Forge of the High Mage

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We get Bugg in a previous iteration, before he goes to see the world, as it were and that is the highlight of the book for me. Here in the Ice Wastes and among the islands of Falar, the Empire of Malaz faces two seemingly insurmountable tests - each one potentially the origin of its destruction. It is still very enjoyable, especially because we have all of the old guard (Kellanved, Dancer, Dassem, Tayschrenn etc) and we get to see them in action.

Malazan being my undisputed GOAT series, I feel almost obligated to read anything releasing in greater series. This led me to reflect, are these set pieces truly engrossing me as much as they could as I know which characters survive (having read eighteen Malazan books so far) and have already concluded who I should be rooting for prior to these exchanges? If you haven't read Malazan yet, and you enjoy epic fantasy, history, anthropology and philosophy, you should just read Malazan starting from Gardens of the Moon and come back here after 20 books or so. it also does a good job of showing how dark imperialism is, not just in a grander sense but also how ‘good’ people like dujek will allow awful people like hairlock to serve because it helps the ‘empire’. Kellanved is so fun to follow around with how you absolutely have no idea what he's going to do next.I found that these were handled brilliantly, with a few special easter eggs for Malazan fans who read closely. Sadly, the part of the books that felt the least necessary or even relevant to any of the plots was the Crimson Guardsmen plotline.

I don't feel like I got any Aha moments or received any depth or insight you would expect from a prequel book. A great character gets a cameo and the guy we thought it would be about (fuck you Mallick) gets some page time, perhaps not in the way you would think, but he is certainly true to form. 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. This must be an interesting consideration for an author when creating drama for particular scenes in prequels to a popular series.

Forge of the High Mage is a book that I have been eagerly awaiting since I finished my early review copy of Kellanved’s Reach in January 2019. There were a few awesome moments, and a few questions answered, but that wasn't enough to make this book memorable .