The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker

The Darkness that Comes Before is the beginning of yet another epic fantasy. It stands out a bit with its more gritty feel, its lack of frequent overt magic, the relative lack of supernatural creatures, and its more full use of religion and philosophy. Those with some awareness of history will also see clear parallels (though not necessarily in one on one fashion) to the Crusades, another nice twist. Like many of the more ambitious works in the genre, there are a plethora of characters and places with the book's narrative shifting back and forth between them and there is a grand sense of time, with events from thousands of years ago playing out in the present.

Darkness shares with some of those other works the same highlights and lowlights. The plot is complex enough to remain stimulating throughout and the... Read More

The Warrior Prophet by R. Scott Bakker

The Warrior Prophet picks up from The Darkness That Comes Before (which must be read first) and mostly improves on that first book, which in itself was a solid read. Where Darkness suffered from lengthy exposition, now that the basic storyline and world have been set, Bakker can focus on moving things along more quickly, if that can be said about a 600 plus page book. Though the book could be cut by a hundred plus pages, that's a critique that can be made about almost any recent fantasy (heavy sigh) and so can be relegated to the minor "I've grown resigned to this" sort of thing. Despite some padding, the book moves along fluidly and at a good pace for the most part, with only a few lagging areas. Part of the reason for the better pace is that while in book one the Holy War (with clear connectio... Read More

The Thousandfold Thought by R. Scott Bakker

R. Scott Bakker's The Thousandfold Thought, the third book in his The Prince of Nothing series, was well written and drenched in enough details that you truly could see the picture the author painted. The most amazing thing has been to watch the characters evolve through different influences and to see characters that you liked become characters you could hate.

My favorite part of The Prince of Nothing was the fact that it didn't end happily. The ending left me thinking, "Wow! That sucks!" and yet it fit the mold — it was realistic and really summed up how things had evolved. Read More

Disciple of the Dog by R. Scott Bakker

CLASSIFICATION: Featuring a first-person narrative drenched in cynicism, a noir-esque mystery to solve, and sarcastic humor, Disciple of the Dog is a contemporary private eye novel influenced by the classics, but stamped with R. Scott Bakker’s own unique flavor.

FORMAT/INFO: Disciple of the Dog is 288 pages long divided over fourteen chapters (tracks) with titles like “One Hundred Thousand Cigarettes” and “The Law of Social Gravitation”. Narration is in the first-person exclusively via the private investigator, Disciple Manning. Disciple of the Dog is a standalone novel, but could easily be the first volume in a series of Disciple Manning books.

November 23, 2010 marks the US Hardcover publication of Disciple of the Dog via Read More

Disciple of the Dog by R. Scott Bakker

Disciple of the Dog is R. Scott Bakker’s second non-fantasy novel (after 2008’s Neuropath). While most fantasy readers are probably still most familiar with the author for his Second Apocalypse series, venturing out of the fantasy genre for this noir-ish detective novel is an excellent idea because it’s an entertaining and unique read that will keep you fascinated to the very end.

The novel’s two main attractions are its protagonist, Disciple (“Diss”) Manning, and its prose. As for the first, Disciple is a foul-mouthed, highly cynical, down-on-his-luck private detective with a unique ability: he is unable to forget anything he’s heard. Regardless (or thanks to) this gift (or curse), he is a grim, misanthropic serial womanizer who’d rather be brutally honest and say “oh well” later than comprom... Read More