Deadhouse Landing is the second in Ian C. Esslemont’s ‘Path
to Ascendancy’ series. Set within the larger universe of Malazan, the series
serves as a prequel of sorts. It follows the adventures of Dancer and Wu, a
nefarious, lethal and frightfully amusing pair of schemers. Readers of other
stories in the Malazan universe may recognise both characters as playing larger
roles later in the chronology. The first book in this sequence, Dancer’s
Lament, was smart, tightly plotted, and thoroughly enjoyable – so I’ve been
looking forward to this sequel immensely.
Wu remains as Machiavellian and downright strange as ever.
He seems to drift from encounter to encounter, things falling into his hands
almost despite his rather cavalier attitude. He’s also clearly got an incisive,
probing intelligence. Quite how much of the incidental madness which seems to
surround him is planned or part of the image, and how much is any, er, actual
madness, remains to be seen. It’s great to have a character who is both clearly
playing for deeper staes and presents something of a facile façade. Wu is fun
to read, because you’re not only always wondering what happens next, but also
how or if it fits into the deeper plan, or if it’s just another amusing
misadventure.
Personally I like to think that Wu is slowly growing in
power and influence almost entirely by accident, but your mileage may vary.
Dancer is something else again. He’s a man slowly being
pushed into the boundaries fo responsibility, accepting loyalties and
proffering his in return. He feels older, perhaps more experienced, in this
volume than the last, which is all to the good. Dancer’s wry scepticism and
intolerance for Wu’s general chaos-mongering means he serves as a spectacular straight-man.
It helps that he’s self-aware enough to view his colleague somewhat askance,
and accept his own shifting role. If Wu brings the comedy and the
longer-playing game, Dancer is less inscrutable, the reader’s way into the
schemes. There are moments in this book which carry a lot of emotional freight,
and Dancer is the one who reaches out and sells that to the reader – his own
commitment, hurt and adrenaline splashed across the page.
They’re joined by a veritable who’s who of the Malazan
series so far I won’t spoil it, but really, the chances of running into your
favourite character from the wider series is quite high. I suppose this makes
sense in the narrative context – Malazan as a whole deals with a band broken
apart, so the early history would bring them all together – though ti can be a
bit overwhelming. Still, it’s great to see the ‘twenty years earlier’ version
of some series favourites, and if only some get enough time on the page, I’m hopeful
we’ll see more of others later.
The world – well, we’ve moved on now to Malaz, the dour,
ensorcelled island which gives the Malazan series its name. There’s a sense of
decline here, of something not quite ready. It’s an island ruled by a pirate
king and his mistress, trying to turn a small fleet of ships and some stone
walls into political leverage. The atmosphere is fraught with both decay and a
growing sense of purpose. The island, with its mysterious mists and sorcerous
seas is almost a character in its own right. Mock’s broken-down Hold is pitch
perfect – moss on the walls, and drunkards and charlatans within. There’s also
some wider story time spent on surrounding nations, which helps provide a
broader context for the intimate portrayal of the world in our current view. In
any event, this is a vivid, detailed and convincing world.
The plot…well, suffice to say that it’s complicated. There’s
crosses. There’s double crosses. There may or may not be further crosses
thereafter. Quite who is doing what, and for whom, can be a bit opaque at
times, but this feels like it’s by design. The whip-crack dialogue and the adrenaline-fuelled
action scenes help carry the plot when you want to stop working things out and
have someone hit something – and the larger narrative threads all tie together
and pay off throughout the text.
Is it worth reading? If you’ve an interest in the early days
of the Malazan series, absolutely. There’s lots of familiar faces, there’s more
than a few surprises and revelations, and it’s all wrapped up in a cracking
story.
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