Premise: Midnight Tides is the fifth volume of Canadian author Steven Erikson's epic fantasy series, the "Malazan Book of the Fallen". Although it is part of the larger series, it has only limited references to the previous books. However, it is not a stand-alone volume as the events of the books "Reaper's Gale" and "Dust of Dreams" follow on from it.
Hypothesis: Steven Erikson's epic fantasy series, the "Malazan Book of the Fallen", started in the first volume he wrote for the series.