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24 chapters - View chapters and summaries
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
Apsalar A young fisher's daughter from a coastal village who was possessed by the god Cotillion and used as an instrument of assassination before being encountered by the Bridgeburners. Apsalar is defined by the difficulty of reclaiming an identity after it has been occupied by something else, and by skills she did not choose and cannot entirely discard. | Major |
Apt An Aptorian demon from the Shadow realm who has adopted and fiercely protects a young boy. Apt is a deadly creature whose maternal instinct toward the child creates one of the novel's stranger and more affecting relationships. | Minor |
| Supporting | |
| Minor | |
Bidithal A High Mage of the Whirlwind rebellion and a deeply malevolent figure. Bidithal is a practitioner of the Shadow warren who pursues his own agenda within the rebellion, driven by personal obsessions and cruelty that make him dangerous even to his supposed allies. | Antagonist |
Blistig The Fist commanding the Aren garrison. Blistig is a competent officer who finds himself increasingly frustrated by High Fist Pormqual's cowardice and political manoeuvring as the rebellion closes in on the last Malazan stronghold in Seven Cities. | Supporting |
| Supporting | |
Captain Lull A Malazan captain serving in the Chain of Dogs. Lull is a grizzled, practical officer whose dark humour and steady competence make him a reliable presence amid the march's mounting horrors. | Minor |
Coltaine The Fist commanding the Malazan 7th Army and a Wickan war leader. Coltaine is tasked with escorting tens of thousands of Malazan refugees across the Holy Desert Raraku to the safety of Aren while under constant attack from the forces of the Whirlwind rebellion. His tactical brilliance and iron will define the Chain of Dogs. | Major |
Corporal List A young Malazan corporal attached to the 7th Army who becomes Duiker's companion during the Chain of Dogs. List is earnest and observant, providing a younger soldier's perspective on the horrors of the march. | Minor |
Cotillion One of the two gods who rule the Realm of Shadow, Cotillion is the patron of assassins and one of the sequence's most active divine participants in mortal affairs. Where Shadowthrone operates through misdirection, Cotillion is more direct - he intervenes personally and is bound by a personal code that distinguishes him from the series' more purely transactional divine figures. | Major |
Crokus Younghand A young thief operating across Darujhistan's rooftops, Crokus Younghand is drawn into events considerably beyond his experience when a routine theft places him at the intersection of imperial and divine interest in the city. He is defined by the combination of competence in his chosen field and complete unpreparedness for everything surrounding it. | Supporting |
| Minor | |
Duiker An Imperial Historian attached to the Malazan 7th Army on the Seven Cities continent. Duiker is a veteran observer of military campaigns who finds himself drawn into the Chain of Dogs, the desperate march of Coltaine's forces across the Holy Desert. His role as chronicler forces him to witness events he is powerless to change. | Major |
Empress Laseen The ruler of the Malazan Empire, Laseen came to power through the Claw and has maintained that power through a combination of political ruthlessness and calculated distance from the empire's military campaigns. She is one of the sequence's most deliberately ambiguous figures - her decisions cause enormous suffering, and the sequence neither excuses nor simply condemns her. | Antagonist |
Febryl A High Mage within the Whirlwind rebellion who conspires against Sha'ik. Febryl is scheming and treacherous, pursuing his own path to power by manipulating the rebellion's internal politics and playing various factions against each other. | Supporting |
Felisin Paran The youngest sister of Ganoes Paran, cast into the otataral mines of Skullcup during the Malazan nobility purge ordered by Adjunct Tavore. Felisin's experiences in the mines harden her into someone very different from the sheltered noblewoman she once was. Her journey through suffering and rage shapes the Whirlwind rebellion. | Major |
Fiddler A sapper and one of the Bridgeburners' longest-serving members, Fiddler is defined by a sardonic pragmatism that functions as both coping mechanism and genuine philosophy. He is exceptionally good at his work and exceptionally tired of the circumstances that require it. His card readings recur across the sequence as moments of unwanted clarity. | Major |
Ganoes Paran A young noble-born officer from a wealthy Malazan merchant family, Ganoes Paran enters imperial service with more idealism than the Malazan military is accustomed to accommodating. His assignment to the Bridgeburners as their new captain places him at the intersection of forces far older and more dangerous than any conventional military command. Paran is defined by his capacity to absorb disillusionment without becoming cynical - a quality the world he inhabits tests repeatedly. | Protagonist |
Gesler A Malazan sergeant whose experiences during the novel transform him in ways he does not fully understand. Gesler is a veteran soldier, practical and laconic, who endures extraordinary circumstances with the stoicism characteristic of long-service marines. | Supporting |
Showing 1 to 20 of 54 items
| Name | Type |
|---|---|
| Groups in Malazan Book of the Fallen (series) | |
| Circle of Kruppe | Community |
| The Anti-Malazan Alliance | Organisation |
| The Bonehunters | Faction |
| The Bridgeburners | Faction |
| The Claw | Organisation |
| The Malazan Empire | Organisation |
| The Realm of Shadow | Faction |
| The T'lan Imass | Faction |
| The T'orrud Cabal | Organisation |
| Tiste Andii | Faction |
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
1 September 2000 | Publication | Deadhouse Gates is widely considered the point at which critical and reader opinion consolidated around the series as something genuinely exceptional. The Chain of Dogs - the overland march protecting thousands of refugees through a continent in revolt - drew comparison to the great military narratives of the genre and beyond it, with reviewers noting that Erikson had produced something with the moral weight of historical tragedy rather than the clean heroism of conventional fantasy. Coltaine, the Malazan commander leading the march, was praised as one of the most compelling military figures in the genre. The novel's emotional brutality - its refusal to protect its characters or soften its conclusions - was noted as a departure from genre convention that earned rather than exploited its darkness. Many readers and critics consider Deadhouse Gates the finest volume in the sequence and one of the strongest achievements in epic fantasy. |
2001 | Award Nominated | SF Site Readers Poll SF/fantasy book category. 10th place. |
Deadhouse Gates is widely considered the point at which critical and reader opinion consolidated around the series as something genuinely exceptional. The Chain of Dogs - the overland march protecting thousands of refugees through a continent in revolt - drew comparison to the great military narratives of the genre and beyond it, with reviewers noting that Erikson had produced something with the moral weight of historical tragedy rather than the clean heroism of conventional fantasy. Coltaine, the Malazan commander leading the march, was praised as one of the most compelling military figures in the genre. The novel's emotional brutality - its refusal to protect its characters or soften its conclusions - was noted as a departure from genre convention that earned rather than exploited its darkness. Many readers and critics consider Deadhouse Gates the finest volume in the sequence and one of the strongest achievements in epic fantasy.
SF Site Readers Poll
SF/fantasy book category. 10th place.