Let’s see, what’s the kindest thing I can say about “Night of Knives?” Well, it doesn’t suck. What’s the meanest thing? Well, Esslemont is no Erikson. If that last statement doesn’t make sense to you, chances are you shouldn’t be seeking out this book anyway, but let me try to explain. About 10 years ago Steven Erikson wrote a book called “Gardens of the Moon” based on a world he created with Ian C. Esselmont. This book was pretty far and above your average genre fantasy, and can be had for little to nothing used on Amazon (just click the link).

I love fantasy, read a lot of it, but I get tired of the tropes and cliches inherent in any genre fiction. I only bought this book because it had a cover blurb by Glen Cook on it. If you like Cook’s “Black Company” or “Dread Empire” books, then you will love Erickson’s, since a lot of it feels, if not ripped off, then at least polished and repackaged with a fresh take, but I figure if Cook doesn’t mind, why should I? Especially since Erikson does Cook better than Cook (sorry, Glen, I still love you). Anyway, enough of Erikson, back to the book at hand.

In this co-created world apparently it was planned, from the beginning, for both these authors to publish books in the Malazan universe (they had previously collaborated on unrelated projects). I think it was a good for Erikson’s career that Esslemont took so long to bring his book to the table. It dilutes the brand, but again, I figure if Erikson doesn’t mind, why should I? (Or maybe he can’t do anything about it.)  But this isn’t really being fair. Erikson’s take on the Malazan Empire specifically and his writing in general raise the bar damn high. I can think of few people who even come close. I am told George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books may come close. Well, sorry, Esslemont doesn’t come close.

But again, expecting him to isn’t being fair. It’s a different type of book. It’s not the the complex sweeping epic that Erikson has been banging out. It’s not a huge cast of characters and historical events. It takes place over the course of one night and tells in detail a specific pivotal event in the Malazan history. It does not try to be more than what it is. A tale of a young girl, who may be more than she appears, caught up in events beyond her control. Reading “Knight of Knives” before you embark on the more ambitious Erikson books will only serve to ruin parts of those books, but I did find this a quick entertaining read, and it did illuminate some of the events that take place in the other books. I’m just a bit unclear if I actually needed this, since I think I’d had cooler ideas about how these events had to have shaken out than Esslemont. The fight scenes in this book are decent, the characters interesting, the plot pretty cool, but the execution is a bit clumsy (probably like this post).

Am I glad I read it? Sure. Would I recommend it? Sure, to die-hard fans of the Malazan books, I would indeed, since I do consider this to be cannon. I just know in my heart of hearts (I have two), that Erikson would have told the same story much better and taken twice as many pages to do it. Will I buy any other Esselmont Malazan books? Yes. You do what you think is right.

I had to order my copy through Amazon.ca, and it looks like I got the last copy in existence, but from a quick web search it does look like there are official plans to publish it in the US.