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Number Ten Cocks posted:Discussion of the new book never really picked up like I expected it to. Maybe cause it was released at different times all over the world. I got my copy last week. It was pretty great, and sofar the best book in the Aspect-Emperor series.
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Sep 27, 2016 17:32
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Strom Cuzewon posted:What if the Nogod IS the god of gods? Maybe the consult have dragged the god down into a physical form, and the reason for the constant WHAT AM I is because, as an infinite being, the god is incapable of perceiving itself and the world. So by imprisoning God, judgement is denied to all and therefore no one goes to hell. Would explain all the Chorae on the sarcophagus. How does that rhyme with the stillborn though?
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Sep 27, 2016 20:25
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Libluini posted:I've read the whirlwind-descriptions and this is quite obviously not caused by a helicopter. Maybe a F-35B? 
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Oct 4, 2016 13:30
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:An Unnatural Way With Holes Death came swirling down? Something something glistening?
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Dec 6, 2016 21:23
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General Battuta posted:There's a flashback to his training in the original three where he compares a glacier to a beautiful woman so I guess he likes some whale mothers more than others? I thought it was Erikson that had a thing for big-boned women? Also, do we know how much Bakker had planned from the start and how much he made up as he wrote? The second series contain a lot more of "this sounds cool, let's try it" where for example The Judging Eye is basically Bakkers version of LOTR Moria.
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Jan 21, 2017 18:11
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Rime posted:This is an excellent post. I struggle to recommend this series to many, because frankly Bakkers overarching philosophy of misogyny is tiresome at the least and outright offensively juvenile to most. There were so many interesting ways he could have explored the nature of humanity through a dark and gritty sci-fi-fantasy world, but after 6 books it's become so ridiculous that it's honestly lost all shock value and entered into tedium. I too am upset that a fantasy series doesn't reflect real life.
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Jan 25, 2017 08:45
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kcroy posted:ARCs of the unholy consult have been sent out. Here is one review of the next book: http://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-unholy-consult-by-r-scott-bakker.html So 450 pages. That is basically only enough to cover the final battle, which is ok I guess.
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May 11, 2017 15:31
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So I finished the Unholy Consult. Since there are differing release dates for various countries, I will just say this : Not actual spoilers, but I'll do it anyways. gently caress the Dunyain. Nicely done, Bakker in making the ending anticlimactic. Apparently the Dunyain aren't as smart as they think.
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Jun 30, 2017 17:24
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vortmax posted:Where are you that the book is out? It doesn't come out in the US until the 25th! Unless Amazon is lying to me...... Sweden. It is a mystery why, especially since I got the Great Ordeal one month later than US. Also, Great Ordeal was better.
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Jun 30, 2017 20:38
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Bummer there's no amazon sweden to buy the kindle version from. You got a swedish ebook store or something we could check out? Sfbok.se, who apparently sell outside of Sweden for credit card payments . Only physical copies though.
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Jun 30, 2017 20:54
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The Ninth Layer posted:I haven't finished it yet, but I was under the impression that TUC was wrapping up this story arc but wasn't ever planned as the final book of the series. Two more in a new series is what I have read. Makes sense with the ending of UC. Next series will end with Moenghus killing the NoGod with the Heron Spear, which the Scylvendi had found from sacking Cenei
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Jul 8, 2017 15:43
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Libluini posted:Now that I'm reflecting on this, yes. You could say the Second Apocalypse has some similarities to how the first one went, if you ignore like 80% of what is happening. (Of course, I may be unfair since I've already read the Unholy Consult.) The Consult really comes across as a bunch of blundering morons in the end. Also, given UC what is left of the Consult is basically the Dunyain and a shitload of Sranc they seem like less of a threat compared to the past . Of course, humanity have been basically drained of resources by The Great Ordeal so there is that plus that the presence of the NoGod means no reinforcements. Which reminds me of another thing, why didn't just the Consult wake the NoGod and wait for humanity to die off by natural causes instead of a crusade. I mean, they have been playing the long game from the start.
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Jul 8, 2017 18:03
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Libluini posted:The Dunjain-leaders of the New Consult explain this: Back during ancient times, the Old Consult basically threw countless people into the sarcophagus, without any success. Only by pure accident did they luck out when they threw that Norsirai-prince who was related to both Seswatha and Kellhus into it. The Black Carapace connected, and the No-God suddenly came to life. This time, the new leaders knew that by waiting, the new "pilot" for the No-God would arrive on his own account. One would think that simply just kidnapping one of the kids should be enough. As for Kellhus, there is a possibility he is not dead (hopefully though) since there is a description in the footnotes about when Kellhus started studying with Iyokus and a farmer came upon him alone in the woods where Kellhus was taking off his head and replacing it with the decapitants. Did we ever figure out what was the thing about Kellhus and the head on a pole?
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Jul 8, 2017 18:49
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Sephyr posted:Ugh. I'm really sorry, man. It's just that none of my friends read this series so there was a lot to tlk about and no one to discuss it with, so I brought it here. Yeah, considering that the book have just been released, treating everything blackened out as an actual spoiler is the way to go.
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Jul 11, 2017 12:27
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General Battuta posted:I don't know when he started hyphen-doubling words (yes-yes) for a sort of babytalk effect but it drives me nuts. Maybe he is an agent for the Council of Thirteen?
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Jul 22, 2017 17:20
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Rime posted:This is all very true and it would be nice if the book barn mods were as vicious as the D&D ones when it comes to handing down super long probations for serial threadshitting. I should never have told him in the SF recommendation thread that there was a Bakker thread. I am sorry for that. He goes away if you ignore him.
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Jul 25, 2017 07:49
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Mustang posted:I just finished the first trilogy, I love the setting but I have to say, I thoroughly dislike just about every character. Achamian is the most sympathetic but even he irritates me when he pushes his hate aside to be in awe of Kelhuss. I'm eagerly looking forward to Kelhuss getting his poo poo pushed in at some point. It is not a series where you are supposed like the characters. Going through GO again at the moment and I still haven't figured out the head on a pole? Also, all the weird episodes with Kellhus fits together with the ending of TUC.
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Aug 7, 2017 07:33
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Everything of the end of TUC is heavily hinted on in TGO. But at least to me, very little of it was obvious until after TUC. i still don't get the Narindar. If Kellhus is Ajokli, why would an assassin of Ajokli aim to assassinate him?
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Aug 10, 2017 07:59
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Maytag posted:Some people enjoy plot speculation so I hope Lamps never loving returns to jerk off all over this thread. What kind of an rear end in a top hat spends time trying to convince others how the thing they enjoy is actually baaaad. He goes away if you ignore him. Regarding the Decapitants, they must be separated entities from Kellhus considering Malowebi survives? Which is kinda confusing with regards to the appendix note.
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Aug 14, 2017 06:08
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kcroy posted:ha I liked that line! It was an interesting way of setting the Gnosis apart and a level "deeper", or whatever. Oh and right when he is in the library, there is a part about him "whispering secrets" or something to one of the attackers, and how he boils him in his skin or some poo poo. Is that the first time we see the gnosis really loving things up? Well, there is also realpolitik. In the first series, the Mandate is 60 sorcerers and controls a castle. The Scarlet Spires are around 300 and controls one of the major countries. All other schools also spend a lot of time trying to get hold of the Gnosis, so the Mandate have to careful of that. It probably doesn't help that they are seen as lunatics raving about the Consult. Finally, their recruitment must have issues "we will make you a powerful sorcerer, but you will have horrible nightmares for the rest of your life".
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Aug 14, 2017 11:18
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DrVomact posted:"oh and your soul is damned for all eternity!" Well, that one goes for all sorcerers anyways, so the distinction was why the Mandate wasn't larger. Although in the second series, the Mandate, now imperial, and the witches are the largest contingents.
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Aug 14, 2017 20:48
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kcroy posted:I guess I'm saying that I'm disappointed that the magnate, which has access to insane sorcery, hasn't done a better job of politics. Maybe they don't feel it is important - their only goal is dealing with the consult. I would guess the Mandate have been in a decline since the death of the NoGod, since their boogeyman have not been visible for a long time. And since every Mandate sorcerer per definition is a fanatic, things like politics would be hard for them and easier for pragmatic schools. As for the Gnosis, as far as I understood it, one needs to touch the heart of seswatha to understand it.
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Aug 15, 2017 13:54
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Phanatic posted:One thing that bugs me is that there are scenes where the Cishaurim are dropping the Psûkhe on the Holy War and it's mentioned that they're staying out of bow range, but members of the schools are constantly getting swatted out of the sky by Chorae-archers. I dunno, have you tried just raining fire down on people from a bit further away? There are occasions when the Cishaurim are killed by Chorae archers if I remember. In one of the early battles a bunch of them are killed by Shrial Knights. Regarding the end of TUC. Does Cnaiur gets possessed by Ajokli in the end? He specifically grows imaginary horns and is fueled by hate which seems to indicate Ajokli. Also, the remains of the Consult doesn't seem so strong. Aurang and Meketterig dead, all Quya and Wracu gone and basically only have Sranc, Bashrag and skinspies left. Aurax seems like a simpleton and the question is how fast the Dunyain ( my iPhone autocompletes that now ) have learned the Tekne. Meanwhile humanity is still alive and can train armies, it is specified in TGO that Esmenet brings in fresh troops. Lack of sorcerers, but some should remain especially in Zeum. I wonder why the Consult never did actual biological warfare?
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Aug 17, 2017 07:31
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Tosk posted:Actually, in the AMA that Bakker recently did on /r/fantasy, he says that everyone (including his beta readers) missed a huge detail about Shae. This is heavily implied to mean that the Dunsult are actually Shae. Despite what that guy on the last page said, Bakker also went pretty far to describe how the Dunyain are actually kinda spiritually decrepit (see: Moe the Elder and the Psukhe, Kellhus and being possessed by Ajokli since, well, implicitly the Circumfix). After he dropped that reveal and in Zaudunyanicon, where basically 10 of his fans rented out a conference room and talked about the series while getting their books signed, all questions about Shae immediately get responded to with RAFO [read and find out]. At least one of the Dunyain is able to use magic and given the very low probability of anyone being one of the Few and the number of Dunyains, I would say you have a point there
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Sep 1, 2017 13:48
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Mukulu posted:Was it magic or super duper advanced technology? It is described as the nonMan version of the Gnostic floating light, which makes sense.
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Sep 2, 2017 12:42
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Phanatic posted:But at the same time, Kellhus is one of the Few, as was his dad, at least one of Kellhus's kids is. Based on the sample size the chances of any given Dunyain being able to learn magic is pretty high. As for being one of the Few, that is obviously a plot device, so why not. As for the incest (is this the bad thread?), I imagine the anasurimbors have kept it in the family. We know Inrilatas used to rape Theliopa, so there is that.
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Sep 2, 2017 16:59
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Mukulu posted:The Dunyain higher ups have probably forgot to mention a few things to the average Dunyain. So far the impression of the Dunyain is of an egalitarian society (if you are a male, not mentally disabled and dunyain ofc), and I can't remember any occasions of them having leaders. Trainers for the youth, but there are not many descriptions of specialisation.
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Sep 6, 2017 07:27
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Sephyr posted:Idle thought: If the goal was to just depopulate the planet, wouldn't having them fleshcraft a killer plague that this medieval, lovely world could never hope to cure WAY easier than breeding rape goblins, dragons and such? Infect a few sailor, wait ten years, give yourself a vaccine and just take over the empty cities! They had a goddamn laser cannon, you can't tell me they couldn't have come up with smallpox. Same reason the ring wasn't dropped in a Volcano by eagles I would say.
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Sep 29, 2017 06:20
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Sephyr posted:The ring wasn't dropped into the volcano by the Eagles because Sauron would have felt the touch of the Maiar, as they were servants of his boss' brother Manwé, the moment they entered Mordor as long as Sauron's will was still alive and intact. They would have been torn apart by ringwraiths and their mounts and basically delivered the ring directly into Sauron's doorstep. Ehm, plot device anyone? Best part of nerds is how everything has to be explained instead of just accepting that stuff happens because the author wants it that way. Also considering Gandalf, Radagast and Saruman are all the same creatures as Sauron (who got his rear end handed to him by a dog btw) I still consider it a plothole.
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Sep 29, 2017 06:49
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:I dunno, the ending of TUC felt a bit like Deus ex machina to me Well, the Nogod did it so?
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Sep 30, 2017 11:03
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Sephyr posted:Skin-spies only appeared in the last 20 years and seem more complex than doglike humanoids with Nonmen faces, so obviously the Inchoroi can still use their Tekne to creat new stuff. It'd be a workable solution, yes, but as it stands it's just fanwank, Also for Wracu, they are not of one specific shape. The ones we encounter in the last series are all described as having different shapes.
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Oct 2, 2017 06:26
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Amuys posted:Anyone know anything about the sequel series other than it's about the No-God obviously? I don’t even Bakker knows so there is that.
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Nov 18, 2017 10:46
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General Battuta posted:Death will not swirl down, Daniel Jackson. It will in fact swirl up. Because it is a whirlwind?
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Nov 18, 2017 17:52
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vortmax posted:Did we ever figure out the head on a pole? No? Best idea is something about Ajoklis and a reference to the Decapitated.
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Nov 29, 2017 06:36
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Zalakwe posted:About half way through The Great Ordeal and minded to give up. The nonman mansion sections are nonsensical. Have enjoyed bit of this series now just want it to be over which is never a good sign. The non man part is basically LotR Moria, which I guess you figured. Strom Cuzewon posted:The climax of TGO is one of the high points of the series. Nah, the ending of TUC is still good, just slightly underwhelming given the scope of the series.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:02
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Rime posted:Ishteribinth was interesting. We've heard through the series how the Non-men have struggled with the weight of immortality on their sanity and now get to see the full horror of that. That whole sequence is some lovecraftian poo poo. True, to be fair I start to mix up which part is in which book.
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Jan 18, 2018 16:14
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Rime posted:IIRC, TGO was delayed for years as it sat in the publishers desk, only partially edited, and then pushed out the door. With how speedily TuC came out afterwards, I doubt it had any editing at all. On the other hand, I’d rather have an ending with sloppy editing than no ending at all due to laziness or death of author. In contrast to GoT/WoT this was actually finished in a somewhat timely manner and without having 2-4 books with mission creep and no plot advancement. Also writing and imagination above the (admittedly low) standard of the fantasy field. As to “we can’t publish this poo poo” I wonder whether the publisher know the ending when the series was sold? The crazy things was already present in the first series so that couldn’t have been a surprise.
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Jan 20, 2018 09:13
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The true greatness of Bakker will be realized once WWIII hits.
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Apr 21, 2018 05:26
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Given the huge gap between White-Luck Warrior and Great Ordeal, and then the speed with which Unholy Consult followed I get the feeling his publisher no longer gave a poo poo, and then hastily rushed publication to fulfil whatever contract they had with him. They certainly feel less tightly edited than PoN. Great ordeal and Unholy Consult were basically the same book, but split in half for publication reasons.
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Oct 9, 2018 17:40
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Rime posted:It's probably because Bakker spent 25 years writing the first trilogy and it was pretty darn good, but then once he couldn't reskin a real historical event any longer and had to rely on his own imagination - he had no loving clue what he was doing and fell back on the modern hack cliché of ripping off Tolkien and filling in the gaps with snuff scenes. Ripping of Tolkien summaries 50% of all fantasy writers, the other 49% are writing a book about their latest rpg session.
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Oct 11, 2018 20:31
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