Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302641 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-22
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.84" h x 6.36" w x 9.12" l, 1.64 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

Amazon.ca
Images of chains run through the fourth instalment of Steven Erikson's Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Chains bind Karsa Orlong, warrior from an ancient race, in slavery, then link him with the souls of those he has slain. There are also chains of loyalty and vengeance. Then there are chains from the past: the story of the Chain of Dogs from Deadhouse Gates for one, as well as the image of the Crippled God, whose subjugation triggered the events that have taken over all the characters' lives.

House of Chains follows several characters first encountered in Deadhouse Gates, the second book in the series, and the action runs at first parallel to and later after the events in the third book, Memories of Ice. Felisin, the girl who became Sha'ik, the avatar of the Whirlwind Goddess, is here with her sister Tavore, the Adjunct of the Empire. The narrative follows these two and the many characters caught in their wake as the Malazan army marches toward Raraku Desert and a tragic confrontation with the rebellion.

Steven Erikson is creating something special here: realistic, human characters living in a world so complex and rich in history that it rivals any other created in the literature of the fantastic. It's becoming clear that the rules and standards for what has previously been known as sword and sorcery (the term seems inadequate) are being rewritten with the appearance of each new volume in this magnificent fantasy series. --Greg L. Johnson

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Longtime fans may be surprised by the fourth book in Erikson's masterful fantasy epic that began with Gardens of the Moon (2004), because the long opening section follows a single character, the Teblor warrior Karsa Orlong, and his companions on a gory raid through enemy territory and into the human lowlands of Northern Genabackis. The time-hopping, perspective-shifting, looping story lines typical of this Canadian author return later, as Erikson ties Karsa's actions to the ultimate showdown between the forces of the Malazan Empire and Sha'ik's Army of the Apocalypse. Against a backdrop of brutal power struggles, the stubbornly determined Karsa is able to accomplish more than even he could have imagined. Unusual among fantasy writers, Erikson succeeds in making readers empathize equally with all sides involved in his world's vast, century-spanning conflict. Newcomers will eagerly seek out previous books in the series. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
The fourth volume of the Malazan Book of the Fallen takes place some years after the death of the famous Seventh Army commander, Coltaine. Now Tavore, adjunct to the empress, is trying to assemble the army's surviving veterans and a ragtag collection of tribes, wanderers, and recruits into a viable fighting force. Not far away, the seer Sha'ik, Tavore's sister, is trying to organize a successful rebellion out of equally disparate elements, including warlords, sorcerers, and renegades. Despite a fairly complex array of subplots that support the rather dark tone of the story, it is the duel between the sisters and the abundantly detailed world Erikson has built that really carry the book. Indeed, with the help of the glossary and cast of characters Erikson provides, this book is enjoyable even without previous acquaintance with the Malazan tales. So it will please the already acquainted, and may inspire the unacquainted to read its predecessors, Gardens of the Moon (1999), Deadhouse Gates (2000), and Memories of Ice [BKL Ap 15 02]. Roland Green
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