House of Chains by Stephen Erickson

[Waylander the Slayer]

The House of Chains by Stephen Erickson has recently been released in the U.S. He is a fantastic writer. I was'nt crazy about Gardens of the Moon, but the subsequent books have been fantastic. I think he might be my favorite fantasy author of all time ( competing with George RR Martin and China Mieville). One of his techniques I find interesting is the evolving names of characters, places etc.

 

[takyris]

I couldn't make it through the first book. I can see it appealing to people who like grim (I don't), but it didn't even feel like well-differentiated grim. There were just too many points that didn't make logical sense for the characters in question.

The epic struggle of my attempt to read Gardens of the Moon can be found here:

http://pats-quinade.livejournal.com/4138.html

And here's where I give up:

http://pats-quinade.livejournal.com/4626.html

Glad you found them enjoyable, though! The important thing is to read what you like.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

I skimmed through Gardens of the Moon myself. But the next two books are amazing. I suggest giving it a try even without reading Gardens of the Moon.

 

[takyris]

What's the timeframe difference on the next two books? Do they use the same characters, or is it a Modessit-esque "Several Hundred Years Pass" kind of deal? And are they equally grim? I don't love grim, so even if they fix some of the character and plotting issues that bugged me in the first book, they might not be my cup of tea -- but they might be worth giving a shot from the library.

 

[mmu1]

What's the timeframe difference on the next two books? Do they use the same characters, or is it a Modessit-esque "Several Hundred Years Pass" kind of deal? And are they equally grim? I don't love grim, so even if they fix some of the character and plotting issues that bugged me in the first book, they might not be my cup of tea -- but they might be worth giving a shot from the library.

The timeframe is continuous, for the most part (and there are no large jumps of any kind, aside from the occasional flashback) but over the next four books (haven't read the sixth one yet), he introduces a lot of new characters, and doesn't deal with them all in every book.

And it definitely does stay grim.

The books have their flaws - they're not nearly self-contained enough, and you often don't have enough information to appreciate (or completely make sense of) certain events until much later. On top of that, IIRC he wrote Gardens of the Moon much earlier than the other books, it was his first stab at this thing, and it took him a while to get things right - though it also, as a result, introduced some small continuity errors.

Still, I kept reading anyway, because he does have a lot of interesting ideas, and because he's one of very few authors who writes about individuals wielding extremely high levels of power and manages to create an internally consistent world for them to occupy.

 

[jhallum]

The House of Chains by Stephen Erickson has recently been released in the U.S. He is a fantastic writer. I was'nt crazy about Gardens of the Moon, but the subsequent books have been fantastic. I think he might be my favorite fantasy author of all time ( competing with George RR Martin and China Mieville). One of his techniques I find interesting is the evolving names of characters, places etc.

Cool, I'll have to go get it then. I already have the UK printing, but I want to keep those rather nice looking, so I've been getting the US ones too. Great series, one of my favorites (because of the deep and detailed plots.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

I am going to HAVE to include the Panion Domin in the next campaign I run in some manner. They are just SICK and will completely horrify the PC's.