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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pants" data-source="post: 1784736" data-attributes="member: 8849">I just finished Deadhouse Gates last night.  Good book and in some respects, very good, but I can't help but think that I might've thought it was better if every Erikson fan hadn't hyped its greatness to me over the last year and a half.  Seriously, near every fan claimed it was the best book written. Ever.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but think that the overabunance of spastic hype didn't get to me in some ways. Oh well, spoileristic comments to follow:[spoiler]Icarium and Mappo were the stars of the book.  Two truly cool characters, especially Mappo.  Out of everyone in the book, I looked forward to reading about these two the most. Erikson really knocked these two out of the ballpark with an excellent mix of mystery, character development, and emotion.  Absolutely great in every way.Felisin. Probably the worst part of the book. For the first 3/4 she's an annoying bitch - I'm talking Sansa annoying here.  But while Sansa grew to become one of the most heart-wrenching characters in aSoIaF (granted it took 3 books, compared to Erikson's 1, so it's probably not an apt comparison), Felisin just changes... in one scene.  I'd accept it if it had something to do with her becoming Sha'ik, but according to her... it didn't, not really at least.  Oh well, her final scene with Baudin was really good, it almost made me disregard the rest of the book where she was annoying.The Chain of Dogs.  Good but probably the most overhyped part of a book ever. The end is excellent, but I couldn't help the detached feeling I felt throughout the rest of the plot-line. Erikson was tugging at my emotions, just in the wrong ways. Yeah, everything is terrible, people are starving and dying, the nobles are big, naive jackasses, Coltaine is doing the impossible. This would be good if Duiker and the soldiers didn't break out with philosophical ramblings every other paragraph. THAT was the bad part. I don't mind philosophy mixed in with my fantasy, if it is done well and it is kept in moderation, but Erikson just went overboard.Despite that, the very end of the Chain of Dogs, from Coltaine's last stand to Duiker's 'death' is bloody amazing.  Very emotional and extremely well written.  I applaud this part.When I first finished Gardens of the Moon I thought that the introduction of the Azath House was way too deus ex machina.  I'm not sure if I really think that anymore, but I wonder if Erikson could have handled it better.  Dropping vague hints about the Deadhouse in Malaz would rectify the situation, since we wouldn't really know what a Deadhouse is, but when it finally shows up it would seem like less of a 'pulled out of nowhere' kind of thing.Finally, some questions for those of you in the know. If any of these questions are answered with spoilers from later books, just tell me so:1) DG mentions that Ammanas and Cotillion are Kellanved and Dancer Ascended. GotM and DG both mention that Quick Ben was once a High Priest of Shadow.  However, if I have my facts straight, Quick Ben joined the Bridgeburners during Kellanved's reign, so how could he have been a High Priest of Shadow if Ammanas didn't exist back then?  Unless he became a High Priest of Shadow after he joined the Bridgeburners, which then kills my whole point. So, did I spot an inconsistency or will this be addressed later on?2) What exactly do the T'lan Imass look like? The descriptions are vague, but I've got this wacky idea that they vaguely resemble humans in form.[/spoiler]Yeah, it is kind of ranty, but I'm overall pleased with the book. I started Memories of Ice last night and I'm looking forward to it. I hope the hype on MoI doesn't get to me like it did with DG.</blockquote>

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