The book started out slowly but eventually picked up pace. I kept wondering where exactly this book fits in the Malazan series timeline. There were a few revelations about some characters especially Traveler and Lassen. Laseen's characterization here was lovable when compared to the main books. She is one of the major characters that we get to see very little of but whose presence is felt all through the series (view spoiler)[which is that's why her death at the end is shocking. The best part of the book was the scene where Kallor met his match, scratch that, where he was utterly defeated in no time. (hide spoiler)]

A quick review for (would-be) readers of the Malazan series: I am currently reading all of the Erikson and Esslemont books for the first time (and having an absolute (Moranth) blast with the series) and wanted to share my thoughts about this particular novel. The reason for that is that this novel has a somewhat slow start, but I am extremely happy I finished it. If you're in doubt about continuing this book (or even if you're not sure about the other Esslemont Malazon books) my advice would be to keep going, if you liked previous Malazan stories. The reason is that the book gets *so much better* in the second half: the pace picks up, some of the characters come alive (and there are some abolutely brilliant characters later on) and there is a lot that happens in the book that is absolutely worth reading here first, instead of via Erikson's books. Personally, I am using this https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2017... reading order, so that might have influenced the previous point: if you read all of Erikson first, for instance, your experiences will vary. In short, keep reading if you like Malazan, this book *will* pay off.

This one was a really hard one to rate for me. The first half was about 2 stars and I really had to force myself to read, but the second half was a solid 4 stars with some 5 star moments. It's really hard to look at Malazan without comparing ICE and Erikson a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I love ICE, but he just isn't able to twist my emotions so much or create in-depth characters the way Erikson does. I loved Night of Knives and I think ICE is just much better suited to fewer narratives in one novel. Return of the Crimson Guard lacked the witty banter so often found in MBOTF and I felt no emotion, even during world-changing events such as (view spoiler)[the deaths of Laseen and Tayschrenn (hide spoiler)]. Here's to hoping the next ICE installment will share a similar format with NoK. Did I almost give up? Several times. Was I glad I muscled through it? Definitely.