The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) [Paperback]

R Scott Bakker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2005 | Series: The Prince of Nothing, Book 1

A score of centuries has passed since the First Apocalypse and the thoughts of men have turned, inevitably, to more worldly concerns...A veteran sorcerer and spy seeks news of an ancient enemy. A military genius plots to conquer the known world for his Emperor but dreams of the throne for himself. The spiritual leader of the Thousand Temples seeks a Holy War to cleanse the land of the infidel. An exiled barbarian chieftain seeks vengeance against the man who disgraced him. And into this world steps a man like no other, seeking to bind all - man and woman, emperor and slave - to his own mysterious ends. But the fate of men - even great men - means little when the world itself may soon be torn asunder. Behind the politics, beneath the religious fervour, a dark and ancient evil is reawakening. After two thousand years, the No-God is returning. The Second Apocalypse is nigh. And one cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten...

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many centuries ago, the world was nearly destroyed by the dark wizards of the Consult, and the High King's family was wiped out--or so it seemed. Then from the wild, uncharted north comes a mysterious and extraordinarily powerful philosopher-warrior, Anasurimbor Kellhus, descendant of the ancient High Kings. But the return of the king's bloodline is little cause for rejoicing. For Kellhus's appearance may signal the overthrow of empires, the destruction of the sorcerous schools, the return of the Consult demons--and the end of the world.

The Darkness that Comes Before is a strong, impressive, deeply imagined debut novel. However, this first book of an epic fantasy series is not accessible; it reads like a later volume of a complicated ongoing series. Author R. Scott Bakker has created a world that is very different from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, yet in depth of development comes closer than most high-fantasy worlds. In addition to providing five appendices, Bakker attempts to make his complex world clear to readers by filling the prologue and opening chapters with the names of characters, gods, cities, tribes, nations, religions, factions, and sorcerous schools. For many readers, this approach will have the opposite effect of clarity. It's like demonstrating snowflake structure with a blizzard. --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Canadian author Bakker's impressive, challenging debut, the first of a trilogy, should please those weary of formulaic epic fantasy. Bakker's utterly foreign world, Eärwa, is as complex as that of Tolkien, to whom he is, arguably, a worthier successor than such established names as David Eddings and Stephen Donaldson. Bakker creates an extraordinary cast of nationalities and races involved in an enormous holy war set off by an unseen prophet, Maithanet. (Appendices help keep the history and personalities straight.) He casually drops for half the story an increasingly important character, Anasûrimbor Kellhus (aka "the Prince of Nothing"), who finally returns without a breath of exposition. The amiable and wise sorcerer spy Drusas Achamian binds the myriad narrative threads together. Drusas's love for Esmenet, a too-experienced prostitute, provides some tenderness amid the abundant slaughter. In the book's most harrowing scene, which fans of gentler fantasy will find too graphic, Esmenet is raped by a creature who, despite its human appearance, is likely demonic. If this ambitious novel lacks the beauty of Tolkien as well as the sense of pure evil that suffused Middle-earth with genuine terror, its willingness to take chances and avoid the usual genre clichés should win many discriminating readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (June 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841494089
• ISBN-13: 978-1841494081
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.8 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #769,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epic fantasy of the year!, June 9, 2003

By 

Ian Kell "muzak fan" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) (Paperback)

Wow, there's something in the water up in Canada, and US publishers are really missing out. Good thing for the Internet! Manitoban Steven Erikson, still without distribution in the states, has established himself as the penultimate epic fantasy writer of the day (except for maybe G.R.R. Martin). Now along comes 'The Darkness that Comes Before, an unequivocal stellar debut by Ontario native R. Scott Bakker.

All of the usual superlatives apply. Simply put, TDTCB is incredible, and any fan of epic or high fantasy should already have it on order. Bakker is an expert craftsman...his world is rich and believable, the characters godlike, and the plot constantly engaging and in motion. Toss in the requisite humor, flawed leads, sex and betrayal, and a true gem emerges from the fantasy morass.

Brief plot summary annotated from the book sleeve: Two thousand years have passed since Mog-Pharau, the No-God, last walked among Men. Now the Shriah of the Thousand Temples has declared Holy War, and untold thousands gather, determined to wrest Shimeh, the Holy City of the Latter Prophet, from the hands of their heathen kin. Among them, one man stands apart, a man who uses redemption to deceive, and passion to elevate and enslave... Anasurimbor Kellhus. Two couples, a barbarian chieftain and his concubine, a sorcerer and his harlot lover, share his trials and tribulations, each compelled by what they think they see: the possibility vengeance, the promise of redemption, the threat of apocalypse, or the hope of escape. As the violent fortunes of the Holy War transform Kellhus into an all-conquering prophet, they finally begin to ask: What is he really?

References have been made to Tolkein, but this novel is far more postmodern and machiavellian than LoTR. Bakker has more in common with Erikson, Stephen R. Donaldson, Martin or early Robert Jordan. There are multiple threads and disparate points of view (hence 'epic'), but as the book progresses they are wound tighter and tighter until the gripping conclusion.

Don't be misled by self-admitted Marxist reviewers.... Modern philosophies don't easily translate to fantasy novels (witness Goodkind's terrible slide), and Bakker himself wrote a great short article on sffworld.com about the current role of the fantasy genre in modern life (Why Fantasy and Why Now?). Bakker may come across as an educated, intelligent writer, but more importantly, he's a talented one. Avoid this debut at your own peril.

55 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars unassuming start, solid foundation for later books, September 1, 2004

By 

B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) (Hardcover)

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 shift in point-of-view offer up a more interesting story while allowing more in-depth characterization. Bakker handles the narrative shifts smoothly and has a good sense of when it's time to leave one character for another. The characters are also nicely balanced in terms of interest so that there is no drop-off for the reader as we move along. The same is true, mostly, for the various storylines, though some are more compelling and better paced than others.
The negatives, while not outweighing the positives, are a noticeable drag however. Because the book must recount history over the course of several thousand years and set up the reader for the coming conflict, there is a lot of exposition that must be handed out. It is rarely done in clumsy or uninteresting fashion (a few places here and there), but so much information does slow the book now and then. The number of characters also sometimes serves to dilute their individual impact. If they are well-balanced in terms of none are truly uninteresting, they are also well-balanced in that none, so far, really stand out. The sorcerer Achamiam is the best drawn and so far carries the best potential, but even he is not really forcefully compelling. The good thing though is that Bakker has truly laid some good character groundwork so the potential is obviously there.
Darkness therefore is a solid if not particularly inspiring introduction to the series. It didn't sweep me along; it didn't make me frantic to try and get a jump on the second book, as has happened with other series where I'll pay extra shipping or even go international to get hold of the next work. But it did hold my interest throughout and left me with enough interest to keep reading. And it is different enough from so much of the formulaic fantasy that is out there that the difference alone makes for a more pleasurable read. My guess is now that the foundation has been so neatly laid out in all sorts of ways--plot, character, history, politics, religions, etc.--the next book will move along more speedily and will offer up more intense and compelling scenes. Not a rave review, not a "you've just gotta read this" review, but a solid "this is good intelligent fantasy that breaks out a bit from all the other stuff and has potential to become even better" recommendation.

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Logos is without beginning or end.", October 28, 2004

By 

Brian (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) (Hardcover)

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 a while now. So much is happening on and beneath the surface that the story is never dull, the characters, while sometimes distasteful, are always interesting.