Orb, Sceptre, Throne is a bit of a departure for Esslemont from his three previous books in the Malazan setting. Those had all been a bit tangential to the events in Steven Erikson's ten-book Malazan series, exploring themes such as the Emperor's assassination, the Crimson Guard and the Korelri Stormwall that formed an important part of the series' backstory but were slightly peripheral to Erikson's main plot. However, this novel follows directly on from Erikson's eighth book, "Toll The Hounds" with probably over 80% of the cast having previously appeared in Erikson's books. This creates a bit of a challenge for Esslemont, but although occasionally he does take a different approach to the characterisation of some characters, for the most part it does seem like a fairly smooth continuation of Erikson's story.

As far back as Erikson's first novel, "Gardens of the Moon", there have been hints laid about an upcoming return by Darujhstan's ancient Tyrant Kings, and that forms the main part of this novel's narrative. Unlike some previous Malazan novels this is fairly tightly focused on events in Darujhstan without many extraneous subplots, although Kiska's quest into a chaotic realm to find her mentor Tayschrenn doesn't really integrate well with the rest of the novel. The novel sheds interesting new light on two of the more intriguing and enigmatic factions in the Malazan world in the form of the contrasting warrior cultures of the Seguleh and the Moranth and some of the conflicts between the two do provide some of the book's highlights. Other highlights are the early scenes of an archaeologists investigation of the sinister tomb of the ancient Tyrant, and the subplot dealing with a bunch of mismatched fortune hunters exploring the ruins of the sunken fortress of Moons Spawn. Esslemont has tended to be better at pacing than his fellow Malazan author, and the novel does manage to be consistently entertaining throughout while building to the traditional Malazan convergence as all the plot threads start to come together. The ending does make for a satisfying conclusion to one of the Malazan series' long-running plot arcs, although I wonder if aspects of it could have been a bit more powerful if Erikson had written it, since I think Erikson at his very best is capable of better writing than anything Esslemont had managed.

In summary, this is a good but perhaps unexceptional Malazan novel that is consistently entertaining without quite approaching the quality of the very best Malazan stories.