Verwandte Artikel zu Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen)
Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen) - Softcover
Buch 2 von 10: The Malazan Book Of The Fallen
Inhaltsangabe
The second novel in the awe-inspiring Malazan Book of the Fallen series. "Gripping, fast-moving, delightfully dark, with a masterful and unapologetic brutality reminiscent of George R. R. Martin." -- Elizabeth Haydon
In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha'ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends . . .
Set in a brilliantly realized world ravaged by dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is a novel of war, intrigue and betrayal confirms Steven Eirkson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality--a new master of epic fantasy.
Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.
Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor
STEVEN ERIKSON is an archaeologist and anthropologist and a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His Malazan Book of the Fallen series has met widespread international acclaim and established him as a major voice in the world of fantasy fiction. The first book in the series, Gardens of the Moon, was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award. The second novel, Deadhouse Gates, was voted one of the ten best fantasy novels of the year by SF Site. He lives in Canada.
Von der hinteren Coverseite
"Give me the evocation of a rich, complex and yet ultimately unknowable other world, with a compelling suggestion of intricate history and mythology and lore. Give me mystery amid the grand narrative. Give me a world in which every sea hides a crumbled Atlantis, every ruin has a tale to tell, every mattock blade is a silent legacy of struggles unknown. Give me, in other words, the fantasy work of Steven Erikson. Erikson is a master of lost and forgotten epochs, a weaver of ancient epics on a scale that would approach absurdity if it wasn't so much fun."--Andrew Leonard, Salon.com on The Malazan Book of the Fallen
"Steven Erikson afflicts me with awe. Vast in scope, almost frighteningly fecund in imagination, and rich in sympathy, his work does something that only the rarest of books can manage: it alters the reader's perceptions of reality."--Stephen R. Donaldson on Deadhouse Gates "I stand slack-jawed in awe of The Malazan Book of the Fallen. This masterwork of imagination may be the high water mark of epic fantasy. This marathon of ambition has a depth and breadth and sense of vast reaches of inimical time unlike anything else available today. The Black Company, Zelazny's Amber, Vance's Dying Earth, and other mighty drumbeats are but foreshadowings of this dark dragon's hoard."--Glen Cook on The Malazan Book of the Fallen "One of the best fantasy novels of the year."--SF Site on Deadhouse Gates "Rare is the writer who so fluidly combines a sense of mythic power and depth of world, with fully realized characters and thrilling action, but Steven Erikson manages it spectacularly. The books are reminiscent of Tolkein's scope, Zelazny's cleverness and wit, and Donaldson's brooding atmospherics; yet all combined with dazzling talent into a narrative flow that keeps the reader turning pages. Some writers open windows on worlds, Erikson opens worlds and makes them so real, so magical, you're not sure if you can escape--and I don't want to."-Michael A. Stackpole on Deadhouse Gates "Such is the impact of the first book in Erikson's monumental Malazan saga, Gardens of the Moon, that the achievement of this sequel is doubly surprising. Not only is the vigour and sweep of the earlier book effortlessly captured, the complex plot is simultaneously deepened and accelerated, with a grasp of tempo that has the reader inexorably gripped . . . Roll on, book three!"-The Good Book Guide on Deadhouse GatesAuszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Chapter One
And all came to imprint
Their passage
On the path,
To scent the dry winds
Their cloying claim
To ascendancy
The Path of Hands
Messremb
1164th Year of Burn’s Sleep
Tenth Year of the Rule of Empress Laseen
The Sixth in the Seven Years of Dryjhna, the Apocalyptic
A corkscrew plume of dust raced across the basin, heading deeper into the trackless desert of the Pan’potsun Odhan. Though less than two thousand paces away, it seemed a plume born of nothing.
From his perch on the mesa’s wind-scarred edge, Mappo Runt followed it with relentless eyes the colour of sand, eyes set deep in a robustly boned, pallid face. He held a wedge of emrag cactus in his bristle-backed hand, unmindful of the envenomed spikes as he bit into it. Juices dribbled down his chin, staining it blue. He chewed slowly, thoughtfully.
Beside him Icarium flicked a pebble over the cliff edge. It clicked and clattered on its way down to the boulder-strewn base. Under the ragged Spiritwalker robe---its orange faded to dusty rust beneath the endless sun---his grey skin had darkened into olive green, as if his father’s blood had answered this wasteland’s ancient call. His long, braided black hair dripped black sweat onto the bleached rock.
Mappo pulled a mangled thorn from between his front teeth. ‘Your dye’s running,’ he observed, eyeing the cactus blade a moment before taking another bite.
Icarium shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter any more. Not out here.’
‘My blind grandmother wouldn’t have swallowed your disguise. There were narrow eyes on us in Ehrlitan. I felt them crawling on my back day and night. Tannos are mostly short and bow-legged, after all.’ Mappo pulled his gaze away from the dust cloud and studied his friend. ‘Next time,’ he grunted, ‘try belonging to a tribe where everyone’s seven foot tall.’
Icarium’s lined, weather-worn face twitched into something like a smile, just a hint, before resuming its placid expression. ‘Those who would know of us in Seven Cities, surely know of us now. Those who would not might wonder at us, but that is all they will do.’ Squinting against the glare, he nodded at the plume. ‘What do you see, Mappo?’
‘Flat head, long neck, black and hairy all over. If just that, I might be describing one of my uncles.’
‘But there’s more.’
‘One leg up front and two in back.’
Icarium tapped the bridge of his nose, thinking. ‘So, not one of your uncles. An aptorian?’
Mappo slowly nodded. ‘The convergence is months away. I’d guess Shadowthrone caught a whiff of what’s coming, sent out a few scouts...’
‘And this one?’
Mappo grinned, exposing massive canines. ‘A tad too far afield. Sha’ik’s pet now.’ He finished off the cactus, wiped his spatulate hands, then rose from his crouch. Arching his back, he winced. There had been, unaccountably, a mass of roots beneath the sand under his bedroll the night just past, and now the muscles to either side of his spine matched every knot and twist of those treeless bones. He rubbed at his eyes. A quick scan down the length of his body displayed for him the tattered, dirt-crusted state of his clothes. He sighed. ‘It’s said there’s a waterhole out there, somewhere---’
‘With Sha’ik’s army camped around it.’
Mappo grunted.
Icarium also straightened, noting once again the sheer mass of his companion---big even for a Trell---the shoulders broad and maned in black hair, the sinewy muscles of his long arms, and the thousand years that capered like a gleeful goat behind Mappo’s eyes. ‘Can you track it?’
‘If you like.’
Icarium grimaced. ‘How long have we known each other, friend?’
Mappo’s glance was sharp, then he shrugged. ‘Long. Why do you ask?’
‘I know reluctance when I hear it. The prospect disturbs you?’
‘Any potential brush with demons disturbs me, Icarium. Shy as a hare is Mappo Trell.’
‘I am driven by curiosity.’
‘I know.’
The unlikely pair turned back to their small campsite, tucked between two towering spires of wind-sculpted rock. There was no hurry. Icarium sat down on a flat rock and proceeded to oil his longbow, striving to keep the hornwood from drying out. Once satisfied with the weapon’s condition, he turned to his single-edged long sword, sliding the ancient weapon from its bronze-banded boiled-leather scabbard, then setting an oiled whetstone to its notched edge.
Mappo struck the hide tent, folding it haphazardly before stuffing it into his large leather bag. Cooking utensils followed, as did the bedding. He tied the drawstrings and hefted the bag over one shoulder, then glanced to where Icarium waited---bow rewrapped and slung across his back.
Icarium nodded, and the two of them, half-blood Jaghut and full-blood Trell, began on the path leading down into the basin.
Overhead the stars hung radiant, casting enough light down onto the basin to tinge its cracked pan silver. The bloodflies had passed with the vanishing of the day’s heat, leaving the night to the occasional swarm of capemoths and the batlike rhizan lizards that fed on them.
Mappo and Icarium paused for a rest in the courtyard of some ruins. The mudbrick walls had all but eroded away, leaving nothing but shin-high ridges laid out in a geometric pattern around an old, dried-up well. The sand covering the courtyard’s tiles was fine and windblown and seemed to glow faintly to Mappo’s eyes. Twisted brush clung with fisted roots along its edges.
The Pan’potsun Odhan and the Holy Desert Raraku that flanked it to the west were both home to countless such remnants from long-dead civilizations. In their travels Mappo and Icarium had found high tels---flat-topped hills built up of layer upon layer of city---situated in a rough procession over a distance of fifty leagues between the hills and the desert, clear evidence that a rich and thriving people had once lived in what was now dry, wind-blasted wasteland. From the Holy Desert had emerged the legend of Dryjhna the Apocalyptic. Mappo wondered if the calamity that had befallen the city-dwellers in this region had in some way contributed to the myth of a time of devastation and death. Apart from the occasional abandoned estate such as the one they now rested in, many ruins showed signs of a violent end.
His thoughts finding familiar ruts, Mappo grimaced. Not all pasts can be laid at our feet, and we are no closer here and now than we’ve ever been. Nor have I any reason to disbelieve my own words. He turned away from those thoughts as well.
Near the courtyard’s centre stood a single column of pink marble, pitted and grooved on one side where the winds born out in Raraku blew unceasingly towards the Pan’potsun Hills. The pillar’s opposite side still retained the spiral patterning carved there by long-dead artisans.
Upon entering the courtyard Icarium had walked directly to the six-foot-high column, examining its sides. His grunt told Mappo he’d found what he had been looking for.
‘And this one?’ the Trell asked, setting his leather sack down.
Icarium came over, wiping dust from his hands. ‘Down near the base, a scattering of tiny clawed hands---the seekers are on the Trail.’
‘Rats? More than one set?’
‘D’ivers,’ Icarium agreed, nodding.
‘Now who might that be, I...
And all came to imprint
Their passage
On the path,
To scent the dry winds
Their cloying claim
To ascendancy
The Path of Hands
Messremb
1164th Year of Burn’s Sleep
Tenth Year of the Rule of Empress Laseen
The Sixth in the Seven Years of Dryjhna, the Apocalyptic
A corkscrew plume of dust raced across the basin, heading deeper into the trackless desert of the Pan’potsun Odhan. Though less than two thousand paces away, it seemed a plume born of nothing.
From his perch on the mesa’s wind-scarred edge, Mappo Runt followed it with relentless eyes the colour of sand, eyes set deep in a robustly boned, pallid face. He held a wedge of emrag cactus in his bristle-backed hand, unmindful of the envenomed spikes as he bit into it. Juices dribbled down his chin, staining it blue. He chewed slowly, thoughtfully.
Beside him Icarium flicked a pebble over the cliff edge. It clicked and clattered on its way down to the boulder-strewn base. Under the ragged Spiritwalker robe---its orange faded to dusty rust beneath the endless sun---his grey skin had darkened into olive green, as if his father’s blood had answered this wasteland’s ancient call. His long, braided black hair dripped black sweat onto the bleached rock.
Mappo pulled a mangled thorn from between his front teeth. ‘Your dye’s running,’ he observed, eyeing the cactus blade a moment before taking another bite.
Icarium shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter any more. Not out here.’
‘My blind grandmother wouldn’t have swallowed your disguise. There were narrow eyes on us in Ehrlitan. I felt them crawling on my back day and night. Tannos are mostly short and bow-legged, after all.’ Mappo pulled his gaze away from the dust cloud and studied his friend. ‘Next time,’ he grunted, ‘try belonging to a tribe where everyone’s seven foot tall.’
Icarium’s lined, weather-worn face twitched into something like a smile, just a hint, before resuming its placid expression. ‘Those who would know of us in Seven Cities, surely know of us now. Those who would not might wonder at us, but that is all they will do.’ Squinting against the glare, he nodded at the plume. ‘What do you see, Mappo?’
‘Flat head, long neck, black and hairy all over. If just that, I might be describing one of my uncles.’
‘But there’s more.’
‘One leg up front and two in back.’
Icarium tapped the bridge of his nose, thinking. ‘So, not one of your uncles. An aptorian?’
Mappo slowly nodded. ‘The convergence is months away. I’d guess Shadowthrone caught a whiff of what’s coming, sent out a few scouts...’
‘And this one?’
Mappo grinned, exposing massive canines. ‘A tad too far afield. Sha’ik’s pet now.’ He finished off the cactus, wiped his spatulate hands, then rose from his crouch. Arching his back, he winced. There had been, unaccountably, a mass of roots beneath the sand under his bedroll the night just past, and now the muscles to either side of his spine matched every knot and twist of those treeless bones. He rubbed at his eyes. A quick scan down the length of his body displayed for him the tattered, dirt-crusted state of his clothes. He sighed. ‘It’s said there’s a waterhole out there, somewhere---’
‘With Sha’ik’s army camped around it.’
Mappo grunted.
Icarium also straightened, noting once again the sheer mass of his companion---big even for a Trell---the shoulders broad and maned in black hair, the sinewy muscles of his long arms, and the thousand years that capered like a gleeful goat behind Mappo’s eyes. ‘Can you track it?’
‘If you like.’
Icarium grimaced. ‘How long have we known each other, friend?’
Mappo’s glance was sharp, then he shrugged. ‘Long. Why do you ask?’
‘I know reluctance when I hear it. The prospect disturbs you?’
‘Any potential brush with demons disturbs me, Icarium. Shy as a hare is Mappo Trell.’
‘I am driven by curiosity.’
‘I know.’
The unlikely pair turned back to their small campsite, tucked between two towering spires of wind-sculpted rock. There was no hurry. Icarium sat down on a flat rock and proceeded to oil his longbow, striving to keep the hornwood from drying out. Once satisfied with the weapon’s condition, he turned to his single-edged long sword, sliding the ancient weapon from its bronze-banded boiled-leather scabbard, then setting an oiled whetstone to its notched edge.
Mappo struck the hide tent, folding it haphazardly before stuffing it into his large leather bag. Cooking utensils followed, as did the bedding. He tied the drawstrings and hefted the bag over one shoulder, then glanced to where Icarium waited---bow rewrapped and slung across his back.
Icarium nodded, and the two of them, half-blood Jaghut and full-blood Trell, began on the path leading down into the basin.
Overhead the stars hung radiant, casting enough light down onto the basin to tinge its cracked pan silver. The bloodflies had passed with the vanishing of the day’s heat, leaving the night to the occasional swarm of capemoths and the batlike rhizan lizards that fed on them.
Mappo and Icarium paused for a rest in the courtyard of some ruins. The mudbrick walls had all but eroded away, leaving nothing but shin-high ridges laid out in a geometric pattern around an old, dried-up well. The sand covering the courtyard’s tiles was fine and windblown and seemed to glow faintly to Mappo’s eyes. Twisted brush clung with fisted roots along its edges.
The Pan’potsun Odhan and the Holy Desert Raraku that flanked it to the west were both home to countless such remnants from long-dead civilizations. In their travels Mappo and Icarium had found high tels---flat-topped hills built up of layer upon layer of city---situated in a rough procession over a distance of fifty leagues between the hills and the desert, clear evidence that a rich and thriving people had once lived in what was now dry, wind-blasted wasteland. From the Holy Desert had emerged the legend of Dryjhna the Apocalyptic. Mappo wondered if the calamity that had befallen the city-dwellers in this region had in some way contributed to the myth of a time of devastation and death. Apart from the occasional abandoned estate such as the one they now rested in, many ruins showed signs of a violent end.
His thoughts finding familiar ruts, Mappo grimaced. Not all pasts can be laid at our feet, and we are no closer here and now than we’ve ever been. Nor have I any reason to disbelieve my own words. He turned away from those thoughts as well.
Near the courtyard’s centre stood a single column of pink marble, pitted and grooved on one side where the winds born out in Raraku blew unceasingly towards the Pan’potsun Hills. The pillar’s opposite side still retained the spiral patterning carved there by long-dead artisans.
Upon entering the courtyard Icarium had walked directly to the six-foot-high column, examining its sides. His grunt told Mappo he’d found what he had been looking for.
‘And this one?’ the Trell asked, setting his leather sack down.
Icarium came over, wiping dust from his hands. ‘Down near the base, a scattering of tiny clawed hands---the seekers are on the Trail.’
‘Rats? More than one set?’
‘D’ivers,’ Icarium agreed, nodding.
‘Now who might that be, I...
„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.
Suchergebnisse für Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen)
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 2)
Anbieter: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Zustand: Acceptable. Item in acceptable condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 00110617759
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 4,03
Versand gratis
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 2)
Anbieter: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Zustand: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 00109419388
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 4,03
Versand gratis
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 2 verfügbar
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates
Anbieter: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 4 von 5 Sternen
Paperback. Zustand: Fair. The second novel in the awe-inspiring Malazan Book of the Fallen series. "Gripping, fast-moving, delightfully dark, with a masterful and unapologetic brutality reminiscent of George R. R. Martin." -- Elizabeth Haydon In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha'ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends . . . Set in a brilliantly realized world ravaged by dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is a novel of war, intrigue and betrayal confirms Steven Eirkson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality--a new master of epic fantasy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers CIN0765314290A
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 5,82
Versand gratis
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates
Anbieter: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 4 von 5 Sternen
Paperback. Zustand: Good. The second novel in the awe-inspiring Malazan Book of the Fallen series. "Gripping, fast-moving, delightfully dark, with a masterful and unapologetic brutality reminiscent of George R. R. Martin." -- Elizabeth Haydon In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha'ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends . . . Set in a brilliantly realized world ravaged by dark, uncontrollable magic, Deadhouse Gates is a novel of war, intrigue and betrayal confirms Steven Eirkson as a storyteller of breathtaking skill, imagination and originality--a new master of epic fantasy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers CIN0765314290G
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 5,82
Versand gratis
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates
Anbieter: Evergreen Goodwill, Seattle, WA, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
paperback. Zustand: Good. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers mon0000398683
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 2,68
EUR 3,48 Versand
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Foto des Verkäufers
Deadhouse Gates
Anbieter: Goodwill Books, Hillsboro, OR, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Zustand: acceptable. Fairly worn, but readable and intact. If applicable: Dust jacket, disc or access code may not be included. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers GICWV.0765314290.A
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 2,88
EUR 3,48 Versand
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 3 verfügbar
Foto des Verkäufers
Deadhouse Gates
Anbieter: MERS Goodwill, Saint Louis, MO, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Zustand: acceptable. Used - Acceptable: All pages and the cover are intact, but shrink wrap, dust covers, or boxed set case may be missing. Pages may include limited notes, highlighting, or minor water damage but the text is readable. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, but the text cannot be obscured or unreadable. Any access codes or passwords originally included with the book may be expired, used or no longer valid. Image is stock photo and cover art edition may be different than pictured. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers MERV.0765314290.A
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 6,35
EUR 3,49 Versand
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates
Anbieter: Polidori Books, N. Easton, MA, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Soft cover. Zustand: Very Good. 1st Edition. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-1779030166129
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 8,05
EUR 2,61 Versand
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Beispielbild für diese ISBN
Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 2)
Anbieter: Half Price Books Inc., Dallas, TX, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Paperback. Zustand: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority! Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers S_485373777
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 9,86
EUR 3,27 Versand
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar
Foto des Verkäufers
Deadhouse Gates (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 2)
Anbieter: EdmondDantes Bookseller, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Verkäuferbewertung 5 von 5 Sternen
Soft cover. Zustand: Very Good. Trade Paperback with only minor reading wear; faint stain on front cover, otherwise book is clean, unmarked. In stock. Ships from MN, USA. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 023857
Gebraucht kaufen
EUR 9,86
EUR 3,91 Versand
Versand innerhalb von USA
Versand innerhalb von USA
Anzahl: 1 verfügbar