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Book Review: Night of Knives
Given that Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series has just released its 9th doorstop of a tome (well, it's been released in the UK, and all real fans already have a copy, even if we haven't all read it yet), it's hard to not to compare Night of Knives to those works. Erikson and Esselmont created the world and its history and characters over the course of many years starting in the early 80s, originally as a world for their roleplaying campaign. As both were aspiring writers, they planned to share the world, and with Night of Knives (2005) and the more recent Return of the Crimson Guard, Esselmont has entered the fray.
So, as I said, it's hard not to compare them. I've been quoted in reviews as suggesting that Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen just may be the greatest epic fantasy series being written right now. Regardless of the truth (or not) of that claim, it shows the respect that I have for the series, and I worried somewhat about how this would hold up. The good news: I wasn't disappointed.
Esselmont writes well and tells a good story. Here, he fills in some of the history that came before Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, but he does so in a very compact story: excepting an extended flashback, the action takes place over the course of a single days--quite different from Erikson's sprawling stories. For some readers, this economy will be a strong point in its favor. I like my fantasy on an epic scale. At the same time, Erikson has a definite seriousness of purpose in the novels he's writing: they're not just good stories, but they also explore interesting ideas--sometimes real-world, human issues, sometimes more speculative issues, but always thoughtfully done. Esselmont doesn't really attempt any such thing--it's too spare to do much more than tell a good story, and it succeeds in that.
Ultimately, it's probably just a matter of taste, and some readers will surely prefer this novel to Erikson's work, but I'm not one. This is a solid story, and there's certainly nothing to disappoint a long-time Erikson reader--it might even bring some new readers reluctant to try Erikson's big, imposing work. It was good enough--and added enough to the depth of the world--that I look forward to reading Esselmont's other work.