I'm gutted I wasn't able to wait til the read along to start this, there was SO much more to discuss here compared to GotM. I don't regret reading ahead at all though, I was hooked all the way through.

I thought people were overestimating how hard Malazan is to follow while reading through GotM. I felt very grounded while reading through it and felt like I generally had understanding on what was going on in the world.

Deadhouse Gates increased the scope of basically everything, I feel like I have a very weak grasp of what's happening now. We get a good look at flora and fauna of areas, characters are a lot more fleshed out, and the amount of players in the plot has increased drastically.

I loved the characters in GotM but the ones in DG are on another level. Paran was my favorite POV last book, and now he wouldn't even be in my top 5.

There wasn't a single major POV I wasn't in love with here. Felisin, Mappo, and Duiker especially stood out to me as fantastic characters to view the world through.

Paran's sister (not that one) usurped him as my favorite character. Felisin might straight up be my favorite POV in any book. So frustrating to read through, especially the earlier sections, but you can't even blame her for it.

It was a tragic situation all around. Heboric trying his best to be there for her but he was broken by the mines too and he doesn't have the patience to get through to her, especially when she's constantly trying her best to make him feel like shit.

I'd lump Baudin in there too but I lost all sympathy for him when he had sex with Felisin just to make fun of her.

Mappo is awesome, easily the most wholesome character so far. A non human is a great POV to view the world from, and since they aren't tied up in the events surrounding the Malazan empire yet it made for a good neutral look at things.

I also absolutely love the kind of character dynamic where someone's most important person isn't a romantic partner, but someone they formed an unbreakable bond of friendship with. Mappo thought Icarium destroyed his home but over the years he still came to value Icarium more than anyone.

Speaking of Icarium, he's my favorite non POV character. I was very interested in learning more about him back when he was mentioned in GotM but I was not expecting to see him up close so soon, and at such an extent. I'm excited to see where his character is headed in the future.

The battles in the Chain of Dogs sections were incredible. Towards the start of that plot I was a little worried I'd end up finding sections of it boring, but I'm glad to say that didn't happen once. Despite being lower in scale than the battle of Pale at the start of GotM, it somehow managed to feel a lot more epic.

Every engagement had me on the edge of my seat. Duiker was the perfect lens to view these battles from too, as I constantly wondered alongside him how the hell Coltaine would get through another battle.

The ending to that plot was so upsetting, in a good way. There was always this lingering dread that their trek to Aren was pointless, and to see that it was for so many of them was heartbreaking. Duiker was already broken before Mallick betrayed them, and seeing him getting spiked after all that made my stomach drop.

I was pissed the High Fist got off so easy. But thankfully I have another target for my anger in Korbolo Dom. Him calling getting spiked honorable was infuriating. Can't wait to see him get what's coming to him. Hopefully baby Coltaine and phylactery Duiker get to be there when it happens.

Aside from the characters, I love how the scale of the world increased by such a degree. The Azath house group figuring out that a single mosaic represented an entire continent, coupled with the fact the mosaics went on farther than they could see made the overall world (multiverse?) feel insanely large.

Learning that Raraku was a Warren blew my mind. Warrens not only being sources of magic but also actual physical locations means Erikson can do so much with them. Having a Warren just chilling out in the world as a location makes me question so many things. Is Moon's Spawn a Warren? Is the whole damn planet just one big Warren? I'm very excited to see how Warrens develop in the next books.

The Deck of Dragons also continues to impress me. It's such a vaguely simple concept but Erikson gets SO much out of it. Seeing the Elder deck out of carved stone was another really cool implementation of it.

As for the one thing I disliked, it was the same thing as GotM. A lot of the ending felt anticlimactic. The Chain of Dogs of course had an incredible conclusion but even then, there's not much of a sense of finality to it since Duiker and Coltaine are clearly coming back in some form.

I was especially disappointed in how Fiddler and his crew's plot turned out. Those sections were ready enjoyable to read though and I loved the conversation with Icarium's father, but they went through a lot without much payoff. Like the previous book, it basically felt like setup for future books. I'm also a little salty we didn't get to see Apsalar and her father reuniting. I feel like Apsalar should've had a greater focus in this book, it felt like she got pushed to the side despite the fact she had a ton of interesting stuff going on.

I was tearing up when Icarium was ready to sacrifice himself, and Mappo refusing to let it happen was also great. But now those two are left in basically in the same position they started the book in.

I'm not disappointed in how Felisin's plot turned out, especially since she's now presumably an incredibly important character as Sha'ik reborn. But I also wish we got to see her work through her thoughts more towards the end. Instead now she has the baggage of two people who have been through a lot, which I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of.

Also despite being called Deadhouse Gates we only got like, 3 pages that took place in there. But now that I think about it, GotM didn't really feature many moon gardens either...

I'll eventually get used to this though, I should be more patient with unfolding plots in a series that's TEN books long.

To close this out, I want to comment on the humor of this book. Although not featured as much as the previous book, since the events here were a lot heavier, it was still just as funny. I audibly laughed when Cotillion tried to wreathe himself in shadows to look cool as he walked away, but the Apt rider was still able to see him anyways. Not only was this moment really funny, but it was great humanization for Cotillion too. Even gods get the urge to look needlessly badass.

And now I wait for my Memories of Ice copy to arrive. It's going to be a looooong week.