Deadhouse Gates is the second book in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. As I neared the end of this novel, I had this realization: Steven Erikson understands epic fantasy in a unique and interesting way. To understand what I mean, let's consider a few issues. A big decision that any writer has to make involves the point-of-view character. It's important to have someone in this role who is actually going to be present at all important events, a convention which in the past has led to fictional heroes who are virtually the center of the universe--other characters may exist and earn our interest, but everything really hangs on what so-and-so does. Right back to Frodo and the ring (yes, we get into what's going on at Minas Tirith, but we know it's all for naught if Frodo doesn't succeed) and even more so in the early successors (Thomas Covenant and a succession of Shannara brats, for instance). One way to get around this limitation, common in epic fantasy today, is shifting perspectives. This is great, allowing for a larger scope without unrealistic expectations on one character being present for everything and rather more multi-polar storytelling. Erikson (and I don't mean to imply that he's the only one doing this) goes one better--not only do we have a large cast of point-of-view characters, none of them really manages to assume paramount imortance. A question like "who's the main character" loses meaning in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. 
 Because of this, when reading Deadhouse Gates, one might conclude that the story is basically independent of the first book in the series, Gardens of the Moon. We have some overlapping characters, but not that many or even really featured all that prominently. Probably, one could jump into the series here without having read the first book and not be all that lost. However, as the plot threads of this novel come together, it seems clear that Erikson is, in fact, weaving a truly epic tapestry in which everything interrelates, but on such a grand scale that we seem at first glance to be reading two almost-entirely-separate stories. 
 Certainly, a large number of our characters from the first novel are completely ignored and a host of others introduced, but it seems clear that this is all coming together in the form of an epic fantasy of what will end up being thousands and thousands of pages, covering at least two separate continents (this impression is only reinforced by peeking ahead at the dust jacket of the next novel in the series). 
 So, what do we have here? We have the tale of some renegade soldiers crossing a continent to attempt to assassinate an empress for the good of the empire; we have an uprising against the empire by a prophetess in vast desert; we have an imperial general fighting a desperate running battle for months to save imperial refugees from this uprising; we have a girl who has been betrayed by her sister in an imperial purge of the nobility, and said girl's fight for survival with her companions and her quest for vengeance against the sister who betrayed her. Beyond that are other smaller stories that weave in and out, and even some of these look tantalizingly like they could be developed at a later date (or simply add to the rich fabric of the world Erikson is weaving. 
 All in all, quite a good read and I look forward to continuing this series.