Ian Cameron Esslemont

Ian Cameron Esslemont (born 1962) is a Canadian writer. He was trained and has worked as an archaeologist. He is best known for his series Novels of the Malazan Empire, which is set in the same world as the Malazan Book of the Fallen epic fantasy series written by his friend and collaborator, Steven Erikson. Esslemont is the co-creator of the Malazan world.

Biography Esslemont was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He has lived and worked in Southeast Asia, including four years spent in Thailand and Japan. He is currently working on a new trilogy set in the Malaz world. He lives in Alaska with his wife, novelist Gerri Brightwell, and their three sons.

Works

Esslemont and Erikson co-created the Malazan world in 1982 as a setting for a tabletop role-playing game campaign. In 1991 they collaborated on a feature film script set in the same world entitled Gardens of the Moon. When the script did not sell, Erikson expanded the story and turned it into a novel. The two writers agreed to then both write books set in the same world. Eight years later, Gardens of the Moon was published by Bantam UK and Erikson agreed to continue the story. Life and work commitments delayed Esslemont's own entries to the series until 2004, when his first novel, Night of Knives, was published as a limited edition by PS Publishing (a mass-market release by Bantam UK followed in 2007). This book was a prequel to the main Malazan sequence. His second novel, Return of the Crimson Guard, takes place within the main Malazan sequence, shortly after the events of the sixth book, The Bonehunters. It was published by PS Publishing in May 2008 and by Bantam UK later that year. Both Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard have now been bought by Tor for publication in the United States. His third novel, Stonewielder, was published by Bantam UK in 2010 and Tor in the US. His fourth novel, Orb Sceptre Throne was published in 2012. In spring 2014 he signed a contract with Bantam for three more novels set in the Malazan world.

Books

Novels of the Malazan Empire This six-part series covers events roughly simultaneous with Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, and features the Crimson Guard, the succession of the Malazan Empire, events in Korel and Jacuruku and the mystery of Assail. A number of these events are hinted at during the course of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Characters include Kyle, Greymane and such members of the Crimson Guard like Shimmer, Blues, K'azz, Skinner and Cowl. Title Published Approximate Word Count Pages Night of Knives 1 September 2004 104,000 304 Return of the Crimson Guard 15 August 2008 272,000 702 Stonewielder 25 November 2010 198,000 634 Orb Sceptre Throne 20 February 2012 188,000 605 Blood and Bone 22 November 2012 183,000 586 Assail 5 August 2014 168,000 544Approximate Total: 1,120,000 3375

Path to Ascendancy The Path to Ascendancy is a prequel series set in the world of Malazan, written by Ian Cameron Esslemont. The stories deal with the early adventures of Dancer and Kellanved (Dorin and Wu, in this series) and their eventual rise to power on Quon Tali. Title Published Approximate Word Count Pages Dancer's Lament 25 February 2016 (UK), 31 May 2016 (US) 145,000 416 Deadhouse Landing 15 November 2017 136,000 400 Kellanved's Reach 21 February 2019 (UK), 2 April 2019 (US) n/a 352 Forge of the High Mage 6 April 2023 (UK) n/a 460

Footnotes