House of Chains

Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 4

By: Steven Erikson

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 35 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

In Northern Genabackis, a raiding party of savage tribal warriors descends from the mountains into the southern flatlands. Their intention is to wreak havoc amongst the despised lowlanders, but for the one named Karsa Orlong, it marks the beginning of what will prove to be an extraordinary destiny.

Some years later, it is the aftermath of the Chain of Dogs. Tavore, the Adjunct to the Empress, has arrived in the last remaining Malazan stronghold of Seven Cities. New to command, she must hone 12,000 soldiers, mostly raw recruits but for a handful of veterans of Coltaine's legendary march, into a force capable of challenging the massed hordes of Sha'ik's Whirlwind, who lie in wait in the heart of the Holy Desert.

But waiting is never easy. The seer's warlords are locked into a power struggle that threatens the very soul of the rebellion, while Sha'ik herself suffers, haunted by the knowledge of her nemesis: her own sister, Tavore.

And so begins this awesome chapter in Steven Erikson's acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen.

©2002 Steven Erikson (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

The voice actor altered the pronunciation of words

The previous voice actor had ways of pronouncing things differently. I'm not saying there's a right or wrong way but at least be consistent.

Don't Avoid Books 4 - 10 Due to change in Narrator

I avoided the Malazan Book of the Fallen on audio for a year or more because of the horrible reviews given the change in narrators after book 3. Finally, my desire for a "re-read" with the convenience of audiobooks overcame my reluctance and I started in. I enjoyed Ralph Lister's work on the first three books very much, so it was with a great deal of trepidation that I plunged into House of Chains with narration by Michael Page.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Mr. Page does have some issues with differentiating between characters, and some of his choices are odd (why does Crocus/Cutter, who's a young man, sound like a grandfather?), but other characters are an improvement for me, especially Kallam and Strings/Fiddler. Mr. Lister's renditions never really fit the characters as I'd imagined them from reading the printed texts, and for me, anyway, the Page versions are much closer to my mental images. Fiddler, especially, will be a welcome change as his role in the series grows more central.

I think if Michael Page had been the narrator from the start, he'd be getting solid 4-star reviews, with some minor quibbles. It's unfortunate the publishers couldn't finish the series with Ralph Lister, but I'm relieved that I'll be able to enjoy it to the end with the new narrator.

Michael Page did a great job.

An excellent performance by Michael Page. I was disheartened at first, having grown to admire Ralph Lyster, but as the story continued, he was able to capture the characters in his own way.

The reason for 4 stars and not 5 is because I feel they should have kept the pronunciations of names the same.

New narrator is horrible!

The story of Karsa Orlong was way too much and too long. The performance of the narrator is very hard to listen to. It's like he purposely pronounced key names to set himself apart and totally ruins the continuity from previous books and also the continuity of following along with the storyline because you have to rewind to figure out who he's actually talking about. Poorly done.

Narration much better than I was lead to believe

After I read a lot of the reviews on here I was under the impression that the change in narrator was going to be awful! In actual fact it was quite good. Do I prefer Ralph Lister? Yes. Do I wish Michael Page could have listen to Ralph Lister's pronunciation of names and places? Yes. That being said, I really enjoyed the performance of this book. Michael Page is help enormously by the way this book starts out. House of Chains isn't as good as the Memories of Ice but it is a excellent listen none the less.

New reader takes getting used to but is not to bad

I have listened to the first few books and I do have to agree that the reader in the first books was perfect for this. but I do have to disagree with everyone hating on the new reader. yes it took time to get used to the new reader and he does pronounce names and places a little different but the book was amazing and I loved every second of it.

Deep story made a very hard follow by M Page

This series is so deep and has so many characters, the last thing it needed was a new narrator that didn’t bother to listen to the previous books. Women sounded like men, young men, like Crocus, sounded like an older man. He didn’t even keep the names sounding the same. I listened to the first three books twice to get a better grip because I didn’t pay enough attention the first time, and got a little lost. After this book, I’m not sure I want to put the effort into figuring out who he’s talking about. Michael Page isn’t as good but he probably isn’t as bad as it seems. He didn’t do himself any favors by not following the names and characters as they were set up in the first 3 books. Too bad.

change in narrator lead to some confusion

The new narrator read very well, but changed pronunciations from previous narrator on of a lot of things which made some parts hard to follow initially.

excellent book

very awesome serie. i got used to the ralph so it was a difficult transition. i did not like the female imitation of the new narator.

I liked the last reader a lot more...

The worst thing about the change in reader is that he pronounces names differently than the last reader. Also, he is not nearly as dynamic as Ralph Lister was. Still, the story was interesting and I will continue. It's too bad there was a change though.