Night of Knives

A friend loaned me Ian Esselmont's "Knight of Knives", a freshman novel by the co-creator of the Malazan universe popularized by Stephen Erikson's various, uber-thick novels.

I finished it yesterday.

I'm weighing my reactions. One the one hand, it was an excellent freshman novel in that the plot moved along and the pacing was good.

On the other hand, the plot seemed kind of pointless.

The story is set prior to Erikson's Malazan novels and deals with the fate of a series of pivotal characters. Unfortunately, these pivotal characters are in the background of the story. The novel is seen through the eyes of two characters: a retired soldier and an inexperienced thief/spy. Neither character particularly interested me, especially the thief/spy. Their tales had practically no character development and their actions seemed empty.

I enjoy the Malazan novels for what they are: brain candy. Erikson's books at least had a bit more character development in them, albeit in his later novels.

I'm probably being too harsh on Esselmont, though. As a freshman novel, it really was pretty solid. I did like his different "voice" for the Malazan world. The one thing I enjoyed about his thief/spy character is that she was a break from female archtypes that Erikson uses.

It's painfully obvious with both men that they're writing about a world they created for a role-playing game, but I don't consider that a bad thing.