Night of Knives

Night of Knives is the first novel by Ian Cameron Esslemont, and the first installment in his epic fantasy series Novels of the Malazan Empire, set in the same world as Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.

The cover art, by Steve Stone, is pretty cool. In the same style as the newer covers of the Malazan Book of the Fallen novels, with black around the edges blending into dark, melancholy colors, the artwork really captures the atmosphere of Night of Knives and the Malazan world in general.

This book was a treat for me. I absolutely love the Malazan Book of the Fallen. It is, bar none, my favorite fantasy series of all time. That being said, I am going to take a few steps back and try not to let my bias get in the way of analyzing this book.

Taking place within the course of a single night, Night of Knives details the events leading up to Emperor Kellanved's and Dancer's disappearance and Surly's subsequent rise to Empress. This means that the book takes place before any of the books in Malazan Book of the Fallen, making it a prequel of sorts. I would not, however, recommend this book to newcomers to the Malazan world. The two main point-of-view characters in Night of Knives, Kiska and Temper, play very little role in the main series of novels, while extremely important characters in the main series, such as Kellanved, Dancer, and Tayschrenn, have very little revealed about them in Night of Knives. This might confuse new readers, making them ask, "Why are these people important?" or "Who is this guy coming out of nowhere?" You need to get a few books into the main series to truly understand the importance of the events in this book.

At its heart, Night of Knives is all about atmosphere. Esslemont captures the tense, brooding air of the book masterfully. The very first sentence of the first chapter (not the prologue) reads: Out amid the chopping waves of the strait of winds, the sails of an approaching message cutter burned bloody carmine in the day's last light. Another sentence, this time taken from the second part of the prologue, reads: Across the plain, all directions stretching to a featureless horizon, identical, monotonous, a figure hitched a cripple's slow limp. In my opinion, this is the kind of prose that allows for true escapism.

There is action aplenty in Night of Knives, with enough sword-fights, knife-fights, and sorcerous duels to whet any Malazan fan's appetite. Most of it comes from Temper, a grizzled veteran who once fought side-by-side with Dassem Ultor, in both his flashbacks and throughout the night itself. Kiska on the other hand, a young street-thief and spy, spends most of her time following people around, watching them fight, running away, getting captured, tripping, and getting hit in the head so often professional boxers would feel sorry for her.

Honestly, the girl should be brain damaged by now.

Now for the flaws. In the introduction, Steven Erikson tells us that Night of Knives is written in Esslemont's own style, his own voice. The fact is, it feels like Esslemont is trying too hard to be Erikson in his writing. He is still trying to find his own voice; in that way, it feels much like the first half of Gardens of the Moon. There will be parts throughout the novel where the prose doesn't quite live up to the rest, with some sentences and descriptions falling flat. They are relatively few and far between, fortunately.

Another very Erikson-like trait is the enormously long chapters. It is bearable in the Malazan Book of the Fallen due to the high page count, but in a book that has only 298 pages of story, fifty-plus page chapters end up making the pace feel a lot slower than it should.

All-in-all, the book is worth a read. Fans of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series will find it utterly delightful. New readers, skip over this, read Gardens of the Moon through The Bonehunters (even if the latter was published later than this book), and then pick up Night of Knives. You will appreciate the advice, and appreciate the book a whole lot more.

Rating: Good