Deadhouse Rock (Hard)

Following a brief moment of respite in children’s literature, I’ve thrown myself back into the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I thought that having waded through the first three quarters of book one, ‘Gardens of the Moon’, wondering who everyone was, what the hell was happening, and whether or not to bother struggling to the end (check out the review for further details), I’d now be able to enjoy Deadhouse Gates from page one. How wrong I was, most of the characters and settings used in book one are ejected and a new set are introduced. The handful of characters who are kept quickly leave behind familiar associations and territory. Only the fragmented knowledge of the Gods and magic system I managed to piece together from ‘Gardens of the Moon’ remains valid in Deadhouse Gates.

Almost back to square one then? Not quite, this time I was better prepared, some knowledge goes a long way it seems. I spent a good half hour reading and re-reading the glossary, this was invaluable to keeping track of the story (as per my thoughts on ‘Gardens of the Moon’ if you can bookmark this page it will be a massive help), I do wish the complete glossary was placed at the beginning of the book, with the Dramatis Personae, rather than the end though, this would make a lot more sense. This time I set off armed with a clear understanding of who everyone is, the names of all the Gods, races, magical warrens and places.

The events of ‘Deadhouse Gates’ follow three distinct storylines, each is seemingly unconnected, although by the end of the book, at least two have become more closely linked, how these fit in to the wider narrative of the series remains to be seen. Rather like ‘Gardens of the Moon’ I found this book to be dense and somewhat unwieldy, I struggled to generate much in the way reading momentum, I wasn’t swept along by the events taking place I didn’t find myself reading in bed until stupid o’clock at night because I couldn’t put the book down, in fact I’d usually find my eyes had closed within a relatively short period of time and my kindle had closed down of its own accord.

This probably makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy ‘Deadhouse Gates’, oddly, given the hard work required to read it, I enjoyed it a lot. Part of that enjoyment requires a leap of faith, I’m relying on reputation a little here to maintain faith that momentum will build as the series narrative builds. Some writers are able to write episodically, and develop momentum and hooks within each episode while also building to an overall payoff, while others start strongly with early episodes but the high level of excitement can leave later episodes feeling a little flat as excitement plateaus or diminishes and set pieces become too familiar or repetitive, it can be a fine balancing act. I’m hoping that Erikson is starting slowly and building to a big finish, time will tell I guess, but in the meantime, despite the effort I’m enjoying the ride.