Malazan Empire: Tatterdemalion - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Here's what I had as your review:

Mentalist – Malazan Empire

Okay, done. That's some seriously dark ending.

I'm intrigued. Piecing together the world's history is fun. The characters areoften archetypal, but the story's entertaining, and is a nice combo of elementswe may have seen elsewhere.

I will certainly be looking out for the sequel.

There were some editing niggles, but nothing major. The use of specificterminology for times and distances was a bit disconcerting at first, but thenI just started subbing in familiar units mentally, and the irritation wentaway.

Macros, on 27 June 2026 - 09:36 AM, said:

Go ahead.

Fair enough, y'all. I have aspects I like a lot, and what I don't. I like the reoccurring premise that will exist once the sequels come - they will all have parallel looks that go together well. I love the back and the crossover aspect. I like the idea our heroes are 'trapped' in the big imbalance metaphor and dowsed in smoke and ashes. I'm not huge on how Asma looks, I don't picture her that was exactly, and I'm not sure the art/photorealism hybrid works as well as going 'full art' or 'full photorealism'. I don't want it to look like a lazy PS job.It's going to print soon! I just sent out digital ARCs to my first 4 ARC readers, so my next step is finishing step-up for my preorder. Then after that is producing the ARC for the physical book - as quickly as I can so I can put it in Christian Cameron's hands as soon as possible. And every night I send another email for someone to read the digital ARC for a review aimed at August 25th.And Macros, I had trouble picking a cover because I, in general, don't see the appeal in MANY covers. There are only a few I really love. So it was hard to advise my artist sometimes because I couldn't always see exactly what I wanted.

Can't get rich and famous off covers that don't appeal.

The first cover is abysmal, though. Really, go look at it. Pitch black. Insane fake-looking skulls. A 2D balance scale just sitting there. The epic background and crows were great, but that's it.

This is meant to be a combination of both photo realism and artistic expression - somewhat Erikson-esque like No Life Forsaken, or that's the idea - where everything's not hyper glossy like many covers but also we get more personality than artistic renditions like, say, Kings of the Wyld. I'll admit Asma's my least favourite of the character portrayals, but another pal was blown away by her contemplative expression and the sifting ashes.

Further, there's more that folk don't see - which I'll now show:

 Tiny Full Cover.png (1.51MB)
Number of downloads: 0

So a couple more cool things:

• The metalwork for with the four gods in the corners presenting the blurb, and eventually a promotional blurb.
• We can now make out the balance scales in full, and recognize the characters stand on one of the two scales.
• My plan to sync the covers together is that each one has the same balance scale design with a different background, and more importantly a different element overwhelming the characters - so dust and sand for Grip of Dust and rain and water for Silence of Deluge. As there will now be four books, a final cover for Death of Balance using blood or something evil.

I think these elements help make it more complex.

Here's the cover reveal from Grimdark Magazine!

PURGE OF ASHES COVER