Of Raraku, which none escape unchanged

The first thing that struck me about Deadhouse Gates was how it hits very differently from Gardens of the Moon. In retrospect this is clearly intentional, but something I feel I may either have missed the first time around, or mislaid in the passing of years since. Even though it all starts in Unta, the parched, grim and frankly horrifying tone that permeates much of what happens on Seven Cities, is set.

Oh Felisin :(.

It may just be the case that I've read GotM an extra time, but I felt like there was more that caught me by surprise in DG in comparison. I couldn't help but pay more attention to the parallels and contrasts drawn between Apsalar and Icarium's sense of memory. Possibly seeing how my memory of what happens next in the story goes in and out of focus and re-discovery comes with more than just a touch of déjà vu.

A lot of what I think felt like confusing and superfluous tangents - random mentions of the Forkrul Assail and K'Chain Che'malle, references to the T'lan Imass war on a single Jaghut family near Vathar, origins of the Tellan ritual of immortality, the shredded strands of Kurald Emurlahn - felt a lot more connected during the re-read. And this time around I'm paying a lot more attention to the clear links and hints at the goings on in parallel on Genabackis!

Zooming out the (primary) action from a single city, as in GotM, to a whole sprawling content was a leap! But of course one that will come in handy later :). And while the path of hands threw up a lot that was emotional, it was nothing as compared to Felisin's journey to the heart of Raraku or indeed, the Chain of Dogs...

I mean, I remember Coltain's journey, particularly the end, being one to sear the soul, but I genuinely didn't remember the massacre outside Aren after! And given that I clearly remember Mallick Rel gunning for the Laseen's throne later, my mind boggles! In amongst all the various shades of grey, the Jhistal is a rare pitch black. Or so it seems anyway.

This time around I actually decided to only go to the Tor re-read after finishing the whole book and also thinking through some of what I feel. I know this seems to be a minority opinion, but honestly, I never found GotM hard to read. If anything it's a lighter entry point which gave me enough of a feel of what is to come without overwhelming. From DG we get into something more intense. While we are shown much more of the world, we are, naturally, also led to much deeper emotion. Which personally I really appreciate, but takes me a bit to assimilate.

I am left with a bunch of different feelings, unsurprisingly :). Looking forward to getting back to Genabackis and the mayhem there, but more so the old and new characters we will meet. Wondering which of the survivors from DG we will see when next (I remember a lot of them, but not all). But mainly, I'm left with the realization that while I started off the re-read somewhat focused on "understanding more" of the story being told, and there certainly is something to that, a lot of the enjoyment is in just getting to experience the stories told about these lives.

Finally, I appreciate that while many of the fallen are named, not all are, even when they play visibly significant roles.

Name none of the fallen, for they stood in our place.

Welcome to Darujhistan

Do I actually want to do this? I'm not sure :). The this in question is to recap my thoughts on finishing Gardens of the Moon. Also, is this something I want to do as I finish each book? Well, I am doing this, and also not committing to anything in the future, how about that? :D

Well, what an excellent idea it was to start on this reread! It did take me a few days to sort of get properly into it, but once in, it was a fantastic experience! It's been almost exactly eight years since the last time I read GotM so I was rather surprised how much of the story just came back to me! Especially given how I'm usually the one to completely forget stuff.

As I came across a lot of the characters, it was impossible not to remember my feelings about them from the past, which in many cases of course, built up over the period of nearly a year and may thousands of pages :). And those memories, while not exact, were enough to provide a completely new light to a lot of the details in the book. It may be a bit early to declare, but this series was just made to be reread! There are so many details that I am beginning to appreciate a lot more given what I know now :).

For one thing, the deaths sting a bit less! Although maybe not the ones where I'm pretty sure there's no coming back from.

In the end I decided to follow the Tor reread a bit, but not too closely :). In a way it provides a bit of a frame for my own thoughts, because sometimes it feels like there are so many I hardly know how to deal with them :). But I'm also happy to reflect on my own thoughts rather than just absorb or reflect those of others. The chapter summaries are kinda handy though.

One of the things that is very different this time around is the whole feeling of being part of a community :). It feels strange, but for my entire first read through of The Book of the Fallen, I didn't even know of the existence, let alone the extent, of the online fandom! I genuinely think I picked up the series almost at random, just because it happened to be on my Kindle. It was probably only after a couple of more books that the depth of the world started dawning on me!

It's nice then, to be able to pay what feels like a more appropriate amount of attention to this book this time around.

In terms of reflections on the book itself, I feel somehow more warm towards Paran. I also feel somehow less sad for Lorn than I did the last time. And less angry at Laseen... I find myself paying a lot more attention to the as yet limited interactions between Crocus and Apsalar :).

Being reminded that Paran's reprieve came at a cost and then reading the epigraphs by Felisin...

Ah yes, Whiskeyjack's knee! I mean, really!? I'm pretty sure last time around around I didn't even notice that bit. And was the Pannion Seer really that central to so much of the strategy in this book! Like I said, just made for rereading :).

I have to say discovering this interactive map made life all the more fun. What it lacks in exhaustive detail it certainly makes up for by making following the directional references a lot easier! It also just helped me get bearings a lot more at the beginning. The story does move about a lot, and I mean a lot particularly in the first few chapters, so it was good to have a quick way to see beyond the maps provided in the book.

Well, it feels good to have taken a bit of time to reflect on the first book before moving on to Deadhouse Gates. It feels like part of the reread for me, alongside just revisiting these people and places, is to find my way a bit deeper into the world. So far, albeit with a small sample size, it's going well :).