House of Chains - The Malazan Book of the Fallen

[dukesransom]

Two days ago I finished Steven Erikson's House of Chains, a novel I started reading in mid-September. That's a rather long time for me to spend reading a novel. I attribute this delay largely to the fact that during the school year I have to read somewhere between one and three novels every single week, but that hasn't always stopped me from

Comments

[theevilgenius]

The Crippled God is an interesting mix of weak and strong, it occurs to me, as is the House of Chains. I can't tell if it's strength frustrated by weakness, or the other way around.

[tilivenn]

I expect you to make ample use of the "suplex" tag in the future.

[dukesransom]

Tags are intended solely for my amusement. We'll see if suplexes continue to amuse me.

[theevilgenius]

I am unaware of any notable suplexing in book 5. One does, however, become aware of the value of wearing half a pants.

[rushthatspeaks]

Have you read Donald Kingsbury's Courtship Rite? This review makes me want to recommend it to you, if you haven't. Don't want to go to far into it if you have, though.

How is Erikson's prose? I've not seen anyone mention it in a review at all.

Do you know anything about the affiliated Ian Esslemont novels?

/is asking all these questions because this review makes me seriously contemplate reading these, which has not previously happened (either the contemplation or the reading)

[dukesransom]

I've never read Kingsbury, but I may look into him at some point in the next couple of weeks.

Erikson's prose is effective and sufficient. I wouldn't call it a primary selling point of the series, but I haven't found anything to object to. Gardens of the Moon is a little roughly written and just generally inconsistent with the quality (and canonical events) of the rest of the series, but that's a price you pay with first novels. The poetry that he sometimes puts in the chapter's epigraphs is truly abysmal, though.

From what I've heard the Esslemont novels cover some really interesting elements of the series' backstory, but Esslemont is a much worse writer than Erikson. It's sad, because I'd really like to know more about the things he's writing about.

I'm glad my review nudged you towards the series! I'm not going to pretend it isn't a grueling slog, but it rewards investment very well.

[rushthatspeaks]

Glad to hear that about Erikson's prose, especially about the first-novel nature of the first one, as I am better at putting up with clunky if I know that the author is working at improving it. Thanks!

So Courtship Rite is awesome. It's sf-that-looks-like-fantasy, set on a planet which has very, very few resources, so that their society looks superficially like Ye Barbarian Heroical Culture except for all the cannibalism, and then it's, well, really really not that. Contains an actual vocabulary word for the concept evolutionary-fitness-as-we-invoke-it-in-human-society-to-justify-the-things-we-want-to-do-to-survive as opposed to evolutionary-fitness-as-it-changes-species-as-they-adapt, which is a distinction I wish English had; a heretical prophet trying to remake the world in her own image who is, amazingly for this genre, quite simply scientifically wrong except that no one has any way of proving it; a system of institutionalized plural marriage that is utterly fascinating; and more matter-of-fact cannibalism than any other