Steven Erikson confirms his Malazan WITNESS trilogy is now a quartet

Steven Erikson has confirmed that his in-progress Witness Trilogy, a sequel to his classic Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence (1999-2011), will now be a quartet.

Erikson published the first book in the series, The God is Not Willing, in 2021 to considerable acclaim and success. His previous two Malazan novels had been the first two books in the Kharkanas Trilogy, Forge of Darkness (2012) and Fall of Light (2016), but had sold relatively poorly, necessitating a shift to a new project.

Erikson had planned to conclude the Kharkanas sequence, writing several hundred pages of the third book, Walk in Shadow, before his publishers convinced him to return to the Witness sequence. Erikson was hundreds of pages into the second book, No Life Forsaken, before realising it was really two books. After this realisation came about, Erikson pressed on to complete both books before submitting them to his publisher.

This process is almost complete (he had two months' work left to do two months ago), and Erikson is hopeful this means that No Life Forsaken and the as-yet-untitled third book can be released in relatively quick succession (though I suspect it'll be in subsequent years) in the near future.

His plan is to then finish Walk in Shadow (which Erikson was also hinting some time ago might also become two books) and the fourth and final Witness novel. Erikson reiterated that Karsa Orlong will only appear in the final book in the series. He also has two additional Malazan novellas under contract.

Possibly not coincidentally, several of Erikson's publishing houses have put up the same placeholder date for No Life Forsaken recently: 28 August 2025. This seems fairly achievable based on Erikson's current progress.

A Better Malazan Reading Order

This week, Tor.com published a recommended reading order to Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont's Malazan series, apparently approved by the authors themselves. It's a curious list because, well, it's really not very good. If you use the Tor reading list, I suspect a lot of readers would run screaming for the hills. To this end, I have updated my old Malazan reading list with the latest releases:

The Wertzone Recommended Malazan Reading Order: 

1. Gardens of the Moon
2. Deadhouse Gates
3. Memories of Ice
4. House of Chains
5. Midnight Tides
6. Night of Knives
7. The Bonehunters
8. Return of the Crimson Guard
9. Reaper's Gale
10. Stonewielder
11. Toll the Hounds
12. Orb Sceptre Throne
13. Dust of Dreams
14. The Crippled God
15. Blood and Bone
16. Assail
17. Dancer's Lament
18. Deadhouse Landing
19. Kellanved's Reach
20. Forge of Darkness
21. Fall of Light

Standing outside the list for the time being: the six Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas are mostly self-contained stories exploring the backstory of three minor characters from Memories of Ice. They are fun but inessential. They can be read after Memories of Ice or whenever.

The Path to Ascendancy series (Dancer's Lament, Deadhouse Landing, the forthcoming Kellanved's Reach, possibly more books beyond that) are prequels. They may be read before the main series, but as they are incomplete I would put them later.

As for the Kharkanas Trilogy (so far, Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light), you can read that right at the end or you can hold off until we know when the final book, Walk in Shadow, is coming out. I would, under no circumstances, put it first.

Rationale for the order:

The order is mostly in order of publishing, although with a couple of caveats. Night of Knives is both the oldest novel in the series (it was written circa 1987, but not published until 2004) and chronologically takes place before Gardens of the Moon. However, the events of Night of Knives are not particularly germane to Gardens (the "big event" takes place off-page). Instead, Night of Knives is more important for the characters it establishes on Malaz Island. These characters do not recur in the series until The Bonehunters, over 4,000 pages later. It therefore makes more sense to read Night of Knives immediately before The Bonehunters.

House of Chains should be read before Midnight Tides: the events of Midnight Tides are actually being told in flashback by one character to another at the end of HoC. I know some people like to move Midnight Tides up because if you read in publishing order it "spoils" the fate of that character in Midnight Tides, but that's a bit weird as a reason. Plus moving Midnight Tides up disrupts the expertly-paced flow of the first four novels with the alternating between Genabackis and Seven Cities. Dumping Lether in the middle, although chronologically correct, throws off the pacing. Plus it also means you have to wait several thousand pages before catching up to the Lether crew in Reaper's Gale (which has to be read after The Bonehunters).

Return of the Crimson Guard should be read after The Bonehunters. In terms of publication order this is correct but also in terms of internal chronology. More than a year passes between The Bonehunters and Reaper's Gale and Return of the Crimson Guard explores what happens during that year. In addition, Return has a major, game-changing ending which the later novels (by both Erikson and Esslemont) spoil. Delaying Return also means delaying the later Esslemont novels, which is a bad idea because of the way the later books interface with one another.

On different lists I place Stonewielder in different orders: it can be read immediately after Return of the Crimson Guard as this is chronologically correct (the two books are separated by a few weeks, and chronologically Reaper's Gale takes place after both books) or you can put Stonewielder after Reaper's Gale to mix things up a bit more between Erikson and Esslemont. However, Reaper's Gale ends with our heroes ready to go kick some backside in Kolanse. Putting Stonewielder after Gale means this storyline hangs for three full novels before we get back to it, whilst putting Stonewielder before Gale reduces this to two books.

The order is important because it places Toll the Hounds and Orb Sceptre Throne next to one another. Orb Sceptre Throne is the direct sequel to Toll the Hounds and Toll the Hounds does a lot of setup work for Orb Sceptre Throne which otherwise goes to waste or might be forgotten. Also, although Toll the Hounds is probably Erikson's best-written book it is almost the most obtusely weird in terms of plot movement and events (it's the longest book in the series but arguably has the least amount of actual important events taking place in it). It's a huge amount of set-up with only one bit of pay-off at the end. Orb Sceptre Throne actually has the rest of the pay-off.

Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God are one extra-long novel split in two for length, so they should definitely be read together.

Blood and Bone takes place chronologically at the same time as The Crippled God (literally, our heroes in B&B see and sense the world-changing events at the end of The Crippled God three-quarters of the way through the book) and extends beyond it, so should be read after The Crippled God. Assail then picks up and resolves some storyline left dangling from Blood and Bone so they work well together.

So, what's wrong with the Tor list?

The Tor list suggests starting with the Kharkanas Trilogy novels Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light. This is really not a good idea. The Kharkanas Trilogy is a prequel in the purest form, working better when you have knowledge of the characters from chronologically later on. In addition, whilst Forge of Darkness is divisive, Fall of Light is easily the worst-regarded Erikson novel published to date. Having it as the second book in the series I think would be a major mistake, as I've seen that novel drive off eighteen-year veterans of the series who've been with it since Gardens of the Moon was published eighteen years ago.


Can you just read the series sequentially and not bother mixing up Erikson and Esslemont?

You can, but I would strongly recommend against it. Although some readers are less keen on Esslemont as a writer than Erikson, it is inarguable that Esslemont's books are fully canon and Erikson does refer to them in his later novels. This is particularly egregious with regard to major events that happen in Return of the Crimson Guard; having them spoiled by later Erikson books is very lame compared to seeing the events happen as they should. In addition, Esslemont and Erikson paced their books and the events within them on the basis of their publication dates being mixed up, so it is more effective to read them with that in mind.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

New Steven Erikson interview at Black Gate

Black Gate have undertaken a video interview with Steven Erikson about his fantasy work and the recent decision to delay the final Kharkanas book for the time being.

It's a fascinating interview, even if Erikson's assertion that Voyager is preferable to Deep Space Nine is one I would disagree quite strongly with!

Malazan Franchise Familiariser

It's entirely possible that, at some point in the last dozen or so years, you've asked for a fantasy recommendation on a message board, a Reddit post or on social media somewhere and immediately had someone scream at you "MALAZAN!", followed by an extensive list of caveats ("the first book sucks, but just stick with it!") and warnings ("Erikson will not SPOON FEED you anything, you have to work at it!"). You may have then looked up how many books there are in the series and how big they are, and immediately broken out in anxiety when you realised that there are now over 5 million words of Malazan material to get through. How to deal with this body of work? Time for a franchise familiariser course!

The Basics

The Malazan world is a setting for epic fantasy stories. It was created by Canadian authors Ian Cameron Esslemont (b. 1962) and Steve Rune Lundin (b. 1959), better-known by his pen-name, Steven Erikson. The two authors have written separate series in the same world, sharing characters and canonical events, but tend to focus on different parts of the overall story.

Steven Erikson is the more prolific of the two authors, having written twelve novels and six novellas in the world. Ian Esslemont has written eight novels to date, with more planned.

Erikson's work consists of the ten-volume Malazan Book of the Fallen series (which is generally what people mean when they say "Malazan series") and the first two volumes of The Kharkanas Trilogy, a prequel work set approximately 300,000 years before the events of the main series. Esslemont's work consists of the six-volume Malazan Empire series (which runs contemporaneously with the Malazan Book of the Fallen) and the first two volumes in the Path to Ascendancy prequel series, which is set about 120 years before the events of the main series. Erikson's novellas are known as the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach series and run alongside the main novels.

Erikson plans to write a trilogy called The Toblakai Trilogy, which will be a sequel to The Malazan Book of the Fallen, set five years after the end of the series. He also plans one more book in The Kharkanas Trilogy. Esslemont plans additional novels in the Path of Ascendancy series, although has not yet settled on a final number. The two writers have, from time to time, mused on directly collaborating on a novel or encyclopedia for the series, but there are no firm plans in place for this to happen in the near future.

So far the franchise exists purely as a series of novels: a planned comic adaptation of the first-published novel in the setting, Gardens of the Moon, never materialised and plans for a movie version of a storyline in the second novel, provisionally entitled Chain of Dogs, foundered for a lack of funding in the mid-2000s. There was some interest in adapting the series as a computer roleplaying game in the late 2000s, but this also came to nothing. A pen-and-paper roleplaying game has been mooted several times, but has never gotten off the drawing board.


The Canon

The Malazan canon consists of the following books, all published by Bantam Transworld (in the UK) and Tor Books (in the USA). In addition, PS Publishing has released handsome limited editions of most of the books in the series:

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

1. Gardens of the Moon (1999)
2. Deadhouse Gates (2000)
3. Memories of Ice (2001)
4. House of Chains (2002)
5. Midnight Tides (2004)
6. The Bonehunters (2006)
7. Reaper's Gale (2007)
8. Toll the Hounds (2008)
9. Dust of Dreams (2009)
10. The Crippled God (2011)

An e-book omnibus consisting of all ten books is also available in the United States from Tor.

The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson

1. Blood Follows (2002)
2. The Healthy Dead (2004)
3. The Lees of Laughter's End (2007)
4. Crack'd Pot Trail (2009)
5. The Wurms of Blearmouth (2012)
6. The Fiends of Nightmaria (2016)

The first three novellas in this series were collected as The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (2009), with an introduction by Paul Kearney, Stephen Donaldson and James Barclay. A second collection has not yet been announced.

The Novels of the Malazan Empire by Ian C. Esslemont

1. Night of Knives (2004)
2. Return of the Crimson Guard (2007)
3. Stonewielder (2010)
4. Orb Sceptre Throne (2012)
5. Blood and Bone (2012)
6. Assail (2014)

The Kharkanas Trilogy by Steven Erikson

1. Forge of Darkness (2012)
2. Fall of Light (2016)
3. Walk in Shadow (forthcoming)

The Path to Ascendancy by Ian C. Esslemont

1. Dancer's Lament (2016)
2. Deadhouse Landing (2017)

The Toblakai Trilogy by Steven Erikson

1. The God is Not Willing (forthcoming)

The races of the Malazan world, by YapAttack.

Backstory

The backstory of the Malazan world is long and complex. It can, however, by boiled down to the following:

Over half a million years ago, several races began evolving on a single planet. These "Founding Races" are known, in rough order of age, as the K'Chain Che'Malle, Forkrul Assail, Jaghut and Imass. The K'Chain Che'Malle appear to have evolved from a dinosaur-like species and are noted for their mastery of gravity through magic, such as the creation of vast flying cities known as Skykeeps. The Forkrul Assail are the most amoral of the races, appointing themselves judges over creation. Thanks to their powerful magic they are almost indestructible. The Che'Malle and Assail fought one another to near-annihilation, with the Che'Malle also divided by an internal struggle, the result of an attempt by one Che'Malle Matron to breed a new species. This resulted in a genocidal and xenophobic internal war.

Some time after this conflict, the Jaghut arose. A tusked species, the Jaghut had absolute mastery of ice as their primary form of magic. They were pacifists, but every now and then one of them turned to evil and conquest. These "Tyrants" were immensely powerful and destructive.

The Imass were a hominid species, evolving from an earlier, more primitive race known as the Eres. The Imass were tribal and relatively primitive (sharing some similarities with Neanderthals), but soon began learning more about the world and their origins. They worshipped certain Jaghut as gods, but later rebelled when they realised that the Jaghut were just another race. Many Imass were killed in conflicts brought about by Jaghut Tyrants. Eventually declaring the entire Jaghut species guilty for the sins of a relatively small number, the Imass fought a genocidal war against them, wielding powerful magic to make up for their lack of technology. Many of the Jaghut Tyrants were slaughtered, but the pacifist majority of the species chose instead to retreat and hide, using their ice magic to raise massive glaciers as fortress redoubts and places where they could go to sleep for millennia.

Realising the Jaghut meant to simply outwait them into extinction, the Imass underwent the Ritual of Tellann. This resulted in the entire species becoming undead, effectively immortal. Now known as the T'lann Imass, the species chose to wait until the glaciers collapsed and they could complete the genocidal work. This took over 300,000 years to unfold. In the meantime several off-shoots from the Imass continued to evolve: the Barghast and Moranth are among those races who evolved out of those Imass who missed the Ritual of Tellann, whilst humans were a race that evolved in parallel to the Imass, from the same Eres origins. The Thel Akai may have been a third hominid species whose descendants became the Toblakai, Tarthenal and Fenn.

Around the same time, another race arrived on the same planet from the other-dimensional realm of Kurald Galain. The Tiste were a race of immensely long-lived humanoids wielding tremendous magic and skills in combat. Originally a united species, the Tiste split into three sub-races: the Tiste Liosan (the Children of Light), the Tiste Edur (the Children of Shadow) and the Tiste Andii (the Children of Darkness). Bitter internal wars were fought between the three sub-races and within their own ranks until eventually they learned to avoid one another.

Also notable in the world are dragons, in this setting called Eleint. These are incredibly powerful creatures, far moreso than in most settings, but also (fortunately) quite rare.

Looming over all were the Azathani or Azath. An extremely enigmatic species, the Azathani took humanoid form but had godlike powers. The Azathani are believed to be responsible for the creation of the other species, the creation of the warrens and holds of magic and the mysterious phenomenon of Ascendancy. Ascendancy is the granting of immense powers to individuals once they achieve a level of power, worship or notoriety. The process of who Ascends and who does not is extremely obscure. Those surviving Azathani seem themselves to be unclear on how the process works, suggesting they may be the last surviving remnant of a once-greater civilisation who no longer understand or remember their point of origin. Related to the Azath are the Azath Houses, magical prisons which appear to constrain those who try to use their power in an unbalancing or destructive manner. The Azathani seem concerned primarily with the maintenance of a balance of power between the races and forces of the world, and avoiding the destruction of the world itself.

At some point the human First Empire arose on the continent later called Seven Cities, along with the Kallorian Empire on the continent of Jacuruku (with possible colonies on its sister continent of Korelri). The two empires were the first major human powers to arise in the world. The First Empire was, somewhat, civilised but the Kallorian Empire became, under the rule of the High King Kallor, corrupt, evil and dictatorial. Approximately 112,902 years before the Battle of Pale (the event which begins the contemporary events of the novel series), eight powerful mages opposed to the High King conducted a ritual which summoned a deity from another world, Kaminsod, whose power they hoped could be used to destroy Kallor. This event, the Fall of the Crippled God, tore asunder the continent of Korelri and devastated much of the planet. The gods and ascendants had to gather to chain the Crippled God lest his power obliterate all life on the planet.

Three gods - K'rul, Draconus and Nightchill - then confronted Kallor, aware that he had become a threat too great to ignore. To their horror, Kallor had burned his own empire down to the bedrock and slaughtered the entire population. He used the power of this sacrifice to curse the three gods to tragic fates. They in turn cursed him with life unending, never to ascend.

1,163 years before the beginning of the series, the goddess Burn, the living embodiment of the planet itself, was forced to enter a slumber due to the presence of the chained Crippled God, whose very existence was antithetical to her.

In the year 1058 of Burn's Sleep, the Malazan Empire was founded by the mage Kellanved and the assassin Dancer. A mighty human nation, the Malazan Empire would eventually span four continents and rule over tens of millions of lives. In 1154 Kellanved and Dancer disappeared during the night of the Shadow Moon in Malaz City and were succeeded by Laseen as Empress of Malaz.

The events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen proper begin in the year 1163 of Burn's Sleep, with the Malazan Empire launching an assault on the free city of Pale on the continent of Genabackis, which is allied to the formidable ascendant Anomander Rake of the Tiste Andii and the Warlord Caladan Brood, another being of tremendous power. The battle opens with the elite Malazan military formation known as the Bridgeburners going into action, unaware that this engagement will completely change their destiny, that of the Empire and that of the world.

A map of the Malazan world. Map by D'Rek of the Malazanempire forum, letting and continent placement by myself.

Setting

The setting for the Malazan books is a single, unnamed planet. This planet consists of seven major continents and numerous smaller islands and subcontinents. These are as follows:

• Quon Tali: equatorial continent, home of the Malazan Empire (founded on Malaz Isle, just off the coast). The setting for the novels Night of Knives, Return of the Crimson Guard, Dancer's Lament and Deadhouse Landing.
• Genabackis: large continent north-east of Quon Tali, the location of the city of Darujhistan. The setting for the novels Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice, Toll the Hounds, Orb Sceptre Throne and (possibly) The God is Not Willing.
• Seven Cities: the world's largest continent. The setting for the novels Deadhouse Gates, House of Chains and The Bonehunters.
• Lether: the world's second-largest continent. Fairly remote from the other landmasses and rarely visited until late in the series. The setting for the novels Midnight Tides, Reaper's Gale, Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God.
• Korelri: the shattered continent to the south-east of Quon Tali, consisting of the subcontinents of Korel (or Fist) and Stratem. The setting for the novel Stonewielder.
• Jacuruku: the jungle island-continent located south-west of Quon Tali. The setting for the novel Blood and Bone
• Assail: a much-dreaded and mysterious continent located south of Genabackis and east of Korelri, the setting for the novel Assail.

The primary focus of the books is the Malazan Empire, a relatively young nation founded on the island of Malaz off the coast of Quon Tali which rapidly conquered the entire continent before expanding into Seven Cities, Korelri and Genabackis. The Path to Ascendancy novels charts the founding of the empire and Night of Knives is set on the night that Empress Laseen ascends to power.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen proper begins with the Malazan Empire attempting to conquer the continent of Genabackis in the face of stiff resistance from the native Free Cities, allied to the Tiste Andii led by Anomander Rake, the mercenary army led by the Warlord, Caladan Brood, and the rebel Quon Talian army known as the Crimson Guard, under Prince K'azz D'Avore.

The Jaghut Tyrant Raest confronts the Eleint Silanah Redwings, by Michael Komarck.

Magic

Magic or sorcery is an important part of the Malazan series, although Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont have refused to outline the "rules" of their "magic system", feeling that mystery is part of magic's innate appeal.

Magic in the Malazan universe is related to other dimensions and realities. These other dimensions were originally called Holds and mages could access them to perform wild and untamed feats of magic. Over the course of many tens of thousands of years, the Hold magic metamorphosed into the considerably more refined and powerful form of magic known as Warrens. A mage opens a portal to their warren and taps its power to create intended effects. Warrens/Holds are also actual places and mages can physically enter them and use them as shortcuts to re-emerge elsewhere in the world.

The older races can also access the Elder Warrens, which are keyed to their specific races (Kurald Galain for the Tiste, Omtose Phellack for the Jaghut etc) and are more powerful than the Paths, the types of Warren accessible by humans.

Some can also tap the completely wild and untamed powers of Chaos, that exist outside of creation. This is exceptionally dangerous.

Anomander Rake, by Michael Komarck.

Structure

The Malazan Book of the Fallen unfolds in an unusual, non-linear fashion. The first book in the series, Gardens of the Moon, is set on the continent of Genabackis and depicts the battle by the Malazan army for control of the city of Darujhistan. The second novel, Deadhouse Gates, moves the action to the continent of Seven Cities with almost an entirely new cast of characters. The third book, Memories of Ice, returns to Genabackis and takes place after Gardens of the Moon but simultaneously with Deadhouse Gates. The fourth book returns to Seven Cities again. Book 5, Midnight Tides, is a prequel to the rest of the series and is set on a completely different continent, Lether.

This "rotating continent" structure is possible because the Malazan series does not have a single, over-arcing narrative like Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. Instead, each Malazan novel is (more or less) self-contained, with only subplots continuing between each novel. It's only at the end of the Malazan Book of the Fallen that these subplots become the main story, and this is resolved in the two-part novel consisting of Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God. The Malazan Empire sub-series uses a similar structure. The Kharkanas, Path to Ascendancy and presumably Toblakai series are each more traditional and linear in structure.


Entry Points into the Series

The Malazan series is notable for having several different "entry points" for new readers: Gardens of the Moon is the traditional starting point for new readers, but Night of Knives, Deadhouse Gates, Midnight Tides and Dancer's Lament are all viable starting points as well. Part of this is down to the perception that Gardens of the Moon, written considerably earlier than most of the other books, is confusing and unforgiving, not to mention is less well-written and has some odd continuity issues (given that Erikson wrote it almost a decade before the rest of the series).

However, given the immense complexity of the series I would, in general, recommend following publication order as the preferred reading order of the series, with the caveat that if Gardens of the Moon is really not working for you, you can skip ahead to Deadhouse Gates and come back later to finish Gardens.

Quick Ben, Kalam and Whiskeyjack of the Malazan Bridgeburners assess the suboptimal health of the mage Hairlock in the aftermath of the Battle of Pale. Art by Michael Komarck.

Conception and Development

Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont conceived of the world circa 1981 as a setting for roleplaying game adventures, initially using the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1st Edition) rules and later the GURPS system when they wanted something more flexible. They quickly evolved from "hack and slash" adventures to a more narrative-based form of roleplaying, deeply rooted in character, comedy and tragedy.

Esslemont wrote two novels in the setting, Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard, in the late 1980s but they failed to sell. Erikson wrote a film script called Gardens of the Moon which also failed to sail. He converted the script into a novel in 1991, keeping the name, but it also failed to sell. Erikson finally got several non-genre works published which attracted the attention of Bantam UK, who finally bought Gardens of the Moon. In 1998 Bantam and Gollancz fought a brief bidding war for the rights to nine sequels, which Bantam finally won by awarding Erikson an advance of £675,000 ($1,125,000 in 1999 money), one of the largest advances in fantasy publishing history (and possibly a still-unbeaten record for a debut author).

Gardens of the Moon was published in 1999, but Erikson hit a snag when his computer blew up halfway through the writing of Memories of Ice, the originally-planned second volume in the series, with insufficient backups. Unable to face rewriting the novel straight away, he instead wrote what had originally been conceived as a later book in the series, Deadhouse Gates. This situation inadvertently gave rise to the series' continent-rotating structure.

Erikson wrote the nine novels and 3,116,000 words (after the already-completed Gardens of the Moon) of the Malazan Book of the Fallen in about twelve and a half years. The series was written in bouts of Erikson living in both Canada and the UK, writing in coffee shops for four hours a day, five days a week. To complete the series in this timeframe, Erikson did not write multiple drafts and did not engage in extensive rewrites. He also did not pay exacting attention to matters of continuity, to the occasional despair of readers. However, the series attracted significant critical acclaim. Sales did lag behind, mainly due to American publishers not picking up the series until 2004. By the time the series was completed in 2011, it had sold over one million copies. However, the first two books in the Kharkanas Trilogy sold poorly by comparison, forcing Erikson to rethink his approach and delay the conclusion to that trilogy in favour of writing a sequel series revolving around the fan-favourite character of Karsa Orlong.

Ian Esslemont was busy as a working archaeologist, so could not capitalise on his friend's success at first. Eventually he got Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard into print in 2004 and 2007 via the small press PS Publishing, before Bantam UK and Tor picked up his series. Initially his sales trailed Erikson's significantly, but by the time of Dancer's Lament's release he had overtaken Erikson with sales-per-book.

Karsa Orlong by Ylva Ljungqvist.

The Future

Steven Erikson is now writing the first book of The Toblakai Trilogy, which will pick up the story five years or so after the events of The Crippled God and focus on the plan of the Toblakai warrior Karsa Orlong to destroy civilisation on the Malazan planet.

Ian Esslemont is working on the third volume of The Path to Ascendancy, continuing his story of how a disgraced mage and assassin working out of a run-down bar in a backwater town on a forgotten island forged one of the greatest empires in the history of the world.


Further Reading

The main online fan community for the Malazan series can be found at Malazanempire. Steven Erikson has a new Facebook page. The Malazan Wiki is a good resource for those confused by some (or all) aspects of the series.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

Steven Erikson puts Kharkanas Trilogy "on hold", starts Malazan sequel trilogy

Steven Erikson has, surprisingly, announced that he is putting his Kharkanas Trilogy on hold and will be starting work on the long-promised Toblakai Trilogy instead, a sequel to his ten-volume Malazan Book of the Fallen.

Erikson announced both trilogies before wrapping up the Malazan series in 2011 with The Crippled God. The Kharkanas Trilogy is set 300,000 years or so before the main Malazan sequence and details the backstory of the three Tiste races (Andii, Liosan and Edur). Erikson released Forge of Darkness to a generally warm reception in 2012, but took four years to release the follow-up, Fall of Light (2016). On release, the novel got a mixed (but leaning towards lukewarm) reception from readers.

Erikson has also worked on other novels in the meantime, writing three Betty comedic space opera novels and a stand-alone SF work, Rejoice, A Knife to the Heart, which will be released in late 2018. It was assumed that the final Kharkanas novel, Walk in Shadow, would also be released in 2018 or 2019.

Now, according to Erikson, he has put Walk in Shadow on hold and will be starting work shortly on The God is Not Willing, the first novel in the Toblakai Trilogy. This trilogy will catch up on the adventures of Karsa Orlong shortly after the events of The Crippled God and - it is believed - will see him return home to his people to rouse them in a crusade against "civilisation". It is likely that this trilogy will also catch up on at least some of the situation in other parts of the world following the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and Ian Esslemont's Malazan Empire books.

This news is startling, since Erikson has formerly been one of the fastest, hardest-working and most reliable authors in the fantasy canon. However, he clearly struggled with Fall of Light (which took more than three times as long to write as any of his previous books of comparable size), so this move may help recharge the creative batteries.

It's also good news for fans: the deep backhistory of the Tiste is fascinating to some fans, but many of the main series fans seemed much more excited about the Karsa Orlong saga, expanding as it will on a fan-favourite character from previous books.

No publication date is set for the first Toblakai novel, but hopefully we will see it this side of 2020.

ETA: From Steven Erikson:

Status Update: Completing the third and final Willful Child novel, The Search For Spark. Then it's onward to the first Karsa Orlong novel (what about the third Kharkanas novel? On hold). Thanks everyone for your kind greetings.

Hmm, okay. I've made a point of never dissembling to my readers so why start now? The reasons for this decision (delaying Walk in Shadow) are varied: the basic situation is as follows. For reasons unknown to me, my agent or my publishers, DoD and FoL have tanked in terms of sales. I wasn't even aware of that until we started marketing the First Contact novel, RKH, but when the details came out it took the wind out of my sails (putting it mildly). Now, if it was a matter of the style I employed for the Kharkanas trilogy turning readers off, then the sales of FoD should have been decent, only to then fall off for FoL. But that wasn't the case. Strangely, the Book of the Fallen series remains strong in terms of sales. Was it because it was a prequel? Possibly. Did FoD come too soon after TCG? Maybe. Or is there some kind of reader-fatigue going on? Could be. One theory I've been considering is a more general wariness among fantasy fans regarding trilogies and series -- having been burned by other authors waiting for books, are readers just holding back until the trilogy is done, before buying in? But then, Dancer's Lament sold brilliantly (and it too is a prequel). Anyway, the upshot is, given what we perceive as considerable enthusiasm for the Karsa trilogy, we decided to jump right in. The story picks up four or five years after the ten book series, so there'll be plenty of room to explore the fall-out, and room for favourite characters to make an appearance beyond Karsa himself. I do remain committed to writing Walk in Shadow and humbly apologize for you (few?) readers eagerly awaiting that novel.

Thanks so much for all your comments and encouragement. To those of you waiting for the trilogy to finish before buying, no need to apologize. Waiting for books sucks. Personally, I wish FoL hadn't taken three years to write. That alone is a long wait for any reader. I think what's made the Kharkanas trilogy so fragile for me is that it was always a risky proposition, in terms of tone, atmosphere and writing style. It's dense stuff, and while the style is seductive (for me) it's also one that requires a certain frame of mind. I wasn't aware of how vulnerable that frame of mind was until it got hammered. It may well turn out that after the first Karsa novel (working title: The God is not Willing), I'll head straight back to Walk in Shadow. Sometimes momentum is all one needs.

New Steven Erikson MALAZAN novella released

Steven Erikson will release a new Malazan novella featuring the characters of Bauchelain and Kobral Broach this month. Entitled The Fiends of Nightmaria, it will be released by Subterranean Press and features illustrations by David Gentry.

Pre-orders are currently sold out, but Sub Press hope to have more copies available soon. This is the sixth Malazan novella featuring the characters, following on from Blood Follows (2002), The Healthy Dead (2004), The Lees of Laughter's End (2007), Crack'd Pot Trail (2009) and The Wurms of Blearmouth (2012). Significantly, this likely means that a second omnibus collection of novellas could be released soon, as the first three were collected in The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Volume I (UK, USA). A Volume II is likely to follow.

Erikson has said that he plans to release nine novellas featuring the characters in total, so three more are likely to follow. Erikson's next full-length Malazan novel, Fall of Light, is due for publication this month, on 21 April in the UK and 26 April in the USA.

Malazan Update

Amazon has suggested new release dates for the next two Malazan novels.

Fall of Light, the much-delayed second volume in The Kharkanas Trilogy by Steven Erikson, will now be published on 16 February 2016. This will pick up after the events of Forge of Darkness.

Meanwhile, Ian Cameron Esslemont's next Malazan novel will be called Dancer's Lament and will open the Path to Ascendancy series. This series will be a prequel to the existing Malazan novels and will chart the backstory of Kellanved, Dancer and other key figures from the founding of the Malazan Empire and the preceding years.

Steven Erikson to publish SF novel in 2014

There's been a bit of a change-around in Steven Erikson's schedule for 2014. In a Tor.com Q&A last week he confirmed he's still very early in the writing of Fall of Light, the second novel in the Kharkanas Trilogy, and is still wrestling with a major structural issue which he isn't fully sure how to resolve yet. This has led to the expectation that Fall of Light won't make its June 2014 release date and may instead fall later in the year or even 2015.

However, Erikson will still be publishing a novel next year. Willfull Child (its unclear if the incorrect spelling is deliberate or not) is a comic SF novel that riffs on Star Trek. The blurb is as follows:

These are the voyages of the starship, A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life life-forms, to boldly blow the...

And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback - a kind of James T Kirk crossed with 'American Dad' - and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through 'the infinite vastness of interstellar space'...

The bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence has taken his life-long passion for 'Star Trek' and transformed it into a smart, inventive and hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-hi-tech-kit-along-the-way type over-blown adventure. The result is this smart. inventive, occasionally wildly OTT and often very funny novel that deftly parodies the genre while also paying fond homage to it.

The novel has a listed release date of 5 June 2014 and an estimated page-count of somewhere around 300 pages. Erikson published a longer excerpt from the book on Tor last year.

Updated MALAZAN release dates

Amazon's latest information suggests that both of the next Malazan novels - Ian Cameron Esslemont's Assail and Steven Erikson's Fall of Light - have unfortunately been delayed.

According to Amazon, Assail will be released on 27 March 2014. The blurb is as follows:

The final chapter in the awesome, epic story of the Malazan empire.

Tens of thousands of years of ice is melting, and the land of Assail, long a byword for menace and inaccessibility, is at last yielding its secrets. Tales of gold discovered in the region's north circulate in every waterfront dive and sailor's tavern and now countless adventurers and fortune-seekers have set sail in search of riches. All these adventurers have to guide them are legends and garbled tales of the dangers that lie in wait -- hostile coasts, fields of ice, impassable barriers and strange, terrifying creatures. But all accounts concur that the people of the north meet all trespassers with the sword. And beyond are rumoured to lurk Elder monsters out of history's very beginnings. Into this turmoil ventures the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. Not drawn by contract, but by the promise of answers: answers to mysteries that Shimmer, second in command, wonders should even be sought. Arriving also, part of an uneasy alliance of Malazan fortune-hunters and Letherii soldiery, comes the bard Fisher kel Tath. And with him is a Tiste Andii who was found washed ashore and who cannot remember his past life, yet who commands far more power than he really should. Also venturing north is said to be a mighty champion, a man who once fought for the Malazans, the bearer of a sword that slays gods: Whiteblade.

And lastly, far to the south, a woman guards the shore awaiting both her allies and her enemies. Silverfox, newly incarnated Summoner of the undying army of the T'lan Imass, will do anything to stop the renewal of an ages-old crusade that could lay waste to the entire continent and beyond. Casting light on mysteries spanning the Malazan empire, and offering a glimpse of the storied and epic history that shaped it, Assail is the final chapter in the epic story of the Empire of Malaz.

Meanwhile, Steven Erikson's Fall of Light, the second volume of The Kharkanas Trilogy, is now listed for 5 June 2014. No blurb is yet available.

Provisional release date for new Steven Erikson novel

Steven Erikson's Fall of Light, the second novel of The Kharkanas Trilogy and the sequel to last year's excellent Forge of Darkness, has had a provisional release date set. The current date is 2 January 2014.

Erikson's comrade in arms, Ian Cameron Esslemont, also has a new book tentatively scheduled for November 2013. This book is bearing the title City in the Jungle, a working title for his previously-published Blood and Bone, and fans are speculating this is actually the book formerly known as Assail and will be the last one in Esslemont's Novels of the Malazan Empire series.

As usual, these dates are not yet 100% confirmed. No cover art has yet been unveiled.

Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson

It is more than a quarter of a million years before the time of the Malazan Empire. In this ancient age, the Tiste race is divided between noble families and bickering militias, trying to find their place in the world following the devastating wars against the Forulkan and the Jheleck. When the Tiste ruler, Mother Dark, takes the obscure Draconus as lover and consort, the noble houses are incensed and the seeds are sowed for civil war and religious conflict.

Forge of Darkness is the first novel in The Kharkanas Trilogy, a prequel series to Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. This trilogy will chart the splintering of the Tiste race into the three sub-races seen in the main series book (the Andii, the Liosan and the Edur) and explain much of the ancient backstory to the series. Some characters from the main series - such as Anomander Rake, Silchas Ruin, Hood and Gothos - appear here as much younger, far less experienced figures. However, those hoping for I, Anomander Rake will likely feel disappointed. Rake is a central character in the events unfolding and appears a few times, but much of the action takes place around new, much less important characters. Also, while the story is set more than 300,000 years before Gardens of the Moon, this isn't the alpha-point of the entire Malazan universe. Tiste society is many thousands of years old when the story opens and Rake, Mother Dark, Ruin and Draconus are already important characters with significant histories in place.

Instead, the trilogy is much more concerned with clarification of events in the main series books and explaining why certain things are the way they are. Surprisingly, the series addresses questions that I think most fans thought would simply be left as, "That's how it is," such as the nature of the gods in the Malazan world (and the apparent realisation by Erikson that 'gods' was not the right word to use for them), why the different Tiste races have different appearances and why the Jaghut evolved the way they did. Some long-burning questions are indeed addressed, such as the reasons for and the nature of Hood's war on death, but for the most part Erikson is not really concerned with really addressing obvious mysteries (those left wondering what the hell the Azath Houses are will likely not be satisfied by this book, in which even the race they are named after is baffled by them).

Instead, the narrative unfolds on its own terms. As usual, Erikson has a large cast of POV characters including nobles, soldiers, priests and mages, many of them with slightly cumbersome names. However, Erikson strives to differentiate his characters more from one another then in previous novels. Forge of Darkness enjoys a shorter page-length than most of his prior books (clocking in at a third less the size of most of the Malazan novels) and is far more focused. The plot is a slow-burner, divided into several relatively straightforward narratives. This is Erikson at his most approachable, easing the reader into the situation and story rather than dropping them in the middle of chaos and expecting them to get on with it (such as in the first novel in the main series, Gardens of the Moon).

Of course, Erikson isn't going to give the reader an easy ride. Minor peasants continue to agonisingly philosophise over the nature of existence with surprisingly developed vocabularies at the drop of a hat. There are too many moments when characters look knowingly at one another and speak around subjects so as not to spoil major revelations for the reader, regardless of how plausible this is. There is an awful lot of hand-wringing rather than getting on with business. But there's also a few shocking reversals, some tragic moments of genuine emotional power and some revelations that will have long-standing Malazan fans stroking their chins and going, "Ah-ha!"

Forge of Darkness (****) is Erikson's attempt to channel the in-depth thematic approach of Toll the Hounds but weld it to a more dynamic (by his terms) plot-driven narrative whilst also satisfying the fans' thirst for more information and revelations about his world and characters. It's a juggling act he pulls off with impressive skill, with some polished prose and haunting moments. But those who continue to find his reliance on philosophical asides and long-winded conversations tiresome will likely not be convinced by this book. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Revised cover art for FORGE OF DARKNESS by Steven Erikson

Via Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, Bantam UK have revised their cover art for Forge of Darkness, the first book in Steven Erikson's Kharkanas Trilogy (a prequel to the Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence). The new artwork has added blueness.

The book will be published on 31 July in the UK and 18 September in the USA.

New cover art: Steven Erikson's FORGE OF DARKNESS

The cover art and blurb for Steven Erikson's The Forge of Darkness has been released:

Enter the New York Times bestselling Malazan universe... at a time that sets the stage for all the tales already told.

Steven Erikson entered the pantheon of great fantasy writers with his debut Gardens of the Moon. Now Erikson returns with a trilogy that takes place before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. The Forge of Darkness takes readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness, and tells an epic tale of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in the fall of the Malazan Empire.

It’s a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power… and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners’ great hero, Vatha Urusander, longs for ascendency and Mother Dark’s hand in marriage, but she has taken another Consort, Lord Draconus, from the faraway Dracon Hold. The idea of this union sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Adarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold.

Steven Erikson brings to life this ancient and important tale set in the world he introduced in the Malazan Book of the Fallen in a way that should appeal to fans of George R. R. Martin.

The novel, the first in The Kharkanas Trilogy, will be released in August in the UK and in September in the USA.

Working titles for Steven Erikson's next two books

In an extensive (and highly intriguing) interview on Reddit, Steven Erikson reveals that the working titles for Books 2 and 3 of the Kharkanas Trilogy will be Fall of Light and Walk in Shadow.


The first book, Forge of Darkness, will be released this August.

Steven Erikson completes THE FORGE OF DARKNESS

Steven Erikson has reported that he has completed The Forge of Darkness, the first novel of the Kharkanas Trilogy.


Erikson's new book is set several hundred thousand years before the events of the main Malazan sequence and expands on the Tiste Andii and events in the city of Kharkanas (which appears, in a deserted state, in the main series novels). Anomander Rake is expected to feature heavily.

Erikson reports that the novel has come in at 292,000 words, noting that (ironically) this is 'short' by his standards. It falls between the length of Deadhouse Gates (272,000 words or over 900 pages in paperback) and House of Chains (306,000, or over 1,000 pages). No publication date has been set for the novel, but it is likely to appear before the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, Erikson's collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont's latest Malazan novel, Orb, Sceptre, Throne, is due for publication in January 2012.