The Tales of Witness

About The Tales of Witness

The Tales of Witness returns Steven Erikson to the Malazan world for a story set after the events of the original ten-book Malazan Book of the Fallen, centred on the city of Lether and the fallout of empire, faith and grief in the sequence's aftermath. The God Is Not Willing (2021) picks up years after The Crippled God, following Karsa Orlong -- one of Malazan's most towering figures -- as a new threat gathers around Silver Lake and the increasingly fractured settlements of the north, while a cast including Blistig, Rendarath and a young witness to encroaching catastrophe try to hold back a coming war.

Where the original ten-volume sequence sprawled across continents and centuries, the Witness books narrow the lens: this is Erikson returning to a specific place and a smaller cast, examining what peace actually costs the people left to rebuild after the Book of the Fallen's apocalyptic climax. No Life Forsaken (2025) continues directly from the first book's escalating crisis.

Originally announced as a trilogy, Erikson revealed in 2024 that the story had grown into four books after the second volume split into two novels during writing -- No Life Forsaken and Legacies of Betrayal (announced for October 2026) cover material originally intended as a single book. A fourth, as-yet-untitled volume will complete the sequence. Like the Kharkanas Trilogy, Witness rewards readers who already know the original Malazan Book of the Fallen; this is a direct sequel, not a fresh entry point.