n.) : a whip used to inflict punishment, usually causing death.

 

Excerpts...

    Karsa spoke in a low voice, “Torvald Nom, listen well.  A warrior who followed me, Delum Thord, was struck on the head.  His skull cracked and leaked thought-blood.  His mind could not walk back up the path.  He was left helpless, harmless.  I, too, have been struck on the head.  My skull is cracked and I have leaked thought-blood—”

    “Actually, it was drool—”

    “Be quiet. Listen.”  (pg. 171)

 

    “And that crossbow can lob cussers far enough?  Hard to believe.”

    “Well, the idea is to aim and shoot, then bite a mouthful of dirt.”

    “I can see the wisdom in that, Fid.  Now, you let us all know when you’re firing, right?”

    “Nice and loud, aye.”

    “And what word should we listen for?”

    Fiddler noticed that the rest of his squad had ceased their preparations and were now waiting for his answer.  He shrugged.  “Duck.  Or sometimes what Hedge used to use.”

    “Which was?”

    “A scream of terror.”  (pg. 753)

 

“It’s all a waste of breath, soldiers.  Sooner or later, we’re all marching in wide-eyed stupid.”  (pg. 850)

    The quibbles in House of Chains are minor and for the most part are the same ones I had with Deadhouse Gates.

 

    There’s a lot of intrigue in the story, but until we reach the final showdown, not a lot of action.  So if you’re looking for a hack-&-slash adventure, you’ll probably be disappointed, at least for the first 90% of the book.

 

    There are (fictional) pithy quotes at the start of each chapter, but this time around they didn’t do much for me.  There’s only a smattering of cussing (8 instances in the first 20%), and once again it’s mitigated by a number of colorful expressions invoking the locale deities, such as: “Beru fend!”, “Hood’s dripping tongue!”, “Fener’s tusks!”, and “Hood’s balls!”  In addition, there is a rape or two, and a molester of little girls who eventually gets his comeuppance.

 

    Lastly, my favorite group, the Bridgeburners, get very little ink here.  To be fair, most of them are dead, and those few who still live have been outlawed by the Malazan Empire.  A couple of the surviving members – including Quick Ben and Hedge – make cameo appearances, while others – such as Fiddler, Kalam, and Cuttle - are either using aliases or hiding out.  Late in the story, we do get one revelation about the Bridgeburners that gives me hope that some of the dead ones, Whiskeyjack and Dujek Onearm in particular, may resurface somewhere down the line.

 

    8 Stars.  ANAICT, “Malazan Book of the Fallen” is a completed series, which means I’m 40% of the way through it.  Book 7, Reaper’s Gate, is on my TBR shelf, but I don’t have Books 5 and 6, Midnight Tides and The Bonehunters. I may have to venture out into the Covid-infested world to find these.