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. I thought maybe Path of Ascendancy would follow every step of empire-making, but that would take forever and I’m guessing the goal is to touch upon the most important moments of the expansion. 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. In a first for a Malazan novel, an additional two-page map is included in an addendum at the back of the book. I have read every single book that has been released to date in the Malazan universe from both Ian C Esslement and Steven Erikson (well except Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords which in all his eccentricity Erikson decided to release just his handwritten notes and at the moment is not available as an actual book).

The great thing is we still have two ongoing series from Erikson and at least another 2 books left in this series. Now I’m full of anticipation and excitement for whatever comes out first, the next book in this series or whatever Mr.Maels origin story…Tayschrenns connection to humanism… this book has left me wanting to read the next 2-3 that have yet to be written. Tay (the titular High Mage) steals the show, he really comes on leaps and bounds as a character from a largely unknown, pretty stereotypical big hitter type character to someone with nuance and it gives you understanding of how he is, who he is. However, there was a considerable time jump from the previous book which means a lot of the Malazan expansion happened off page which was very disappointing. He'll never reach the heights of Steven Erikson but not all Malazan books have to be 1000-page tomes full of philosophy.

I didn’t expect this volume to be so Tayschrenn centric, but it does such a fantastic job revealing the underpinnings of this enigmatic man.This book really dumbs down the series and the characters, delivering a bunch of epic events and confrontations with hardly any of the emotion that the series is known for. slight spoilers here but i adored how dancer was handled in his reunion to ullara, especially considering the underlying tension with lasseen that makes the ultimate outcome that much more understandable. There are however those who harbour doubts regarding the stewardship of Kellanved and his cohort Dancer, and as the Malazan force heads north, it encounters an unlooked-for and most unwelcome threat - unspeakable and born of legend, it has woken and will destroy all who stand in its way. Great book, perfect ICE novel and it sets up the next one (the events at Aren) nicely by showing a few of those characters and most likely the man who will face Daseem. One minor criticism that I have with Forge to the High Mage, though, is that we spend less page time with the duo of Kellanved and Dancer, whose interactions are always memorable.