Deze recensie heb ik ooit voor SF-Terra geschreven:

Het Huis der Ketenen begint kort voor de gebeurtenissen in De Tuinen van de Maan. Maar het grootste deel van het boek speelt zich af na de overweldigende tragedie van de Hondenketen. Tavore neemt de plaats in van Coltaine en moet een wanordelijke en voor het grootste deel onervaren strijdmacht omsmeden tot een leger. Het rebellenleger van Sha’ik wacht in de woestijn rustig af wat er gebeurt.

Dit boek heeft vaart, spanning en een plot om je vingers bij af te likken. Hoewel het boordevol gebeurtenissen, diepere lagen en bizarre wendingen zit, lijkt het wel alsof het lezen steeds sneller gaat. In eerste instantie volgt het verhaal één persoon: Karsa Orlong. Verderop keert Erikson weer terug naar wat we ondertussen gewend zijn: een verhaal verteld vanuit meerdere figuren en meerdere locaties. Je moet er echt met je aandacht bijblijven, maar dat is het dan ook dubbel en dwars waard. De ketenen uit de titel komen op vele manieren terug, letterlijk en figuurlijk. Bovendien zijn die ketenen vaak al gesmeed in de eerdere delen. Ze drukken op de ziel van alle hoofdpersonen. Grimmig strijden zij ertegen, met soms bitter weinig succes. Het drakenspel krijgt er in dit boek een huis bij. Drie keer raden hoe het heet.
Ik kan me niet aan de indruk onttrekken dat werkelijk aan ieder detail gedacht is. Ieder karakter is zeer goed neergezet, reageert zoals bij het karakter past en heeft zijn eigen lijdensweg te gaan. Deprimerend zou je denken, maar toch is daar de humor die zo af en toe schijnt op duistere plaatsen. Ik word lyrisch van deze serie. Als dit zo doorgaat, dan komt de dag dat ik een van zijn boeken een 10 geef. Ik was nu al in de verleiding.
(Dit boek gaf ik een 9,5, meen ik me te herinneren) ( )

First read: August 2013
Re-read: January 2016 ( )

Whereas the earlier three books set up and finished major plot lines, this felt like an entire book devoted to building up future conflicts and stories. It's not done badly, and the book itself is good, but it definitely feels like something you enjoy more as a reread once finished with the entire series. Found it much harder or in some places just completely impossible to like most of the new characters, but there was enough pov chapters from earlier characters that I already love that were able to keep me interested. In a way, I think my feelings about the book are really fitting. I kept comparing Tavore and the plot itself to that of Deadhouse Gates', and Coltaine's Chain of Dogs always came out on top. ( )

I liked better than the third. I think I can't flee now, I will have to read the rest of them. ( )

So, listen up, House of Chains, we need to talk. Obviously your title is a reference to the literal High House Chains which is finally coming to real prominence in the fourth volume of the series, with many major players openly swearing to the Chained One. But something tells me that in addition to the Deck’s newest House, the title refers to the chains that bind many others—those of Sha’ik’s camp, especially the more well-meaning, such as the losing-it Heboric Ghost Hands, haunted by dreams of the jade giants (to my mind one of the weirdest and most interesting plotlines going, sadly abandoned for Treach for most of the book), chained to Shai’ik, chained to his knowledge of House Paran, chained by Fener, now fallen, and the giants, and now Treach too. What’s a guy to do? Karsa Orlong is chained by his gods and his tribal society, but also resents the literal chains the civilized world throws him into. He’s a perfect Knight for High House Chains—but it’s not a job he wants. Trull and Onrack, both Shorn in their way, are released from some chains but linked by others. Cutter and Apsalar are chained together, despite their very conflicted emotional states about the nature of those chains, and whether Cutter should chain himself to Cotillion as his patron, which he thinks might impress Apsalar (it doesn’t).

What makes me say all this? House of Chains is a good book and I think it’s a real “we’re getting serious about the Myth Arc” point, where 1-3 formed a neat little loop that could mostly close there—episodic menaces arising and meeting defeat. But here we pull back, and back, and realize the game is much much larger than we initially thought.

But regarding the above issue of High House Chains and the many mortals ascendants who labor beneath chains of iron and belief and duty, thematically: this book uses the word “chain” and its variants 274 times in about a thousand pages. Another important word, in Malazan if not common English, “warren,” is directly used 167 times. It’s hard to choose a character name to compare for the most used, since most major players have 2 (Tavore/the Adjunct, Sha’ik/Felisin, Fiddler/Strings, etc.), but for comparison’s sake, “Malazan,” the empire, people, and general designation, gets 280. That’s how many chains we’re talking about.

Wordcount.org (which counts “chain” and “chains” as separate words, alas) places “chain” at 2646/86800 in the ranking of word occurrence. For reference, 2647 is “parent,” and “army”, an important word in the book (Army of the Apocalypse/Whirlwind, the Fourteenth army, the Logros army, Onearm’s army, etc.) is 879th most common, and gets 177 mentions.

What I am saying is that we got a little heavy handed on the chains this time around. It’s okay! We got it! We can ease up a little. Every page someone felt the chains binding them. The metaphor is really solid. Don't hit it with a sledgehammer.

( )