First read: Deadhouse Gates. Book 2

Post by **SoulBiter** » Sun Apr 14, 2024 10:57 pm

Downloaded and will share my thoughts as I read. Feel free to join!

Post by **peter** » Mon Apr 15, 2024 7:04 am

Finished it last week.

Another roller-coaster ride, not for the fainthearted, but boy, ticking all the boxes.

Can't say too much for fear of spoilering - but I'm thinking that you'll be more than happy SB.

Similar trick as with the first book, in that the story jumps around on about 4 different story arks, following different protagonists in each, before culminating in.....well - that would be telling.

The deliberate confusion level is ramped up to eleven once more, but does get easier to handle once you are used to it. I'm a person that has an unreasonable fear of 'loosing the plot' (in the real sense

) when I'm watching films or reading books. I tend to think it must be me - that I must have missed something - sometimes never allowing for the fact that perhaps you aren't meant to be getting it, that perhaps your confusion is a deliberate ploy of the story writer. I should trust the authors/writers more, but alas there has been times when I'm actually just right - I have simply lost the plot, alas for it never to return.

But these books are not examples of this. The confusion really is part of the authorial intent, preparing the ground for a resolution thereof later in the story. All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.......(style of thing, if you get me

).

(Struggling to find a copy of book 3 as yet; none in the library and books on eBay have gone through a hefty price hike of late, so I'm down to 2nd hand bookstore hunting - charity shops in the UK - for the moment. I'll spring for the eBay copy if I have to, but it'll take time for my desire to have the book to overcome my inherent parsimony.

)

Post by **SoulBiter** » Mon Apr 15, 2024 4:58 pm

A full book + ahead of me. I doubt I will catch up. My reading time is not always as open as it was the last few weeks. But I am super excited to start this one, and if the book gets me drawn in, well sometimes my wife gives me the look of "You gonna read 24X7"?

Post by **Avatar** » Mon Apr 15, 2024 9:50 pm

Well, it might take him as long to find it as for you to read DHG.

(I know that look...mine is split between reading 24x7 and gaming 24x7 so I have it twice as bad.

)

Anyway, I'm a few chapters in...won't say much...met Kimloc, (I do love the Gral impersonation) and we learn a little about Kalam / Quick Ben's origins, with more to come.

--A

Post by **SoulBiter** » Mon Apr 15, 2024 10:29 pm

I had to break off gaming. Too addictive for me. I have no telling how many RT hours in Everquest, everquest 2, and WoW. I can't go back... I might never get back.

Post by **peter** » Tue Apr 16, 2024 4:02 am

I'm lucky on that score. I have about a two hour maximum window for gaming before I loose interest and have to go do something else. Doesn't matter what game it is (though I've never played a MMORPG, so that might be different). (Incidentally - playing Metro Exodus at the moment and am so impressed with this game!)

Post by **Avatar** » Tue Apr 16, 2024 3:09 pm

I don't play MMORPG's for that exact reason.

Anything open-ended is a death-trap for me.

Anyway, proceeding a bit, forgot this is where Icarium turns up, and of course Iskaral Pust.

--A

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Apr 16, 2024 3:26 pm

Yeah, so much going on, it's easy to forget this is where these guys, huge as they are, first appeared.

Post by **SoulBiter** » Fri Apr 19, 2024 2:05 pm

So only about 7% or 8% into this book.. the pacing is different, but at least with this one I have more background so don't feel like I'm being thrown to the wolves right out of the gate. Good to be right back to the Bridgeburners!

Going after the Empress......well... lets see how that goes.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Fri Apr 19, 2024 4:02 pm

I assume you've met Kimloc. I want to be a Tano Spiritwalker when I grow up.

Post by **Avatar** » Fri Apr 19, 2024 6:06 pm

Well, I'm finished DHG. I'll save any comments here for when SB has progressed a little. Onto MoI now.

--A

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Fri Apr 19, 2024 8:26 pm

The words Memories of Ice are as powerful as Chain of Dogs.

Post by **SoulBiter** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:21 pm

Its going to be a while. You guys will be way ahead by the time I finish this book. Having read it before, you can skim over parts that I have to really pay attention to. Yes I could skim read it as well, but I don't want to finish them quickly just to try to keep up. Hopefully this week I will have a bit more reading time than I had last week.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 1:26 am

Skimming is most definitely contraindicated. Even on a second reading.

Post by **SoulBiter** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 7:01 pm

Still only about 12% in. There was the red guard/red blades that killed people indiscriminately. The two girls left motherless during this were picked up by the pimp. Fiddler saved them and ended up with an audience with their Grandfather who is a Tano Spirit Walker, who could have read Fiddlers mind if he allowed it. That was interesting. He gave him a conch shell for protection. Im guessing that will be important at least at some point. He also finds that he (Fiddler) is the first guest in 11 years. This interaction was not a small one but I will find out eventually what it really means.

Kalam goes to Jen'rahb and runs into someone he knows named Mebra.. they do not like each other and Mebra carries a debt to Kalam. In return for not killing him, he offers to repay the debt by giving him a signal/sign that will get him safe passage through the Odhan. During their confrontation Mebra drops something and Kalam picks it up. Its a book (a book that can unleash the apocalypse?) He takes the book and gets more instructions out of Mebra and leaves him alive.

After he leaves, another guy shows up and ..... the whole thing was a ruse.... oh lovely.

On to the next part. Mappo (A Trell?) and Icarium (Jhag?)are traveling together and they keep running into Soultaken that are kind of running rampant throughout the story right now. ...

and I will pick up there right after work today.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Tue Apr 23, 2024 7:33 pm

One of my very favorite parts in all of these books is Fiddler's meeting with Kimloc. Love that.

Post by **SoulBiter** » Thu Apr 25, 2024 12:27 pm

Icarium and Mappo have been invited into this cave by a "High priest" who has a servant that is also a mule/donkey/horse... they are at his place and he seems very off and jumps from one topic to another. He has said multiple times "a life for a life" but no explanation so far. But they also have found an astonishing library... more on that as I read

Crokus, Apsalar, and Fiddler are on the move. It seems that Fiddler (or was it Kalam before he went off on his own) but basically they are hoping she remembers enough of the assassin skills and memories from being inhabited. But Crokus does not like that. He just wants to help her get home and they had all agreed, but it seems that some of them have a different plan for her... Fiddler is now thinking he might sell the conch because he is scared it might draw unwanted attention to them.

We also shifted gears to this lady that was part of the House Paran and has been sold into slavery. Felisin, that has been giving herself to guards for food but later to only Beneth who seems to be in charge of this area they are in. She has been protecting Heboric and got him transferred to lighter duty that will hopefully keep him alive. Baudin, who is this super large warrior guy, protected them for a bit, losing an ear along the way. He has become part of Beneth's men... maybe a subterfuge to learn and keep them alive. The girl Felisin has been taking some kind of drug and of course drinking copious amounts of wine and Heboric sees that this is a bad thing. She seems to be losing herself.... Survive the day...

Then we switch back to the docks where there was almost a battle between incoming Red blades and the Wickan. But that got broken up...then there were these mock battles that the Seventh keeps losing until finally they win one with Duiker changing the tactics. They get a day off.

Some of this is a bit out of order I think.. but it will all coalesce eventually.

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Thu Apr 25, 2024 1:59 pm

Yes, indeed! Iskaral Pust! He is... Well, he's...
He's hard to describe is what he is.

Post by **SoulBiter** » Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:41 pm

22% Things have accelerated a bit. Kalam ends up delivering the book of Apocalypse to Sha'ik. It didnt go quite as he planned as they were able to take him prisoner very quickly... . Leoman, the Captain of the Sha'iks body guard was the only one he was paying attention to but there was another very large very fast (companion) that scooped him off his horse, he never sensed him/it. He went from supremely sure of himself to... oh shit they got me tied up.....just that fast. Once under control she (Sha'ik) allows him to deliver the tome.. she even calls him The Deliverer. They have an interaction and she allows him to leave, but see's that he has an important role to play still. She sends what Leoman called a companion with him... its an aptorian from the realm of shadow.... 9ft tall, two thin hind limbs, one foreleg multijointed, hunched, long neck, elongated head. Needle fangs on its jawline....one eye. Damned ugly sounding.

He leaves and some time passes.. remember he was being chased, and the Red blades have shown up and just as dawns sun strikes and she opens the book. They shoot her right in the forehead.... well that was fast... but Leoman dodges all their thrown spears and kicks their ass with a wooden sword. They end up up having to retreat thinking they have completed that part of their task (they are still chasing Kalam).... it doesnt sound like it was that easy...Leoman..."She said she would be renewed. We wait".

Then we switch back to Felisan who is now totally under control of Beneth with the help of drugs (durhang). She looks like she has aged considerably in just a few weeks but she is only like 15. Beneth had tried to give her to his Captain who recognized her as some sort of nobility... after they leave, Beneth beats the crap out of her trying to get the answer which she does not give. Her friends piece her back together but she goes right back to Beneth.

He continues questioning her after giving her more durhang, then takes her on patrol with him. They run into a Dosii captain... Beneths guards disappear and they attack him, she scampers away only to be rescued again... they either purposely started this or used it to their advantage. She gets reunited with Heboric and Baudin and they have a plan to escape, but she wants to take Beneth... ugh. Baudin says he will get him... we will see.

Icarium and Mappo are still with Pust, they have searched the place but did not find what they are looking for. Pust says they didnt look hard enough so now they are back to searching... this time.. for Pust's broom. LOL

Fiddler, Crokus, and Absalar, are traveling again, they end up having to go through a city called, G'danisban... in order to blend he is taking on the role of protector for Crokus and Absalar who take on the role of an engaged couple who want to marry there. But things go sideways pretty fast when challenged at the gate and his horse bites a guards face off... Holy crap. But they go with it, however there is a purge going on so anyone not Grul is going to be killed. They know their charade wont last so they decide to leave. In the chaos they see a young naked girl running and end up intervening...., more chaos and they kill some of those that were chasing the girl... Absalar without thinking kills a couple herself.... Absalar reveals memories that are not her own, but to her they are her memories... they figure out its Cotillion that was in her head... They run... but a bit earlier Fiddler thinks "Dont fall in love with this woman, Fid, old friend, else you loosen your guard of the lad's life, and call it an accident if fate..."

That is going to be an issue...

Post by **Fist and Faith** » Fri Apr 26, 2024 2:20 pm

That last line of Fiddler's has always stuck with me. Interesting bit of insight.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch