Deadhouse Gates
Steven Erikson
941 pages
published in 2000
Deadhouse Gates is the second book in Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen epic fantasy series of ten projected volumes. Whereas the previous volume, Gardens of the Moon had a severe case of everything but the kitchen sink plotting, this is much more focussed. Of course, it’s still a 900+ pages epic fantasy brick with several interlocking storylines, not all of which are wrapped up in this installment. You have to expect a certain amount of complexity.
This second book of the Malazan cycle takes place on a completely different continent from the first, with a largely new cast of characters, some of which are however related to the people we got to know in Gardens of the Moon. The central story revolves around a religious revolts on the subcontinent of the Seven Cities, one of the oldest conquests of the Malazan empire. For decades there has been a prophecy doing the rounds about the return of the Whirlwind, which would cleanse the Seven Cities and drive the Malazan out of the continent. Now it has started and most of the Seven Cities, apart from the capital of Aren have fallen.