House of Chains

Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 4

De: Steven Erikson

Narrado por: Michael Page

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.

Viewing a landscape through a keyhole.

What did you love best about House of Chains?

Erikson's ability to construct the rich and historically vast world that is unveiled to us through his endearing character's adventures is mastery.

What other book might you compare House of Chains to and why?

This is a parallel closest to the Deadhouse Gates in terms of timeline and the continent it mostly takes place on.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Michael Page?

Absolutely change the narrator. Micheal Page tries but his range is too narrow to even attempt to pull this off. He mindless ploughs through the deadpan humor of the soldiers and doesn't grasp the subtle performance needed to breathe life into dialogue. He approaches every interaction from the same perspective and it unfortunately removes any identity from the characters whilst making the scenes seem repetitive. But Mr. Page is not to blame, Brilliance Audio gets an F for not recognizing that this was not a good match.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The scenes that would have moved me were lost in the abyss of the narration.

Any additional comments?

Huge fan of the series. Don't think I'll subject my beloved characters to anymore of this narration. If the plan was to release these over the next couple of years, its a stupid policy. Re-record these wonderful books and allow some life back into the story.

Another Masterpiece of Epic Fantasy

This is fantasy at the most absolutely epic end of the genre.

This book brings together so many threads that have been building over the course of the first 4 books, and once you see how intricately structured the tale is that Erikson is telling, the scope is astounding. It is hard to imagine the work that went into planning this story. This was the first book where I really felt like I knew what was going on throughout the vast majority of the book, and so I think I enjoyed it a lot more, even more than Memories of Ice, perhaps.

The first 270 pages or so are a masterpiece of epic fantasy writing, showing that in fact Erikson CAN write one single storyline without diverging into dozens of sub-characters and plots. The writing is tight, and it's hard to imagine anything being cut. When it is over it's actually a bit disappointing that we have to get on with the main storyline, which is of course, the war that's been brewing between the rebellion of Seven Cities and the Malazan Empire. As the tale progresses, I really felt that I had a grasp on most of the key players, and I think this is in part to Erikson finally revealing tons and tons of backstory and explanations of the various plots that are going on. Although unexpected things are constantly occurring, it seems that an overall picture of the storyline is now becoming clearer. After this we reach a kind of pause for breath, as the fifth book starts a new tale on a new continent that will eventually tie into the whole storyline.

The interesting thing is that while there are definitely some good characters and some evil characters, and thankfully the good guys (generally) make it out all right in the end and the evil guys get their comeuppance, there are a host of characters that fall between categories, as it seems in real life, who are "gray" and you do eventually come to understand their motivations and positions, even if you may have hated them at first. I think this tempers the fact that we cannot get quite as much character development at an individual scale when dealing with such a large dramatis personae. The main characters feel like they have some deep backstories that are simply not yet revealed, driven by excellent dialogue and POV moments, plus insights from other characters watching from the sidelines.

I was disappointed at first that the series switched narrators, but within the first hour I was hooked by Michael Page's amazing performance, and now I don't regret it. He especially brought Karsa Orlong to life for me, a character that (as a perfect example of what I mentioned before) I disliked at first, labeling as a villain, and now find one of the most interesting characters in the entire series, whom I find myself cheering on more and more. His growth and development in particular, changing from evil to (mostly) good, is quite a masterful piece of storytelling.

Narrator Unbearable Blubbering

Just such a downgrade from the previous narrator.

Pronunciations are wrong and in other cases just outright ridiculous. ex. Soultaken = sahuletaakin. !?!?!?

Additionally, there is a huge cast of characters but for whatever reason the narrator uses this disgusting blubbering voice for a majority of the characters that sounds like he is talking with a mouth full of marbles and slime.

Love the series as a whole, but you really have suffer through this narrator if you want to experience the audiobook edition of this story.

I miss Ralph Lister

I love this series but Hoods balls this narrator change was brutal. A lot of the characters sounds like a bear with some kind of throat wound. I miss the unique and instantly recognizable voices of the first narrator.

A word or two on the narration situation

So the story itself was great, but as we know as audiobook consumers, narration is key.
First off: Michael Page is a big adjustment from Ralph Lister. Since Lister's unique style took some getting used to for me in the first place, this was even more jarring. There are some distinct differences in pronunciation, but Erikson steps in and makes his desires known for how they "should" sound in future books in the series. Once you get to Midnight Tides, you will notice some changes in pronunciation. Honestly, Page is not a bad narrator by any stretch, there are much worse, he retains a good voice diversity, and is the narrator for the rest of the series which Brilliance has already recorded and is just staggering releases.

You do wish that Fiddler could continue being the wry joke cracker off beat sapper, but Page's rendition of him is just different. Just how it is, personally I like the voice change for some characters like Karsa Orlong.

Since Page is our man for the next 6 books, I am still completely excited for when they are finally all out. Even with the pronunciation changes, I really didn't notice the difference about 20 hours in. You will get used to it, this story is too good to be ruined by a different narration in my opinion.