The Darkness That Comes Before

The Prince of Nothing, Book One

De: R. Scott Bakker

Narrado por: David DeVries

Strikingly original in its conception, ambitious in scope, with characters engrossingly and vividly drawn, the first book in R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series creates a remarkable world from whole cloth - its language and classes of people, its cities, religions, mysteries, taboos, and rituals - the kind of all-embracing universe Tolkien and Herbert created unforgettably in the epic fantasies The Lord of the Rings and Dune.

It's a world scarred by an apocalyptic past, evoking a time both 2,000 years past and 2,000 years into the future, as untold thousands gather for a crusade. Among them, two men and two women are ensnared by a mysterious traveler, Anasûrimbor Kellhus - part warrior, part philosopher, part sorcerous, charismatic presence - from lands long thought dead. The Darkness That Comes Before is a history of this great holy war, and like all histories, the survivors write its conclusion.

©2003 R. Scott Bakker (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Too many characters with multiple names

I wanted to like it. There are just too many strange names and terms for an audiobook. Perhaps printed where I could stop and look up characters or concepts would have helped. I kept getting lost and couldn't gain more than a broad understanding of what was going on. The details were obscured by the foreignness of the setting.

An all time favorite

The series definitely has its issues, first and foremost how uncomfortable the cultural situation is in the three seas and beyond. Pre-to-just-slightly-post-Medieval in most of the worst ways.

On the other hand, I’m very fond of the way magic is handled, the way faith and the history of the world is rich and detailed, and of the light philosophy heavily salting the meat of the text, which is just layers and layers of political and religious conflict and subterfuge, broken up by the mysteries of the Dunyain, the reality of the gods and demons, and the unholy consult.

Strong worldbuilding, unlikeable characters

Would you try another book from R. Scott Bakker and/or David DeVries?

no

Any additional comments?

In the abstract, I appreciated what the author was doing here - he's clearly put a ton of thought into his world and his philosophy. The narrator I thought did a reasonable job with a (in my opinion unnecessarily large) cast of characters. That said, it felt a bit like having to suffer through a D&D campaign run by a medieval-studies major whose favorite movie was Idiocracy. The story came off as a smug dismissal of the value of anything but logic and probability. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that premise, pretty much every character is unlikeable or incompetent within the world or both. By the end, I was kind of rooting for everyone to die. Unfortunately, if they do all die, you won't find out for another three books and I've put in my time, so I won't be finding out.

Further, the characterization of women in general and in the specific is appalling. If you're into the rape-ier bits of Song of Ice and Fire, then I guess you'll like this book but for me it was a punishment to get through. I made it to the end but once there, found myself wondering why I'd bothered.

Very heavy world-building

This book may be better suited to reading as a physical copy or eBook, as I found myself having a hard time following all the names of people and countries, even if they don’t end up being relevant. It is meant to lead to a rich world, but ends up just leading to reader asking themself “Who is that again? What country is it that cares about this?”

I Loved it!

It's complicated, you're just dropped into the world ... but the work of sorting it all out was worth it! I really enjoyed R Scott Bakker's style.