• Dancer's Lament

  • Path to Ascendancy, Book 1
  • By: Ian C. Esslemont
  • Narrated by: John Banks
  • Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,011 ratings)

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Dancer's Lament  By  cover art

Dancer's Lament

By: Ian C. Esslemont
Narrated by: John Banks
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Publisher's summary

Esslemont's all-new prequel trilogy takes readers deeper into the politics and intrigue of the New York Times bestselling Malazan Empire. Dancer's Lament focuses on the genesis of the empire, and features Dancer, the skilled assassin, who, alongside the mage Kellanved, would found the Malazan empire.

©2016 Ian C. Esslemont (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Dancer's Lament

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

FISH

It is easy to see why these type of books are so long. Everything is explained in extensive detail. Example, One guy is described as gulping like a fish in lake so and so in the county of so and so. Books like this love to rattle off names, I guess to make them seem more historical, legit, ?. It is a popular why to write, as a lot of fantasy novels do it. I get lost, wondering, should I know these names of a fictional place. Why could he not just say he gulped like a fish? I could not finish this book.

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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ahhhh...

Ian Esselmont has hit his stride both as a writer and a story teller. Dancer's Lament begins a rich development of Malazan history without coming across as a prequel. The relationships of the characters are unexpected and complex. The book stands on it's own without suggesting that the characters have a future in an epic series, so I believe it would be a great choice for someone who has never heard of Malazan Book of the Fallen. For those who have read and reread MBotF, what can I say... It's sweet.

The reader, John Banks, is just right. Great voices with just the right emphasis in the right places. My only complaint is the voice of Koroll. I found it difficult to listen to when he talked very long, which fortunately was not very often. Otherwise, excellent.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A bit slow starting out but gets better

This story has a large number of story arcs that make it difficult to get a grasp on where the overall story is going. However, if one stays with it, the various threads do begin to tie together and coalesce at the end.

Even so, there was a large amount of time spent on character interaction and backstory such that maintaining one's interest level often became a challenge.

I will say that the writing was above par and the narrator's performance was worthy.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good Start

I enjoyed this book. It really kept me interested. The story wasn't too long and still you get enough depth of the characters and what is going on. Can't wait for the next book.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The birth of an empire

While I've enjoyed Erikson's Karkhanas (sp?) story, I never really cared about Anomander Rake's, and the Tiste Andii's, history. However, in a literary world with so many well written friendships/partnerships, one of my favorite has always been Shadowthrone and his Rope. While the two are woven throughout the Malazan Book of the Fallen, you don't really get an in-depth look at their relationship, and most of what you do get barely skims the surface of a much deeper, but only ever implied, back story. I was very excited to see their beginnings, and this beginning does not disappoint.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, bad narrator

I really enjoyed this book, but the narrator made me cringe. Either they didn't explain to him how to pronounce many names from the Malazan world correctly or he just made it up as he went along. He's also a bit overly dramatic in places.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I love these stories!

The worlds created by Ian C. Esslemont and Steven Erickson are beyond amazing! Every one of them have been intriguing, entertaining, captivating, and down right awe inspiring.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lots of action and really funny!

It answers a hundred questions from the book of the fallen story, it poses a thousand new ones. From start to finish it was hard to put down.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

My problem with this book is narration

The reader does so too fast, blending sentences and ignoring periods. This takes away from the story. I only made it 45 minutes into the story

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Bit of a letdown

I loved the Malazan books, and was excited to learn more about Dancer/Shadowthrone.

However, I find the characters in the book flat and boring, about as cliché as they come. No character progression to speak of.I wasn't drawn into plot, because there are no stakes and the main characters don't care about it much either.

Feels like the book is setting up the next ones, but given the lackluster start I wont bother.

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2 people found this helpful