Dancer's Lament: Path to Ascendancy Book 1

Dancer's Lament is the first book in Ian C. Esslemont's Path to Ascendancy trilogy, a prequel sequence to the wider Malazan world he built alongside Steven Erikson. It steps back to a time before the Malazan Empire, when its future architects were young and unknown, and grounds its story in a single besieged city rather than a continent-spanning war.

The novel follows Dorin, a talented young assassin seeking a reputation in the city of Li Heng, and a peculiar, powerful mage going by the name Wu. Their wary, often comic partnership plays out against the machinations of the city's ruling Protectress, her circle of mages, and an army massing beyond the gates. Compared with the dense Malazan Book of the Fallen, the narrative here is more contained and easier to follow.

Readers familiar with the Malazan universe will recognize figures whose later legends are only hinted at, but the book is written to stand as its own story of ambition, loyalty, and the making of two men.