story

very good consistant with change of voices with different characters. Author is settling well in his co-world looking forward to the next one

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great set of books

really like this series set in the begining of The Malazan Empires rise and they only seem to get better. hopefully there well be another

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

really enjoyed it

Ian has really grown as a writer. His work here is excellent perfectly plotted detailed and a joy to listen to from start to finish. As a fan of the Malazan universe I cannot recommend this latest novel enough. I am already hungrily awaiting the next installment. thank you Ian

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A good malazan story

Probably more for the enthusiast of the established universe but a great malazan story.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

My favorite of the 'Path to Ascendancy' series.

Honestly I really liked this book, it might even be my favorite of the 'Path to Ascendancy' series.

Forge of the High Mage takes place a few decades after the end of book 3 where the Malazan Imperials took Li Heng, they have mostly pacified the Continent of Quon Tali and are looking to expand into Falar where a particularly fat frog with green teeth is residing. Playing his usual power games. The book flowed far smoother than any other book I have read by Esslemont, the dialogue was far more natural and is Showing Esslemont's growing ability and confidence as a writer. Lot's of old and new faces come into the mix, with multiple plot points converging in typical and exciting Malazan fashion.

I do have a few major gripes with the plot as a whole, mostly the fact a lot of key elements I was most looking forward to in the prequels have been skipped in the time jump ie the formation of the Malazan legions, the first clash against the crimson guard, Topper meeting Surly etc but mostly it is that major characters don't...actually seem to do much and are criminally underutilized. Looking at you Dancer. However this is slightly offset by certain characters getting for more limelight than I was expecting.

Despite these complaints, the book itself is perhaps my favorite of any Esslemont has ever written and has made up for a lot of the issues I had with Kellanved's Reach, despite it carrying a few of it's flaws over.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

A Malazan fix, I needed.

Boom, Malazan is back with a bang, and man Ian C Esslemont didn't disappoint. The author takes us back to where it all began and how the Malazans forge their empire with their ruthlessness.

Forge Of The High Mage is the fourth in book in the Path to Ascendancy series, which has just gotten better and better. For any Malazan fan, this just adds layers and layers to the main characters from the main series. Beautifully soul satisfying.

Malzan is my all-time favourite series, the worldbuilding, characters, the magic system, and the pure scope of it all that Steven Erikson and Ian C Esslemont has created is just phenomenal.

The writing is just poetic. It will make you laugh, cry, leave you in awe, and there are so many characters for you to fall in love with and hate with a vengeance.

Into this foray with the Malazan military and navy, Emperor Kellanved has his sights set on the islands of Falar to expand the Malazan Empire.

Old legends return, my absolute favourite the K' Chain Che Malle, Dinosaurs with swords for arms, causing absolute mayhem with their slicing and dicing.

Our main character, who takes centre stage in this Malazan tale, is a young High Mage Tayschrenn, leads the Malazan infantry alongside High Fist Dujek to reach Falar, he is untested and doesn't realise how powerful a mage he is until he comes up against very powerful elder magics.

Now, I want to start my whole Malazan adventure again. That was such a roller coaster ride and a Malazan fix I thoroughly needed. If you haven't read any of the main series by the authors yet, I very highly recommend that you do, you won't regret it..😁🔥🗡🖤⚡️🙏

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Another great malazan book

Another great entry in the series building on the characters from the forming of the empire previous to the mainstream malazan series. Love the characters and learning more about their history. Full of action and interesting worlds. Highly recommended.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

I got that!

Always apprehensive walking in to a Malazan book. Can sometimes be a slog of hard listening and thinking to piece things together. This book flowed a lot better and kept things ticking along nicely. Despite a good year since the previous book in the series being consumed I picked it up quickly and was back in.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Meh

Amazing characters built up through mbotf being let down by poor, stilted writing. The dialogue is paid full at times to listen to, with almost all characters coming across as wooden or indistinguishable from each other. Half the book is one character nodding their thanks to another.

Story focuses on another convergence, as you might expect from a malazan story, but there was never really any sense of threat. I almost stopped reading a few times, but forced myself through. Disappointing overall.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Unfortunately wasted potential

I am a big fan of Malaz novels, and especially a huge fan of Kellanved and Dancer. So I was really looking forward to this book despite the fact that I find Esslemont style of writing, or rather his pacing of story, very lacking.
I'm glad we are getting the story of how the Empire was formed and character forming of some of the big names wiithin the Empire, but not only that. We also get some story for some of the Crimson Guard characters and also some of the Elders.
Unfortunately this book again suffers form Esslemont style of writting, which I would describe as "Lets go from point A to point B for a veeeery looong time, and when we get near the point B lets just rush things." (I understand that some of the Eriksons books do that as well, but Erikson at least know how to pace the story better) But whats worse in this book that at the end... it just ends without and exciting build up or climax. It's really just "aaaand we are here!"
The main thing this book does somewhat decent, but still left me thinking it could have been done better, is to show us the cunning and scuminest of Mallick Rel and "the forge of high mage" but even that was somewhat... not that exciting.
We also got reunion of Dancer and Ullara in this book which I was excited about, but we did not really get to enjoy these two catching up.
Overall I feel that this book tends to focus on the "minor might not be the right word" stuff over the big events, which can be good to give us the look under the lid, but when there is barely anything there... It just makes me wonder how these series would go, if Erikson was writing it.
This is not necessary hate on Esslemont, I think the first book of this series "Dancer's Lament" was one of his best works and I enjoyed every single page of that book, but it was also one of the few books where he switch from his usual "A -> B" storytelling.
Lot of great characters in this series, Just please dont waste their potential for good story.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!