House of Chains

Parody-humorous stories set in the world of the Malazan Empire were written by Steven Erikson starting in 2002. To date (2020), six stories have been published, and the author’s plot has not yet been exhausted. In one interview, the writer called them a tribute to “The Tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” by Fritz Leiber; however, the subject of the farce play is more like the entire range of “thrillers” and “horror stories” of today’s mass culture.

Death-loving necromancer warlocks Boshlen and Corbal Brosh may have been familiar to readers from “Memories of Ice.” Their huge carriage, driven by the gloomy servant Emansipor, rolled across the plains of Genabakis, leaving behind quite unpleasant rumors, and—along with the heroes of the novel—ended up stuck in the besieged Capastan, where the cocky villains were involuntarily forced to serve a good cause: defending the city from a horde of cannibals. The novellas present other adventures of the restless trio.