Series
Path to Ascendancy
Ian C. Esslemont · 4 novels · 2016–2023
Dancer's Lament opens Ian C. Esslemont's Path to Ascendancy quartet, a prequel to the Malazan Book of the Fallen novels showing how the assassin Dancer and the mage Kellanved first rose to power and began building the empire that dominates the later Malazan books. It fills in backstory referenced only obliquely elsewhere in the shared Malazan universe co-created with Steven Erikson. The four novels were published between 2016 and 2023.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
- Genre
- Theme
- Place
- Time
- Tone
- Audience
- Form
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
Map
Path to Ascendancy at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 2010s3
- 2020s1
Shape
4 novels
1 author
reads like:epic fantasypolitical intriguesecondary worldtimeless or unspecifiedadventurousadult
Mood
Grim and intense: 100% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book4 of 4 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Kellanved's Reachdarkest · calmest
- Deadhouse Landingbrightest
- Dancer's Lamentmost intense