Night of Knives is the first novel by Canadian author Ian Cameron Esslemont. It is set in the world of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, a ten-volume epic fantasy series by Esslemont's friend and colleague Steven Erikson. Esslemont and Erikson co-created the Malazan world in the 1980s.
Night of Knives was first published in the United Kingdom by PS Publishing in September 2004 as a limited hardcover. A paperback edition followed in May 2006. Bantam, who publish Steven Erikson's Malazan novels, published Night of Knives in hardcover on 7 May 2007 and in mass-market paperback on 5 May 2008. Its first U.S. publication was published by Tor Books in May 2009.
Night of Knives is the first of five planned novels by Esslemont to take place in the Malazan world. It is followed by Return of the Crimson Guard and Stonewielder.
The novel is set in the 24 hours when the Emperor of the Malazan Empire is murdered. Chronologically, it takes place after the prologue to Erikson's Gardens of the Moon but before the main body of the novel. Several characters and locations which appear in Night of Knives also appear in Erikson's The Bonehunters.
