The Warrior Prophet: The Prince of Nothing, Book Two [Paperback]

R. Scott Bakker (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Prince of Nothing | Publication Date: September 2, 2008

"Book Two of The Prince of Nothing" finds the Holy War continuing its inexorable march southward. But the suspicion begins to dawn that the real threat comes not from the infidel but from within...Steering souls through the subtleties of word and expression, Kellhus strives to extend his dominion over the Men of the Tusk. The sorcerer Achamian and his lover, Esmenet, submit entirely, only to have their faith - and their love - tested in unimaginable ways. Meanwhile, the warrior Cnaiur falls ever deeper into madness. Convinced that Kellhus will betray their pact to murder his father, Cnaiur turns to the agents of the Second Apocalypse and strikes an infernal bargain. The Holy War stands on a knife edge. If all is not to be lost, the great powers of the world will have to choose between their most desperate desires and the end of the world. Between hatred and hope. Between Anasurimbor Kellhus and the second apocalypse.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Holy War fomented by the mysterious prophet Maithanet between "the two great faiths of Inrithism and Fanimry" in The Darkness That Comes Before (2004), the critically acclaimed first book in the epic fantasy trilogy by Canadian author Bakker, explodes in this compelling, if overly long, sequel set in the medieval world of Eärwa. Like many a traditional historical chronicle, the book mentions a plethora of people and places only in passing, but the all-too-human tale of love, hatred and justice, centered on the sorcerer Drusas Achamian and the monk Anasûrimbor Kellhus (aka "the prince of nothing") and their respective harlot lady friends with hearts of gold, Esmenet and Serwë, keeps the pages turning. The final cinematic scene, of a vast landscape filled with enormous armies, nicely sets the stage for book three of this daringly unconventional series in the Tolkien mold.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

'[R. Scott Bakker is a] class act like George R. R. Martin, or his fellow Canadians Steven Erikson and Guy Gavriel Kay. He gets right away from the 'downtrodden youth becoming king' aspect of epic fantasy in his very impressive first novel - The Darkness That Comes Before. No clunky analogy of medieval Europe here. Odd, fascinating characters in a world full of trouble and sorcery.' "10 Authors to Watch," SFX Magazine 'Compelling... Keeps the pages turning. The final cinematic scene, of a vast landscape filled with enormous armies, nicely sets the stage for book three of this daringly unconvetional series in the Tolkien mold.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590201191
• ISBN-13: 978-1590201190
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Blood, death, starvation, conspiracy and war, August 10, 2005

By 

newyork2dallas (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, Book 2) (Hardcover)

This is the second book of what Bakker envisions will be the first of two consecutive trilogies in his fictional world of Earwa; the first was also in the 500-600 page range, so know what you're getting into.

The set-up is a more complex rendition of standard fantasy fiction fare: Two thousand years ago the ultimate evil, Mog-Pharau the No-God, walked the earth and created an Apocalypse that halted only because of the power of Seswatha the sorcerer and Anasurimbor Celmonas, wielder of a great talisman, the Heron Spear.

Presently, the Apocalypse is a distant memory and the secret cabal of magi (The Consult) who plot the return of the No-God and use the demonically lustful skin-spies as soldiers, is a child's ghost story to all people except the Mandate Schoolmen -- a sorcerous group who are the heirs to Seswatha. The "schools" of sorcery are divided such that the Mandate possesses sorcerous knowledge that the other schools seek, but which only the Mandate can be trusted to use.

The lands themselves are divided into two main religious groups, the polytheistic Inrithri and the monotheistic Fanim, whose names derive from their prophets. The Inrithri beliefs are a polyglot of Muslim, Catholic, Hindu and even some Judaic lore. The Fanim are essentially unexplained, but most closely resemble Crusades-era Muslims. The Inrithri "pope" calls for a holy war against the Fanim, and that war is the near-exclusive backdrop of this book.

Bakker is a philosophy doctoral candidate, and it shows. He also ruminates about religion. The semi-subversive theological question Bakker asks in this series is: what would have happened if an impure Jesus (put aside the potential contradiction of that characterization) hijacked the Crusades?

Bakker peoples the story with innumerable names, the vast majority of which mean nothing. Only about four primary characters are ultimately important: Achamian the Mandate Schoolman who worries that the Consult has returned and the Second Apocalypse is nigh; Esmenet, the whore who is the Mary Magdaleine figure of the series; Cnaiur the savage, who is filled with self-hatred and seeks to destroy the man who destroyed him; and Anasurimbor Kellhus, the titular Prince of Nothing -- a Jesus figure (33 years old, bearded, prophet, origins mysterious, from a faraway land, searching for his father, with the power of persuasion through his voice and sermons), who is as much anti-Jesus as Messiah, whose destiny and desires remain somewhat mysterious throughout and whom Achamian believes is both the Harbinger of the Second Apocalypse and humanity's potential savior.

How Kellhus manipulates the holy war, and how others are in turn manipulated by events they have no knowledge of, is the main plotline as the holy war moves closer to its destination, the holy city of Shimeh.

Bakker recounts a lot of the story as a history (battles and other events), leaves Achamian for about 100 pages at a critical point, and concentrates entirely too much on the viewpoint of Esmenet. The story is full of death, blood, famine, thirst, plague, torture and the interwoven themes of sex-as-love, lust for power with sexual manifestations, sex-as control, sex-as-torture, sex-as-physical or emotional dominance, sex-as-identity. Get the picture?

Overall, the book is interesting, disturbing, occasionally challenging, and ultimately nowhere near as good as either the first entry (The Darkness That Comes Before) or the much better Malazan Book of the Fallen series by another Canadian, Steven Erikson.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars strong three, improves on first though a few flaws, August 15, 2005

By 

B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, Book 2) (Hardcover)

The Warrior Prophet picks up from The Prince of Nothing (which must be read first) and mostly improves on that first book, which in itself was a solid read. Where Prince of Nothing suffered from lengthy exposition, now that the basic storyline and world have been set, Baakker 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 connections to the Crusades) has to be laboriously prepared, here the War is literally on the march, so while there are still scenes dealing with politics, religion, philosophy, and other non-battle elements, because the army can't just camp out for months on end to deal with these things, Bakker has to settle them quickly or on the run. This self-limiting facet of the plot therefore helps quite a bit. The battles themselves are well-done, though I confess I tend to glaze over such things a bit the second or third time around.
The book also improves on Prince of Nothing in that there is left shifting among multiple characters and setting. This was less a problem of complexity than of emotional impact in book one--the constant shifting among so many characters diluted any single character's impact--so while Prophet may be equally complex in plot, the reader cares more about how that plot affects the characters thanks to the welcome sharpening of focus. Characters from book one aren't simply dropped; we just don't spend as much time with some of them.
The ones we do spend time with vary in their degree of interest and depth. As in book one, the most compelling character remains the sorcerer Achamian as we see him wrestle with a variety of issues, among them: his nightly dreams of the first apocalypse, his fear that Kellhus is the harbinger of the second one conflicting with his hope that perhaps Kellhus is more, his love for the whore Esmenet, his tattered relationships with former pupils who consider him a blasphemer. These don't even include his time being tortured or his attempts to track down the "skin-spies" of the Consult. The story is always strongest when it focuses on Achamian, and luckily it does so for most of it.
Unfortunately, however, that means that it does move away from him and it is in these moments that the book tend to lag a bit. None of the other characters are of as much interest. Kellhus, who is the second point of major focus, lacks the depth and conflict of Achamian. He is portrayed as just too good at everything. We're constantly told that when Achamian teaches him math, Kellhus stuns him with how he goes beyond the historical math geniuses. Then we're told the same with regard to philosophy. And then . . . And then . . . I kept waiting for someone to comment on how he cooked the best goat and mended breeches best and so on. Not only was this sort of thing repetitive, but it robbed Kellhus of a sense of humanity (needed even if characters aren't necessarily human) as well as robbing the book of some suspense as one never doubts that Kellhus will achieve what he sets out to. There are a few moments of internal conflict but they are grossly outweighed.
The women characters don't particularly stand out, nor do the other noble characters. Cnaur is mostly a one-note character who doesn't grow all that much. Other characters flash some potential, such as the leader of the Spires (a rival school of magic to Achamian's) but are usually cut away from too quickly.
Finally, Bakker needed to reset some of his character inter-relations and develop them a bit more here as some major plot movement of the latter half of the book revolves around those relationships--ones we haven't seen for about 500 or so pages back to the previous book.
Despite these flaws, Prophet is an enjoyable read. As mentioned, the plot moves quickly and at a good pace despite its 600 pages and the philosophical discussions, rather than slow the pace, complement the more militaristic "action" scenes nicely. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they were my favorite parts, making Prophet not simply enjoyable but thoughtful as well, something that can be said all too rarely about much recent fantasy. While I still wouldn't rank it at the top or in line with Erikson's Malazan series of Martin's soon to be completed trilogy, it is different enough and intelligent enough to recommend strongly if not wildly enthusiastically. Though if book three improves as much on Prophet as Prophet did on book two, that may change.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-Rate Fantasy, August 25, 2005

By 

B. Jantz "Warrior-Poet" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, Book 2) (Hardcover)

This book will force its way into your head and refuse to leave. I finished it a few days ago, and some of the more memorable words/phrases -- "Thousandfold Thought," "Golgotterath," "secret of battle" -- kept coming into my mind, forcing me to think about the events. The characters, though not always likeable, definitely resonate (I'll have trouble forgetting Kellhus, Achamian, Cnaiur, or any of the others.) The fantastic elements are unique, the world-building is on par with anything else I've read, and there's even some humor worked into the text (dark humor, as the subject matter demands, but humor nonetheless.)

One warning: reading these books have killed my taste for lower quality fantasy. This is good stuff!