It has been a real pleasure to watch the development of Ian Cameron Esslemont as a writer. Both Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard were solid offerings but burdened with problems of pacing and character, though RotCG showed some improvement. Each seemed pretty clearly the product of a new author. Stonewielder, the third of Esslemont’s Malazan novels was a big jump forward in terms of quality and craft; though it shared some of its predecessors’ flaws, they were less frequent and less detrimental to the overall reading experience. I’m happy to say that trend continues with Esslemont’s newest—Orb, Sceptre, Throne, which I found to be his most thoroughly enjoyable book yet, though it had a few minor issues and one, to be honest, quite large one. In the end, there’s a part of me that happily ate the book up, and a part of me that had some digestive issues. But more on that later.
[Read more. Mild spoilers.]