Review: Deadhouse Gates

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finally finished book 2 of the Malazan book of the Fallen series and while it was a definite improvement on book 1, I think the series isnt for me. But first what I think it does well:

Despite my general irritation at the story, it has some pretty incredible characters. Coltane, a Wiccan warlord turned general who like northern Germanic tribes during the Roman period ends up being brought into the empire...and then defending it against hordes of religious nomads... Duiker, a warrior historian and cynical bastard, and Kalam, an assassin of near mythical qualities are some epic characters in the fantasy genre. If this book was reduced down to take out all of the stories except for those characters I just mentioned.... this book would have been great. But it had a ridiculously convoluted story with so many random events thrown in to create senses of drama, that it actually just made the story fairly boring for the most part. Any time people have been walking or sailing for too long, lets throw in a random demon or monster for them to fight....just unnecessary.

I have never read a series with as much deus ex machina as this one. Gods coming out to save people from death, or people that are rad dying and then just ascending to become gods... it makes death in this story less final and thus less dramatic. I am not going to say that I didn't enjoy parts of this story... but I seriously dont get why this series is listed near universally on Reddit as being one of the best of the fantasy genre..... i gave it another chance and read book 2, but Im not going any further with a story that isn't that gripping. Its unfortunate, because there are a lot of things to like about it... but not enough.

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