Courtesy of The Wertzone, we’ve not got a title and a simple synopsis for Steven Erikson’s next novel.

Erikson revealed that his next book will be The Forge of Darkness,, the first book in the Kharkanas trilogy, set in the Tiste Andii home city of Kharkanas hundreds of thousands of years before the events of Gardens of the Moon.

The Forge of Darkness doesn’t ring so nicely as some of his previous titles, but fans will be happy to know that the book exists. Some have likened the title to a generic Forgotten Realms novel and, hey! who knows, maybe we’ll see Erikson open up the world to the Philip Athans, R.A. Salvatores and Elaine Cunninghams of the world.

I’m just kidding Malazan fans. Chill out.

That said, Adam also has news of Ian Cameron Esslemont’s next novel set in that same universe:

Esslemont also confirmed that his fourth Malazan novel will be set in Darujhistan, picking up after the events of Erikson’s Toll the Hounds with characters like Kruppe playing a major role. The remaining two books will be set in Jacuruku and the oft-mentioned, never-seen continent of Assail.

It’s a good time to be a Malazan fan!

Shadowrise

Author – Tad Williams

Hardcover
Pages: 672
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: March 2nd, 2010
ISBN-10: 0756405491
ISBN-13: 978-0756405496

SYNOPSIS
READ AN EXCERPT

My path to becoming a Tad Williams fan is a twisted affair. Not in the macabre sense, but in the I-got-lost-a-few-times-along-the-way sense. Way back in highschool, I was foolishly determined to like his books. I don’t know what prompted it, I just had this idea in my head that I was a big Tad Williams fan. There was a problem, though: every time I tried to read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, I put it down midway through. Sometimes I’d finish The Dragonbone Chair, sometimes I’d drop it half-way through, unfinished, unmotivated. I think I did this three times. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I wanted it, the tale just wouldn’t click with me.

But, I’m a stubborn asshole, even at the best of times. Still determined to enjoy Williams’ work, I eventually picked up Shadowmarch, the first volume in a new Epic Fantasy trilogy* and, finally, after years of trying, I really loved a Tad Williams novel. There were no more released volumes in that series, so I went back to The Dragonbone Chair for a fourth go around… and fell head-over-heels in love. After that, I burned through the rest of the trilogy and it stands, to this day, as my favourite completed Fantasy series of all time. I knew there was a Tad Williams fan inside of me, it just took a little bit of time and perspective to drag him out.

So, the Shadowmarch novels hold a special place in my heart. I recognize now that they’re not quite so genre-defying as Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (hell, those novels inspired George R.R. Martin to write A Song of Ice and Fire!), nor does it have the mythological gravitas that made Memory, Sorrow and Thorn so entrancing, but there’s something special about the series that has become more evident in its third volume, Shadowrise.
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