The finest Esslemont novel so far, and a superb Malazan novel in its own right' - DRYING INK You may also be interested in. Most people have stopped that (not all, for some reason) and now you can enjoy his books and let them shine for what they are. This series is a prequel to the events of Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen and Esslemont's own Novels of the Malazan Empire, with this entry seeing Kellanved (The Emperor), Dancer (Master Assassin), Dassem Ultor (The Sword), Tayschrenn (High Mage) and their armies advancing into Falar. Die meisten Charaktere sind dem Leser schon bekannt und der Leser des Book of the Fallen weiß natürlich wo die Geschichte hinführt, aber einige Lücken werden zufriedenstellend gefüllt und auch die ein oder andere Unklarheit im Gesamtbild wird beseitigt. Some of the finest moments of this tale occur when following a recognisable magic-wielder, the titular High Mage, Tayschrenn.

This is the first book in the UK published series to bear the slightly renamed series title Paths to Ascendancy. My only regret, and I appreciate it may have been a little dry, was we didn't get a little more context on the Jhistal and it's exact perversion. And then the theocracy of Falar is itself far from defenceless - its priests are in possession of a weapon so terrifying it has not been unleashed for centuries. If you haven't read Malazan yet, and you enjoy epic fantasy, history, anthropology and philosophy, you should just read Malazan starting from Gardens of the Moon and come back here after 20 books or so.There are some absolutely great moments with characters that I've grown to love in the original series, and it's always a pleasure to have their back stories fleshed out a little more. His novels - beginning with Night of Knives - are all set in the fantasy world of Malaz that he co-created with Steven Erikson. There are however those who harbour doubts regarding the stewardship of Kellanved and his cohort Dancer, and as the Malazan force heads north, it encounters an unlooked-for and most unwelcome threat - unspeakable and born of legend, it has woken and will destroy all who stand in its way. However this is slightly offset by certain characters getting for more limelight than I was expecting.

But Forge of the High Mage goes and extra step in this direction and actually makes me sympathize with the man. So many characters who'd later go on to have massive roles in Malazan BotF + ME books were featured and none of them felt like fan service. Forge of the High Mage is a book that I have been eagerly awaiting since I finished my early review copy of Kellanved's Reach in January 2019.I had slightly higher hopes for the exploration of Falar, for actually going into the dark underbelly of the Jhistal cult and in that respect, this book didn’t quite hit the mark. An excellent entry in the Malazan universe, with all the complexity/multi-PoV, large-scale plotlines and epic moments of any Erikson book. The Path to Ascendancy novels are shorter, being more concise and focused, than the sweeping epics of the two main series.

Either way the threads between the two are beginning to tie together in a way that only Malazan books do. I've eagerly awaited more books in this series, and there was a bit of confusion at first whether this was a sequel to the main series or another volume in the Path to Ascendancy prequel series.This series is a prequel to the events of Erikson‘s Malazan Book of the Fallen and Esslemont’s own Novels of the Malazan Empire, with this entry seeing Kellanved (The Emperor), Dancer (Master Assassin), Dassem Ultor (The Sword), Tayschrenn (High Mage) and their armies advancing into Falar. slight spoilers here but i adored how dancer was handled in his reunion to ullara, especially considering the underlying tension with lasseen that makes the ultimate outcome that much more understandable. Great book, perfect ICE novel and it sets up the next one (the events at Aren) nicely by showing a few of those characters and most likely the man who will face Daseem.

If you don't like the main Malazan books you might still like the Path to Ascendancy books because they are lighter and faster paced but I think a lot of the fun of these prequel books are knowing what these characters will do later on and seeing them develop so reading Path to Ascendancy without that context seems pointless. Still crazy as a coconut, but much less frustrating because now, all his associates are aware of his unlimited potential, his infinite cunning and utter unpredictability.I can't give away too much due to spoilers, but let's just say I was hoping for some serious land and ship battles but again they all happened mostly off page. I understand that this segment was at a heightened stage in the book with regards to pacing, yet, even so, I think the breakneck speed wasted the potential of what should have been a legendary confrontation.