However, Duiker wrote a few naughty things which were considered seditious by those in authority at the time, and now he finds his old creaky arsebones battered day after day on horseback as part of a fleeing army on a sand-blasted continent. A book that is epic in both scope and narrative - but for me a book where the payoff of the destination, was not quite worth the effort of the journey. Other than Kalam/Minala, none of them have any chemistry whatsoever, and that romance comes out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Coltaine, the charismatic commander of the Malaz 7th Army, will lead his battered, war-weary troops in a last, valiant running battle to save the lives of thirty thousand refugees and, in so doing, secure an illustrious place in the Empire’s chequered history. On the march to the transport ships, she meets fellow prisoners Baudin, a thug, and Heboric, an excommunicated High Priest of Fener who has been punished by the removal of his hands. After leaving the city, they meet a mage who identifies himself as Nawahl Ebur but turns out to be the Soletaken Gryllen. Benjamin Button Sormo E’nath is the most powerful of the Wickan warlocks accompanying the 7 th Army. The company takes refuge in a cave network to avoid Raraku's whirling sand and finds a First Empire city of T’lan Imass, destroyed in hours by the outbreak of conflict between the Soletaken and D’ivers, and signs in a Deck of Holds that the Beast Hold throne is empty.Thank you to the “extremely knowledgeable fans” for spoiling me even though I didn’t ask any questions. But for those of us who share these characters’ trials and tribulations, what’s most incredible is that Erikson can make us grieve even for the ones he hasn’t killed off. Erikson often listened to the soundtrack of Black Hawk Down while writing and found the track "Leave No Man Behind" particularly apt for the scenes below the walls of Aren. Kalam gets the sense that the captain is under a glamour not to tell him something important, so he contacts Quick Ben for help who says that the ship is indeed under a glamour of confusion and that he will try to get help to Fiddler and company as they approach Tremorlor due to the active warrens. The only words that I can think of to sum up Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series are “Wow.

One of Coltaine's officers recognizes Gesler as a former captain, and when Gesler threatens to punch him if he's promoted again, Coltaine punches Gesler and breaks his own hand; Nil concludes that Gesler, Stormy, and Truth are nearly ascended. Felisin dons Sha’ik’s clothing and using something of the goddess’s power she reads the thoughts of the High Mages: Bidithal abused Sha’ik as a child, Febryl tried to poison her thrice, and L’oric is an enigma, but all kneel before her with the crowd in the end. Unlike your typical sequel, this felt more like a standalone sequel featuring almost a completely new set of characters in a totally different continent with a brand new self-contained main story.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. Icarium finds one of his own time-measuring devices intact and 94,000 years old in the midst of a destroyed First Empire city, but accepts Fiddler and Mappo’s assurances that an ascendant or god must be responsible for the destruction.