_Deadhouse Gates: A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen_
Steve Erikson, 2000
Two Line Summary: This continues to be a cross between Jordan's Wheel of Time and Glen Cook's Black Company series. It's in my opinion, stronger than the last and a bit more polished.
Quick Rating: Good doorstop fantasy. Very good.
This is the second of the ten projected tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. In 2001, I wrote a review of the first, _Gardens of the Moon_, which yet resides on Deja's servers on Google, and on this blog.
_Deadhouse Gates_ is the second in the series, and in a very refreshing change of pace from the current trend in doorstop fantasy, this volume also reaches a natural conclusion to its narrative. I wouldn't go so far as to say that _Deadhouse Gates_ could be read without having read _Gardens of the Moon_ first. However, one can read the first without having the second, and not reach a cliffhanger ending. Likewise, one can read the second without immediately needing to go out and find the third.
This is nice because, while the third volume arrived by mail today, I've had enough of the Malazan Empire for a while and I'm going to read other stuff for a while.
That said, _Deadhouse Gates_ obviously takes place against the same backdrop of chaos and confusion at the fringes of the Malazn Empire as does the first volume. But it does so some 1500 leagues awaye, on an entirely different continent, with a mostly new cast of characters. And at almost 700 pages in trade paperback with a good four or five stories running through it, that's a big cast of new characters.
The political background event of the book is an uprising of the Seven Cities against the Malazan Empire; the metaphysical background event is a seemingly instinctive gathering of powerful sorcerous shapeshifters in the same general area for something called the Path of Hands. The moral background events are... betrayal, desperation, futility, and perseverence in the face thereof, I guess.
It's a grim book.
From there, the storylines multiply. There are at least four major storylines maintained through the narrative, and though the capsule, largely spoilerless summaries below don't make it clear, they are all inter-related. Just how would in some cases constitute spoilers.. in other cases, one simply knows they're connected, but isn't sure how... yet.
To my mind, the best and most compelling of the storylines is that of Fist (ie, "General") Coltaine leading a growing band of thousands, then tens of thousands of refugees from this uprising on a desperate trek of hundreds of miles towards the nearest city that they *hope* might still house friendly forces... as chronicled by an old soldier turned historian. That the band of refugees becomes known as Coltaine's Chain of Dogs should indicate the general tone of the book.
There is also the tale of Felisin Paran, a young noble girl and little sister of the Paran we knew in the first book, and Heboric, an old priest turned historian, as they are sold into slavery as part of a political purge in the Empire and subsequently escape in events connected to the Seven Cities uprising. Felisin, I should note, becomes one of the most repulsive focus characters of my recent memory, always skirting that delicate edge where she might become to repellent to read about... but never quite.
There is the continuing tale of Kalam and Fiddler of the first books, on a long, convoluted plot to carry out an impossible but to their minds infinitely deserving assassination.
Finally, there is the tale of Icarium the Jaghut and Mappo the Trell, drawn directly into the confluence of the Path of Hands, though Icarium struggles with an incomplete set of memories and does not know why.
In my review of the first volume, I listed the complexity of the background-- especially the number of non-human races wandering around, and the metaphysical background of gods, ascendants, demons and what-not else-- as something I couldn't pin down as a weakness or a strength.
I'll now revise my opinion and split the difference-- it's both. On the plus side, coming in with *some* basic understanding of, say, the Jaghut and T'lan Imass (two near mythical races, both of the Four Founding Races) some things made a lot more sense in this novel. And there are some revelations that got me to sit back with a real sense of wonder at the archaeological depth of the Malazan world. This is good.
On the other hand, one might have read my above summary and asked, "What's a Trell?" Well, I can't really give an adequate answer to that. It's at least two hundred pages in before I saw the first even vague physical description of Mappo, unless I missed one, and I couldn't decide if he was supposed to be four feet tall, or nine feet tall. And I don't think it would detract much at all for a simple expository chunk on the critters, either. This is bad.
On balance, though, that tendency to obfuscate things has improved from the first volume. It helps that some things really are cleared up in the narrative-- the natures of the Ascendants is made more clear (both in general, and in a few specifics) and some of the racial relations are clarified as well.
There *are* still mysteries to the background, and a few actions and events that left me wondering why they happened, but I am much more confident now that by the time the series is over, they will make sense. I can accept this.
The general pace and style of the writing has improved, as well. The first book took at least three or four hundred pages to really start making sense, much less rolling with any speed. By contrast, _Deadhouse Gates_ didn't quite hook me instantly, but by fifty pages in I knew I wasn't going to have to struggle to finish it.
There are a number of very good, very poignant scenes in the book, too, especially toward the end of the book. The one I'm most comfortable mentioning as not being a spoiler anyone will understand until they get there is the revelation of the nature of Hood, the Lord of Death.
Recommended, if you like doorstop fantasy, or Glen Cook, or if long, grim, interweaving narratives in a complex background world sound interesting. While reading this, I ordered the third volume (which ironically arrived today) and noted the estimated release date of the fourth later this year.