Malazan Book of the Fallen - Book 4 - House of Chains

What an absolute pleasure to read. The overall complexity of the story, the revealing of characters that make them increasingly tangible, and the constant intrigue (even from newly introduced elements in the series), continue to impress me. I hope that Steven continues to write many more novels, because I'm now convinced that I'll be hooked on whatever fantasy he pens.

I have been particularly impressed with the narrative of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It is very well written with complex characters that you become invested in. I recommend these books to any and all fans of fantasy literature.

First part of the book is almost linear and contains the best part of the series so far -- the part when Karsa Orlong (Lead Us, Warleader!) is introduced. That is complex character I really enjoy and hopefully it is not the last time we meet!

On the other hand, the goddess of the Apocalypse makes too many mistakes, surrounded by treacherous allies and if she is indeed powerful, one has to ask, why is she so stupid. The plot around the goddess is just 3 stars.

Veterans of the Malazan army are described hard as ever, without knowing what they do and why they do it -- which may be ok if it is not same as in previous books.

If the pace of the first part endures throughout the book, it will be the best book of the series. Unfortunately that is not the case. Anyway more plots gets unveiled, old/new characters are developed and definitely worth reading.

This series of books, fantasy bound only by the reality of the characters therein. Thousands of pages, greater and lesser stories, woven, threads pulled by an artist. Colours emerge,disappear and show again, subtly harmony, savage clash and abrupt termination. Pure joy and true sorrow

I started this book with the knowledge that many of Erikson's fans say that Memories of Ice, the last book, was their favourite of the series. With that, does it mean that the rest of the series is downhill until he finally finishes it? Definitely not.

If I had to vote, I would say that this is my favourite of the series so far... far better than Memories of Ice.

If you're looking for a novel in the same vein as Erikson or GRRM, give Blood of the Land (From the Sea, From the Earth)a go.

As with the previous three books, four was a great read. Erikson is a master writer whose prose is amazing and whose world is both detailed and massive in its scope. Can't wait to start the next book!

The beginning of this book really didn't work for me. I forced my way through due to the goodwill created by my enjoyment of the previous books, and having been pre-warned by fans of the series. Over one hundred pages at the beginning of the book of one character: Karsa Orlong. And he's really hard to take. He's initially a completely awful person. Even setting aside the pillaging and raping that make me wince at the idea of recommending this to my female friends, he's also an arrogant jerk. This background on Karsa, aside from being unpleasant, difficult reading, also just does not fit with the format of this book, or the previous books. It's really inconsistent, and I don't care for that.

After we get past the intolerably long stretch of Karsa Orlong, the book moves on to the familiar format of the previous books, with the storyline moving between several main characters. This was a great relief, although I found things somewhat slower than past books, particularly after the gripping emotional roller coaster that was Memories of Ice. Until the climax, this book is just far less eventful than the previous book.

I was happy to see familiar faces that I didn't get to see in a while. Particularly, Cotillion was just about all over the place. I had the sense that he must be cooking up something huge, and that I was going to love it. Ultimately, I have yet to see if that was going anywhere. But I still enjoyed seeing him meddling in human affairs, and I realize this series often has long-term payoffs.

The center of this particular story was the impending confrontation between Sha'ik's army and Adjunct Tavore's. Sha'ik has the advantage of numbers, and Tavore appears to be without a chance, but of course there wouldn't be much of a story if it were really that simple. The conclusion of this particular conflict was a punch in the gut. I'm still reeling from the tragedy of it, while realizing that there was no happy way it could have ended. But nobody reads this series expecting happy conclusions by now, right? The conclusion was the right one. It made up for a great deal of my previous issues. As far as the central story went, to me it was perfection.

Other plot threads were enjoyable but had far less closure. I'm hoping to see more of Trull Sengar and Onrack, for instance, quite soon. I would have liked to see more of where they were going.

Overall, despite portions of this book that could have been better, it is an enjoyable, well-orchestrated story that left me feeling satisfied.

This was a pretty decent read.... It diverged significantly from the core characters of the previous books... Which is what I was hoping to get to continue reading. The book starts with an anti-hero who metamorphoses throughout the book... It drags quite a bit, and really just stands on it's own as a single book, not a part of a series... simply set in the same world. Not Erikson's finest work, but still an interesting read for sure.

I love this author, his imagination and writing style speak to me. This series is comparable to Game of Thrones but actually way, way more in depth philosophically than George R R R R R Martin and look, the author finished this wonderful story in a reasonable amount of time unlike some authors.

I absolutely devoured these books. They very likely cause my mediocre grade for my masters thesis, as I spent a good two weeks reading these and barely getting food in my mouth instead of expanding on my Discussion and Results sections.

A+, would get a C again.

I cannot overstate how much I love this series. I always recommend it. The characters and depth of creativity in the world building have enchanted me from the first book. I love Mr. Erickson's writing. I picked up the kindle versions of the books for my second read-through. There seems to have been no editing whatsoever in formatting it for the kindle. An editor would have noticed the predominance of capital "T"s that replace other letters throughout the book. Or the changing of names. For example, the character Silgar was 60 percent of the time called Sugar, and Toc was Toe. Having to guess at what words are or who they are talking about really takes away from the enjoyment.

Again, read this series. I highly recommend it. But get the paper version.

This book introduces a new character that quickly grows into a very enjoyable anti hero. The gritty squad based storyline from the first three books is superseded a bit by this new character but the overall blending of the stories makes this less jarring. Some fan favorites from previous books are missing, but this book does resolve some plot lines will, as usual, introducing new ones.

If like me you were disappointed in the last book, then this book is a welcome surprise! I reluctantly read this book because I had trouble getting through the last one. This has reinvigorated my interest in this series.

Once again Steven Erickson shows an extreme arrogance and contempt for his audience.

While the stories of the Malazan world are intriguing and intricate, Erickson's story telling is so terrible it makes his books almost unreadable. The first two books of the series are almost prologues to the actual story, they are vague, poorly explained and very poorly written, however it eventually pays off in the third installment, where our understanding of the character and events of the first two allow us to finally enjoy the events that unfold in the third.

House of Chains returns us to the world, at a different time, in a different place with mostly new characters, and the same painful grind the first two books presented.

I give up, I've tried to enjoy this series and look for the flashes of brilliance hidden amongst Erickson's rambling poorly written dialogue, but I'm done with this author. There are plenty of other authors out there that don't treat their audience with contempt.

The writing style for this book is different from the first few for the first quarter of the book, but it is still amazing! Great back story, as always... New characters, races, places... I love this series!