Kellanved's Reach: Path to Ascendancy, Book 3 (A Novel of the Malazan Empire)

I do not understand. I enjoyed the previous two books, but this 3rd installment deserved better. Erikson built up these characters over time with so much skill and background, that they deserved more than rushed pages of origin story. This book is carpet bombed with legendary names, totally unnecessary and a waste of opportunity. If anything this book should have been 2 or 3 times as long.The tone of Kellanved’s Reach is also a lot more teenager style rather than adult. The first part was written in an adolescent style, because the protagonists were. He could have made the following books darker as the characters grew. Instead it feels all too comicalI miss Erikson.

I've been consistently disappointed by Esslemonts writing. I eventually buy the books on sale and read them, because of Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, which is excellent- some of the best fantasy ever written- but I often regret what Esslemont does with the characters that the series share. In hindsight, I'd rather what happened with all Erickson's unresolved plot lines from the Fallen series be left to the imagination. Once you read this, or other Esslemont books, the magic and the fantasy is gone. The plots are contrived, the characters are stock and the dialogue is immature and unbelievable. Esslemont is steadily working his way though all the cool, ominous things that Erikson mentioned or hinted at- Assail and all the rest- and then ruining them with cheesiness. People like to say that his writing is getting better but I don't see it. He takes the epicness that Erikson sets up and makes it mundane , boring and unimaginative.

Esslemont can write an entertaining book, I will start with that. The path to ascendancy trilogy in its entirety is a fun read that moves at a quick (perhaps too quick) pace. It further explores the Malazan world and its myriad characters with a contagious zeal.The voices given to the characters are distinct enough to distinguish them from one another and their motives and values feel real enough to be believable. Also, no contrived “deus ex machina” is unjustly thrust upon the reader.That being said, They (and especially Kellanved’s Reach) left me less than satisfied. Esslemont has a habit of building up to a climax (convergence?) and then the story seems to stagger to a quick end.I also found the dialogue to be basic to the point of rudimentary at times.I don’t want to compare Esslemont to Erickson, it simply isn’t fair. Erickson excels at injecting poetry, vivid description, and pathos into his words. Esslemont does touch on humor and tugs on heart strings at times, but (and I don’t mean to be disrespectful) it’s eating a hotdog instead of a Steak.Now, there’s nothing wrong with hotdogs...sometimes you’d prefer them, but it’s just at a different culinary level.Esslemont also goes overboard with superfluous cameos from characters from other books that don’t even really make sense. Is Everyone suppose to live to be hundreds of years old now? And, do we need the backstory of Every Crimson Guard?Also, there seem to be some inconsistencies in storytelling here. For example, did Haraj’s name just turn into Fingers? And, Where the heck is Nok at?I know, I’m getting a little bit “Militant-Fan” here, but like the poet Gallan once told Fisher Kel Tath “Should you err, the list makers will eat you alive.”Overall, a pretty good book.Can’t wait for The Witness Trilogy though.

Familiar characters and an important set of threads pull us on yet the key players are all younger, less experienced and knowing far less about the complex world they are growing up in. They feel less real in this telling than in the rest of the intricately wrought broad sweep of Malazan history we have been treated to previously.The writing is sparse, telegraphic, almost urgent. As a result the rich atmosphere of roundly drawn characters and vibrant environments is not quite realised in the manner we have come to expect from Esslemont and Erikson. This tale is not the 600 to 800 epic I’ve come to expect and relish and was over too soon.I expect to end these novels emotionally challenged with a feeling of sadness and loss counterpointing triumphs of the human spirit: bravery, determination, loyalty and compassion. While a few vignettes managed this, overall I was disappointed. Reach left me wanting much more.

The epic end to the Ascendancy trilogy ... old gods, demigods, and here the reader gets in touch with stars of 'talent'. Malazan's exceeds the definition of 'epic'. Two sentences into the prologue, it was back to Malazan wiki to refresh characters, timelines, places, etc. After the first chapter, I'd logged over an hour in recall refreshment. It's a massive scale narrative.The Ascendancy Trilogy is a deep dive back into eons of Malazan time. Book 1 seems to be the beginnings. Questions and hints remain about an even more distant and more mighty creation. Some have termed the trilogy as the Silmarillion of the Malazans but it's not akin. What came from space to animate this world remains unclear. Book 2 continues a forward march from the beginnings. Book 3 carries the reader into some temporal proximity with the Malazan Books of the Fallen. I could be completely wrong but that's my take at this trilogy installment.Esslemont's writing quality is noticeably improved from his already established excellence. Here, is a new mastery of conversational quality and brevity.Assuming you've read the Malazan's in publication date order, Kellenvad's Reach needs no introduction. Readers seem to "get" what they alone read. It's a challenge to explain the story to a non-reader. The reader will either read it or never have a clue from a readers telling.Special kudo's to those working Malazan wiki. Without it, the nature of the whole and its massive character creations, the books and time between installments would be unintelligible.

Is interesting, but no real build up or twisting plot lines. It's mainly moving characters around ready for the obvious set piece events and could have been so much better if more time, care and attention was put into what was happening.Rushed is a recurring theme - there is no character development, so most of the large cast are only interesting because of other books they were in. You can reel off loads of them, and not one of them has any development in this book. We dont know why any of them think or act like they do: Urko, Carthereon, Ameron, Surly, Nightchill, Silk, or for that matter Kazz, Blues, Shimmer, and even Kellenved or Dancer. The book is basically "people you've heard of do stuff because reasons, probably"We know he can do better, because Dancers Lament - thats the most annoying thing. Stop rushing out the books: write them better

After the pretty decent Deadhouse Landing, Esslemont's best book since The Return of the Crimson Guard, Kellanaved's Reach is a let down. Across its length the author seldom manages to create the requisite emotional connection to the events which would be required. Rather it feels like an exercise of him getting his pieces into the position on the board for a future story.This is made somewhat more apparent if you have read the chronologically later books, particularly those written by Erikson. Even if we discount that the characters who appear in here couldn't in any conceivable way become the those we meet in The Malazan Book of the Fallen, they feel, just taking the current incarnations into account, horribly flat and lifeless. Pretty much none of the events to which we are witness, which I might add are the opening moves in the creation of a world spanning empire, ever feel consequential. Instead they feel like the exasperated and hurried writings of a man who knows he as to mention them but isn't interested in them in the slightest and so, of course, neither are we.It's a huge pity, as I was rather looking forward to this to scratch my ongoing Malazan itch.

Too short, too rushed and a bit "thin". Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it, but felt a bit unfulfilled at the end. It needed to be longer and more detailed really as it covers a lot of ground and characters. I hope there is more to follow as there is a big gap between events here and Night of Knives.This is possibly the weakest of the Path to Ascendancy novels, but that is a high bar to be fair.

At one point I was wondering how I was thinking if awarding five stars, a first for Esslemont probably since return if the crimson guard.On the plus side there are plenty of info about background of characters, alliances and fueds beginning, tension between surly and how she doesn't like following Kellanved. T'lan imass and jheck and crimson guard and many more characters, some you know but many you have to guess who they were.Complaint as always, from Kellanved and dancer to T'oolan and others are not their normal self, Esslemont has always locked the imagination and the skill to weave a complex but cohesive conversion, Esslemont struggles and often fails to even get the story right. How Kellanved masters the hounds of shadow, indeed the throne of shadow is not even mention and the T'lan imass are even less mastered, how the malazan empire began, essentially this trilogy was nothing but setup, but incomplete one and should have been the first novel of the prequel trilogy, the actual empire untill the adventure or going rogue of dancer and Kellanved in the last years before ascendancy and then the final battle for control of empire and so called assassination of dancer and the emperor Kellanved should have been the proper ending point. The trilogy info should explain that don't expect the secret tour of azath house by dancer and Kellanved and process of abscesstion etc these books don't even explain how da NB cer becomes a mage and patron god of assassin's, though I can guess secretion would change him some how.Major spoilers ahead+++++I still think Esslemont has not improved much as a writer but between average writing he does at times produce information which is essential for understanding the malazan world.He still tells what is happening instead of showing the readers via discription.I can't beging to discribe the major events which happen of the stage, a smaller chain of figs was possible with greymane, war and crimson guard is very vague, we only discover that greymane had four thousand soldiers at start but nothing else is mentioned about numbers of any of dozens of warbands.major engagements are just skimmed over, even when the hounds of shadow are "thrown a bone" we don't get to see even the after math and why would T'lan Imass take on a Taste Lisone when they were searching for a jaghout, no explanation of why the Imass were sleeping or who was the occupier of the throne before.Essentially a must read for malazan fans for hidden nuggets of information, if not for joy of reading a master story teller. One the plus side he does not totally descimate the characters by avoiding some key information about them. I read he got another deal with publishers but I wonder where he goes from here. Please no more prequels. As both Esslemont and Erickson discovered that the fans. Don't care much about what happened to a Tusre Andi 300,000 thousand years ago, we were expecting to see the major clashes like those better Tiste and the K'Chain Cha'Malle etc the epic event like that and summoning of the crippled god etc but both still leave the big events out, even Steven Erickson's books were smaller, which was really disappointed because some people don't like massive door stopper novels but any decent epic fantasy author should write atleast 600 pages for each novel, world building and character development etc takes time and space but that does not mean 3 dozen POVs and slow pace and endless info dumps. Really looking forward to Erickson's Witness trilogy which is being discribed as like 2nd book which was easy to read and a great stories that come to tragic end, probably higher on tragedy scale than the famous red wedding from game of thrones. Karsa would have told the Frey's to witness as he shows them why their civilization is no good. Let's hope it's back to good standard malazan writing instead of what we have been reading from Esslemont and experimental writing if Erickson.

Kellanved's Reach is the last installment in Path To Ascendancy trilogy and I think Esslemont did amazing job with this one. A lot of things were answered and I love how with one scene he erased huge part of time inconsistency in Malazan world. For a long time we've wondered how old is Malazan Empire and how many years was between Dancer's Lament and Night of Knives and how all our beloved characters could be alive in the fresh start of Empire. Now we know and it was resolved pretty good.There was several PoV's in this book and my most favourite was of course Kellanved's and Dancer's. Tehir interactions are amazing and readin it was so much fun.My main complaint is that this book was too short. Though we meet some interesting side characters and not everyone lives to the end, we spend too little time with them to really care. I think it also lacked epic battles and last stands as I know Esslemont can do it really well. I think it could be some 100-200 pages longer so it could have more depth but otherwise I rate it as very good.