House of Chains

Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson and George R. R. Martin released Memories of Ice and A Storm of Swords, the third massive novels in their respective fantasy series, within a year of one another. Both turned out to be one of the best books released in their respective years, and solidified the two series as two of the foremost works in the genre.

Martin took five years to deliver novel number four (and, as of this writing, novel number five is nowhere in sight), and it turned out to be, in the eyes of most critics (and not an inconsiderable number of his fans), a vast letdown after the brilliance of the first three novels. Erikson, on the other hand, delivered book number four less than eighteen months later, and The Malazan Book of the Fallen (which is unfortunately the victim of a long and completely inexplicable lag in publishing in America; House of Chains is newly-released in America as of November 2006, while England and Canada will be seeing book seven in April 2007) just kept roaring along at the same breakneck pace.

The disparate threads that have been explored in previous novels are beginning to come together now, as what's left of the Bridgeburners, the Malazan's army on Genabackis, and Sha'ik's Army of the Whirlwind all move towards collision for very different reasons. The Tiste Edur and T'lan Imass, who have been bit players throughout, get a little more exploration here, and we're introduced to the Tiste Liosan, the light-aspected brothers of the Edur and the Andii. As always, there's a vast web of plots, subplots, sub-sub-plots, and farther on down the line at work here, not only in Erikson's structuring of the book but in the motivations of his characters, as well. Sometimes it's hard to believe that in Erikson's cast-of-thousands universe, there's a single character on whom Erikson hasn't written a full biography in his notes. It's the attention to detail that makes these books so fantastic, and fantastic it is. This is another incredible novel. If you haven't made Erikson's acquaintance yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. �