Of Earthquakes and “Deadhouse Gates” by Steven Erikson

As shared last week, this month’s Supernatural Underground post on leadership features Coltaine from Steven Erikson’s Deadhouse Gates, which is the second novel in his Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

Yep, this is *my* edition 😀

As part of writing the post, I reread Deadhouse Gates, which was great, because I really enjoyed reacquainting myself with the whole story, as well as the character of Coltaine.

Picking up the book again also reminded me that it comes with a Christchurch earthquake story. Way back then, I had introduced a friend-in-reading to the Malazan series by loaning him the first book, Gardens of the Moon. Since he was eager to continue reading, I was of course happy to also lend Deadhouse Gates.

The book handover occurred during the time of the Christchurch earthquakes, the first of which struck in September 2010. The ‘really big one’ was on February 22nd, 2011 (yep, it is engraved on my memory and emotional experience), but in between September and February there were constant aftershocks, some of which were significant earthquakes in their own right.

One of these occurred on Boxing Day (December 26) 2010, and resulted in a number of commercial buildings in central Christchurch being “red-stickered” (i.e. unable to be occupied), including the building where my friend worked. Being red-stickered meant that no-one could go in (because of structural danger and those constant ongoing aftershocks), not even to retrieve possessions, which in this case included Deadhouse Gates.

As was so often a tale of those times, the book would have been demolished along with the building. Knowing this (and so it proved to be), I was resolved to acquire another copy of the book — which involved its own small saga. Chiefly, that I was able to obtain the exact same trade paperback edition, but from a bookstore that only shipped within the USA.

What to do? I thought — at which point my agents at Writers House came to the rescue and said that if I had it shipped to them in New York, they would ensure it reached me. And that, dear readers, is how I received my replacement copy of Deadhouse Gates, which is the exact same copy I reread in order to pen my Supernatural Underground post on the awesome that is Coltaine.

Something else that’s awesome is this depiction of Coltaine by artist Jason Dement, which I feel really captures the spirit of the character.