Malazan: Deadhouse Gates by: Steven Erikson

 

Deadhouse Gates is a big novel, even bigger than Gardens of the Moon, and for full disclosure reading it for me was a difficult task.  You may have noticed that the last Malazan review was uploaded over a month ago on the first of September.  Yes I continued Malazan immediately, but Deadhouse Gates, due to personal circumstances, it took much longer to read than initially intended.  This was not a good scheme for reading this book as it made it necessary to reread sections of the book to fully understand a plot, a plot which like other Malazan novels isn’t meant to be entirely understood on the first read through.  If ever I do a reread of Malazan, Deadhouse Gates will be on the top of the list for a re-review as I understand more and can more accurately assess its quality.  As it stands, Deadhouse Gates is a novel which shows much improvement over Erikson’s previous entry in the series in a variety of ways.  First, readers must be aware going in that as a sequel to Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates kind of fails, it doesn’t include many of the same characters, instead looking at a completely different conflict in the Seven Cities. This is a different part of the same war which is being waged in Gardens of the Moon, but different characters are the focus and a different almost more personal aspect of the story.

 

The most accessible portion of the novel for readers of Gardens of the Moon is the continuation of the plot with the exiled Bridgeburners.  Giving them a big focus, appearing about 80 pages into the novel, gives the reader something to immediately latch onto if the previous 80 pages hadn’t given you new characters to latch onto.  There is also an almost darker tone connected to the setting and subject matter.  While much of Gardens of the Moon was in a typical fantasy city setting, Deadhouse Gates takes readers out into the deserts where Erikson makes use of the oppressive heat throughout the book.  There are some brilliant examples of imagery bringing the reader directly into the desert, feeling what the characters are feeling as the war is waged with blood, sweat, and insects.  There is a lot of death here in Deadhouse Gates as characters attempting to Ascend in various ways is a large driving force of the plot.  Reading Night of Knives actually helped explain what was going on and the threads of Kellanved and Dancer ascending to Shadowthrone and Cotillion respectively are given purpose here almost as a warning to those seeking Ascension about the price they must pay and the death it causes.  War followed that Ascension, Empress Laseen is painted very much as a villain in the wings, and one not necessarily meant to be defeated.

 

While the Bridgeburners plot is brilliant and it is always nice to see those characters again, especially during the climax where they make a stand against the Malazan Empire, there are plenty of other characters to love.  Specifically Erikson employs this brilliant double act with Mappo and Icarium, a Trell and Jhag duo, both harboring deep secrets from one another, yet the relationship is still one predicated by great trust.  The reveals about Icarium’s past and the atrocities which what seems like a good person could have committed in the distant past is fascinating and the reader still sympathizes as the man cannot control himself.  As a pair they interact mostly with the Bridgeburners which really helps a lot of the pieces of the puzzle come together.  On the other hand there are characters like Felisin, the younger sister of Paran from Gardens of the Moon, who is just put through hell in the novel.  Like this book is not for the faint of heart and her story is the best example of this.  She is a victim of sexual assault and rape, but essentially uses the situation to essentially manipulate her situation, or at least attempt to do so.  She is a child and once you realize just how young a fifteen-year-old is, you can understand who she is in a lot of ways.  Erikson doesn’t quite make you care for her, and her story ends with her possibly Ascending, but possibly being possessed by a god and not entirely in control.

 

Overall, it’s the climax of Deadhouse Gates that actually allows a lot of the pieces of the puzzle to come together while adding new mysteries, many of which won’t be discussed here for fear of spoilers (and the long amount of time it took to read the book).  Erikson’s writing style has improved a lot since Gardens of the Moon and it seems that there is nowhere to go but up for the Malazan Book of the Fallen.  8/10.