First read: August 2013
Re-read: January 2016 ( )

Whereas the earlier three books set up and finished major plot lines, this felt like an entire book devoted to building up future conflicts and stories. It's not done badly, and the book itself is good, but it definitely feels like something you enjoy more as a reread once finished with the entire series. Found it much harder or in some places just completely impossible to like most of the new characters, but there was enough pov chapters from earlier characters that I already love that were able to keep me interested. In a way, I think my feelings about the book are really fitting. I kept comparing Tavore and the plot itself to that of Deadhouse Gates', and Coltaine's Chain of Dogs always came out on top. ( )

I liked better than the third. I think I can't flee now, I will have to read the rest of them. ( )

So, listen up, House of Chains, we need to talk. Obviously your title is a reference to the literal High House Chains which is finally coming to real prominence in the fourth volume of the series, with many major players openly swearing to the Chained One. But something tells me that in addition to the Deck’s newest House, the title refers to the chains that bind many others—those of Sha’ik’s camp, especially the more well-meaning, such as the losing-it Heboric Ghost Hands, haunted by dreams of the jade giants (to my mind one of the weirdest and most interesting plotlines going, sadly abandoned for Treach for most of the book), chained to Shai’ik, chained to his knowledge of House Paran, chained by Fener, now fallen, and the giants, and now Treach too. What’s a guy to do? Karsa Orlong is chained by his gods and his tribal society, but also resents the literal chains the civilized world throws him into. He’s a perfect Knight for High House Chains—but it’s not a job he wants. Trull and Onrack, both Shorn in their way, are released from some chains but linked by others. Cutter and Apsalar are chained together, despite their very conflicted emotional states about the nature of those chains, and whether Cutter should chain himself to Cotillion as his patron, which he thinks might impress Apsalar (it doesn’t).

What makes me say all this? House of Chains is a good book and I think it’s a real “we’re getting serious about the Myth Arc” point, where 1-3 formed a neat little loop that could mostly close there—episodic menaces arising and meeting defeat. But here we pull back, and back, and realize the game is much much larger than we initially thought.

But regarding the above issue of High House Chains and the many mortals ascendants who labor beneath chains of iron and belief and duty, thematically: this book uses the word “chain” and its variants 274 times in about a thousand pages. Another important word, in Malazan if not common English, “warren,” is directly used 167 times. It’s hard to choose a character name to compare for the most used, since most major players have 2 (Tavore/the Adjunct, Sha’ik/Felisin, Fiddler/Strings, etc.), but for comparison’s sake, “Malazan,” the empire, people, and general designation, gets 280. That’s how many chains we’re talking about.

Wordcount.org (which counts “chain” and “chains” as separate words, alas) places “chain” at 2646/86800 in the ranking of word occurrence. For reference, 2647 is “parent,” and “army”, an important word in the book (Army of the Apocalypse/Whirlwind, the Fourteenth army, the Logros army, Onearm’s army, etc.) is 879th most common, and gets 177 mentions.

What I am saying is that we got a little heavy handed on the chains this time around. It’s okay! We got it! We can ease up a little. Every page someone felt the chains binding them. The metaphor is really solid. Don't hit it with a sledgehammer.

( )

Erikson heldur áfram með uppbyggingu stórsögunnar um Malazan heimsveldið. Heiti bókarinnar Hús keðjanna vísar til spáspila sem notuð eru af sögupersónunum. Spilin endurspegla guðina í heimsmyndinni, völd þeirra og áhrif. Þau er hægt að nota við spádóma og töfra en ekki síður til að endurspegla innbyrðis vald þeirra.
Í þessari sögu segir frá sókn Malazan hersins gegn uppreisn eyðimerkurættbálka. Tvær systur berast á banaspjótum, önnur hefur brotist til valda innan heimsveldisins og stýrir herjum þeirra en hin er táknmynd eyðimerkurgyðju sem ættbálkarnir flykkjast um. Samhliða þessari átakalínu er valdabarátta milli helstu foringa uppreisnarinnar og bak við tjöldin birtast stöðugt fleiri spöld í spástokknum af nýju guðaafli - Húsi keðjanna. Brotinna guða og andhetja sem takast á við hina hefðbundu guði og draga heildarsögu Eriksons æ nær lokaátökunum sem væntanlega verða eftir fjölda bóka. ( )