The Darkness That Comes Before: Book 1 of the Prince of Nothing

Again and again I gently shake my head in incredulous appreciation of the book. I read little, but I can distinguish between rich and sophisticated and dull and revolting the same way a repentant glutton can tell you the difference between exquisite cake and cheap sponge with icing on top or a former drunkard now wine taster can palate some wine and tell you the year and the place.A few years ago it was “Dune” of Frank Herbert that made me respect the intellect and craftsmanship required to present a world in a chapter and a universe in a volume. Now it is the Prince of Nothing that takes me on a series of mesmerising beauty. The same way iron is folded and beaten again and again into itself until all impurities come off in flakes, all scabs clear and shining perfection remains, so have these pages been scrutinised and cleansed and bled of all the unnecessary and unimportant and left only as the true and entrancing gate towards suffering, glory, joy, understanding and the start of a search within the book and within yourself.To be a good actor you have to be schizophrenic, to mumble the words as Anthony Hopkins does ahead of any role, to FEEL the anger of John Hurt in “I, Claudius” when the ingrates COULD NOT SEE the grandness of being presented with the spoils of Old Neptune. To be a good writer you have to be in full all your characters and at the same time none; to be just the wind that brushes clouds, places, faces, but possesses none, merely passing through, merely giving a gentle nudge, chipping the sand of a wall, persistently pushing aside clothes and hair to slowly reveal curves, colour and minds.

After branching off into some other fiction, I felt the itch to come back to fantasy and, after a bit of looking around, stumbled upon this and thought I'd see if it was any good. I have not been disappointed, this is nothing short of amazing.The plot follows a handful of characters as their threads become entwined in an overall arc. If you were to break this down to its very core you'd find standard fantasy elements - a sorceror, a barbarian, a forgotten prince etc, all joining a war with the ever present (but not really believed by most) threat of an ancient demon-god coming back to threaten the world with darkness. However, as average as that sounds, the writing is of such an incredibly high standard that Bakker could throw in any type of character and you'd still read it. Each character is overwhelmingly deep in substance, and this is an almost constant exploration of the various aspects of humanity; there are phrases and passages in here that you read several times, then shut the book and contemplate for a time.I won't attempt to summarise the characters or the story, as even a summary would take too long and not do this justice. Sufficed to say that if you love high/epic fantasy, this is for you. It is a little tricky to start with, but nothing too difficult, and my main (and only) slight niggle is that some of the character and place names are very complicated. I often find myself simply recognising the shapes of the words rather than attempting to pronounce them. But that really is the only criticism I can offer, and it's a very subjective one. This is the start of what will surely be one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time.

I think many recovering fantasy fans like myself have been forcibly dragged back into the realms of fantasy by R. Scott Bakker, and have been half- regretting it ever since.The Darkness that Comes Before introduces us to a plethora of amazing characters: Kellhus, the superhuman who has mastered himself, body and mind, to such an extent that the rest of the world seem as children to him; a brilliant, if deeply troubled, tribesman named Cnaiur, an old sorcerer and teacher, Achamian and the whore, Esmenet. Kellhus is simply fascinating, a simple concept, but beautifully created; Cnaiur evokes all my teenage fascinations with muscle-bound, insane anti-heroes; Achamian always seems a bit like a projection of the author, a philosopher and thinker, plagued by dark dreams and conflicting responsibilities; Esmenet is a bit of a male-fantasy, but she's a strong female character as well.We get sucked into the factions of Earwa, who are exceptionally complex on a first reading, the memories of a past apocalypse, which will make more sense after finishing the series to date.The world is very historical in some senses, with references to medieval European and Middle-Eastern culture throughout, including some lovely anthropological detail, and there is a detailed and technical magic system working alongside it, which manages to break with the fashion of creating unexplained, mysterious magic systems.I don't really have any criticisms: the writing style really grew on me and, despite the near impossibility of writing high-fantasy without a few cliches, Bakker manages to make the book feel exceptionally original, injects a sense of reality, includes genuinely evocative philosophical ideas and excites the fantasy-obsessed mind as well as any other book I can think of.

Tried to get into this twice - and failed twice. The only book I have come back to and not been able to read a second time. Reads almost like an old religious text and just becomes wearing after a while - its just too much. No doubt the author thinks himself very clever but the book is just not accessible and his writing style too overdone - sometimes a little less is more - do we really need such overblown narrative for a great book?

Tried to read more than the first 100 pages but found it so difficult, with so many factions, characters, all characters inferring things rather than saying them plainly, made me feel it was just too much hard work to read and therefore not enjoyable at all