book review: House of Chains
by: Steven Erikson
OK, so I stayed up (way too) late last night reading the last 300 or so pages. It doesn’t help that I can’t read the clock from the couch without my glasses. Not in the least. And now I’m drinking Red Bull.
This is an odd book. The way it flows. You’ve got a 100-200 page opening section that is the backstory for a character from book 2 (!) who is suddenly a main character. Kind of. He is really, really, really obnoxious to start with but, sadly, I’ll admit he grew on me a bit. He’s funny because a) he’s one of those impossible badass types but b) he’s kind of a bad guy. OK, he’s not really so much a bad guy anymore BUT he the way he is written I’ll not be surprised if he winds up being a complete “bad guy” (not that there are many “true bad guys” in these books), nor will I be surprised if he becomes some kind of “good guy”. He’s a true wild card in pretty much every sense of the word. And probably too impossibly badass to be a good guy.
Due to this funky starting section, this book flowed kind of like the first book – a rather difficult first half followed by all kinds of shit happening culminating in a HUGE mass of shit exploding in the last couple chapters. Things were juggled. Oh yes, they were juggled. Perhaps by a D’ivers.
I think, if this series is remembered as a triumph of anything (and I think it probably will), it will be as a great triumph of plot. There is just so god damned much going on it’s crazy. And it all seems to clearly be going somewhere… headed for what may be the biggest (at least character count-wise) collision in all of fantasy. And then I flip over the next book in my pile (book 5) and see that it has an entirely NEW cast, except for ONE person? WTF AKA Steven Erikson, WTF?
I think I must be mostly used to the Erikson style of dialogue by now. It doesn’t even phase me. Sure there were a couple times where people shared some kind of brilliant revelation and I had no idea what the hell they were talking about between the lines… but who cares? If it’s important, it will come back. Everything that dies someday comes back.
It was really annoyed a couple of times when a character was pulled aside by someone with a bunch of knowledge, and this happened:
a: “Come here, I have some crazy secrets to tell you, things I guarantee would be interesting to the reader.”
b: “Alright, what’s up?”
**end section***
Annnnnnd I would want to punch someone. Because obviously whatever they learned affected them because they started doing things different. This happened… at least 3 times? (Karsa & the Jhagut, Apsalar & Cotillion, the Red Blade woman & Cotillion… and probably more). SO ANNOYING. I’m sure we’ll find out whatever it was eventually but. still. GRRR.
The random man-r#pe-in-between-times-and-worlds was random. OH. And we have two new female semi-leads that were both r#ped by the same asshat? One of whom pretty much everyone knew was going after her? REALLY? UGH. That happened. Just realized there was a pretty high r#pe quotient in this volume. Do not like.
It was good to see (some of) the Bridgeburners back together again – hopefully they meet up with the rest in book 6. But I suspect we’ll just get a whole new cast for that one too. Oof.
Did I mention that book 5 (the next one) apparently has an almost entirely new cast??? Only one returning character, and he’s one that was just introduced in this book. AND I kinda get the vibe that 5 may just be his backstory (and that of his people, the Tisti Edur). Anyway, onward!
THREE AND A HALF STARS
Because it’s still incredibly engrossing despite its (or perhaps, because of some of them) its warts.
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