Book Description
The debut fantasy novel from the co-creator of the Steven Erikson's extraordinary Malazan Empire
Product Description
It gave the Empire its name, but the tiny island and city of Malaz is now a sleepy, seedy back-water port. However this night things are a little different. This night its residents are bustling about, barring doors and shuttering windows. Because this night a once-in-a-generation Shadow Moon is due and threatens the good citizens of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker, beings... And it was also prophesied that on this night the Emperor Kellanved, missing for all these years, will return. As factions within the greater Empire battle over the imperial throne, the Shadow Moon summons a far more alien and ancient presence for an all-out assault upon the island. Indeed the cataclysmic events that happen this night will determine the fate of the Malaz and of the entire world beyond.
From the Publisher
The debut fantasy novel from the co-creator of the Steven Erikson's extraordinary Malazan Empire
From the Inside Flap
The small island of Malaz and its city gave the great empire its name, but now it is little more than a sleepy, backwater port.Tonight, however, things are different. Tonight the city is on edge, a hive of hurried, sometimes violent activity; its citizens bustle about, barring doors, shuttering windows, avoiding any stranger’s stare. Because tonight there is to be a convergence, the once-in-a-generation appearance of a Shadow Moon – an occasion that threatens the good people of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker things … It was also prophesied that this night would witness the return of Emperor Kellanved, and there are those prepared to do anything to prevent this happening. As factions within the greater Empire draw up battle lines over the imperial throne, the Shadow Moon summons a far more ancient and potent presence for an all-out assault upon the island. Witnessing these cataclysmic events are Kiska, a young girl who yearns to flee the constraints of the city, and Temper, a grizzled, battle-weary veteran who seeks simply to escape his past. Each is to play a part in a conflict that will not only determine the fate of Malaz City, but also of the world beyond … Drawing on events touched on in the prologue of Steven Erikson’s landmark fantasy Gardens of the Moon, Night of Knives is a momentous chapter in the unfolding story of the extraordinarily imagined world of Malaz.
From the Back Cover
Waves twice the height of the masts rolled past, foaming with ice and rime. Then Murl saw it, a dazzling sapphire figure breaching the surface: helmed, armoured, a tall lance of jagged ice couched at the hip. Its mount seemed half beast and half roiling wave. He fancied it turned a dark inscrutable gaze his way through cheek-guards of frozen scale. Then, just as suddenly, the Rider dived, returning to the churning sea. Another broached the surface further out. Then another… …The Riders cared nothing for them. They were here for another reason, answering some inhuman summons, heaving themselves northwards, an invading army throwing its might against the one thing that had confined them for so long to this narrow passage of water: the island of Malaz …
About the Author
Ian Cameron Esslemont was born in 1962 in Winnipeg, Canada and currently lives in Alaska with his wife and three sons. He has trained and worked as an archaeologist and travelled extensively in S.E. Asia and lived in Thailand and Japan for four years. He is currently completing a Ph.D in Literature and writing a second novel set in the world of Malaz.
