Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is Buddy Read for Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson starting February 16, 2018.

spot!

This'll be my valentines day read. I hope it's a romantic book :-D

I bought this today along with Gardens of the Moon so I'm as ready for it as I can be.

@Diana I'm sure this book will be the Pride and Prejudice of the fantasy genre lol 😉

Sure...lol

Damn now I want to read Pride and Prejudice on Valentine's Day!!

..with or without zombies?

Chris wrote: "..with or without zombies?"

Lol, without. Definately without. Never got the whole obsession people have with zombies to be honest.

I've never read the with. It's somewhere on the tbr list. I don't mind zombies, though they are the least attractive of the paranormals.

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "I've never read the with. It's somewhere on the tbr list. I don't mind zombies, though they are the least attractive of the paranormals."

Neither have I but I don't intend to either. To me P&P is perfection (it is my favourite book). Adding zombies can only make it worse. Although if you do ever read the zombie version I'll be curious to know what you think.

As good as GotM is this is the one where I knew I was all in.

I'm in

Hailee wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "I've never read the with. It's somewhere on the tbr list. I don't mind zombies, though they are the least attractive of the paranormals."

Neither have I but I don't inte..."

Challenge excepted. Hopefully I can tackle it in the coming year.

I'd also like to prepare everybody by saying when I got done with this one the first time I couldn't even read anything for 4 or 5 days without it tasting like mud. This book just tears your soul apart. I think many will echo this. Some of the others do the same but where this was the first devastation it's stuck with me.

I agree with you, Scott.

It is my favorite so far, but it wasn't an easy read. The prologue set the tone.

This one is still my favourite book in the series as well. Prepare for a gut wrenching read.

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "This'll be my valentines day read. I hope it's a romantic book :-D"

Surely there's romance aplenty.

Just purchased my copy.

Does everybody want/need the chapter notes? Or would you rather I just reply more to the thread as it happens? I don't care either way. This, as I've said, might be my favorite book of all time competing only with a few others in this series so I just want to help with the experience.

Scott I loved your chapter notes but I wouldn't like to burden you with this duty.

Hi Scott, "Just do it!"

I'm excited to get to this one.

For anyone who does not own this book, I have found I have a second paperback copy! (Probably because this is one of my favorites in the Malazan series)

I was roaming in my basement to put this on my literal "to-reread shelf" and found it. Both my copies are used, in good and acceptable condition respectively. I think I picked one up for 0.50 on a whim at a library book fair.

If anyone wants my second copy, I'm happy to mail it out in exchange for shipping costs OR an extra paperback of yours that is on my to-read list. Message me if interested.

I loved your chapter notes too, Scott, but I also don't want you to feel overburdened. It's not like we pay you or anything...except with overflowing adoration and devotion.

Zaara wrote: "How I use your notes is like this. I read a chapter, making my own notes/annotations + thoughts and (when I am done) then I let myself chk yours to see if I missed anything significant."

This is exactly what I did too. :-)

Heh Lady thanks for the gentle hint, I swear I thought (view spoiler)[ I was being as extremely polite as I possibly could (like even borderline creepily Victorian, no?) while making my request bcuz of my Malazan Lightning Jinx Propensity Thingy but there was a deafening silence again (is usual with me) and I was all like "o sh!t, I "fluffed up" socially agn and can't tell why" time.
Thanks! I like you very much but XPECIALLY I like how you are very smooth, Ron. And how you never make anyone feel like they're a prat but you very subtly show them the way. I suck socially with the 'how to be' and the smoothness n all, but at least I am quick to understand gentle hints/advice from friends. Tks be!
What would I do without my friends to show me the way when I funk things up?
*with twinges of Mel Gibson roaring, "what will we do without freedom?"*
So when I say somethign and there is a creepy silence and ppl change the subject that's how I know I hv messed up. So I was anyway delete my comment. There. The creepy request is now gone. But now we will never get the big Deadhouse Gates spoiler
:-/ which woulda been ripping good fun, Veronica, even if I do say so myself.
Okkkk having embarrassed myself to the hilt....I think my work here is done. Sh!t I never learn to shut up. I always get enthused and post some rubbish.
And :-( (hide spoiler)]

I'll start early and do a chapter a day which shouldn't be too bad. I glad you all got something out of them. Honestly you can ask Angela and Miche, I just want everybody to love Malazan and particularly this book. I've commented on Malzan threads all over GR hoping people get hooked.

I missed your original post Zaara so no worries. I think you might be related to Kruppe and are toying with us mere mortals. :)

Zaara wrote: "Heh Lady thanks for the gentle hint, I swear I thought I was being as extremely polite as I possibly could (like even borderline creepily Victorian, no?) while making my request bcuz of my Malazan..."

Awww, I wasn't trying to give you any hints. I didn't see anything wrong with what you posted. I was more just echoing Mayim's earlier post about loving the chapter summaries but not wanting Scott to feel obligated if real life doesn't allow him the time to indulge us...even though we love to be indulged. :-)

Prologue

Before you start these are the three new characters to pay attention to in the prologue.

Felisin, youngest daughter of House Paran
Heboric Light Touch, exiled historian and ex-priest of Fener
Baudin, companion to Felisin and Heboric

(view spoiler)[
We discover that Tavore sister to Felisin who was briefly introduced in GotM has taken Lorn's place as adjunct. Things are not well between the two sisters.

The scene of the nobility being rounded up reminds me of the the night of broken glass in Nazi Germany. These scenes are pretty raw, more so than any in GotM IMO, and sets the scene well.

Important to note Heboric was in the Mouse during the rioting in the prologue of GotM and that Felisin is the pretty one while Tavore the plain. Only a pause when Tavore sees Felisin......

Absolutely grizzly scene with Baudin and the crow as body parts are bitten, rippen and sawed off. Erikson does not shield us from these horrors.

They're headed for the slave ships of Aren which is on a different continent than Malaz City or Genebackis where GotM took place. There was talk of Seven Cities in book one and that's where we are headed.
(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 1:

Mappo and Icarium





(view spoiler)[
Early casual mention of Icarium's father "his father's blood had answered this wasteland's ancient call."

An aptorian which we briefly saw in GotM is a demon. Surprise! Already talk of a convergence and an even bigger shocker Shadowthrone is in the middle of it.

We find out Mappo is a full blooded Trell and Icarium is a half blood Jaghut. The second part is important.

The legend of Dryjhna the Apocolyptic, do note.

“Rats? More than one set?”
“D’ivers,” Icarium agreed, nodding.
“Now who might that be, I wonder?”
“Probably Gryllen.”
“Mhm, unpleasant.”

As we learned in GotM a Soultaken is a shapeshifter who can transform into the shape of an animal. A D'ivers is a shapeshifter who can turn into multiple animals. In this case rats. The implications are pretty cool. What about a D'ivers who can turn into six dessert wolves or a million ants? We'll learn a lot more about this over the course of the series. We also learn D'ivers have a spicy scent. Import to note as we go along hints will get dropped about characters in this context and that of other smells. If you're not paying attention you'll glide over them.

“In seeking your eternal goal, we find ourselves walking into a most disagreeable convergence. Should the gates open, we shall find our passage contested by a host of blood-thirsty individuals all eager in their belief that the gates offer Ascendancy.”

Icarium's eternal goal....we learn he has lost his memory.

Ryllandaras the D'ivers jackals. He's a force to be reckoned with but upon realizing he's dealing with Mappo and Icarium he suddenly has no quarrel. Old events in Dal Hon and Li Heng are mentioned. Both are on the trail of a spawn of shadow.........

Enter Mallick Rel a high priest of the sea god Mael and chief Malazan advisor to the Seven Cities commander and Duiker the chief historian. We find Rel to be harsh on his enemies and Duiker doesn't like him. He worries for Coltain a Wicken of Crow Clan's future with Rel around.

The Otataral mines which were briefly discussed in GotM come up. We find mages were imprisoned there. Remember Lorn's sword was Otataral and anathema to magic.

We find Coltaine to be somewhat of a savage and a favorite of the emperor and thus not so much with the empress. We also find when he arrives discipline increases.

We finally see some familiar faces in Fid, Crokus, Kalam and Apsalar not surprisingly heading into Seven Cities. We are reminded Kalam is from Seven Cities and that he and Quick, who isn't with them, are planning something and Fid doesn't like it.

I love the idea of the Dhenrabi. A giant centipede sea serpent.........spicy, soultaken. We see the power of the Moranth munitions and a sapper like Fid. We are seeing a wide variety of soultaken and D'ivers all on the move.

A little hint mentioning Fidler being here before, the emperor and the T'lan Imass and how QB and Kalam came into the Bridgeburners......more to come on that.

We find Crokus not so naive as we left him realizing Kalam and Fid have more plans than just getting Apsalar home.

The burly black-skinned man looked out over the waves, sighed, then nodded to himself. He faced Crokus. “It’s this, lad. Time’s come. I’m going after her.”

The Daru boy’s expression was blank, but Fiddler saw Apsalar’s eyes widen, her face losing its color. She sat back suddenly, then half-smiled— and Fiddler went cold upon seeing it.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Crokus said. “After who? The Empress? How?”

“He means,” Apsalar said, still smiling a smile that had belonged to her once, long ago, when she’d been… someone else, “that he’s going to try and kill her.”

I love that Erikson brings it all back in the context of the story and doesn't give us a recap chapter. Kalam going after the Empress....

“I remember,” Apsalar said suddenly, her eyes narrowing on Kalam. Crokus turned to her.

“Remember what?”

“Kalam. He was a Falah’dan’s Dagger, and the Claw gave him command of a Hand. Kalam’s a master assassin, Crokus. And Quick Ben—”

“Is three thousand leagues away!” Crokus shouted. “He’s a squad mage, for Hood’s sake! That’s it, a squalid little squad mage!”

Much more to Kalam or QB than meets the eye. I love the shaved knuckle in the hole, still cracks me up.

The prologue and chapter one set a lot of the major pieces in motion all heading in the same direction. The rising and rebellion of the Seven Cities.


(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 2

I forgot just how long some of these chapters are, this one included.

(view spoiler)[
To this day it remains easy to ignore the fact that the Aren High Command was rife with treachery, dissension, rivalry and malice… The assertion that [the Aren High Command] was ignorant of the undercurrents in the countryside is, at best naive, at worst cynical in the extreme…

The start of the chapter quote SE for once gives us straightforward facts that will be important themes.

I absolutely love how SE sets the scene with the dessert heritage of the people and the land they have inherited. The change of that land and people over time is a recurring theme. I also love how many different types of people there are and how one tribe although essentially the same as another will fight against each other right up until and invading force comes in to unite them against the common foe. The real world parallels aren't hard to see. I also love that SE has so many heroes that aren't white. QB, Kalam......

"I remember Dujek’s sword that stole my beauty even as my horse bit his arm crushing bone. I remember that Dujek lost that arm to the surgeons, fouled as it was with my horse’s breath. Between us, I lost the exchange, for the loss of an arm did nothing to damage Dujek’s glorious career, while the loss of my beauty left me with but the one wife that I already had.”

We learn the story of how One Arm became One Arm. I love the feeling out between Duiker, Bult and Coltaine. The empress had all of the Wicken mages killed as well continuing her cull in merciless fashion but we learn the Wicken souls return captured in animals and returned to children.

The priest has hidden motives."

“Not by Empress Laseen,” Bult cut in. “She knows nothing of you, priest, apart from the High Fist’s reports. Understand that the Empress does not convey power upon people whom she does not know. High Fist Pormqual employed you as his messenger boy and that is how the Fist shall treat you. You command nothing. Not Coltaine, not me, not even a lowly mess cook of the Seventh.”

The gauntlet between Rel and Coltaine has been thrown down. Pormqual is Rel's puppet.

“Cartheron Crust, who drowned one night in Aren Harbor.” Kulp snorted.

“Crust could swim drunk through a hurricane, but then he went and drowned just like his brother Urko. Neither body was ever found, of course.”

“Both Crust and Urko were the Emperor’s men,” Duiker explained. “It seems they shared the same fate as most of Kellanved’s companions, including Toc the Elder and Ameron. None of their bodies were ever found, either.”

Interesting look into the old empire and the betrayals and alliances. We know Laseen, Surly then was aligned with all of these men along with Kelenved and Dancer. What was their true fate? Some really interesting insight into if Laseen prepped Coltain for Rel and what her real inner thoughts are.

“Heboric Light Touch.”

Kulp slowly nodded a second time. “Let me think on it, Duiker.”

“May I ask what gives you pause?”

Kulp scowled. “The thought of another traitorous historian loose in the world, what else?”

The storylines merge a bit.

A scene that plays out on many city streets has Fid saves two young girls from being sold into a life of abuse.

And all came to imprint
Their passage
On the path, To scent the dry winds
Their cloying claim
To ascendancy

This was the quote from the start of chapter one from The Path of hands.

“Not simply the coming war. To travel to Aren, you must cross the Pan’potsun Odhan, skirting the Holy Desert Raraku. From Raraku the whirlwind of the Apocalypse will come forth. And more, there will be a convergence.”

Fiddler’s eyes narrowed. The Soletaken dhenrabi. “As in a drawing-together of Ascendant powers?”

“Just so.”

“What will draw them?”

“A gate. The Prophecy of the Path of Hands. Soletaken and D’ivers. A gate promising… something. They are drawn as moths to a flame.”

“Why would shapeshifters have any interest in a warren’s gate? They are hardly a brotherhood, nor are they users of sorcery, at least not in any sophisticated sense.”

So now we know why so many Soultaken and D'ivers were in motion early in the book......more to come. Important to know the emperor clashed with reach and Ryllandaras outside Li Heng for future knowledge. But for now we know the shapeshifters are looking for a way to ascend and gain power.

“The Bridgeburners are remembered here in Seven Cities. A name that is cursed, yet admired all the same. You were honorable soldiers fighting in a dishonorable war. It is said the regiment was honed in the heat and scorched rock of the Holy Desert Raraku, in pursuit of a Falah’d company of wizards. That is a story I would like to hear some time, so that it may be shaped into song.".

The Tano Spiritwalker seemed to understand the question, for he smiled. “Such a song has never before been attempted. There is in a Tano song the potential for Ascendancy, but can an entire regiment ascend? Truly a question deserving an answer.”

A Vietnam theme of honorable soldiers fighting in a dishonorable war but also a look into the BB's past and some subtle hints of the future.

The sea that once was under the dessert is a recurring theme. Civilizations on top of each other. Dujek and Fid the last two visitors of the Cult leader. A small mention again of the T'Lan Imass at Aren. Aren and Y'Ghatan will come up again and again as most names in historical battles do driving home the point that the one lesson of history is that no one ever learns.

Great scene with Kalam and Mebra as we see more of the BB's history and Kalam casually throwing out Quick as a threat. I love all these little hidden messages that mean everything to the locals and nothing to the foreigners. Hiding in plain sight.

Kalam to take the book that will unleash the dessert apocalypse. The Red Blades aiding his passage through Mebra's deceptions. Lostara in subtly introduced.

How far has the Jhag gone?

Mappo and Icarium fight a leopard D'ivers. "Maker of mechanisms." Enter High Priest Iskaral Pust of the temple of Shadow.

Iskaral grunted. “Bhok’arala, they nest on this cliffside. Foul mewling beasts, always interfering, sniffing at this and that, pissing on the altar, defecating on my pillow. They are my plague, they have singled me out, and why? I’ve not skinned a single one, nor cooked their brains to scoop out of their skulls in civilized repast. No snares, no traps, no poison, yet still they pursue me. There is no answer to this. I despair.”

Pust is sort of a dumb version of Kruppe and his flying monkeys torment of him is highly amusing. Icarium quickly figures out pulleys and is very learned. Yet....


The Jhag was frowning. “I am missing an arrow, Mappo. More, there is blood on my sword, and I see upon you dreadful wounds. Tell me, did we fight? I recall… nothing.”

The Trell was silent a long moment, then he said, “I was beset by a leopard while you slept, Icarium. Made some use of your weapons. I did not think it worthy of mention.”

Icarium’s frown deepened. “Once again,” he slowly whispered, “I have lost time.”

“Nothing of worth, friend.”

“You would tell me otherwise?” There was a look of desperate pleading in the Jhag’s gray eyes.

“Why would I not, Icarium?”

A lot of information here some foretelling.

(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 3

(view spoiler)[
We start out with the harsh reality of a pretty young girl doing what she needs to do to survive in the harsh mines of salary. Sex to pay the bills and drugs to dull the mind. Felisin is a polarizing figure. I feel empathy towards her and her struggles. She is thousands of girls living on the streets in poverty. She is also petulant and the one character who has some YA tendencies. I know Jenna and I disagreed on her and I'm pretty sure she drove Choc, Angela and Miche nuts as well.

Limestone is just the bones of things once living, Heboric had said their second night in the hovel they’d claimed off Spit Row— before Beneth had moved them to the more privileged neighborhood behind Bula’s Inn. I’d read that theory before and am now myself convinced. So now I’m led to believe that Otataral is not a natural ore.


Those veins we dig, Heboric explained, they’re like a layer of once melted fat, a deep river of it sandwiched between layers of limestone. This whole island had to melt to make those veins. Whatever sorcery created Otataral proved beyond controlling. I would not want to be responsible for unleashing such an event all over again.

Scene two we have Coltaine training the 7th in nontraditional gorilla warfare and their struggling with it. Another Vietnam parallel. We start to see how his unconventional mind works.

“Spiders, of course. This temple is rotten with spiders. Kill them on sight, Trell. Use those thick-soled feet, those leathery hands. Kill them all, do you understand?

Pust's dislike and the source of the spiders..........

We see more foreboding from the past of civilizations declines as warnings of the future intertwined with Icarium always seeking answers in his missing memory. There's a deeper dualistic meaning hear that becomes clearer as the series goes along. Also take note of Gothos and his folly.

“My obsession with time, of course. Writing replaces memory, you see, and the language itself changes because of it. Think of my mechanisms, in which I seek to measure the passage of hours, days, years. Such measurings are by nature cyclic, repetitive. Words and sentences once possessed the same rhythms, and could thus be locked into one’s mind and later recalled with absolute precision. Perhaps,” he mused after a moment, “if I was illiterate I would not be so forgetful.” He sighed, forced a smile. “Besides, I was but passing time, Mappo.”

The Nameless ones from Mappo's past....who are they? Why are they important to Icarium and his memories? Why will he complete his quest in shadow?
(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 4
(view spoiler)[
We see Felisin's decline as feeling pain is better than feeling nothing at all. Her protector/pimp losing interest in his promises now that she's devolved into the life. The victim apologizing to her tormentor it's a sad tale and one of the underlying themes of the series. We'll see a lot of social-economic commentary that wasn't present in GotM for the rest of the series.

SE's original career as an anthropologist/archiologist really shines in his writing. He makes detritus cool and his depiction of the desert wind storm is pretty cool.

Suddenly sweating, Kalam looked down at the cards. Six surrounded a single, and that single card— he knew with certainty— was his. The Rope, Assassin of Shadow. The six cards encircling it were all of one House. King, Herald, Mason, Spinner, Knight, Queen… High House Death, Hood’s House all arrayed… around the one who carries the Holy Book of Dryjhna. “Ah, well,” Kalam sighed, glancing up at the Pardu woman, “I guess I sleep alone tonight.”

I cannot love whenever there is a reading of the deck of dragons more, in case I haven't said that already a dozen times in the first book.

So The Rope is Kalam's card. So the foretelling is death surrounds the assassin everywhere. King of High House Death is Hood. We don't know any of the others yet but there will be clues. Some can be mortal and they can change upon death or a mortal choosing no longer to follow a god. There were hints into the Mason of HHD in GotM. Any guesses?

Lostara is following Kalam. They killed the entire keep to cover their tracks. Small scene setting the stage for later.

Mappo and Icarium talk more about the different warrens and the feel of magic. There's an image I posted in the GotM thread if you get confused about which is which. By the time you're done with the series you'll know them off the top of your head.

Calling the magic "corrupted Kurald Galain" the warren of darkness, they believe they've found a gate and possibly shadow playing at this convergence of the shapeshifters. Interesting facts.

“We approach comprehension.” Three words evoking terror within Mappo. He felt like a hare in a master archer’s sights, each direction of flight so hopeless as to leave him frozen in place. He stood at the side of powers that staggered his mind, power past and powers present. The Nameless Ones, with their charges and hints and visions, their cowled purposes and shrouded desires. Creatures of fraught antiquity, if the Trellish legends held any glimmer of truth. And Icarium, oh, dear friend, I can tell you nothing. My curse is silence to your every question, and the hand I offer as a brother will lead you only into deceit. In love’s name, I do this, at my own cost… and such a cost.

More mystery but a lot said that will become clear later.

Pust's ramblings are Kruppesque with key points: why have you not ascended like the rest? Shadowthrone's plans, the gray keep and spiders must die.

A graveyard as old if not older than the T'lan Imass with a spiritual presence that sets everybody on guard and then they're in the middle of a D'ivers and Soultaken war.

“Somewhere,” he said clearly, “a crow flaps broken-winged on the ground. There are but ten left.”

Sormo’s eyes flicked nervously. “Something unexpected, Historian. A convergence is underway. The Path of Hands. The gate of the Soletaken and the D’ivers. An unhappy coincidence.”

Duiker scowled. “You said Tellann—”

“And so it was,” the warlock cut in. “Is there a blending between shapeshifting and Elder Tellann? Unknown. Perhaps the D’ivers and Soletaken are simply passing through the warren— imagining it unoccupied by T’lan Imass and therefore safer. Indeed, no T’lan Imass to take umbrage with the trespass, leaving them with only each other to battle.”
(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 5: I hope you all enjoy this one as much as I did the first time. HUGE reveal coming up.

(view spoiler)[We see Apsalar benefitting from her memories of the Rope and giving orders to Fid. I love the authenticity of the local tribes and customs along with the superstitions.

The scene in the city is brutal and Erikson wants you to take in the horrors of war not the heroic versions.

“Not by Kellanved’s command!” she retorted. “Who ordered the T’lan Imass into Aren? I shall tell you. Surly, the commander of the Claw, the woman who took upon herself a new name—”

“Laseen.” Fiddler eyed the young woman quizzically. “I have never before heard that assertion, Apsalar. There were no written orders— none found, in any case—”

“I should have killed her there and then,” Apsalar muttered.

Astonished, Fiddler glanced at Crokus. The Daru shook his head. “Apsalar,” the sapper said slowly, “you were but a child when Aren rebelled then fell to the T’lan Imass.”

“I know that,” she replied. “Yet these memories… they are so clear. I was… sent to Aren… to see the slaughter. To find out what happened. I… I argued with Surly. No one else was in the room. Just Surly and… and me.”

They reached the other end of the square. Fiddler reined in and regarded Apsalar for a long moment. Crokus said, “It was the Rope, the patron god of assassins, who possessed you. Yet your memories are—”

“Dancer’s.” As soon as he said it, Fiddler knew it was true. “The Rope has another name. Cotillion. Hood’s breath, so obvious! No one doubted that the assassinations occurred. Both Dancer and the Emperor… murdered by Laseen and her chosen Clawmasters. What did Laseen do with the bodies? No one knows.”

“So Dancer lived,” Crokus said with a frown. “And ascended. Became a patron god in the Warren of Shadow.” Apsalar said nothing, watching and listening with a carefully controlled absence of expression on her face. Fiddler was cursing himself for a blind idiot.

“What House appeared in the Deck of Dragons shortly afterward? Shadow. Two new Ascendants. Cotillion… and Shadowthrone…”

Crokus’s eyes widened. “Shadowthrone is Kellanved,” he said. “They weren’t assassinated— either of them. They escaped by ascending.”

Now if you had the foresight you could have figured this out in GotM

Kalam’s gaze was veiled. “Odd, isn’t it? After all, the Warren only appeared following the Emperor’s assassination at Laseen’s hand. Shadowthrone and his companion the Patron of Assassins— Cotillion— were unheard of before Kellanved and Dancer’s deaths. It also seems that whatever . . . disagreement there is between House Shadow and Empress Laseen is, uhm, personal . . .”

BOOM! I didn't figure it out in GotM but in the re-read seeing that I was did the facepalm. During the original read of DHG I was blow away by this reveal.

A giant of a man stood over him, his face tattooed like shattered glass. A long single braid hung down the left side of his chest. The man wore a cloak of bhederin hide over a vest of armor that seemed made of clam shells. The wooden handle and stone pommel of a bladed weapon of some kind jutted from just under his left arm. The broad belt over the man’s loincloth was oddly decorated with what looked to Kalam like dried mushroom caps of various sizes. He was over seven foot tall, yet muscled enough to seem wide, and his flat, broad face gazed down without expression.

Enter Toblokai, Leoman and Sha'ik. Great scene between them and I love the depiction of the aptorian demon. The thing about prophecy is it doesn't always take place the way people think. Lostara and the Red Blades following Kalam for this intent. We see just what a warrior Toblokai is.


(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 6

(view spoiler)[
A reality check for Felisin as she defends her pimp and then remembers just how far she's fallen thanks to Heboric.

She could barely see through the puffed swelling, but a strange blue penumbra rising from Heboric’s tattoos illuminated the scene. He was unbitten. Fener’s blessing too fierce a touch.

A priest with glowing tattoos...........There escape being aided on several fronts.

Enter Stormy and Gessler into Duiker and Kulp's world. Pretty vivid mage fight. Kulp's warren is illusion or Mockra. Stormy, Gessler and Truth follow Fener like Heboric.

As Heboric follows the trail of destruction created by the uprising we see why books like this are Grimdark. He paints a desert scene where you can picture the nut trees, the sand, the fire, the utter destruction of war, rape, people gutted and their entails used to strangle others and yet the young women captured have a worse fate. It's tough to read at times especially if you haven't read this genre. Erikson will not spare the reader the horrors. You're made to face and not ignore what happens in the real world.

Kamist Reloe's who isn't as dead as the Malazans were led to believe leads the army and is a mage. We'll learn more about him.

“No doubt his broom will turn up of its own accord. It was not the goal of the search we were to value, but the journey.”

Journey before destination long before Stormlight Archives. It's a familiar theme.

“I think our task is to return this to its rightful owner.”

“The boat or the broom?”

Icarium’s brows rose. “Now that is an interesting question, friend.”


Always the subtext within the seemingly inane banter. Not Pust's craft and shadow involved with servent.

The Deck, keep in mind this involves Icarium....obelisk, past, present and future. Second card, the Rope involved in the timeline.

Opponn male, ill luck.
Sceptre and Throne two unaligned cards.
Queen of High House Life, we don't know who that is as of now.
Spinner of High House Death, another mystery.
Soldier of High House Light
Knight of Life
Mason of Dark

These are all people we'll meet but overall it signals a journey. It's interesting even now knowing who all of these are how they fit into the story especially in regards to Icarium. The question you have to ask is who is Icarium?

“Renewal, a resurrection without the passage through Hood’s Gates.

Sha'ik is dead.

brow. My friend, what are we doing here? I see your desperation, seeking every path in the hopes of revelation. Could I speak openly to you, I would warn you from the truth.

More about the secrets that Mappo hides from Icarium. What awakens in Icarium?

It's still amazing to me how SE can make a sandstorm sound so epic. Without being overly verbose or flowery you feel the destructive nature of the storm, it's malice. The bones under the sand, the worlds that lived before this one. Detritus under the tides of sand.

Tremorlor… If the gods will it, this track will lead us to that legendary gate. Raraku has a heart, Quick Ben said. Tremorlor, a House of the Azath.

We already know of two Azath houses from book one. The Deadhouse in Malaz city and the one in Darujhistan created by Raest's finnest. Important to note these gates of power.

A spicy scent once again tells us this is no ordinary wolf attacking Kalam. I cannot help but like Apt.




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Chapter 7

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Duiker watched them stride westward, knowing that should he see them again, it would be from the ranks of the Malazan army. And somehow they would be less than human then. The game the mind must play to unleash destruction.

SE reminding us of the horror of war on the mind.

Duiker contemplating what this train of civilians means and how Coltaine will be hard pressed and remembering Dassem Ultor's struggles on the same continent. It's a great narrative that takes on both the physical and mental horrors while moving the story ahead and including the past.

Likewise Heboric, Baudin and Felisin take on the desert. Some inner fighting where we see Felisin is still bitter and her tongue poison per Heboric witty retort.

A finger of a Jade statue. A storm of Otataral dust. Heboric's tattoos becoming more vivid. A stump that touched the statue being hidden.....

Once again we see Felisin defending her dead pimp. Unwilling to let go in a sort of Stockholm syndrome for the beaten. I do find I like Baudin a lot more in the second read. I thought him cruel the first time through but I don't know if I would have had more patience for her given the situation even if I did feel empathy for her journey.

We see more of the 16 year olds tongue as she taunts Baudin and the Jade finger has more of an effect on Heboric which he's unclear about.

Can magic thrive buried in Otataral sand? Can Otataral give birth to magic? I’ve no answers, lass, for any of this.”

Felisin has compassion and empathy being driven from her as he contemplates the death of the weak in a survival of the fittest manner. Leaving Heboric behind becoming meaningless to her.

An assassin’s weapons. The last item in the packet was tucked into a leather loop: the talon of some large cat, amber-colored and smooth.

More to Baudin than Felisin thought.

"From five feet away you're one solid tattoo.....I can see every line— every hair of the Boar’s fur. It’s covered your stump, too, not the one that’s swollen but the other one.

We see more of Felisin's denial and Baudin's words hit home because deep down she knows their true.

Fener's mark showing on Heboric as the tattoos swirl and a dramatic scene with Fener.

“Vulnerable.” “You’re looking at it the wrong way,” Felisin said. “The god you no longer worship took your hands. So now you pulled him down. Don’t mess with mortals.”

This is an important theme which will be repeated in different ways during the series as a metaphor for the real world. Followers often have more power than the gods to shaper their words and will and pull them down.

A god stalks the mortal realm, yet is afraid. He has power unimaginable, yet he hides. And somehow Heboric had found the strength to withstand all that had happened. And the fact that he’s responsible. This should have broken him, shattered his soul. Instead, he bends. Could his wall of cynicism withstand such a siege for long? What did he do to lose his hands?

Mappo remembering his youth, the destruction and more foreboding of the task of Icarium from the Nameless Ones.

You will be an unpainted hide, Mappo. The future will offer its own script, writing and shaping your history anew. What was done to the town of our kin must never happen again. You will ensure that. Do you understand?

Fid, Apsalar and Crokus caught in the whirlwind with all of the shapeshifters doing battle.

Something else stopped it from getting any closer. Queen’s blessing, what in the Abyss is going on?

Apsalar is a series threat at this point taking out Gral after Gral.

Yes, that’s the D’ivers’s name. Gryllen, otherwise known as the Tide of Madness. Flushed out of Y’ghatan in the fire. Oh, it comes around, don’t it just!

We learned a little about Y'ghatan in book one with Dassem Ultor fighting there in the desert campaign. Gryllen has been talked about between the bear and Mappo and Icarium. Different names and places will get dropped in drabs and then have a lot more meaning later.

Once again a formidable foe backs down to Icarium. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 8

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Reloe’s potential recruits number in the hundreds of thousands— assuming Sha’ik recognizes the threat Coltaine poses and sends them in pursuit of the High Fist.

We get a sense of just what Coltaine is up against in spite of his forces training and his talent.

Heboric’s favorite jokes are the unintended ones. Mockery is just hate’s patina, and every laugh is vicious. She didn’t have the strength to continue riposting. The last laugh won’t be yours, Heboric. You’ll discover that soon enough. You and Baudin both.

The thrills of dealing with a teen.

A painful scene between Felisin and Baudin as he both uses her and teaches her a lesson. SE's characters are never black and white.

Kulp arrives and we see what they believe to be a mad mage attacking them coming off the effects of Otataral.

When he looked again upon Heboric he almost shouted in surprise. The ex-priest’s tattoos swarmed with a life of their own: flickering waves of power raced across his body and spun a handlike projection beyond the stump of his left wrist. That ghost-hand reached into a warren, was clenched as if gripping a tether. A wholly different power pulsed around his right stump, shot through with veins of green and Otataral red, as if two snakes writhed in mortal combat. The blunting effect arose exclusively from the green bands, radiating outward with what felt like conscious will. That it was strong enough to push back the effects of the Otataral was astonishing.

Some terrific imagery and subtle hints about what's going on.


But not a disease. A battle of warrens— Fener’s own, linked by one ghostly hand, the other ensnared by Otataral, yet waxing nonetheless— a warren I can’t recognize, a force alien to every sense I possess.

Gesler and Stormy showing there's more than meets the eye just like Baudin.

“What’s the talon signify, Baudin?”

His face became an expressionless mask.

“You know, the one you’ve got hidden away, along with all your thieving tools.”

The man’s flat gaze flicked past her. She turned to find Heboric standing a few paces away. The ex-priest’s eyes were fixed on Baudin as he said, “Did I hear that right?”

Back to the Baudin's Talon and Heboric recognizes it.

“You got it, Stormy.” Gesler’s heavy eyes slid up to Felisin. “Play your games elsewhere, lass. No offense, but we’ve done enough rutting to know when an offer’s got hidden chains. You can’t buy what ain’t for sale, anyhow.”

Chains are a big theme in this series and it changes in meaning but the social and economic theme are ubiquitous. Gessler and Stormy showing again they've been around.

There has to be a way to reflect something other than hate and contempt. No, not a way.

Another great message.

Amazing imagery as they fight the sea and the mad man's warren. I could quote most of that scene.

He’d seen something more than just healing pass from Heboric’s arm into Stormy. Whatever it had been, it was virulent and tinged with madness.

Heboric and his new powers.

Stormy and Baudin with an exchange about the old empire and now they're sitting in calm water next to an old Malazan ship.....Silanda and the Tiste Andii heads.

The oars were manned by headless corpses, three to a bench. Other sealskin bundles crowded every available space. Another headless figure sat behind a skin drum, both hands gripping strange, gourdlike batons. The figure was massively muscled. There was no evidence of decay on any of the bodies. White bone and red flesh glistened at the necks.

It always amazes me how diverse of a world SE builds. I love the descriptiveness of the scene without being endlessly verbose. Stuck in a warren, which one?

“Tiste Andii?” Gesler asked in a whisper.

“They have that look,” Kulp replied softly, “but not quite.” He stepped into the cabin. “Their skins are gray, not black. Nor do they look very… refined.”

With all their experience even they are not sure.

“Wait,” Kulp growled. “Be careful what you touch. And which arm you use.”

Heboric hissed in exasperation and dropped his arm. After a moment, he straightened. “I can only think of one thing. Tiste Edur.”

“Who?”

“Gothos’s Folly. There’s mention of three Tiste peoples arriving from another realm. Of course the only one that’s known to us is the Tiste Andii, and Gothos only names one of the other groups— Tiste Edur. Gray-skinned, not black. Children of the unwelcome union of Mother Dark with the Light.”

Important to note Kulp not wanting Heboric to touch too much, Gothos's Folly and especially the history of the three tribes of the Tiste starting to be told. Gothos again is Jaghut.

"Wouldn't the old Emperor have loved this old lady, Kulp, eh?”

“Your excitement’s nauseating, Corporal.”


So Stormy, Gesler and Kulp all knew the emperor. SE always slides these little facts in without spelling them out which is one of the reasons I love his writing so much.

“Is this your god’s warren?”

The old man scowled. “Not my god. Not his warren. Hood knows where in the Abyss we are, and it seems there’s no easy wakening from this nightmare.”

“You drove the god-touched hand into Stormy’s wound.”

“Aye. Nothing but chance. Could have as easily been the other one.”

“What did you feel?”

Heboric shrugged. “Something passing through. You’d guessed as much, didn’t you?”

Kulp nodded. “Was it Fener himself?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I’m not an expert in matters religious. Doesn’t seem to have affected Stormy… apart from the healing. I didn’t know Fener granted such boons.”


We're again reminded that there's two powers at play here. As we learned in a previous chapter through Kulp's magical sight one green with veins and one red, the two seemingly in an eternal struggle.

“Icarium, the Jhag by that name. The maker of machines, the chaser of time—”

Fid getting acquainted with his new friends. Interesting that Fid has heard the name Pust before replying that he isn't mocking his name.

Tremorlor!

Pust it seems is somewhat informed. Pust shows his somewhat insane Kruppe like nature.

Do you know the Chain of Dogs?

We'll learn a lot more about this but SE is foreboding through Pust.

Shadow born prophecies.

“Pay him no heed, right?”

The Trell swung around, his heavy brows lifting. “Hood, no, pay that man every heed, Fiddler.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. He mentioned Tremorlor. He knows.”

“He knows what even your companions don’t,” Mappo said, carrying the tray to the sapper. “You seek the fabled Azath House, out in the desert. Somewhere.”

Aye, and the gate Quick Ben swears it holds…“ And you?” Fiddler asked. “What has brought you to Raraku?”

“I follow Icarium,” the Trell replied. “A search without end.”

“And you’ve devoted your life to helping him in his search?”

“No,” Mappo sighed, then whispered without meeting Fiddler’s gaze, “I seek to keep it endless. Here, break your fast. You’ve been unconscious for two days. Your friends are restless with questions, eager to speak with you.”

There's a lot of information in this simple exchange you'll want to keep tucked away.

Fid will have extra talented traveling companions to the Azath house and he shows his natural inclination not to trust Shadow.

“The art of assassination requires a complementary knowledge of healing. Two sides to the same alchemical coin.

This is an important message both in the nature of assassins and the real world message. There's always a trade off in anything. A person who is detail driven can be overly pedantic. A person who is fun and free wheeling can be irresponsible. Shadow likewise can have good and bad gifts often of the same coin.

Fid realizing the consequences of Apsalar being around Shadow.

“Everything’s fine, my friends,” he purred. “Be calm. Cotillion is done with possessing the lass. The bane of Anomander Rake’s threat remains. Who wants that crude conveyor of uncivilized mayhem crashing through the temple door? Not Shadowthrone. Not the Patron of Assassins. She is protected still. Besides which, Cotillion finds no further value in using her, and indeed the residue of his talents still within her gives cause for secret concern—” His face twisted on itself. “No, better keep that thought unspoken!” He smiled again. “Cultured conversation has been rediscovered and used with guile and grace. Look upon them, Iskaral Pust, they are won over one and all.”

I'm pretty sure Shadowthrone would have like it if Pust kept his mouth shut especially about Rake. Icarium and Mappo would certainly know of him.

“Quick Ben’s knowledge of the Holy Desert is, uh, vast. When we last rode the Holy Desert— as we rode out, in fact— he spoke of the Vanished Roads. Like the one we found, an ancient road that sleeps beneath the sands and appears only occasionally— if the winds are right, that is. Well, one of those roads leads to Tremorlor—”

Crokus cut in, “Which is?”

“A House of the Azath.”

“Like the one that arose in Darujhistan?”

“Aye. Such buildings exist— or are rumored to exist— on virtually every continent. No one knows their purpose, though it does seem that they are a lodestone to power. There’s the old story that the Emperor and Dancer…” Oh, Hood, Kellanved and Dancer, Ammanas and Cotillion, the possible linkage with Shadow… this temple… Fiddler shot Iskaral Pust a sharp look. The High Priest sported an avid grin, his eyes glittering.

“Uh, the legend goes that Kellanved and Dancer once occupied one such House, in Malaz City—”

“Deadhouse,” Icarium said from the doorway. “The legend is true.”


A lot of great information to store away. Traveling the Azaths instantly.

“A life given for a life taken!” Iskaral Pust shouted, leaping from his chair and spinning in place, both hands clenched in his tufts of hair. “Such patience is enough to drive one mad! But not me! Anchored to the currents of weathered stone, the trickling away of sand under the sun’s glare! Time stretched, stretching, immortal players in a timeless game. There is poetry in the pull of elements, you know. The Jhag understands. The Jhag seeks the secrets— he is stone and the stone forgets, the stone is ever now, and in this lies the truth of the Azath— but wait! I’ve rambled on with such hidden thoughts and heard nothing of what is being said!” He fell abruptly silent and subsided back into the chair.

Again a lot of nuggets in Pust's ramblings which will help define the secrets of this world.

Puppets and strings. More foreboding and warnings from pust to end the chapter.

A journey to fabled Tremorlor, where all truths shall converge with the clarity of unsheathed blades and unveiled fangs, where Icarium shall find his lost past, the once possessed fisher-girl shall find what she does not yet know she seeks, where the lad shall find the price of becoming a man, or perhaps not, where the hapless Trell shall do whatever he must, and where a weary sapper shall at least receive his Emperor’s blessing, oh yes. Unless, of course,” he added, one finger to his lips, “Tremorlor is naught but a myth and these quests nothing but hollow artifice.”

“Can there be magic in mere words?” he asked to no one in particular.

Icarium answered. “Magic powerful enough to drive gods to their knees, soldier.”

“We have to get out of here,” Crokus muttered.

This time everyone nodded agreement. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 9

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Words can so easily glide over mayhem and terror and horror, it’s a wonder trust exists at all.

We pick up with Kalam and Apt running into thieves using the rebellion for their true cause.

“Aye, Hissar. But Hissar is now in Kamist Reloe’s hands. As are all the cities but Aren, and Aren has the Jhistal within. The Wickan flees overland, chained with refugees by the thousand— they beg his protection even as they lap his blood."'

Aren’s yawning gates… the Jhistal within. What does that mean? Jhistal, not a familiar word, not Seven Cities. Falari?

I'm absolutely killing myself right now for missing something the first time around.

“But there is nothing holy in rape,” Kalam growled.

“No, not holy.” The man grinned. “But just.”

And I can remember the first time thinking please let Kalam rape this piece of shit with his knives. We don't have to wait long.

I love the reaction of Keneb to meeting Kalam and knowing his reputation. We finally get to see him in full action as he takes apart the camp with a variety of skills. We get to see his dark humor twice joking about she'll know when the crossbow hits her in the stomach and being hungry in reference to the guards and horses.

"Fighting is for people who have failed at everything else."

Familiar theme.

“The bandits spoke of ‘a jhistal inside’ Aren. As if it was a shaved knuckle.” He fell silent for a moment, then sighed. “Who commands this army?”

“That bastard Korbolo Dom.”

Kalam’s eyes narrowed. “But he’s a Fist—”

“Was, till he married a local woman who just happened to be the daughter of Halaf’s last Holy Protector. He’s turned renegade, had to execute half his own legion who refused to step across with him. The other half divested the Imperial uniform, proclaimed themselves a mercenary company, and took on Korbolo’s contract. It was that company that hit us in Orbal. Call themselves the Whirlwind Legion or something like that.”

"I remember Korbolo,” Kalam muttered.

“Thought you might. He was Whiskeyjack’s replacement, wasn’t he?”

“For a time. After Raraku. A superb tactician, but a little too bloodthirsty for my tastes. For Laseen, too, which was why she holed him in Halaf.”

“And promoted Dujek instead.” The captain laughed. “Who’s now been outlawed.”

Mark down these details of Dom.

Kalam with interest in Minala.

We pick up on the Silanah and a recently flooded prairie in the warren and T'Lan Imass join the party out of the mud.

They numbered six. All wore furs except one, who was smaller than the others and last to appear. It was bedecked in the oily, ragged feathers of colorful birds, and its long hair was iron gray streaked with red. Shell, antler and bone jewelry hung from its rotting hide shin, but it appeared to carry no weapons.

Their faces were withered, the bones underneath close to the surface and robust. The sockets of their eyes were black pits. The wiry remnants of beards remained, except on the silver-haired one, who now straightened and faced Kulp.

“Stand aside, Servant of the Chained One, we have come for our kin, and for the Tiste Edur.” The voice was a woman’s, the language Malazan.

First off I absolutely love these images. They aren't simply the undead. They are warrior from the past with bird feathers, jewelry. Second this is our first reference of The Chained One.

“Call down the mage linked to you. He is a wound. And he spreads. This must be stopped. More, I tell your god that such games place him in great peril. We shall not brook such damage to the warrens.”

The T'lan Imass are hunting renegade kin but they reveal a secret SE has been hinting at.

“He senses us,” Hentos Ilm said. She faced Heboric again. “Your left hand is in balance, it is true. Otataral and a power unknown to me. If the mage in the storm continues to grow in power, the Otataral shall prevail, and you too shall know its madness.”

“I want it gone from me,” Heboric growled.

“Please.” Hentos Ilm shrugged, and approached the ex-priest. “We must destroy the one in the skies. Then we must seal the warren’s wound.”

So one of Heboric's hands, the green with veins, is linked to the warrens. The second the red to Otataral. I'm going to leave it at that for now because I think it's better if you discover some things as SE reveals them but there's a lot of hints lying about.

“Bonecaster,” Kulp said. “What warren is this?”

Hentos Ilm paused, attention still on Heboric. “Elder. Kurald Emurlahn.”

“I’ve heard of Kurald Galain— the Tiste Andii warren.”

“This is Tiste Edur. You surprise me, Mage. You are Meanas Rashan, which is the branch of Kurald Emurlahn accessible to mortal humans. The warren you use is the child of this place.”

I sort of explained this in book one but you see SE spell it out here. Kurald Emurlahn is elder shadow of the Tiste Edur. Meanas Rashan is shadow for humans. The same and yet different. So they've landed themselves in Kurald Emerlahn which is different than were Shadowthone and Cotillion reside in shadow at this time.

Gesler volunteers to heal the rent in the warren. This tells us a lot about his character and willingness to sacrifice for others. The T'lan Imass warrior gives him his sword to carry in memory. We find the T'Lan Imass volunteered even though ti would be eternal torment and pain. An amazing sacrifice to others.

One of the T'lan Imass stole a head? A release from the pain.


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Chapter 10

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We pick up with Duiker and Coltaine and a lot of the politics of war. I think most of this is straight forward so I'll just hit a few points. I will briefly point out the path of hands continues, pay attention to Sormo, Nether and Nil the three wizard youths who are in fact ancient, the 7th claiming Coltaine as their own, List who is Duiker's assistant, all roads lead to Aren which we've learned about previously and the Jag Ice.

Other figures were emerging from the ground on all sides: women, children, dogs. Many of the dogs still wore leather harnesses, still dragged the remnants of travois. The women held their children to their bosoms, gripping the bone hafts of wide-bladed bronze knives they then plunged into those children. An ancient, final tragedy in frozen tableau, as a whole tribe faced slaughter at the hands of some unknown foe—how many thousands of years ago did this happen, how long have these trapped souls held on to this horrifying, heart-rending moment? And now? Are they doomed to repeat that eternal anguish?

“Hood bless these,” Duiker whispered, “please. Take them. Take them now.

The horror of war through spirits who for centuries have had clan on clan warfare is a message to today's struggles. Nothing has changed. Couple that with Nil's message below

The Emperor, as our enemy, united us. By laughing at our small battles, our pointless feuds. Laughing and more: sneering. He shamed us with contempt, Historian. When he met with Coltaine, our alliance was already breaking apart. Kellanved mocked. He said he need only sit back and watch to see the end of our rebellion. With his words he branded our souls. With his words and his offer of unity he bestowed on us wisdom. With his words we knelt before him in true gratitude, accepted what he offered us and gave him our loyalty. You once wondered how the Emperor won our hearts. Now you know.

And we see the same for the Wickens. People universally struggling with the same issues.

I will point out the brilliance of Coltaine with the sabre slash tactics and the early use of field engineering. Brilliant stuff from the writer as always encompassing so many different elements to make this world vast.
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Chapter 11

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A great scene with the undead dragon. Interesting to note that Kulp cannot sense it's warren but compares it to chaos. After it's attack Baudin still protecting Felisin asks about Otataral. Baudin is Tavore's hired bodyguard. So she didn't completely sell her sister down the river.

Dessembrae. The Cult of Dassem.

SE just sticks that in there.

Mappo pointed a blunt finger at the paving stones beneath them. “At the lowest levels of this temple there lies a chamber. Its floor— flagstones— displays a series of carvings. Inscribing something like a Deck of Dragons. Neither Icarium nor I have seen anything like it before. If it is indeed a Deck, it’s an Elder version. Not Houses, but Holds, the forces more elemental, more raw and primitive.”

An elder deck of dragons so old neither Icarium and Mappo haven't heard of it? Holds?

The High Priest made his head spin. As bad as Quick Ben and this Togg’s thorn called Tremorlor. An Azath House, like the Deadhouse in Malaz City. But what are they, precisely? Does anyone know? Anyone at all? There were nothing but rumors, obscure warnings, and few of those at that. Most people did their best to ignore such Houses— the denizens of Malaz City seemed to nurture an almost deliberate ignorance, “Just an abandoned house,” they say. “Nothing special, except maybe a few spooks in the yard.” But there’s a skittish look in the eyes of some of them.


More foreboding about the houses. Pust compared to Quick Ben with his plotting, perhaps looking at Apsalar to be part of the rebirth.

A D'ivers and Soultaken army sounds bad but as Fid points out.

“Are you implying that an Empire born of Soletaken and D’ivers would be inherently worse— more evil— than any other? I’m surprised, Trell. Nastiness grows like a cancer in any and every organization— human or otherwise, as you well know. And nastiness gets nastier. Whatever evil you let ride becomes commonplace, eventually. Problem is, it’s easier to get used to it than carve it out.”

A great message.

“It’s said Icarium is obsessed with time, true?”

“Aye.”

“He builds bizarre constructs to measure it, places those constructs in locations all over the world.”

“His temporal maps, yes.”

“He feels he is nearing his goal, doesn’t he? He’s about to find his answer— the one you would do anything to prevent. Is that your vow, Mappo? To keep the Jhag ignorant?”

“Ignorant of the past, yes. His past.”

“That notion frightens me, Mappo. Without history there’s no growth—”

“Aye.”

Several straight out messages here and some more far reaching. I want to leave it to the reader but the totality of this exchange tells us a lot about Icarium.

Shadowthrone playing games and Servant is Apsalar's father. "A life given for a life taken." An interesting conversation between Mappo and Icarium about Shadowthrone's plans. It's too long to quote the entire passage but there's a lot of good nuggets in there.

More hints of Icarium's past and thus Mappo's.

Korbolo Dom and the crucified Malazan's torturing Kalam as SE paints a brutal picture.

The assassin grimaced. I haven’t a clue. Quick Ben’s not the expansive type, the bastard. “It’s your shaved knuckle in the hole, Kalam. With this you can stride right into the throne room. I guarantee it.” He glanced around, saw a low, flat rock nearby. “Get everyone ready to move.”

Love the mocking tone. QB and Kalam have plans with who to replace the empress with? The imperial warren taking them to Aren which should cut some time off the journey. Lostara in pursuit. Enter Pearl, a claw, Kalam ex-Claw.

We see the compassion of the demon Apt sparing 1300 crucified children which is a chilling visual. Shadowthrone complains but heals the children granting one a single eye to match Apt. Shadowthrone concerned the shapeshifters will invade his realm.


(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 12

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We start out with Duiker losing his mind a bit. The unraveling of war.

The lesson of history is that no one learns.>

Love this quote.

“Children are dying.” Lull nodded. “That’s a succinct summary of humankind, I’d say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words. Quote me, Duiker, and your work’s done.

Love this one even more. This chapter is so dark.

I love many of the small stories SE inserts to give you a flavor for the old empire and it's players. The story about Kellanved making Duiker the historian because he couldn't read was hilarious.

What makes a Malazan soldier so dangerous? They’re allowed to think.

Message to the military.


Sormo nodded. “Ancient,” he said. “Sorcery of guts and bone. We struggle with knowledge we once possessed instinctively.” He sighed. “From a time before warrens, when magic was found within.”

This is a pretty interesting concept in general and we'll find out more. There will be little hints that old magic is being used and it can point to who a mysterious character is so keep it in mind.

We stride ancient death, the remains of… millions.

“Old ruins at the bottom. Odd ones— the only time I’ve seen anything like them was in Darujhistan, within the temple that housed Icarium’s Circle of Seasons, which was said to measure the passage of time.”

An overall message and a sign to just how knowledgeable Kalam is.

“Orb, Throne, Scepter, Obelisk—”

“Obelisk! That’s the one. The Seer claimed it was Icarium’s doing, that he’d been seen with his Trell companion in Pan’potsun.”

“Does any of this matter?” Minala demanded.

Obelisk… past, present, future. Time, and time has no allies…“ Probably not,” the assassin replied.

We get a lot more information about the deck and Icarium.

Fiddler could think of only a handful of people possessing that magnetic quality. Dassem Ultor, Prince K’azz D’Avore of the Crimson Guard, Caladan Brood and Dujek Onearm. Tattersail if she’d had the ambition. Likely Sha’ik herself. And Whiskeyjack

It's an interesting list that Fid considers capable of that type of leadership especially when two of them are sworn enemies of the empire.

We get a sense of how capable Pearl is and then Lostara equally so and yet Apt and his one eyed rider bail their asses out. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 13

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I know this is going to sound funny but note the cattle dog and the show dog he stole. I love Duiker putting the nobles in their place while they take no note of their dire circumstances and then List does the same with Duiker giving a history lesson of his own life.

That taste is fear, old man. You’ve not got Coltaine’s impenetrable armor. You cannot see past a few hours from now, and you await the dawn in the belief that it shall be your last, and therefore you must witness it. Coltaine expects the impossible, he expects us to share in his implacable confidence. To share in his madness.

I think it adds to Coltaine's persona that we see him in glimpses and through the introspective Duiker. You sense his larger than life presence even when he's not there.

The battle scenes are amazing and encompass so much. Duiker's part reminds me of the press reporters in Vietnam as do the crazy sappers. Coltaine's tactics are something out of the Afghans fighting Alexander the great.

You know what it translates into? The Chain of Dogs. Coltaine’s Chain of Dogs. He leads, yet is led, he strains forward, yet is held back, he bares his fangs, yet what nips at his heels if not those he is sworn to protect? Ah, there’s profundity in such names, don’t you think?”

So much quotable material in this chapter but I love this description of their situation.

What did that bastard call himself? The High King? Kallor… the High King without a kingdom. Thousands of years old, if legends speak true, perhaps tens of thousands. He claimed to have once commanded empires, each one making the Malazan Empire no larger than a province. He then claimed to have destroyed them by his own hand, destroyed them utterly. Kallor boasted he had made worlds lifeless…

And this man now stands as Caladan Brood’s second in command. And when I left, Dujek, the Bridgeburners and the reformed Fifth Army were about to seek an alliance with Brood. Whiskeyjack… Quick Ben… keep your heads low, friends. There’s a madman in your midst….

It's important for Memories of Ice and forward, and for that matter backwards, to remember this part about Kallor.

Kalam finds passage back to the empire. Who is the mysterious friend? I love Minala's reaction.
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Chapter 14
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Kulp, Herboric and Felisin run into a mysterious traveler offering them refuge from the whirlwind.

“The Elder Deck, aye,” Heboric nodded. “Not Houses but Holds. Realms. Can you discern Death and Life? And Dark and Light? Do you see the Hold of the Beast? Who sits upon that antlered throne, Kulp?”

“It’s empty, assuming I’m looking at the one you mean—the frame displays various creatures. The throne is flanked by T’lan Imass.”

“Aye, that is the one. No one on the throne, you say? Curious.”

“Why?”

“Because every echo of memory tells me there used to be.” Kulp grunted. “Well, it’s not been defaced—you can see the back of the throne, and it looks as weathered as everywhere else.”

“There should be the Unaligned—can you detect those?”

“No. Perhaps around the sides and back?”

“Possibly. Among them you’ll find Shapeshifter.

Again the elements of the holds. This repetition isn't without purpose.

Kulp suffers an awful end to the D'ivers of rats as does Baudin later in the scene.

“The mage,” she snapped, wrapping herself in a frail hug. “The bastard was a D’ivers. He should have known!”

“Gods, girl, would that I had your armor!” And should I bleed within it, you see nothing, old man. No one shall see. No one shall know. “If I had,” Heboric continued after a moment, “I would be able to stay at your side, to offer what protection I could—though wondering why I bothered, granted. Yet I would.”

“What are you babbling about?”

“I am fevered. The D’ivers has poisoned me, lass. And it wars with the other strangers in my soul—I do not know if I shall survive this, Felisin.

The other strangers in Heboric's soul? A keen message to Felisin as well.

Icarium cleared his throat. “Come and eat, lad,” he said. “The realms are overlapping, and all is possible…including the unexpected.

Some foreboding.

In becoming Sha’ik reborn, Apsalar will not simply be engaging in a change of costume, Fiddler. The cause of the goddess will take hold of Apsalar’s mind, her soul. Such visions and visitations will change her.

What if the patron god of assassins has reclaimed her? What will it mean if the rebellion is suddenly led by Cotillion—and, by extension, Ammanas? The dead Emperor returns to wreak vengeance.

Apsalar potentially contending with the powers of Sha'ik and Shadowthrone.

Younger. Yet the fire within…it’s the same. Ah, my faith… Leoman lowered himself to one knee. “You are reborn,” he said.

The woman’s low laugh was triumphant. “So I am,” she said. She shifted her grip on the old man, whose head hung down, his clothes nothing but rags. “Help me with him,” she commanded. “But beware his hands…

Curveball? Beware his hands....this leads you to think Heboric but the entire books has been leading to Apsalar. Which will it be?
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Chapter 15

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If Mebra worked out I was planning to kill the Empress, who else might have? And this Salk Elan, whoever he is, clearly doesn’t know when to shut up…unless, of course, he’s fishing for a reaction. Besides, there’s a classic tactic that might be at work here. No time to test veracity when you’re reeling…

We know Mebra was duplicitous in his dealings with Kalam so Salk Elan is questionable one way of the other. Also take note of the specific references to Pormqual's treasurer and the High Fist as we already know from the last chapter put the Red Blades under arrest and now Admiral Nok as well.

Bult shifted in his saddle, making a show of looking around. “Let us find a cattle-dog, so that we may have yet another opinion. Sormo, where’s that ugly beast that’s adopted you? The one the marines call Bent?

There's definitely a synergy between the cattle dogs, the Wickens and the Seventh. Bent of particular note.

“The Malazan Army shall know but one set of rules,” Emperor Kellanved had proclaimed, during the first “cleansing” and “restructuring” of the military early in his reign. “One set of rules, and one ruler…” His and Dassem Ultor’s imposition of merit as the sole means of advancement had triggered a struggle for control within the hierarchies of the Army and Navy commands. Blood was spilled on the palace steps, and Laseen’s Claw was the instrument of that surgery. She should have learned from that episode. We had our second cull, but it came far too late.

Ah yes if the real world was solely based upon merit and not nepotism.

The Wickans know that the gift of power is never free. They know enough not to envy the chosen among them, for power is never a game, nor a glittering standards raised to glory and wealth. They disguise nothing in trappings, and so we all see what we’d rather not, that power is cruel, hard as iron and bone, and it thrives on destruction.

Every chapter SE builds on the social-economic themes as he does with making the plight of the Wickens and 7th darker and darker.


We should not have lived this long. And I can take my thoughts no further than that, and am diminished by that truth. All those histories I’ve read…each an intellectual obsession with war, the endless redrawing of maps.

As does Duiker. The changing lines on a map.

The captain appeared at his side. “As servants,” Lull softly tumbled, “they might have survived, been sold on to other noble families. Now, with swords in their hands, they will die. Can you hear this silence, Duiker? Do you know what it signifies? I imagine you do, all too well.” With all that we do, Hood smiles. “Write of this, old man.” Duiker glanced at the captain and saw a broken man.

Lull breaking is particularly sad. His compassion worn on his sleeve.

“But you don’t believe so…and neither do I.” His eyes remained on the plain. A many-jointed hand. Not a god’s hand, Corporal, though one of such power that you might well have thought so. You’ve been chosen, lad, for whatever reason, to witness an Elder vision. Out from the darkness comes the cold hand of a Jaghut

The world building is great here. The worlds spawning back to world prior to this buried beneath the sand. List linked to a Jaghut?

Heboric and the giant warrior were arguing. About her, about prophecies and ill chance, about the desperation of fanatics. Mutual contempt swirled and bubbled between the two men, seemingly born in the instant they met, and growing darker with every moment that passed.

“Sorry you had to wait for us, Toblakai-with-the-secret-name, though I imagine you’d have trouble getting your head through that cave mouth in any case.” The giant savage sneered, revealing filed teeth. “I collect tokens of the people I kill. Tied here on my belt. One day I will have yours.

He means your ears, Heboric,” Felisin said. “Oh, I know, lass,” the ex-priest said. “Tortured spirits writhe in this bastard’s shadow—every man, woman and child that he’s killed. Tell me, Toblakai, did those children beg to live? Did they weep, cry out for their mothers?

Tortured spirits. He’s haunted by the ghosts of those he’s slain. Forgive me, Toblakai, if I spare you no pity. Heboric stared sightlessly after him. “The wood of that weapon is soaked in pain. I cannot imagine he sleeps well at night.

The ex-priest grimaced. “You’ve not seen the ghosts of children tied to his heels, Leoman. But I shall make the effort to keep my mouth shut.

All of these exchanges between Toblokai and Heboric has undercurrents. If you re-read them it will serve you well down the road.

The ex-priest grimaced. “You’ve not seen the ghosts of children tied to his heels, Leoman. But I shall make the effort to keep my mouth shut.


“The Soletaken will kill him,” Heboric said. Leoman shrugged. “Perhaps. Sha’ik saw far into his future, however…” “And what did she see?” Felisin asked. “She would not say. Yet it…appalled her.

Likewise a lot of subtext about Leoman.

Its iron gears showed no rust, no corrosion, and would still be moving in a measure that could not be seen by mortal eyes. The enormous disc that dominated the structure stood at an angle, its marble face smothered with etched symbols. It faced the sun, though that fiery orb was barely visible through the sky’s golden haze.

Icarium returns to one of his inventions and doesn't remember it. Realization that it was from the time of the T'lan Imass. Mappo knowing Icarium recognized enough of it to destroy everything else. If you take this backwards you can see how things might have been in other scenes with Icarium and his true being.

The key to understanding lies in the unknown nature of warrens. Can they be torn into fragments? Oh yes, oh, yes indeed. And that is the secret of Raraku!

The legends claim that Icarium emerged from this place, strode out from Raraku. A warren torn to pieces—Raraku changes all who stride its broken soil—gods

Pust nuggets of wisdom.


Icarium came close to Mappo. “Tremorlor,” he said. “Aye.” “There are some who claim the Azath are in truth benign, a force to keep power in check, that they arise where and when there is need. My friend, I am beginning to see much truth in those claims.”

“Even so, even so. It’s the false trail, you see, the one that leads the shapeshifters astray, leads them—” “Away from the true gate,” Icarium said, nodding. “The one beneath Pust’s temple.”

And thus the true nature of Apsalar's mission is revealed and Shadowthrone having hinted at the misdirection chapters ago. It was a good red herring making us think it would be Apsalar and not Felisin who would be potentially the goddess of the whirlwind.

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Chapter 16

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For as far as Duiker could see, stretching west and east, the cedar forest was filled with butterflies.

“I’ve never seen so many butterflies in one place.”

The butterflies rose from the track in a swirling cloud as they reached the forest edge.

hundreds of thousands of butterfly wings caressing the air above them.

stands, though what might slow them more than anything else was the butterflies.

So I could go on quoting all the butterfly references from this chapter but I'll stop here. Think he wants you to pay attention to butterflies? :)

Duiker and the Wickens speed towards the ford to meet Dom and his forces. List glimpses into the past. The little show dog has becomes leader of the pack.

“Perhaps it does. Attitude, Corporal, has a certain efficacy that should never be underestimated.”

Too true!

“How is this mage destroying the butterflies? Fire? Wind?”

“No, he simply opens his warren and they vanish within. Note, the time is longer between each effort— the man tires.”

Worth noting.

Gesler, Stormy and the Silanda arrive. Duiker not surprisingly knows the name. Great one liner, crew?, dead. Love Stormy and Gesler's irreverent attitude.

The reverence that the Wickens have for Coltaine is confusing even to them and described simply as awe. The Cult of Personality but in this case something more.

“Stormy? Not Cartheron Fist’s Adjutant Stormy—”

“Once upon a time.”

“Hood’s breath!” Lull swung to Coltaine. “Fist, we’ve got two of the Emperor’s Old Guard here… as Coastal Marines.”


SE has been hinting at this for awhile. Both much like WhiskeyJack demoted with the passage of the Emperor. Not Cartheron has been brought up before as has his brother Urko.

That blood, that man has almost ascended!

First off great scene saying he'll give Coltaine's thong a yank and then Coltaine dropping him.

Coltaine cracked open Gesler’s face. Gesler, a man on the edge of Ascendancy… and into what? The historian thought back to Stormy and Truth manning the dory’s sweeps… their extraordinary strength, and the tale of the burning warren. Abyss below, all three of them… And… Coltaine?

So Stormy, Gesler and Truth are close to ascending.......and....Coltaine?

Coltaine rejects the offer of Dom with whom the nobles has been negotiating. Stormy and Duiker know more is at play here.

“A bear with white fur,” the Toblakai rumbled. “For a moment, I dreamed I had returned to my home in Laederon. Nethaur, we call such beasts. But we fought on sand and rock, not snow and ice. I have brought its skin and its head and its claws, for the beast was twice as large as any I’d seen before.”

Toblokai's homeland.

A fabulous scene of the book's opening. Take note: Leoman the pages go blank. Toblokai born to tears but doesn't understand.

The Toblakai moved in a blur, the wooden sword almost unseen as it slashed for Heboric’s head. Had it struck it would have shattered the old man’s skull, spraying bits of it for ten paces or more. Instead, Heboric’s hands flared, one the hue of dried blood, the other bestial and fur-backed.

Heboric an inner strength to take on the Toblakai and his hands visible and different. Felisin to be reborn, remade, but not for the last time.....

Fid and crew enter a warren that is torn, none knowing the origin. Markings of T'lan are found.

“Resistance. Pain. The Azath is under siege. This fragmented warren seeks to pull free of the House’s grip. And now, an added threat…”

“The Soletaken and D’ivers.”

“Tremorlor is… aware… of those who seek it.”

You start to see links between the Azath houses and the warrens. The reaction of "a living thing".

Rellock talking about Apsalar is a bit heartbreaking as a father but I get it. No matter what it's his little girl.

“Indeed. Finally, my last set of borrowed memories— the most confusing of all. An assassin’s. Once mortal, then Ascendant. Assassins bow to the altar of efficiency, Icarium, and efficiency is brutal. It sacrifices mortal lives without a second thought, all for whatever is perceived as the greater need. At least it was so in the case of Dancer, who did not kill for coin, but for a cause that was less self-aggrandizing than you might think. In his mind, he was a man who fixed things. He viewed himself as honorable. A man of integrity, was Dancer. But efficiency is a cold-blooded master. And there’s a final irony. A part of him, in defiance of his need to seek vengeance upon Laseen, actually… sympathizes. After all, she bowed to what she perceived as a greater need— one of Empire— and chose to sacrifice two men she called friends to answer that need.”

The conversation between Icarium and Apsalar is awesome. Both with custodians, both with memory issues of a different sort. SE takes it to another level giving us so much information about not only Dancer but Laseen. That monologue is worth re-reading. And then you get Mappo who in spite of Icarium's past loves him without reservation crying and we see the Jhag in spite of his memories returning the same.

“My friend, Azath Houses seek to imprison all who posses power— do you fathom what you risk?”

Icarium smiled. “Not just me, Mappo. You ever underestimate yourself, what you have become after all these centuries. We must trust in the Azath understanding that we mean no harm, if we intend to continue onward.”

Very important to note this about the houses.

What is wrong? I would speak to warn you, my friend. Should Tremorlor take you, the world is freed of a vast threat, but I lose a friend. No, I betray you to eternal imprisonment. The Elders and the Nameless Ones who set upon me this task would command me with certainty. They would care nothing of love. Nor would the young Trell warrior who so freely made his vow hesitate— for he did not know the man he was to follow. Nor did he possess doubts. Not then, so long ago. “I beg you, Icarium, let us turn back now. The risk is too great, my friend.” He felt his eyes water as he stared out across the plain. My friend. At last, dear Elders, I am revealed to you. You chose wrongly. I am a coward.

Again important notes about Icarium, the Azath's nature and Mappo's past. The scene between the two friends breeds so much empathy as Mappo finally tells him the truth about his past and he's unafraid to face eternity. I'm not going to spell it out but there's a lot of clues I've left as to Icarium's true being.

Another great scene with Crokus convincing Pust to call on Shadowthrone with the realization that Icarium could destroy the Azath. I love when the hounds show up. SE makes them so ominous.

The last scene shows the idiocy of the nobles as the drag everybody down the river trying to save themselves. Once again the butterflies stand witness to the slaughter. Like Duiker I would like to strangle them for their short sighted selfishness.
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Chapter 17

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Pretty straight forward action on the ship with the treasurer setting up to have the loot stolen so he can profit from it. Kalam stepping in through his reputation.

“Poor Pormqual’s treasurer is crooked.”

“Like attracts like, as the saying goes.”

“You and that poncy skulker… two of a kind.”

“Thanks. So I keep hearing.”
---------------
He looked across to Salk Elan and found the man’s eyes on him. The assassin gave a nod and Elan casually turned away, his hands hidden beneath his cloak.

The big tribesman did not get very far. He made a choking sound, hands reaching up to claw at the knife protruding from his throat. Then he fell to his knees, toppled.


Hints.

Enkar'al



“You cannot command someone to have faith, lass. Obedience, yes, but not belief itself.”

Great quote reflecting today's religious environment. Felisin is starting to show some growth.

Tavore’s fleet. Horse and troop transports, the usual league-long wake of garbage, sewage and corpses human and animal, the sharks and dhenrabi thrashing the waves. Any long journey by sea delivers an army foul of temper and eager to get to business. No doubt enough tales of atrocities have reached them to scorch mercy from their souls.

The adjunct on the move.

“The serpent’s head,” Elan said quietly, “on that long, stretching Imperial neck. Tell me, Kalam, is there a part of you— an old soldier’s— longing to be standing on a deck over there, noting with scant interest a lone, Falar-bound trader ship, while deep within you builds that quiet, deadly determination? On your way to deliver Laseen’s punishment, what she’s always delivered, as an Empress must; a vengeance tenfold. Are you tugged between two tides right now, Kalam?”

The soldier vs the assassin. Salk know a lot about Kalam it seems. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 18

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Nameless Ones… Priests of the Azath, if such entities can have priests. How many cold hands have guided us here? Myself… Icarium… these two twisted roots… journeying to Tremorlor—

So we finally have something to define the Nameless Ones. Dead Nameless Ones.........

The Jhag gave him a half-smile. “Oh yes, Mappo, I have dreams.” He faced the bodies again. “It began as all such dreams begin. I am stumbling. In pain. Yet I bear no wounds, and my weapons are clean. No, the pain is within me, as of a knowledge once gained, then lost yet again.”

And there we have it, previously hinted at but now spelled out.

“Her words seem to call up terrible memories. And images, faces— companions, countless in number. As if I have rarely been alone. Men and women have walked at my side, sometimes singly, sometimes in legion. These memories fill me with grief, as if in some way I have betrayed every one of those companions.” He paused, and Mappo saw his head slowly nod. “Indeed, I understand this now. They were all guardians, like you, Mappo. And they all failed. Were, perhaps, killed by my own hand.”

One of the secrets Mappo didn't want Icarium to find, revealed. So although Mappo has walked with him for centuries Icarium has wandered with many for ages. The T'lan Imass timepiece 96,000 years old, a never ending walk......

The High Priest hugged himself. “Nothing. Speak nothing of it, yes. Servants of the Azath— pah! Are we naught but pieces on a gameboard? My master scoured them from the Empire, yes. A task for the Talons, as Dancer will tell you. A necessary cleansing, a plucking of a thorn from the Emperor’s side. Slaughter and desecration. Merciless. Too many vulnerable secrets— corridors of power— oh, how they resented my master’s entry into Deadhouse—”

"Iskaral" Apsalar snapped.

Great information about the Deadhouse, Dancer, Kellanved and the old empire. Apsalar still so familiar with Dancer's memories she scolds him. What knowledge she could reveal.........Love her interactions with Icarium.

The nameless ones have existed since the time of the first empire. Icarium now knowing the truth that they have chosen his guardians.

Tremorlor’s gnarled jail of roots held demons, ancient Ascendants and such a host of alien creatures that the sapper was left trembling in the realization of his insignificance and that of all his kind. Humans were but one tiny, frail leaf on a tree too massive even to comprehend. The shock of that unmanned him, mocking his audacity with an endless echo of ages and realms trapped within this mad, riotous prison.

Love the descriptions of the roots of the Azath. So visual but a lot of information as well into who it has consumed.

Shadowthrone and the hounds as protectors in the Azath.....as the soultaken are consumed. Mappo able to crush the life out of one while he mourns for the other.

We cannot survive this. A hundred Hounds of Shadow would not be enough. Such shapeshifting creatures have arrived in their thousands, all here, all in Tremorlor’s grounds— how many will reach the House? Only the strongest. The strongest… And what is it we dare? To step within the House, to find the gate that will take us to Malaz City, to the Deadhouse itself. Gods, we are but minor players… with one exception, a man we cannot afford to unleash, a man even the Azath fears.

A lot of great information. Even the Azath fears Icarium. SE leaves such a great breadcrumb trail.

Interesting talk on tactics with Heboric and Leoman with Leoman even quoting Kellanved.

Sha'ik reborn....and Leoman knows.

....an army commanded by her chosen Adjunct, a commander whose mind I hold as a map within my own— she possesses no secrets I do not know…”

So Felisin knows her sister is coming but her sister doesn't know where she is.

Bidithal, who raped the previous Sha'ik. Febryl the craven, trying to assassinate the previous Sha'ik and fled from Dassem. L'oric the pragmatist. We'll get to know them all more. "Dear sister see what you have made."

Gryllen returns. Roast rats, lol. The spirit walker's gift coming back from the start of the book. SE loves the long play. There's no way anybody remembers that. It seems like years ago.

Mappo at the end cannot let the house consume Icarium.
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Chapter 19

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The chain of dogs gets darker as does Lull and Duiker's introspection.

T’lan Imass. No room for doubt— their undead faces stare out at us, from all sides, skulls and withered faces peering out from wreaths of crystallized bark, the dark pits of their eyes tracking our passage. This is a burial ground, not of the flesh-and-blood forebears of the T’lan Imass, but of the deathless creatures themselves.

A petrified graveyard of the undead. Trapped with their bones.

Comical scene with Bungle and Mincer of the sappers to break the tension.

The final stand— the last tower— is in the heart of the plain beyond the forest.”

“Pushed back,” the historian repeated.

List nodded. “Each siege lasted centuries, the losses among the T’lan Imass staggering. Jaghut were anything but wanderers. When they chose a place…”

SE likes to drop these nuggets of the past into the story. We'll learn a lot more about the Jags over the course of the series along with the T'Lan Imass and this tower.

Kalam struggles with the mystery of Salk Elan.

Quick Ben with a view into Memories of Ice saying it's all gone to shit. A warren on a ship, another big hint. Quick Ben.....lost too much blood yesterday.....keep in mind for Memories of Ice.

A sister to Deadhouse in Malaz City. Little different from the one in Darujhistan. All of a kind. All Azath— though where that name came from and how long ago no one knows or will ever know.

Mappo spoke in a low voice beside the sapper. “It’s said the Azath bridge the realms— every realm. It’s said that even time itself ceases within their walls.”

“The one who possessed me, Fiddler… an Azath welcomed him, once.”

Kimloc seeing Fids future and giving him a gift bigger than the reward. Interesting Moby showing up out of the blue....

“Pogroms need no reason, sir, none that can weather challenge, in any case. Difference in kind is the first recognition, the only one needed, in fact. Land, domination, pre-emptive attacks— all just excuses, mundane justifications that do nothing but disguise the simple distinction. They are not us. We are not them.”

Love this quote. The horror of the Jag father living the grief for millenium is heartbreaking.


“So they created a ritual that would make them immortal—”

“Free to blow like the dust— and in the age of ice, there was plenty of dust.”

The secret of the T'lan Imass revealed.

The Trygalle Trade Guild, this will not be their only sighting in the series. Basically they travel the warrens for a price. Mercenary package deliverers.

......with the Pannion Domin, a tyranny that would dearly love to swallow the Blue City if it could. Dujek Onearm, once Fist of the Empire and now outlaw to the same, has become an ally. And this, certain personages in Darujhistan know well, and appreciate…”

Mark this for Memories of Ice when we'll learn a lot more about the Pannion Domin and how all this came about.

“Dujek Onearm was the force behind this mission,” Duiker said.

Karpolan nodded. “With financial assistance from a certain cabal in Darujhistan, yes. His words were thus: ‘The Empress cannot lose such leaders as Coltaine of the Crow Clan.’ ” The trader grinned. “Extraordinary for an outlaw under a death sentence, wouldn’t you say?” He leaned forward and held out a hand, palm up. Something shimmered into existence on it, a small oblong bottle of smoky gray glass on a silver chain. “And, from an alarmingly mysterious mage among the Bridgeburners, this gift was fashioned.” He held it out to Coltaine. “For you. Wear it. At all times, Fist.”

Yes quite extraordinary. An outlaw pulling rank? What could the gift from the kabal and Quick Ben be?

Locked in a war against an entire continent… stumbling onto a recognition of an even greater threat— the Pannion Domin… shall the Empire alone fight on behalf of a hostile land? Yet… how to fashion allies among enemies, how to unify against a greater threat with the minimum of fuss and mistrust? Outlaw your occupying army, so they’ve “no choice” but to step free of Laseen’s shadow. Dujek, ever loyal Dujek— even the ill-conceived plan of killing the last of the Old Guard— Tayschrenn’s foolishness and misguided idea— insufficient to turn him. So now he has allies— those who were once his enemies— perhaps even Caladan Brood and Anomander Rake themselves…

Really important information for Memories of Ice.

The Khundryl, a great tribe of seven cities, mark the name.

Coltaine gives up the bauble to Duiker.
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Chapter 20

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“That betrayal might have been instinctive, High Priest,” Apsalar said. “Five Ascendants in the House’s yard—the vast risk to Tremorlor itself, given Shadow’s own penchant for treachery—”

“Lies! We played true!”

“A first time for everything,” Crokus muttered.

A little humor as all hell is breaking loose at the Azath.

“Relax. There is no gate in here that offers a shapeshifter anything,” Apsalar said, slowly rising, her eyes on the withered corpse behind Fiddler. “That would have been the Keeper—each Azath has a guardian. I’d always assumed they were immortal…” She stepped forward, kicked at the bones. She grunted. “Not human—those limbs are too long, and look at the joints—too many of them. This thing could bend every which way.”

Mappo lifted his head. “Forkrul Assail.”

“The least known of the Elder Races, then. Not even hinted of in any Seven Cities legend I’ve heard.” She swung her attention to the hallway.

We haven't met the Forkrul Assail yet. If memory serves we won't until book 4. Yet SE is already world building ahead. Interesting that this one was a keeper.

Once again we see the Guild delivering gifts from Quick Ben this time to Fiddler.

She nodded. “This is Dassem Ultor’s daughter. The First Sword recovered her after Hood was done using her, and brought her here, it seems.”

“Before breaking his vow to Hood—”

“Aye, before Dassem cursed the god he once served.”

“That was years ago, Apsalar,” Fiddler said.

“I know.”

Once again Apsalar using Dancer's memories. This part about Dassem, Hood and his daughter is definitely one to commit to memory.

The massive, closed great helm tilted with a soft creak, and a ragged voice came from it. “I am pleased my solitude is at an end, little one. Tremorlor welcomes you with all its heart…even if you have made a mess on the hallway floor.”

Pretty cool details about Moby being their salvation, a demon who is also a soul taken and could hold Crokus in his hand while revealed and now a keep of the Azath. Loved the humor mixed in with all the tension.

The man leads an army that refuses to die. We’ve not lost a refugee to enemy action in thirty hours. Five thousand soldiers…spitting in the face of every god.

A chain of corpses, hundreds of leagues long. No, it is all beyond me, beyond, I now believe, any of us

Every time you think the Chain of dogs can't get more brutal SE takes it up a notch.

“But the enemy were fathers too, you see. And mothers and grandmothers—they were all so angry with us. They took our clothes. Our sandals. They took everything from us, they were so angry. Then they punished us.” “And how did they do that?” “They nailed us to crosses.

“Panek. Listen carefully to your uncle. You weren’t punished for not doing what you were told. Listen—this is hard, I know, but try to understand. They hurt you because they could, because there was no one there who was capable of stopping them. Your father would have tried—I’m sure he did. But, like you, he was helpless. We’re here now, with you—your mother and Uncle Cotillion—we’re here to make sure you’ll never be helpless again. Do you understand?

“When I Ascended, Lady, it was to escape the nightmares of feeling Ascended, Lady, it was to escape the nightmares of feeling…” He grimaced. “Imagine my surprise that I now thank you for such chains.”

Heartbreaking and great scene between Shadownthone, Apt and Panek.

Panek broke in. “Uncle, do you have any children?”

He winced, looked away. “A daughter. Of sorts.” He sighed, then smiled wryly. “We had a falling-out, I’m afraid.”

“You must forgive her.”

“Damned upstart!”

“You said we must teach each other, Uncle.”

Cotillion’s eyes widened on the lad, then he shook his head. “The forgiveness is the other way around, alas.”

“Then I must meet her.”

“Well, anything is possible—”


I'm sure you can all read into who Cotillion, Kellanved, is referencing.

A soft voice spoke beside him. “There’s such irony in this, my friend. You see, it’s your mind that’s betrayed you. The formidable, deadly mind of the assassin Kalam Mekhar.” Salk Elan leaned on the rail beside him, studying the city. “I’ve admired you for so long, you know. You’re a damned legend, the finest killer the Claw ever had—and lost. Ah, and it’s that loss that rankles the most. Had you the will for it, Kalam, you could now be in command of the entire organization—oh, Topper might disagree, and I’ll grant you, in some ways he’s your superior by far. He would have killed me on the first day, no matter how uncertain he was of whatever risk I might have presented. Even so,” Salk Elan continued after a moment, “knife to knife, you’re his better, friend.

There were lots of little hints it was Pearl that I tried to highlight in previous chapters without giving it away. Kalam is quite the claw legend.


“Aye, sir!” The acting First Mate snapped out the commands, then swung back to offer the captain a grin. “Glad you’re back, Carther—”

“Shut your face, Palet—that’s Malaz City out there and I drowned years ago, remember?” He squinted at the warring demons. “Ragstopper’s not going to survive this—

Hmmmmmmmmmm...........
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Chapter 21

(view spoiler)[
L'oric is as Heboric speculates one to watch.

“ ‘Elemental forces in opposition,’ ” she said, smiling.

Heboric’s brows rose, then he scowled. “A quote. A familiar one—”

“It should be. It’s carved into the Imperial Gate in Unta, after all. Kellanved’s own words, as a means to justify the balance of destruction with creation— the expansion of the Empire, in all its hungry glory."

This quote by Kellanved gets more interesting when you meet a certain occupant of the realm of shadow at a later time but it also shows his depths.

Korbolo doing things in the name of a god for his own ends. A common theme in this series. The added consequence of unleashing Tavore.

A brutal ending to the chain of dogs. Bearing witness to the horror of the masacre. List, Lull..........even the cattle dogs.

A shadow swept over them.

Crows.

And to Sormo the Elder warlock, there on the wall of Unta, there came eleven crows— eleven— to take the great man’s soul, for no single creature could hold it all. Eleven.

The sky above Aren was filled with crows, a black sea of wings, closing from all sides.

Nether’s wail grew louder and louder still, as if her own soul was being ripped out through her throat. Shock jolted through Duiker. It’s not done— it’s not over— He spun round, saw the cross being raised, saw the still living man nailed to it.


It was just as horrifying reading this the second time. Erikson makes you live it.

“They’ll not free him!” Nether screamed.

The cloud of crows scattered, reformed, sought to approach once again. Kamist Reloe obliterated hundreds more.

“Release his soul! From the flesh! Release it!” Beside them, the garrison commander turned and called to one of his aides in a voice of ice, “Get me Squint, Corporal. Now!”

A foe with so little compassion or dignity that they try to destroy his soul.

Kamist Reloe knew precisely what he was doing, knew the full horror of his crime, as he methodically destroyed the vessels for that soul.

On all sides, screaming warriors pressed close, seething on the barrow like insects. Objects started striking the figure on the cross, leaving red stains. Pieces of flesh, gods— pieces of flesh— what’s left of the army— this was a level of cruelty that left Duiker cowering inside.


Blistig is a name to remember.

And when they rose, exploding skyward, the warleader of the Crow Clan was gone.

The crows and Coltaine's soul released. Such a brutal scene.
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Chapter 22

(view spoiler)[
Eyes on the warehouse roofs with sorcery-enhanced vision, and I’ve not even a shirt to hide my body’s heat. They know I’m wounded, a challenge to the higher disciplines—I doubt even Surly in her prime could manage a cooling of flesh in these straits. Can I?

One of the great things about Kalam running through the streets is SE gives us his thought, then actions, then feeling, then you get the counter point of his enemy. Topper slowly gets introduced. You get to see his power and then SE slides in this little fact that even he questions if he could match the Empress in her prime adding to Laseen's persona.

Every god in the Abyss! Are these all the realms? Every world—every place home to a House of the Azath? Queen of Dreams, what power is this? “Within the warren of the Azath,” Mappo said, his tone one of awe, “you could go…anywhere"<\I>

This is an important message that will play into different characters stories so keep it in mind.

“Our very own pet scorpion, aye.” Crokus took the lead as they moved away from the hole.

I never would have quoted this the first read but if you can remember Fid referenced this in a future book.

But the three dragons were already past, ignoring the humans entirely. They flew in triangular formation like a flight of geese, and were of a kind, ochre-scaled, their wing-spans as far across as five wagons end to end.

We are all lone souls. It pays to know humility, lest the delusion of control, of mastery, overwhelms. And indeed, we seem a species prone to that delusion, again and ever again…

Great quote. So the dragons show them nothing but contempt by ignoring them but also how to leave.

“Nethpara judges just under ten thousand—” “The man’s a fool.” “He’s also laying the deaths of thousands of innocent refugees at Coltaine’s feet—”

And we see the start of the final injustice.

But at the word “Jhistal” he stiffened, then, eyes widening, he took a step back.

Keneb only now realizing how far the treatery reaches. I had quoted Kalam in an earlier chapter pondering this and also at the start of the book SE sneaks in a reference that Rel is a Jhistal Priest. He loves dropping small hints and playing the long game.

“You mean to slaughter ten thousand unarmed men and women, Korbolo Dom?”

“I mean to cripple Tavore before she even sets foot on this continent. I mean to make her too furious to think. I mean to crack that façade so she dreams of vengeance

The slaughter of ten thousand all as a ploy.

There was no shortage of spikes, yet it took a day and a half before the last screaming prisoner was nailed to the last crowded cedar lining Aren Way. Ten thousand dead and dying Malazans stared down on that wide, exquisitely engineered Imperial road— eyes unseeing or eyes uncomprehending— it made little difference.

Duiker was the last, the rusty iron spikes driven through his wrists and upper arms to hold him in place high on the tree’s blood-streaked bole. More spikes were hammered through his ankles and the muscles of his outer thighs.

Think on the horror of this in your mind's eye. Ten thousand people crucified and one man made to witness it all. At the end the Jaghut who's soul has been trapped with his bones in forever torment of what was done to his kin is the one person able to grant Duiker empathy.

If you're not devastated after the last couple chapter of the Chain of Dogs you may be a sociopath.

If you think things like these don't happen in history they do. Spartacus led a slave rebellion in ancient Rome. 6,000 men of the legions of Crassus were crucified along the Appian Way which leads from Rome to Capua. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 23

(view spoiler)[
Love the tactics Kalam uses against the claw, those being their own. I also love the entry of another dog breed. Always world building in the context of the story.

“Oh yes, Mappo,” the guardian cut in. “The Trell. He has walked at Icarium’s side too long, it seems. There are duties that surpass friendship. The Elders scarred him deep when they destroyed an entire settlement and laid the blame at Icarium’s feet. They imagined that would suffice. A Watcher was needed, desperately. The one who had held that responsibility before had taken his own life. For months Icarium walked the land alone, and the threat was too great.” The words reached into Fiddler, tore at his insides.

No, Mappo believes Icarium destroyed his home, murdered his family, everyone he knew. No, how could you have done that?


SE's deception complete in making us and Mappo think it was Icarium. The Nameless One's pulling the strings behind the curtains and no matter the cost they will justify it. A parallel to our world.

“My son must be stopped— his rage is a poison,” the Jaghut said. “Some responsibilities surpass friendship, surpass even blood.”

"You are Gothos aren't you?"

So we now know Gothos is Icaraium's father which in turn makes him Raest the Jaghut tyrant's half brother whom we met in GotM. He was injuries trying to save his father from the Azath.

Fid realizing he wouldn't want to be immortal. I'm with him. His heart breaking for Mappo and Icarium.

Smiley's has been mentioned once before. It's a tavern started by Kellanved. It will appear in the books whenever they come back to Malaz City. We'll learn a lot more about it.

Aptorian returns, I just love all of Apsalar's hidden memories.

“The deliberate murder of the Bridgeburners,” the assassin growled. “The outlawing of Dujek Onearm. The attempted murders of Whiskeyjack, myself and the rest of the Ninth Squad. Old disappearances. A possible hand in Dassem Ultor’s death. The assassination of Dancer and the Emperor. Incompetence, ignorance, betrayal…” He let his litany fall away.

Empress Laseen was silent for a long time, then she said in a low tone, “And you are to be my judge. And executioner.”

“That’s about right.”

“Am I permitted a defense?”

Litany is such the perfect word there. Quite the list of charges.

So we now see unveiled the plan hinted at in GotM and we'll learn a lot more about this in GotM. The Pannion Domin, the alliances......Tayschrenn's betrayal.

High Mage? What’s his role in all this?”

He heard the smile as she said, “Ah, well, he remains in the background, out of sight, but there for Dujek should Onearm need him. Tayschrenn is Dujek’s— how do you soldiers say it— his shaved knuckle in the hole.”

There's a big hint in there.

It's an interesting exchange between Laseen and Kalam. Empire bigger than the individual. I don't think I could have accepted it but the fact that Dujek was still working with her, perhaps.

Dancer himself would have hesitated before taking on Kalam Mekhar. No, better to view this disastrous night as a long-overdue winnowing of the brotherhood’s weaker elements…”

It starts the conversation. Who's the best of them all? Dancer, Laseen, Kalam, Topper, Cowl who we briefly met on a rooftop in Darujhistan........certainly not Pearl who is in big trouble now.

“Synchronous elegance, this fullest of full circles! To the Kanese coast indeed! To the very road where first we met, oh yes. Go, then! I send you with the smoothest of gestures. Go!” He raised an arm and caressed the air with his long, ghostly fingers

Another quote to remember.

Fid heading back to seven cities to join Tavore and not joining the Bridgeburners, curious.

“You wished for their lives,” Shadowthrone hissed in glee. “Or so Apt claims. Now you have them. Your children await you, Kalam Mekhar and Minala Eltroeb— all thirteen hundred of them!”

Never broker a deal with Shadowthrone. Now they're responsible for the 1,300 crucified children that Apt saved.
(hide spoiler)]

Chapter 24

(view spoiler)[
Felisin the Younger.

Only loss. "Oh Heboric" she said "It's not worthy of grief"

This is kind of a shocking statement from Felisin. Generally only those who haven't tasted real loss would say such a thing.

Korbolo Dom half Napan. Laseen and several others of the old empire are Napan. The blue hue of complexion is always noted. Worth tracking who is and isn't Napanese.

Felisin comes to deal with the fear of facing her sister. Her followers comes to realize she won't be a puppet.

Do you hear a god's laughter?

A god's kindness or cruelty?

An attractive younger woman walked at her side— Tavore’s aide and lover, it was said— but Blistig could not recall if he’d ever heard her name.

We will learn a lot more about Tavore's aide and lover.

Trell sensed a latent power in them that made him uneasy.

SE as always sets it up for you to figure out who these men are. Stormy, Gesler and Truth. Only the dogs Bent and Roach survive.

Pust and more spiders....Mogora.......more to come.

The enormous undead dragon rose silently from its perch on the mesa’s summit, wings spreading to glow with the sun’s light, even as the membrane dimmed the color that reached through. Black, flat eyes glanced down at the two figures scrambling toward the cliff face.

The attention was momentary. Then an ancient warren opened before the soaring creature, swallowed it whole, then vanished.

Foreboding for down the line.

“Ah, you weren’t fooled, were you? You came here to guard the true gate. Ever mindful of your duties, you T’lan Imass. You Bonecasters with your secrets that drive me mad!”

Interesting.

Mappo saves the dogs. Icarium back to square one.

Rudd then held the bottle against one pointed ear and shook it. “Ah! He’s in there all right!”

“Good, let’s go—”

“Not yet. The body comes with us. Mortals are particular that way— he won’t want another. So, go get it, Irp.”

I love how SE doesn't spell out it out but the implications are clear. A cruelty or a kindness?
(hide spoiler)]

Epilogue

(view spoiler)[
Not flies, crows, so many crows-

Deep within her the child stirred.

I'm sure you can guess the meaning. Such a simple prologue with so many implications.
(hide spoiler)]

Scott wrote: "Chapter 4

..." Agreed Scott, chapter 5 was amazing. So many reveals. Reading your chapter summaries brings back a lot of memories.

Only read if you've read the series. (view spoiler)[ Felisin's whole story is really heartbreaking to me once I stood back and saw the whole picture of her path her storyline takes. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Scott wrote: "I'd also like to prepare everybody by saying when I got done with this one the first time I couldn't even read anything for 4 or 5 days without it tasting like mud. This book just tears your soul a..."

Couldn't agree more Scott. Heartbreaking.

Ctgt wrote: "Scott wrote: "I'd also like to prepare everybody by saying when I got done with this one the first time I couldn't even read anything for 4 or 5 days without it tasting like mud. This book just tea..."

Agreed Ctgt. This book really tears at your heartstrings. I had a book hangover after reading this one.

Ctgt wrote: "Heartbreaking."

Angela wrote: "Only read if you've read the series."

There were moments equally as sad as this book in other books but it was the first time SE left us devastated so you're unprepared. MOI for instance is brutal as is RG because of who and how but this book was just a continual barrage.

Angela wrote: "Ctgt wrote: ""

Read the chapter 8 overview. So subtle I cannot believe I didn't see the meaning the first time.

Scott wrote: "Angela wrote: "Ctgt wrote: ""

Read the chapter 8 overview. So subtle I cannot believe I didn't see the meaning the first time."

There are so many things I can't believe I missed the first time. Erikson is really subtle and I love the way how he puts something really important in what seems a casual conversation. The re-read has been very rewarding do far.

Samir wrote: "There are so many things I can't believe I missed the first time. Erikson is really subtle and I love the way how he puts something really important in what seems a casual conversation. The re-read has been very rewarding do far."

Absolutely but that one in chapter 8 when you know what happens is a WOW.

Scott wrote: "Absolutely but that one in chapter 8 when you know what happens is a WOW."

Indeed.

I'll be starting this right when I finish Waking Fire, which will hopefully be within the next two week period =]. Might be a tad late. Really looking forward to this one.

Thanks Scott for the cliff notes again. I’ll be joining this BR too. Hopefully I won’t be as clueless as in the 1st book lol.