Excellent fast paced fantasy tale but with more literary merit and depth than most. Highly recommended if you are a fan of the Mazalan series by Ste Erickson or if you like a good adventure story tinged with fantasy. You must read the first volume in this series before getting to this one.

Because it occurs not that far along into Deadhouse Landing, I don’t feel bad about revealing that at one point our erstwhile heroes Wu and Dancer are forced into confronting one of the most dire threats of the Malazan Universe — being taken by an Azath. A revelation that I’m sure will have many of you wondering which of the many great powers of that universe could have driven them onto those perilous grounds: K’rul? T’riss? Kallor, a Matron, Icarium? Worthy candidates all, but none powerful enough. Because it turns out each pales beside the unstoppable, the irresistible puissance of . . . the double-dare.

“G’wan,” the lad called, “we double-dare you.”
Wu looked at the overcast sky in exasperation. “Fine.” He stepped out among the dead knee-high grasses and weeds. “There. You happy now?”
“Wow, he actually is that stupid,” the lad whispered to his friends in wonderment . . .
All at once something yanked the mage off his feet [and] soon both [Wu and Dancer] were . . . being pulled directly toward the nearest mound . . .
“Well,” the mage said, his voice tight with pain. “This is rather embarrassing.”

Yes. Yes, it is.

Though — spoiler alert for the second book of a prequel trilogy — they do manage to escape. Happily, for us readers, as the duo’s evolving partnership beyond this point is one of the true joys of this immensely fun read. That joy is partly, and most obviously, due to the many, many laughs said partnership engenders, which gives this book somewhat of a Road to Malaz City feel. But it’s also in no small measure due as well to the sincerely deep emotional bond we witness Dancer gradually acknowledge, much to his own surprise.

The two of them, following their misadventures in Li Heng, have ended up on Malaz Island, as long-time Malazan fans knew they always would. Here, Wu buys a bar that happens to come with a handful of Napan civil war refugees, including a waitress named Surly and a cook named Urko. Wu explain to the skeptical Dancer that Smiley’s is to be their base of operation as they engage in “our forte . . . ambush and hijacking,” all in in service of taking over, well, “everything.” Dream big Wu always says. “Everything” most immediately includes Malaz City itself, currently led by Admiral-But-Wants-To-Be-King Mock, and the Shadow realm, which has its own already established forces needing to be overcome.

While Wu and Dancer set their, well, “plans” probably gives them too much credit, into action, the Napans work their own secret plots, Mock and his mage mistress plan an invasion, an aloofly naïve priest of D’rek becomes dangerously embroiled in temple politics, the Mortal Sword of Hood tries to resign, and an ancient power comes down from the hills to take the sea air (and get some vengeance).

All these subplots lead to Deadhouse Landing being more complex structurally than Dancer’s Lament, switching not just chapter to chapter but within chapters as well amongst nearly a dozen POVs, including Dancer, Dassem, Tayschrenn, Cartheron, Tattersail, Nedurian, as well as several brand new characters. Thankfully, Esslemont shows a deft hand in managing so many POVs, with the shifts being consistently fluid and easy to follow. And even if Landing isn’t as restrained in terms of POV as Lament was, in comparison to the earlier series it’s still pretty streamlined.

That said, perhaps in part due to all these POVs, and despite so much happening, the novel can feel strangely static at times, or perhaps “paused” is a better word, with the narrative slowing down while now and then while the required actors are each brought on stage and then moved into necessary position. In Malazan terminology we meet the Old Guard when they’re the New Guard. A slew of characters that, based on what we know from the earlier series, have to be introduced around this time are — some immediately familiar, others eventually so in a frisson of pleasurable recognition. Relationships that have to form do, though not all, not yet. Those who need new names, i.e. the ones we know them by in those earlier series, choose them or are given them.

All of this means that more than with its predecessor, one feels in Deadhouse Landing a sense of pre-fab construction, of things being put into place both for and based upon future events. Long-time fans won’t begrudge at all this sort of thing – every new introduction for instance is another delightful, sometimes surprising, reunion with a character they’ve probably missed — but I do think readers new to this world will not only miss out on those pleasures but might also find the book a bit slow in its earlier or middle stages. They also will probably be at sea now and then as to why they’re spending so much time in what seems a tangential plot involving a character who seems wholly disconnected, though Esslemont does successfully bring the threads all home by the end.

Another minor downside is that because so much time in a relatively slim novel (by Malazan standards) is spent on introductions and the sort of “maintenance” work getting things set up for the next book, there’s less room for character development, as say, we saw with Dancer’s arc in book one. The same holds true for thematic development, as well as the vividness of the setting. Malaz City for instance feels less vibrantly real as a place here than it has in the past or than Li Heng did in Dancer’s Lament, as plot takes precedence over the other elements in order to assemble all the pieces required for book three.

In terms of plotting, the primary storyline of course, and my favorite, involves Wu and Dancer, particularly with regard to their exploration of Shadow (a quick aside to note that the cover, which depicts a moment of that journey, is absolutely stunningly beautiful), though I also enjoyed their more mundane experiences trying to take over Malaz City. Their story was filled with humor, tension, and a surprising amount of warmth and emotion. Dassem’s subplot, meanwhile, was perhaps the most bluntly “prequel-ish” —filling in the background for one of the more mysterious character from the other series, while Tayschrenn and Tattersail’s plots vied for most surprising in terms of the early version of their characters.

Action-wise, Esslemont offers up in the first three-quarters of the book another trademark naval battle (well done as always), several strong fight scenes, a few horrid executions, and a wonderfully tense urban stalking scene. But things really pick up in the last 60 pages with several fantastic set pieces, including a mage battle, a one-man stand, and a long-awaited one-on-one knife fight. As you can see from just this partial list, the narrative encompasses a wide range with regard to type of action (beyond just sword fights say, or battle scenes) and even action genre — some of these moments are more horror than anything, something Esslemont has always excelled at I’d say.

Deadhouse Landing was more a “bridge” book than I expected, based on how both Esslemont and Erikson have managed to avoid the usual prequel pitfalls so far. But if it sacrifices a bit of thematic depth and offers up a few lines/moments that seem forced in order to explain how we get from here to the main series’ characters/events, it never stops having fun. The PATH TO ASCENDANCY series is in a different tonal color than the other works, and it’s a stylistic change that so far is playing quite well with Esslemont’s strengths, with the first two books showcasing I’d say his best writing yet. You can sense that this is a writer fully confident in himself and his work, and I can’t wait to see the next installment. I dare you to read this and think differently.

No. I double-dare you.

So just one thing – why the heck didn’t this book get promoted like books that are actually garbage with a nice cover do???? Every single book set in the Malazan world that I’ve read is awesome (I can’t attest to the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach ones) and the Dancer’s Lament was ICE’s best book to date. It stands to reason that Deadhouse Landing should be just as good, if not better (which it was) so… does that mean Tor felt it didn’t need the promotion? Last I checked I think this book had a cover or title but no release date and next thing I know it’s on NetGalley two weeks prior to its release – SURPRISE!

Let me step off my soapbox now and give you an actual review.

Deadhouse Landing was a SOLIDLY WONDERFUL sequel and it made me so nostalgic about the main series that I suddenly want to destroy my schedule and do a 6 month re-read. I stopped periodically to squeal at my husband about a character that just showed up because the powers are gathering on Malaz and the gang is getting together (!!!!!). Dancer and Wu show up on Malaz Island and promptly buy this shack of a bar called Smiley’s and they hire on some Napans who are obviously hiding out from their mainland brethren. Just a few familiar faces here… Surly, Cartheron, Urko… no big deal, right? That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Dancer and Wu/Kellanved end up wandering through Shadow, facing off against the Hounds, walk up to the Deadhouse, and buy a ship that’s an even bigger dump than Smiley’s. All in all it’s a fantastic book.

What I love about the Path to Ascendancy series is it shows the reader how Dancer and Kellanved met and how the powers that exist in the MBOTF series come together. This is the prequel everyone wanted! I could blather on for many sentences about characters that show up, events, plots, blah blah blah but that would be very spoilery and I don’t want to be that person. All I can advise is this – if you’ve read the main Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson, then you’ll enjoy this immensely. If you haven’t read any of these books then Dancer’s Lament is a good place to start too. Deadhouse Landing was a fantastic read, less philosophical than Erikson’s books, but it’s classic Malazan greatness nonetheless.

Deadhouse Landing is the second book in the Path to Ascendancy trilogy by Canadian author Ian C. Esslemont and continues telling the story of Kellanved and Dancer’s rise to prominence in advance of the opening of fellow author Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. Yet another great piece from some of the best world builders in fiction, Deadhouse Landing provides some much desired background and introductions of characters to each other set against the backdrop of piracy, gang wars, and the entering of several of the world’s Powers into the story. Loved it.

It’s getting a little tough to review Malazan novels. There are really a lot of them, and they’re not small books at all. The core series is 10 books and clocks in at 3,325,000 words, and Erikson along with Esslemont have added another 10 on top of that. Every single one of them has the best world building I’ve ever seen, solid characterizations, great dialogue, excellent combat, and having reviewed a number of their books so far, I’ve basically said it all. Which pretty much just leaves me talking about the plot, without rehashing that all the elements of the plot are great, or giving a bunch of spoilers. But we shall see what we can do by way of communicating to you why this book is so great.

The thing that Esslemont brings to the Malazan fiction is a service sort of by way of a really qualified and excellent tour guide. Erikson’s core series is very complicated and starts right in the middle with a lot of wheels turning and characters who’ve known each other a long time, and doesn’t really let up to give you room to breathe at all. It’s one of the things I love about the series, it doesn’t pull any punches. It goes, and you can keep up or not. The one thing it definitely doesn’t do is dump a bunch of recollective exposition on you to bring you up to speed. There is a Malazan wiki that is good for just giving you the distilled facts for everything, but with these novels, Esslemont isn’t just giving you the facts. It’s like that guy who was there when it all happened, and when you ask questions, instead of just telling you what happened, says “Well, THAT is a story” kicks his feet up on the table and gives you the first-hand version. He uses novels that are great in their own right to fill in the gaps in and around the larger series, creating a whole that is more fleshed out, and really engages you even more with characters you already loved.

There’s really something about seeing wheels first getting set into motion that you only saw while the cart was moving at full tilt previously that is really enjoyable, especially as regards Kellanved, who was a mysterious figure at the best of times in the main series, and now one of the central figures in the action. It sets up his future actions so much better than reading a little synopsis of these events could have done. I still get a little frisson of joy and excitement whenever a character I know from the series is first introduced by name, and there are quite a few of them here.

I really could go on for quite a long time on the subject of these books and this book, and why I enjoy them so much. There’s just such a craft in the world design that nevertheless really does choose to show rather than tell. The characters are plenty flawed, have real struggles and even knowing what’s going to happen, you still feel the tension and excitement when events start to really get moving. Also, there’s a somewhat subtle presence of the Seguleh in this novel, and while I know Esslemont and Erikson will never ever read this: GIVE US A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT THE SEGULEH. They are my favourite part of this world, and while they did get a much heavier mention in Orb Scepter Throne than in the rest of the series, it’s not enough!

So there you have the best I can do to review a single instalment of the Malazan world, Deadhouse Landing while saying anything new that isn’t spoilers. The series is great. It can be a bit of a hard sell to get into if you’re used to novels holding your hand a bit more, but if you hang in there and trust in yourself to keep track of it all, they’re some phenomenal novels. Those interested in starting the series can start with the first novel by publication Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.

There’s a reading order floating around the internet that puts them roughly in chronological order by events, which begins with Forge of Darkness, also by Erikson, or you could even opt to start with Esslemont’s Night of Knives which describes the events that end right before Gardens of the Moon starts. Despite the desire to read them chronologically, I strongly suggest reading the full 10-book primary series first, and then moving on to Esslemont’s pretty much in order of which sounds the most interesting to you. The possibility of spoilers for the other novels by reading the whole main series through first pales, to me, beside the benefits of gaining the baseline familiarity with the world and characters that the main series provides.

Deadhouse Landing is the second in Ian C. Esslemont’s ‘Path to Ascendancy’ series. Set within the larger universe of Malazan, the series serves as a prequel of sorts. It follows the adventures of Dancer and Wu, a nefarious, lethal and frightfully amusing pair of schemers. Readers of other stories in the Malazan universe may recognise both characters as playing larger roles later in the chronology. The first book in this sequence, Dancer’s Lament, was smart, tightly plotted, and thoroughly enjoyable – so I’ve been looking forward to this sequel immensely.

Wu remains as Machiavellian and downright strange as ever. He seems to drift from encounter to encounter, things falling into his hands almost despite his rather cavalier attitude. He’s also clearly got an incisive, probing intelligence. Quite how much of the incidental madness which seems to surround him is planned or part of the image, and how much is any, er, actual madness, remains to be seen. It’s great to have a character who is both clearly playing for deeper staes and presents something of a facile façade. Wu is fun to read, because you’re not only always wondering what happens next, but also how or if it fits into the deeper plan, or if it’s just another amusing misadventure.

Personally I like to think that Wu is slowly growing in power and influence almost entirely by accident, but your mileage may vary.

Dancer is something else again. He’s a man slowly being pushed into the boundaries fo responsibility, accepting loyalties and proffering his in return. He feels older, perhaps more experienced, in this volume than the last, which is all to the good. Dancer’s wry scepticism and intolerance for Wu’s general chaos-mongering means he serves as a spectacular straight-man. It helps that he’s self-aware enough to view his colleague somewhat askance, and accept his own shifting role. If Wu brings the comedy and the longer-playing game, Dancer is less inscrutable, the reader’s way into the schemes. There are moments in this book which carry a lot of emotional freight, and Dancer is the one who reaches out and sells that to the reader – his own commitment, hurt and adrenaline splashed across the page.

They’re joined by a veritable who’s who of the Malazan series so far I won’t spoil it, but really, the chances of running into your favourite character from the wider series is quite high. I suppose this makes sense in the narrative context – Malazan as a whole deals with a band broken apart, so the early history would bring them all together – though ti can be a bit overwhelming. Still, it’s great to see the ‘twenty years earlier’ version of some series favourites, and if only some get enough time on the page, I’m hopeful we’ll see more of others later.

The world – well, we’ve moved on now to Malaz, the dour, ensorcelled island which gives the Malazan series its name. There’s a sense of decline here, of something not quite ready. It’s an island ruled by a pirate king and his mistress, trying to turn a small fleet of ships and some stone walls into political leverage. The atmosphere is fraught with both decay and a growing sense of purpose. The island, with its mysterious mists and sorcerous seas is almost a character in its own right. Mock’s broken-down Hold is pitch perfect – moss on the walls, and drunkards and charlatans within. There’s also some wider story time spent on surrounding nations, which helps provide a broader context for the intimate portrayal of the world in our current view. In any event, this is a vivid, detailed and convincing world.

The plot…well, suffice to say that it’s complicated. There’s crosses. There’s double crosses. There may or may not be further crosses thereafter. Quite who is doing what, and for whom, can be a bit opaque at times, but this feels like it’s by design. The whip-crack dialogue and the adrenaline-fuelled action scenes help carry the plot when you want to stop working things out and have someone hit something – and the larger narrative threads all tie together and pay off throughout the text.

Is it worth reading? If you’ve an interest in the early days of the Malazan series, absolutely. There’s lots of familiar faces, there’s more than a few surprises and revelations, and it’s all wrapped up in a cracking story.

A review in spanish
https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/11/deadhouse-landing-ian-c-esslemont.html

I received an advanced copy of Deadhouse Landing in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Ian C. Esslemont and Macmillan/Forge for this opportunity.

Deadhouse Landing is the engaging and stunning second novel within the Path to Ascendancy trilogy and is set prior to the events of Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen and Esslemont's Malazan Empire. We are presented an incredibly detailed world that the two friends co-created and share in their literary endeavours right down to the places, characters, histories, terminology, and magic. If you aren't familiar with their works then this would be a terrible place to start.

After the finale of Dancer's Lament the assassin, Dancer, and his mysterious mage companion, Wu fled Li Heng after complications and now find themselves at the shores of Malaz City. Wu purchases a run-down bar called Smiley's which is found in the worst part of town, employing Napan staff including a barmaid named Surly. The public house will become the duos base of operations as Wu weaves another plot for world domination.

<i>Wu thumped elbows to the desk and set his chin in his fists, frowning in hard thought. ‘Yes. Our plans. No sense tackling one of the corsair captains here – the crew wouldn’t follow us. I’ve never sailed. Mock rules from his Hold, but he probably doesn’t care who runs the streets. So, for now, we limit our attention to the shore. The merchants and bosses who control the markets and warehouses.’

Dancer had pursed his lips, considering. ‘What do you propose?’

Wu raised his head, smiling. ‘Why, our forte, of course. Ambush and hijacking.’</i>

Dancer is still the main character and focus during this narrative. Wu is as complicated, interesting and potentially insane as ever. He often wanders off for days, perhaps playing with shadows to the extent that even his best friend and trusted partner has no idea what he's plotting or thinking. I found that Dancer's Lament could be a wise first step into the Malazan world following only 3 point of view perspectives. This book, although not as complex and occasionally confusing as say, The Return of the Crimson Guard, isn't as easy to read as the previous book and now the narrative features about 12 character viewpoints. The majority of these players are based in Malaz and many of their paths cross. It's definitely more linear in presentation than the 1000+ page 'door-stoppers' and is more story focused because of that. I'm aware that people will be reading the prelude trilogies for answers, however, nothing is that simple in the world of Malazan and just as many interesting questions have been crafted which means I'll read the follow-up as soon as I can. The points of view chapters include some of Malazan's most important players including Dancer, Tattersail, Tayschrenn, and Dassem Ultor as-well as new creations to an ensemble that must already be 4000+ strong.

<b>Luel licked his bloodied lips and whispered, 'Who are you?' 'I am Dassem Ultor.'</b>

Esslemont has improved his writing drastically since Night of Knives and in my opinion, his most recent releases have a stunningly flow and swagger. The perspectives switch a few times per chapter giving an overview of all happenings. The majority of these chapters take around 20 minutes to read so it seems the days have passed since you could read a full book in the same time as an Esslemont chapter. The pacing throughout is top-notch and the culmination is brilliantly realised. We get 'master-assassin' showdowns, exploration of warrens, finding out more regarding the Azath houses and most importantly - we see scenes and actions that showcase why some of these characters will become legends across the complete Malazan universe and timeline. As mentioned before regarding cast size, the dramatis personae contains around fourty names. A small quantity for this series perhaps, however, the character index omits about half the individuals involved. About 5 times I thought 'surely they can't be referring to XXX, what? It's him. He's in THIS book! I did not expect that.' It may just be me. I'm over-excitable.

The finale is fully realised as Dancer's Lament's was and introduces within the epilogue the new directions that this tale may present readers next. If you're familiar with the Old Empire history then one possibility is unbelievably intriguing. Kellanved is slowly making his mark on what we know becomes his empire yet it's super exciting seeing how he gets there. Deadhouse Landing is a masterclass of Malazan awesomeness, it may be Esslemont's finest book to date and unlike Dancer and Wu, he is no longer in the shadows.