Night of Knives

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Night of Knives

Night of Knives, Canadian cover
Author Ian Cameron Esslemont
Cover artist Steve Stone
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Malazan Book of the Fallen
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher PS Publishing (UK) & Bantam (UK & Canada, forthcoming)
Publication date 1 September 2004
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 280 pp (PS Publishing edition), 304 pp (Bantam edition)
ISBN ISBN 1-904619-19-3 (UK paperback edition)
Followed by Return of the Crimson Guard

Night of Knives is the first novel by Canadian author Ian Cameron Esslemont. It is set in the world of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, a ten-volume epic fantasy series by Esslemont's friend and colleague Steven Erikson. Esslemont and Erikson co-created the Malazan world in the 1980s.

Night of Knives was first published in the United Kingdom by PS Publishing in September 2004 as a limited hardcover. A paperback edition followed in May 2006. To date, the book has not had an official US publication. Bantam, who publish Steven Erikson's Malazan novels, published Night of Knives in hardcover on 7 May 2007 and in mass-market paperback on 5 May 2008.

Night of Knives is the first of five planned novels by Esslemont to take place in the Malazan world. It is followed by Return of the Crimson Guard and the forthcoming Stonewielder.

The novel is set in the 24 hours when the Emperor of the Malazan Empire is murdered. Chronologically, it takes place after the prologue to Erikson's Gardens of the Moon but before the main body of the novel. Several characters and locations which appear in Night of Knives also appear in Erikson's The Bonehunters.

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