A quick review for (would-be) readers of the Malazan series: I am currently reading all of the Erikson and Esslemont books for the first time (and having an absolute (Moranth) blast with the series) and wanted to share my thoughts about this particular novel.

The reason for that is that this novel has a somewhat slow start, but I am extremely happy I finished it. If you're in doubt about continuing this book (or even if you're not sure about the other Esslemont Malazon books) my advice would be to keep going, if you liked previous Malazan stories.

The reason is that the book gets so much better in the second half: the pace picks up, some of the characters come alive (and there are some abolutely brilliant characters later on) and there is a lot that happens in the book that is absolutely worth reading here first, instead of via Erikson's books.

Personally, I am using this thewertzone.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-better-malazan-reading-order.html reading order, so that might have influenced the previous point: if you read all of Erikson first, for instance, your experiences will vary.

In short, keep reading if you like Malazan, this book will pay off.