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Phew, I did it! I finished “Deadhouse Gates��. For some time I thought I’ll never finish it :D



So if you’re past shock as I am, we can continue :) Like GotM, this book shines with complexity. I found a multilayered story following a couple of story lines, a bunch of new characters and the famous Erikson’s style with unexpected twist, cliffhangers :) A real treat :) In fact I had a small shock as DG left almost all the characters from the first book behind in favor of a different story set on a different continent. I must confess, it was difficult sometimes to sort everything out as a lot of stuff was happening at the same time. I was definitely (and still am) surprised how lot’s of things turned out.

The storyline.

I’m not into the military stuff a lot and I’m glad that this book wasn’t soaked in it. The fighting, the battles and the various forms of fighters were great and detailed with grit and amazing Erikson’s imagination. There were times when I read page after page and thought: Oh wow, cliffhanger after cliffhanger. The storyline was more focused. There were not so many new characters, so I didn’t have to check everybody every five pages. Also the time for the story to unravel is bigger. That helped the characters and the story line. What struck me the most is that the story felt so real with interesting facts, some back stories, great flawed characters, lots of twists, action of course and cool magical aspects (I’ll name the cute deadly butterflies, a cool ghost ship, various mages and a lot more��). The story is mostly great. The last couple of chapters��..wow, it was brutal with some witty spices. If you want to know how I felt, just see the pic above :)

The peculiar thing is that the story is emotionally exhausting a bit. Sometimes I felt like after a long tiring day in an office (I had some tiring work days indeed and it annoyed me a bit ‘cause a book should ease the tension). It left me struggling to keep up. Maybe the problem I had with the book is that I read it a bit pell-mell due to my busy time.

The characters.

I liked the story mostly for the characters as I fell for most of them. Ugh, I know that Erikson likes to butcher his characters, but what I felt in this book��.Oh my, great characters died :S Erikson’s skill in creating most of characters and the history to the landscapes his characters must travel, helped a lot to love this book. Of course Fiddler, Crokus, Apsalar and Kalam had my biggest interest!

My Deadly Calm, (view spoiler)[Kalam (hide spoiler)] was the character I liked the most in this book. It was awesome following him, as he incited great changes, met a great BFF, found love and fought some great fights.

Also it was great to know that The Chosen One, (view spoiler)[Apsalar (hide spoiler)] reached one of her goals.

I enjoyed meeting The Pokeman, (view spoiler)[Pust (hide spoiler)], he’s such a great and unique character. Omg, his struggle with bhok'arala was so funny :D Definitely complex and really entertaining character!

'You two are sick as undercooked pigs. Servant has prepared your chambers. And broths of healing herbs, roots, potions and elixirs. White Paralt, emulor, tralb��'
'Those are poisons,' Mappo pointed out.
'Are they? No wonder the pig died. It's almost time, shall we prepare to ascend?'

The same can be said for Icarium and Mappo, they had witty and intriguing episodes and the tension was great. (view spoiler)[Unfortunately nothing changed in their relationship. (hide spoiler)] Also I wanted more of the Red Blade, (view spoiler)[Lostara (hide spoiler)], I felt like she was left too early.

Heboric was a great character too. I liked his secretive aura and his unique holy personality. (view spoiler)[In fact I thought that I’ll get some explanations about his former life as priest and what were his ties with the mysterious god, Fener. (hide spoiler)]

One more character which needs to be mentioned, is Fellows�� sin, (view spoiler)[Felisin (hide spoiler)]. I must confess I didn’t like her from the start and still don’t like her. At the beginning I felt pity for her, then it was disgust time and her mind-blowing time was quite short as I wanted more glimpses to see what kind of person she became.

Oh and Gesler was really funny, too. He’s worth to have his witty star hour more often.

'As you say,' Lull muttered. 'Get on with you now, Corporal, you're almost as ugly as me and it's turning my stomach.'
'Got more than a few spare Tiste Andii eyes if you'd like to try one out for a fitting, sir. Last chance.'
'I'll pass, Corporal, but thanks for the offer.'

'You know, Commander,' Gesler said a moment before stepping into the boat, 'I just noticed �� between you and the captain you got three eyes and three ears and almost a whole head of hair.'
Bult swung around to glare at the corporal. 'Your point?'
'Nothing. Just noticing, sir.'

It just the beginning for (view spoiler)[Icarium, Mappo, Heboric and Felisin (hide spoiler)], so I don’t really mind to wait for my next read in Malazan, I hope the next book will satisfy my need to know more about them and give a great playdate as one of the strongest sides of GotM was the depth of characters and I longed for that in DG.

I had some ups and downs with the kids�� issue in DG. There were such moments as pAt’s and the boys scene, which melted my heart and made me teary (pAt is cool, luv ya girly!) and moments when I disliked Erikson for hurting the kids, ugh.



I’d be a lie to say that I didn’t like this book. I liked it a lot, but it wasn't so mind-blowing like GotM. DG has great features of epic fantasy. It definitely has some great characters and a complex realistic multilayered story that can hook up :)