[Egwene]

Someone on Reddit posted that they picked up a copy in Leadenhall (UK) Market Waterstones today. No, I am not green in the face... it is just the funny light in this room!!!

[Abyss]

Switched my preorder from Amazon.ca to .uk, should be dl'd Thursday 12am.Psyched!

[S Ruin]

The book is coming along very nicely - a lot of familiar characters. I will say one thing - Ammanas is totally and utterly bonkers.

[Leanoric]

Just bought the book today in Waterstones. Read the first page and a bit (I'm still at work), and already found the first line to make me laugh.

"He was of the opinion that you could never have too much rope."

So true for anyone who played old school AD&D etc. Rope. Lots of it. Who cares about practicalities, my thief always carried at least 100 foot of rope with him.

Ahh, looking forward to reading the rest later.

[arbitrage]

Amazon.ca and .com have a second Kindle listing that is supposed to be released on Feb 25th....we shall see tomorrow. They are both more expensive than the other Kindle listing for May 31st.
http://www.amazon.ca...g=UTF8&qid=&sr=
I also see that the UK kindle version is now available being that it is the 25th over there....

This post has been edited by arbitrage: 25 February 2016 - 03:57 AM

[The Ninth Layer]

I was lucky to get a copy in a few days ago and finished it today. I won't post any spoilers except to say that ICE should have called this book "The Return of the Return of the Crimson Guard" for all the recurring characters in it.

Also, I really liked it! Definitely one of ICE's best. Very tightly focused all the way through, and young Dancer and Kellanved were handled really well.

[worry]

You should start another thread for people who've completed it already. I'm sure those are bound to be trickling in over the coming month. Later you can tell your grandkids you were the first one to make a thread for DL.

[Aptorian]

Damn it, Amazon. It's the 25th. Why hasn't the ebook unlocked yet!

[Fid]

Apt, on 25 February 2016 - 06:26 AM, said:

Damn it, Amazon. It's the 25th. Why hasn't the ebook unlocked yet!

Unlocked, downloaded and have read prologue

[Salt-Man Z]

It occurs to me that this is the first time two Esslemont books have been released back-to-back(-ish) with no Erikson book in-between.

[Abyss]

Sfunny.... Chaptersindigo and Amazon.com have all updated to feb 25.... .ca is still saying April.

[The Ninth Layer]

I got my copy on AbeBooks.com for anyone still having trouble ordering one. They shipped from the UK and the price was really cheap, and it took about a week.

This post has been edited by The Ninth Layer: 26 February 2016 - 05:56 AM

[Ribald]

Finished it and loved it.

In a lot of ways I think this is the best Esslemont book so far...

My review will be posted later today on my site
www.thecriticaldragon.com

[Imperial Historian]

Have to agree. This one feels more like night of knives and reads more like ICE has found his own style rather than trying to do the erikson interweaving epic style. Highly recommended.

[End of Disc One]

No criticisms yet? I guess I should wait until Apt reads it.

[Aptorian]

I am around 30% into the book according to Kindle.

I REALLY like the book so far. Like it's really fucking good in a Night of Knives sort of way.

It doesn't feel as mature or deep as Eriksons books. Maybe because it's not focused on a military company. It feels more like a Young Adult Malazan Book because of the focus on Dancer, but it does a good job of handling familiar characters and showing them from new points of view.

Now, who knows, maybe Esslemont shits the bed in the last quarter like he usually does, I am not letting myself get over-excited for the pay-off, but I think this book is actually demonstrating a strength the Main Series lacks. By telling the story of the early empire you have the Malazan Empire and what came before it, at its most powerful.

You don't have weak, scraggly squad mages in this book. You have god like terror-to-behold High Mages throwing power around. You don't have remnants of once great orders and companies hiding in taverns and in new armies, but instead powerful ninja orders and god servants and ascendants setting up shop.

There's a lot of juice in this early part of the book. I am curious to see if Esslemont manages to create the convergence I am looking for (Odds are against him).

EDIT: The above makes the book sound all sunshine and roses. It does have problems. IMO mainly surrounding Dancer as a young assassin but this is a book that has room for character growth.

If you come to the Malazan Books for the patented romantic yet cynical philosophizing on mankinds inhumanity, you wont find much of this here. This is not a particularly intellectual or deep story so far. Esslemont isn't mirroring Eriksons later books but writing something more like NOK. Something I can appreciate.

This post has been edited by Apt: 26 February 2016 - 06:59 PM

[Ribald]

It is definitely a more 'story' focused book.

Limited narrative perspectives so there is a more consistent view of the world.

A single, main locale, so the story seems centred and contained.

A single, main event that is building and affecting everything, so there is consistency and a feeling of development and progression no matter which perspective you are riding with.

So it reads as a lot more streamlined and linear story with a clear focus and direction.

Or at least that is what I think.

[kkyyyssss]

Totally agree with you on all your points. I love the way Erikson is able to pull all of those threads he starts and create a whole that is truly immersive and fantastic to read but Esslemont has never shown that he was able to do the same (to my taste at least).
I think he does much better at the kind of story created in Dancer's Lament than he did in his last 3 books. Hopefully he will grow better in this style and can go further but I always thought it was a mistake for him to try to copy what Erikson was doing as it is not something that a lot of authors are actually able to pull without making their book feel disjointed and making me lose interest in the story.

[Anomander Dragnipurake]

I finished the book today and what I can say is that for me at least it's his best book to date. Before this book I was never a huge fan of Kellanved but now I'm starting to be one. The guy is just nuts!

[Morgoth]

So, do we know what sort of timespan this book is supposed to cover. Or, where do you guys expect the next book to take place?

I was thinking that the next book will take place in Malaz, and that the third will be more focused on the conquering of the continent. Or is it supposed to be more of a prologue to all of that, with the conquerin of the island being the final crescendo?