Ian C. Esslemont

I was really looking forward to starting this book. I had a hard time tracking it and Return of the Crimson Guard down, and was excited to see what a new writer's perspective would bring to the world of Malazan. Unfortunately, that this book would be a major let-down was pretty clear within the first 30 pages or so. Esslemont's writing is extremely amateurish, with paper-thin characters and poor timeline conception. Some of the very first scenes demonstrate that Esslemont is pathetically show more lacking in Erikson's biggest strength: insight into the human psyche.

Kiska is a girl living on the island of Malaz, desperate to make a name for herself in the world of intrigue and assassinations. Her thinking, as portrayed by Esslemont, is akin to that of an eight-year-old; and reading about it is like listening to an eight-year-old speak: "I can't believe that professional assassin blew me off! Just wait till I show him!" It would be laughable if it wasn't so painful to read. The other major POV character, Temper, is an old soldier, trying to maintain some anonymity in the city of Malaz. His encounters with the other soldiers of his garrison are just as absurd as the tales of the hapless assassin-wannabe Kiska.

Esslemont is not aided by his story-telling abilities. Flashback scenes (where most of the important information regarding the larger Malazan series can be gleaned) are integrated into the greater story-line in an unclear way, leading to a jumbled and confusing narrative that just leaves the reader annoyed. One entire story-line is forgotten about: Esslemont references it at the end, with one sentence indicating to the reader that the problem has been dealt with, but the resolution is never accounted for within the narrative of the book. Considering that this story-line gets a significant amount of attention in the first half of the text, being left with just taking Esslemont's word for it that the problem is solved at the end is more than a little frustrating.

While I was interested to read about the ascension of Dancer and Kellanved and the history of Dassem Ultor, this presentation of it was just terrible. I'm only about 150 pages into The Bonehunters, but it is clear that the sixth novel of Erikson's Malazan books takes some knowledge of the events of this book for granted. Sadly, that means that big Malazan fans probably ought to suffer through it.

At the end of the day, I'm appreciative to Esslemont if he did, indeed, play the large role in creating the world of Malazan that Steven Erikson credits him with. But Esslemont should stick to world-building, and leave the writing to his partner. Having to suffer through this book is an insult to the the readers who have come to love the sophistication and thoughtfulness of the Malazan world. Where Erikson's writing is clearly appropriate for intelligent adult fantasy-lovers, Night of Knives would be more appropriate to middle school readers. show less

Gotta say I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would. Another solid entry in the history of the Malazan world, and (in my opinion) loads better than Night of Knives. I didn't have the issues with characterizations that a lot of other people apparently did, and found most of the plot threads quite enjoyable. Still, the book has its issues: Individual plots (or entire prologues) that didn't seem to relate to the rest of the book, and sections (like in NoK) that were far too vague, show more even if intentionally so. It appears that some of these threads will continue through subsequent books, which, though acceptable, is slightly disappointing, as I was hoping these entries would be mostly "one-shots" like NoK. Still, I'm continually amazed at the creativity and coordination between Erikson and Esslemont in fashioning and presenting this completely made-up world. show less

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Title: Dancer's Lament
Series: Malaz: Path to Ascendancy #1
Author: Ian Esslemont
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 418
Format: Hardcover



Synopsis:

Before there was Cotillion and Kellanved, show more there was Dorin Rav and Wu. Taking place in the city of Li Heng, this is the story of how they became partners.

The plot of the book, however, is how the city of Li Heng survived a besiegement by a jumped up king who thought he was somebody. The 4 mages of the city, under the direction of the Protectress (a tiste liosan) end up confining Ryllandaras, the man-jackal in a magical prison. The Itko Kan'ians, the besiegers, have the help of a Jaghut and it takes the Protectress unleasing the full might of her Warren of Light to drive back the besiegers.

Wu, and Dorin, have plans to take over the city during the turmoil but they simply aren't strong enough and end up being exiled from the city. But now they are partners and can begin working together.


My Thoughts:

Finally. A Malazan book that I can simply sit down and read straight through and enjoy fully without feeling like I'm juggling 3 different 5000 piece puzzles all mixed together. You have no idea how much that upped my enjoyment of this book.

I think Esslemont showed his true colors with this book. He is a good standard fantasy writing kind of guy. His Malazan Empire novels felt very much like he was trying to copy Steven Erikson's style and it just didn't work for me. But this? Besides Gardens of the Moon, this was the most enjoyable Malazan book that I've read. Now I am really looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

In the Malazan books, Cotillion/Dancer and Kellanved were shadow'y characters doing things behind the scenes and never being fully fleshed out. Even when they were supposed to be main characters, they were actually hiding and felt like side characters. This time, they were simply people. It was refreshing.

There were lots of hints and little asides from other Malazan characters, so if you're one of the Book of the Fallen fanboys who who loves unlocking a ton of meaning from 2 sentence fragments, you'll still have something to chew on with this book. The rest of us can simply sit back and enjoy the story.

In Esslemont's The Return of the Crimson Guard the malazan army unleashed Ryllandaras and in this book we see how, and why, he was confined. It was nice to make a clear cut connection between one book and the other instead of having to guess and speculate and turn my brain into 77 pretzels to make my pet theory fit.

Another aspect of this that I enjoyed was the lack of Existential Despair philosophy. Everybody was NOT whining about how meaningless their lives were. In fact, they acted like real people and didn't even think about that. Dorin and Wu had to survive, plan how to take over a newly discovered Warren of Shadow and see if they could take over the city. Not much time to sit on their fat asses and complain about how hard they have it (unlike almost every Steven Erikson character. Man, that guy has his characters doing more talking than doing, in the middle of freaking battles for goodness sake!!!).

To end, I really enjoyed this book. A lot. In fact, I plan on buying it in hardcover, I enjoyed it so much. How don't know how much more of an endorsement I can give a book. * grin *

★★★★ ½ show less

Night of Knives is a difficult book to start reading, mainly because it is jarring, after having read four Erickson books, to have such a different authorial voice speaking of Malazan. Esslemont's style drops the majority of the purple language endemic in Erickson's novels in favor of something much more direct.

And, ultimately, this is a good thing. I know of only two authors who can pull off the flowery language (Erickson being one), but even then it can be a chore to read (I'm looking at show more you, Kruppe), and Esslemont's style brings a welcome change of pace to the Malazan world.

Beyond comparisons to Erickson's work, Night of Knives works quite well on its own. Few authors can pull off something with a scope so ambitiously small--the entire novel takes place over the course of a single night--but Esslemont surpasses that challenge with ease, and none of the novel feels like contrived conflict or filler to pad out the page count (unlike the TV show 24).

I feel like this review is boiling down to all the things this book is not. It's not Steven Erickson's Malazan as written by Ian C. Esslemont. It's not 24 with magic. What it is, though, is the first return salvo of the Malazan "dialog" through which these two men created this world, and I look forward to the next. show less