House of Chains (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #4) in The Bridgeburners

Feb 02, 2009 Lori rated it really liked it

Finally finished this monster of a book. Worth every page. I don't know why I'm not giving it a 5. Maybe because there's so many in this series, I want to wait to the end to see which were the best. This might be a contender, there wasn't a dull or wasted part, instead every page I drank deeply from. I wish I could just continue directly to the next, but I've got some other highly anticipated books from the libes and I don't want to be #250 on the wait list. Besides, I like taking a little break ...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Duffy Pratt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: shared-world, fantasy

2/7/11 - Erikson begins by treating us to a 200 page prelude about a new character named Karsa, who also starts out as one of the most purely despicable characters I've ever read. He starts out on his quest for glory, which basically means slaughter and rape. He gets captured, and grows into one of the best and most interesting characters in the series. Erikson is always audacious, and never more so than with this prelude. It's probably the best writing so far in the series, and the remainder of 2/7/11 - Erikson begins by treating us to a 200 page prelude about a new character named Karsa, who also starts out as one of the most purely despicable characters I've ever read. He starts out on his quest for glory, which basically means slaughter and rape. He gets captured, and grows into one of the best and most interesting characters in the series. Erikson is always audacious, and never more so than with this prelude. It's probably the best writing so far in the series, and the remainder of the book doesn't quite live up to it.

On their own terms, the other parts of the book stand up very well. The gradual building to a showdown between Tavore and Felisin, the two sisters who lead opposing armies, is very good. And because of that sort of thing, this book is easily the most personal, and the least political of the books so far. On top of that, there were times when I had a sense of what was going on, and what the grand scheme of this world. Of course, Erikson is still as capable as ever of leaving me wondering what just happened, or what some new development or revelation might mean or might have to say about everything else.

Not only is this world difficult on its own terms, but the playing field and the alliances keep shifting. it's hard to know which characters are really aligned with each other. Of course, that's one of the main themes of this book. Felisin is holding together a rebel alliance, while it seems every faction leader is conspiring against her and against each other. The web of conspiracies and betrayals is so deep and complex that it becomes very hard to keep it all straight. I sometimes think that a re-reading from the beginning would help me make sense of things, and to an extent it probably would. But I also think that many things in this series are just deliberately opaque. Sometimes that's frustrating, but I think its also one of the things that makes the series so compelling. You never know where you stand, with anyone -- and most of the time, they don't know either.

Reread (with Spoilers ahead)- The Karsa Orlong story was even better the second go round. On the first read, I mostly focused on the personal confrontation between Felesin and Tavore, but that was largely because so many connections in other stories went completely over my head on the first reading. And also, I had little appreciation for the depth of what I was reading, because I didn't know what was coming. I know that seems strange, and I can understand why some people might consider it unsatisfactory writing. But let's face it, really good literature gets better on re-reading mostly because there is true substance to what's going on. And Erikson has things play out, rather than explain every detail.

This time around, I had a much deeper appreciation for several characters that didn't mean much to me the first time around: Trull and Onrack, Pearl and Lostara, the interplay between Gesler and Fiddler. And I was, if anything, even more moved by the tragedy of Felesin, and the parallel tragedy of the Whirlwind goddess (which went completely over my head before).

Also, I absolutely love a passage toward the end of the book, where Quick Ben and Kalam are working out what has happened. Ben comes to the realization that the Bridgeburners have ascended!. Kalam asks: What does that mean? And Ben, one of the smartest characters in all of fantasy fiction, says: I have no diea. It's marvelous stuff. On our reading lest here on Goodreads (called The Malazan Fallen if you are interested), we have been discussing what it means to "ascend." It turns out that its a word that some people use in this world, but even the most knowledgable people don't really understand it. ...more

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Mar 21, 2008 The Crimson Fucker rated it liked it

Alright... I'm done again!

SPOILERT ALLERTA!!!

I don't even know where to start... ima go with I'm fucking terrified of erickson! I can't even beging to imagine how the fuck hi manages to hold it all inside his head! There its as much hiding with was being said that there is in what its said... fuck! How he does it???? I mean the scope of the whole damn thing its byond behemothic!! I mean shit! I'm speachless... I don't know what was more brutal... Karsa's path to infamy or the Adjunt march... Lo ...more

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Apr 29, 2010 Kerry rated it really liked it

Shelves: epic-fantasy-nerd-list

My Malazan reread continues! The second time I read this book, I liked it a lot more than the first time. This is my review from the first time (below) makes me laugh. I think the key to Malazan, is not to read other books b/w the books in the series, else you'll forget everything. Makes a Martin book look like a shallow character pool...

Meh, although I often wonder why I keep reading these perplexing books, I finally sort of like this one. Which is very sad as each book has approximately 800 pa ...more

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