Stonewielder: A Novel of the Melazan Empire (Malazan Empire) - Softcover

Esslemont, Ian C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553824716 ISBN 13: 9780553824711

Publisher: Bantam, 2014

Synopsis

A breathtaking addition to the history of Malaz--the new epic fantasy from the co-creator of this extraordinary imagined world.
   Greymane believed he'd outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague Kyle wasn't as enamoured with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire.

For there is a new Emperor on the throne of Malaz, and he is dwelling on the ignominy that is the Empire's failed invasion of the Korel subcontinent. In the vaults beneath Unta, the Imperial capital, lie the answers to that disaster. And out of this buried history surfaces the name Stonewielder.

In Korel, Lord Protector Hiam, commander of the Stormguard, faces the potential annihilation of all that he holds dear. With few remaining men and a crumbling stone wall that has seen better days, he confronts an ancient enemy: the sea-borne Stormriders have returned.

Religious war also threatens these lands. The cult of the Blessed Lady, which had stood firm against the Riders for millennia, now seeks to eradicate its rivals. And as chaos looms, a local magistrate investigating a series of murders suddenly finds himself at the heart of a far more ancient and terrifying crime - one that has tainted an entire land....

Stonewielder is an enthralling new chapter in the epic story of a thrillingly imagined world.

About this title

About the Author:

IAN CAMERON ESSLEMONT was born in 1962 in Winnipeg, Canada. He has a degree in Creative Writing, studied and worked as an archaeologist, travelled extensively in South East Asia, and lived in Thailand and Japan for several years. He now lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, with his wife and children and is currently working on his PhD in English Literature. His previous novels, Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard, are also set in the fantasy world he co-created with his great friend Steven Erikson.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Stonewielder
BOOK IThe SeaThe so-called Malazan 'empire' began as a thalassocracy. That is, rule by sea power. In the undignified scholarly scramble to identify and distil the empire's early stages this truly defining characteristic is usually overlooked. Yet the Malazan expansion was undeniably one of sea power and this was the key to its early successes. It was also the key to one of its early failures: the ill-conceived incursion into the archipelago and subcontinent known variously as Fist, Korel, or the Storm-cursed. For this archipelago was itself a supreme sea power, if non-expansionist. And in the end of course it was the sea that so definitively, and with such finality, put an end to all hostilities.Imperial Campaigns (The Korel Occupations) Volume II, Fist Imrygyn TallobantDRAMATIS PERSONAEOf the Malazan Expeditionary ForceGreymane / High Fist, Commander of Expeditionary ForceOrjin SamarrMalazan 17th Squad, 4th Company, 2nd Division, Fourth ArmyOthersOf the Malazan Sixth ArmyOn the StormwallIn the Kingdom of RoolOf the Jourilan Army of ReformOf the Crimson GuardBlues Fingers Lazar ShellThe Synod of StyggTotsin Jurth the Third Brother Carfin Sister Gosh Sister Esa Sister Nebras Brother JoolIn the Shadow RealmOf the Sea-FolkCopyright © 2010 by Ian Cameron Esslemont

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0553824716
• ISBN 13: 9780553824711
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 912