This is the second book by Esslemont situated in the Malazan world which he is co-author with S.Erikson. Unlike the first book, Night of Knives, which is more of a prequel this one is set right in the middle of the story and it would be best read after The Bonehunters. The story follows Quon Tali rebellion against Malazan empire, and The Crimson Guard who is also set to destroy the empire. There are some familiar characters from the previous books and a lot of new ones, and we see some legendary characters which were often mentioned dead or missing in the previous books. Writing style was sometimes off, and I had a bit of a struggle at the beginning to follow the story, cause there was lot of jumping from one character to the other. Still it's a very good addition to Malazan world and essential one for the overall story, cause some pretty surprising and rather important events occurred in it.