The Darkness That Comes Before: The Prince of Nothing, Book One

Beware, I Ordered the hardcover and was sent paperback. I will update this review if customer service sends me the correct hardcover. The novel itself though is 5 stars.

I resisted this one for a while. The cover, the title, the quotation from Nieztche (which, despite what some other reviewers may claim, does not automatically make a series "pretentious" - that word alone warning enough to the discriminate consumer that the content articulated may not be understood--)... in short, there seemed to be a deliberate campaign on the part of the publisher to make this book seem 'dark'. Given the chaff of most mainstream horror icons propagated these days - necro-cool for necronerds, and most of it as stinky as a three-day old corpse - I shied away, allowing this book to molder on the reading-shelf for far too long. Eventually, encouraged by web reviews and interviews, I opened the text to *The Darkness that Comes Before* and within the scope of a few pages found myself ensorcelled by the style and internal content, by the suggestions the author placed between ideas, between words. In contrast to the escapist dross of most mainstream fantasy, this book establishes itself from the first few sentences as something *more* than the latest wish-fulfillment wankfest. Obviously influenced by the pantheon of the Western Canon and the ever-evolving paradigms of philosophy, R. Scott Bakker crafts a believable and haunting world inhabited by violent men and blasphemous creatures, a tactile sphere where ignorance, gross materialism and fervid superstition dominate the mass-mind and only a miniscule few are aware of the threat that lurks on the margin of the outside...(no matter the era, the same condition applies...) Enter the Übermensch. Bakker inserts a `superman' into this shadowy mirror of our own past, an amoral pro/an-tagonist sent to contort this Dark Ages domain, gliding like a wolf amongst lambs, his goal to conquer the seething morass of a Holy War for his own Oedipal ends. Kellhus Anasurimbor exists without emotion or creed or cause, except for the Logos--the shortest path--to achieve his goals; Kellhus is both hero and villian, and the fact that some readers feel as if Bakker intended this character to be ;sympathetic' misses the point (and then some). The superman is intrinsically *not* human, dictated neither by the drives or desires of the human ken, but by his own will and - as beautifully depicted in the climax of this book - by the 'darkness that comes before', the influential energies that mold developing minds before they reach any sort of independent conception; the synergetically-shared consensus that forms the *is* for all and one. A feedback loop is drawn through an assortment of characters both familiar and refreshingly drawn - Kellhus, for all his detached glamour, is not the true `tagonist of this book, nor perhaps the series, despite his manipulations and inevitable dominance of the plot. Rather, the author focuses on those the savior-simulacra interacts with: a self-conscious sorcerer-spy, an insane barbarian with a dirty secret (slyly reverting the Conan stereotype) and a pair of whores, o

As far as contemporary fantasy goes, there are few books that get better than this one. With the debut volume of this series, Bakker firmly establishes his writing ability in the great company of such writers as Keyes, Martin, and Erikson. Much like Martin, Bakker doesn't pull any punches and the resulting story flows with a gritty realism that is not often found in other books of this genre. While reading about rape or the particularly detailed evisceration of a character may not be the stuff of warm and fuzzy stories, they are unfortunate realities of life (particularly in the time periods most often set in fantasy novels) and their unabashed inclusion into more intense books of fantasy helps to set a very mature and hard-edged tone. You will never mistake these titles for children's literature. The characters are engaging and easy to identify with but not necessarily good or evil. Bakker does a good job of establishing the fact that the enemy is the other side's hero, and largely leaves you to choose which is which. If I were to have one criticism, it is that the prose itself can seem riddled with forced cliche' and pretentiousness at times when the author tries too hard to inject "philosophy" into the story line. This seems to fade in and out and is easily overlooked and forgiven, in my opinion, when you begin to get the feel for the whole story and realize just how good it truly is. With the pretentiousness included, you will find in The Darkness That Comes Before a novel that stands above 99% of others in the same genre and flatly shames such long-time favorites as Jordan and Lackey by comparison. With pretentiousness aside, this title could actually give Martin a run for his money.

This was an amazing book, beautifully written, full of original fantasy and incredible depth. Kellhus, the descendant of an ancient line of forgotten kings, is called to the holy city of Shimeh by his father, for mysterious reasons. They are both of the Dunyain, an order of supremely logical monks who are trained to silence all their emotions; they have no real magic, but training has given them some neat abilities, including incredible skills as warriors, the capacity of reading men's minds by the nuances of their tones of voice/facial expressions, and calculating the future by means of a probability trance. They can manipulate others so easily that it's sometimes referred to as possession. Although Kellhus is the first real protagonist of the novel, he disappears for most of the book after his relatively brief introduction. Mainly we follow the doings of Achamian, a spy and a sorcerer who is searching for signs of the Consult, the evil force responsible for the apocalypse two-thousand years before. Most fantasy writing has the *feel* of some particular culture or time period (e.g. medieval, prehistoric, Asian, Western, etc.). This book feels Middle Eastern and a little Asian, and is reminiscent of both the Bible (Old and New Testament) and the Crusades; a new prophet is inciting a Holy War to reclaim the holy city of Shimeh while in the background, Achamian begins realizing that the second Apocalypse may already be unfolding. Like a lot of epic fantasy, this book has a huge number of names and made up words. There are tons of characters (historical and present), different peoples, tribes, kingdoms and schools. It makes the world seem more majestic, but some might find it tiring. The events detailed are big rather than small; this isn't the tale of a single man's quest for greatness or self knowledge or anything like that. It's a fun read, but it isn't really a light or an easy read. It's also not a *flashy* fantasy book; there's much more plotting and intrigue here than real magic. Those who like fantasy books that focus on some central character gradually coming into his/her powers from an early age might not find it to their tastes. In the realm of epic fantasy, however, it's superb.

Plot Summary: The land is on the brink of a Holy War. Factions compete for control of the army of the war, the path of the war, and the concessions after the war, all before the war begins. Something sinister may be afoot as the dreaded Consult, an evil not heard from in over 2000 years may be making a re-appearance in the world but only a few even believe they still exist. Will Drusas Achamian (who is the most prevelant "narrator" in the story, providing the historical text that preceeds many of the chapters) be able to convince the powers that be of the real impending threat? What are the motives of the players in this war? These are the questions whose answering is the story of The Darkness That Comes Before. Opinion: This is a fantastic book but is a total lead-in to the rest of the trilogy. Somewhat hard to get into at first due to a very large assortment of strange names and places and sects. Everyone of these names has way too many syllables to be easily readable, not to mention the accent marks liberally sprinkled into almost every name. Is this a major flaw? By no means, it's just a very minor pet-peeve. Even before everything starts to make some sense as a whole, the individual stories as they unfold are extremely interesting, complex, and well drawn out. Each character is distinct and through their eyes the world begins to come into focus. The characters and lands that all ran together at the beginning are all drawn together by the events of the Holy War by the end of the book. There is alot of sex and violence in this book but it adds greatly to the story in my opinion. I enjoyed greatly the fact that there is a deep backstory that is unfolded in bits and pieces of each character. At no point did I find the story dragging. The action is perfectly integrated with the dialog, flashbacks, and intrigues of the vast politics of this world. And all those things complement very well the warlike and other actions of the characters. Much is left in mystery at the end of this novel and it feels like despite all that has happened, not much in the way of the world has gone on. It is very much just a set-up for the Holy War that is to take place in the next 2 novels on the series. "The Logos is without beginning or end" is the childhood mantra of one of the main characters but also fitting describes the way we are dropped into this world at what happens to be a crucial point, possibly on the brink of a second apocalypse. Without preamble were are thrown into the lives of these characters and Bakker assumes our understanding will work itself out. Recommendation: Read it! Then die waiting for the remaining books (or buy them from Canada before you can in the US) like I am. This is quite similar in scope, in that it is very complex, to A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin and yet in storyline not similar at all. No farm boy come hero (yet) either. I rate this as 5 out of 5 stars because I have not been this interested in a new fantasy world in

This is one of those books that I could hardly wait to get a free minute or two to continue reading. It is the first of a series and I'm itching for the next volume to come out (expected sometime quite soon, in fact)The first part of this book reminded me a lot of Frank Herbert's "Dune": that being, a rather diverse, confusing, "I wondering what's going on here", beginning: and like "Dune", your patience is rewarded as the individual pieces eventually get pulled together, making for one great story.The story itself is fresh and intriguing; with plots and subplots involving individuals and also on a more global scale. There is a wealth of interesting characters and substantial character development. You will find war, revenge, deception, journeys, and an erotic sexy quality to the sporadic love scenes: all of which make this novel very readable and addicting.If you liked the style of story telling you found in "Dune" or if you just like great fantasy writing, I would recommend this novel.