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  • Deadhouse Gates

  • The Malazan Book of the Fallen 2
  • Written by: Steven Erikson
  • Narrated by: Ralph Lister
  • Length: 34 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (106 ratings)

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Deadhouse Gates cover art

Deadhouse Gates

Written by: Steven Erikson
Narrated by: Ralph Lister
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Publisher's Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Deadhouse Gates: The Malazan Book of the Fallen 2 by Steven Erikson, read by Ralph Lister.

Weakened by events in Darujhistan, the Malazan Empire teeters on the brink of anarchy. In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha'ik gathers an army around her in preparation for the long-prophesied uprising named the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in its size and savagery, it will embroil in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known: a maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust that will shape destinies and give birth to legends.... 

In the Otataral mines, Felisin, youngest daughter of the disgraced House of Paran, dreams of revenge against the sister who sentenced her to a life of slavery. Escape leads her to Raraku, where her soul will be reborn and her future made clear. The now-outlawed Bridgeburners, Fiddler and the assassin Kalam, have vowed to return the once god-possessed Apsalar to her homeland and to confront and kill the Empress Laseen, but events will overtake them, too. Meanwhile, Coltaine, the charismatic commander of the Malaz 7th Army, will lead his battered, war-weary troops in a last valiant running battle to save the lives of 30,000 refugees and, in so doing, secure an illustrious place in the Empire's chequered history. And into this blighted land come two ancient wanderers, Mappo and his half-Jaghut companion Icarium, bearers of a devastating secret that threatens to break free of its chains.... 

Set in a brilliantly realised world ravaged by anarchy and dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is the thrilling, brutal second chapter in the Malazan Book of the Fallen. A powerful novel of war, intrigue and betrayal, it confirms Steven Erikson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality - a new master of epic fantasy.

©2000 Steven Erikson (P)2019 Random House Audiobooks

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DONT GET THIE VERSION GET THE 2019 VERSION

the chapters are all mixed up on this version, they don't have the seperate books, prologue, epilogue, etc listed so pretty early on you'll be on say chapter 8 but it says chapter 10. go with the older version by Brilliance Audio. it's the exact same narrator but they didn't forget to do the table of contents properly!

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

damn philosophers

Every character in this book is a philosopher waxing on and on about everything/anything. Most of the pov characters are annoying. Felicine made me want to put this book down every time she opened her mouth. The historian was not bad most of the time but kept assuming the worst during battles rather then observing events as a historian should. Ikariens story mixed with fiddler/kalamb is the pov that makes the book. Wish the author spent more time on them could have rated the book better.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Awesome Story, held back by Narrator and a little disjointed

This is my second read-through of the Malazan books, the first on paper about 6 years ago, and now this one by audiobook. If you’ve read my review of Gardens of the Moon, I did say that there is a lot more exposition and explanation in these first books than I first gave them credit for, and that stays true for Deadhouse Gates, which is the book I struggled on the most my first time through (took me about twice the time as the other books did).

Now, I can happily say that this book is amazing. There’s so much action and so many awesome events that happen that I just powered through it. The Chain of Dogs especially is a great storyline and sets an amazing tone for the rest of the series. The only place I’ll take points away from (and I wish I could do 4.5/5 instead of just 4), is that the different plotlines are pretty disconnected, especially at the end. Usually the Malazan books do a great job of tying everything together into a huge climax, but this one feels like there are 3-4 separate climaxes happening and none of them matter for each other. That, and the timeline simply doesn’t make sense, unless you hand-wave it away with “time works different in warrens” for Fiddler & Kalam journeys to somehow take the same amount of time as the Chain of Dogs.

I was ok with Ralph Lister as the narrator for Gardens of the Moon, but I grew to dislike him more in this book. It feels like this is his first time reading the books so he sometimes doesn’t have the right tone or expression. He also mixes up character voices and misses entire lines of dialogue a few times, which can be jarring. The issue I had in Gardens of the Moon with there not being enough of a pause for paragraph breaks has gotten worse, and they added “they thought” everytime there is italicized writing from the book (indicating internal dialogue instead of spoken). This wouldn’t be so bad if they mixed it up a little, but just “they thought” everytime is as boring and repetitive as “they said” after each spoken line would be.
With all that said, for maybe 95% of the read, he still does a good job, and most of his voices are great (exception below). But I’ve only given him a 2 on performance this time, and I doubt that will change for Memories of Ice.
I’m obligated to add: I ABSOLUTELY HATE the voice he gave the unnamed Toblakai. One of my favourite characters in the whole series, and Lister makes him sound like a brainless child. For that reason alone I’m excited for when they change narrators starting in the 4th book.

Overall, this is still a great story, and is an action-packed entry for the first part of the series. I’m really looking forward to reading Memories of Ice again next.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Best Book series ever

This is the all time best fantasy series ever! Expertly narrated, Ralph Lister does a fantastic job bringing the characters out. Great narration, great book i can't recommend this series enough!

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