Books › Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 2)
Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 2)
960 pages
A grueling, dust-choked march through a brutal desert uprising that will break your heart and leave you in awe of its tragic heroism.
What it feels like
Reading this book is like enduring a grueling, dust-choked march across a hostile desert, where every step is heavy with history and impending tragedy. The atmosphere is oppressive and blood-soaked, yet pierced by profound moments of compassion and philosophical reflection. It demands your full attention, throwing you into the deep end of a sprawling, chaotic world without a lifeline. The prose is dense and cinematic, capturing both the sweeping scale of military campaigns and the intimate, agonizing choices of soldiers and refugees pushed to their absolute limits. It is a devastating, emotionally exhausting experience that builds to a heart-wrenching crescendo. This is for readers who want their epic fantasy uncompromising, gritty, and deeply moving, willing to have their hearts broken by the sheer weight of tragic heroism.
- Mood
- harrowing
- dust-choked
- oppressive
- sorrowful
- Tone
- bleak
- philosophical
- tragic
- gritty
- earnest
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the burden of leadership · futility of war · tragic heroism · compassion amidst cruelty · survival against impossible odds
- The writing
- Dense, cinematic, and philosophically reflective, demanding close attention to its layered histories and gritty realism.
- The arc
- Begins in chaotic desperation and marches relentlessly toward a devastating, heart-wrenching tragedy that leaves a profound sense of awe and sorrow.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave massive, uncompromising epic fantasy that challenges them with complex world-building and emotionally devastating military campaigns.
Content notes
- graphic violence
- sexual violence
- slavery
- torture
- starvation
- gore
About the book
The second book in Steven Erikson's thrilling epic fantasy series chronicling the ill-fated Malazan Empire.Weakened by events in Darujhistan, the Malazan Empire teeters on the brink of anarchy. In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha'ik gathers an army around her in preparation for the long-prophesied uprising named the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in its size and savagery, it will embroil in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known: a maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust that will shape destinies and give birth to legends... In the Otataral mines, Felisin, youngest daughter of the disgraced House of Paran, dreams of revenge against the sister who sentenced her to a life of slavery. Escape leads her to raraku, where her soul will be reborn and her future made clear. The now-outlawed Bridgeburners, Fiddler and the assassin Kalam, have vowed to return the once god-possessed Apsalar to her homeland, and to confront and kill the Empress Laseen, but events will overtake them too. Meanwhile, Coltaine, the charismatic commander of the Malaz 7th Army, will lead his battered, war-weary troops in a last, valient running battle to save the lives of thirty thousand refugees and, in so doing, secure an illustrious place in the Empire's chequered history. And into this blighted land come two ancient wanderers, Mappo and his half-Jaghut companion Icarium, bearers of a devastating secret that threatens to break free of its chains... Set in a brilliantly-realized world ravaged by anarchy and dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is the thrilling, brutal second chapter in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. A powerful novel of war, intrigue and betrayal, it confirms Steven Erikson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality - a new master of epic fantasy.
Description from Open Library.
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