Night of Knives

Night of Knives is the first novel by Canadian author Ian Cameron Esslemont. It is set in the world of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, a ten-volume epic fantasy series by Esslemont's friend and colleague Steven Erikson. Esslemont and Erikson co-created the Malazan world in the 1980s.

Night of Knives was first published in the United Kingdom by PS Publishing in September 2004 as a limited hardcover. A paperback edition followed in May 2006. Bantam, who publish Steven Erikson's Malazan novels, published Night of Knives in hardcover on 7 May 2007 and in mass-market paperback on 5 May 2008. Its first U.S. publication will be a Tor Books simultaneous hardcover and trade paperback release in May 2009.

Night of Knives is the first of five planned novels by Esslemont to take place in the Malazan world. It is followed by Return of the Crimson Guard and the forthcoming Stonewielder.

The novel is set in the 24 hours when the Emperor of the Malazan Empire is murdered. Chronologically, it takes place after the prologue to Erikson's Gardens of the Moon but before the main body of the novel. Several characters and locations which appear in Night of Knives also appear in Erikson's The Bonehunters.

About the author: Ian Cameron Esslemont lives in Canada with his wife and three children. Although he has spent most of his life in Canada, in recent years he has been travelling constantly as his work has become more and more well-known.

A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Novels
Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
  • Gardens of the Moon (1999)
  • Deadhouse Gates (2000)
  • Memories of Ice (2001)
  • House of Chains (2002)
  • Midnight Tides (2004)
  • The Bonehunters (2006)
  • Reaper's Gale (2007)
  • Toll the Hounds (2008)
  • Dust of Dreams (2009)
  • The Crippled God (2011)
The Kharkanas Trilogy by Steven Erikson
  • Forge of Darkness (2012)
Novels of the Malazan Empire by Ian Cameron Esslemont
  • Night of Knives (2004)
  • Return of the Crimson Guard (2008)
  • Stonewielder (2010)
  • Orb, Sceptre, Throne (2012)
  • Blood and Bone (2012)
Novellas
  • Blood Follows (2002)
  • The Healthy Dead (2004)
  • The Lees of Laughter's End (2007)
  • Crack’d Pot Trail (2009)
  • The Wurms of Blearmouth (2012)
Races and groups
  • Invading
  • Human
  • Malazan Empire
Magic
  • High House Chains
  • High House Death
  • High House Shadow
  • Deck of Dragons
  • Tiles of the Hold
Characters
  • Cotillion
  • Karsa Orlong
  • Emancipor Reese
  • The Crippled God
  • Icarium

Famous quotes containing the words night and/or knives:

    “How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
    —Charles Dickens (1812–1870)