R. Scott Bakker & The Prince of Nothing: Better than Fucking a Hole in the Ground - The Something Awful Forums

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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > R. Scott Bakker & The Prince of Nothing: Better than Fucking a Hole in the Ground

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

These books are really good and I re-read them in 2015 after the overlook thing happened. I'm pretty excited to finally get a new one! R. Scott Bakker is a good writer. He's clearly a student of philosophy (though I don't think he has a phd) and writes accordingly. If it means anything to you, I think the world he's created has explicit, measurable deontological ethics which stand in pretty stark contrast to our own world.

There are two "atrocity tales" on his site. They are like, vignettes in the same universe. One of them might have great ordeal spoilers? Not a big deal to me, but you may as well check them out if you've read the books.
http://www.rscottbakker.com/atrocity-tales/

DEAR RICHARD, finish the book.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2016 22:46

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:09

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

A human heart posted:

Can you provide some examples of this guy's good writing and philosophical ideas?

I don't have anything offhand (I'm at work), but there's interesting discussion throughout the old thread:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3440065&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

I know that's not a concise answer but it's all I got.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2016 00:09

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I wonder if the anyone will go to atrithau, I want to know what's up with that place. There's so much cool stuff only mentioned in that glossary.

Jeffrey of YOSPOS fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Jan 6, 2016

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 08:29

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Popular Human posted:

Hey, that's my OP! I love that I was all "oh don't worry about the series not getting finished, he's written six books in eight years, he's no GRRM" then Unholy Consult gets pushed back four years.

Bakker is one of those authors who I really liked when someone tossed a copy of TDTCB into my lap, but between the glacial pace of his releases, his awful devotion to internet poo poo-stirring and him not being able to control his weird cuckoldry/rape/mind-control fetishes in his non-SFF work, I've kinda gone lukewarm on him. Consult getting split into two books doesn't exactly fill me with hope, but maybe it'll get me re-invested in this series.

lol the internet poo poo-stirring was instigated by another scifi author using a fake name to intentionally assemble mobs to harass competing authors:
http://www.metafilter.com/144305/Ripping-up-the-SFF-Scene-Requires-Hate

# ¿ Jan 7, 2016 05:13

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

savinhill posted:

He's totally not, you'd have to like intentionally misread the whole series to think that Kellhus is meant to be an actual good guy.

Yeah this, he's written as somewhere between really bad and the literal devil. You don't have to like someone just because they're a POV character.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2016 17:05

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

There are real life examples of genes that are beneficial in heterozygotes but harmful in homozygotes. Not surprised that, uhh, dunyain engineering has run into a few.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 23:47

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

A complete version of that preview chapter was posted. God am I pumped now:
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.ca/2016/04/look-what-cat-dragged-in.html

# ¿ May 19, 2016 16:40

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

The end isn't that near because it's split into two books... :smith:

:smith:

. Still, I'm super excited. Hopefully it sells well so the others get more traction with the publisher.

# ¿ May 19, 2016 17:35

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Aww but we're just about to hit page 5!!!

# ¿ May 20, 2016 08:01

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Two chapters have been released as previews, check my earlier post for that one.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2016 16:48

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Wxhode posted:

Yeah, but what's with the plains kid that the gods are hiding from Kellhus? What was a white luck warrior anyway?

He's going with Serwa (Kellhus's daughter, grandmaster of a magic school) and Moenghus (Cnaiur's son, raised as Kellhus's) to be a hostage of the Nonmen.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2016 18:32

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I actually forget, what happened to Sarl? He certainly didn't go with Achamian and Mimara to Ishual but I thought I remembered him surviving. I guess the consult dudes that were trailing the group might have him?

# ¿ Jun 28, 2016 15:28

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Lord Cyrahzax posted:

According the to the wiki, Achamian and Mimarar abandoned him at Sauglish.

That's harsh - a wacky sidekick is just what those two somber sallies need.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2016 18:57

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Yeah I reread them a year or two ago and it seemed like it took two books of setup for sorweel to do something interesting. I'm looking forward to the nonman city for sure though - hopefully that part is good. Achamian's thread is the best throughout, that was true in the original trilogy too.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 16:30

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

There were some guest appearances like nannaferi, the zeumi sorceror, proyas, and the skinchanger. It's something. I definitely miss the more varied PoVs in the first trilogy as well though. I'm sad there were no cleric sections even if I get why.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 16:50

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I'm still secretly hoping Cnaiur is alive somehow.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 18:49

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

A parallel to Xinemus? Is that a stretch?

# ¿ Jul 1, 2016 15:19

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

My copy arrives today. (thanks dude on ebay selling your ARC). I'll post vague impressions when I have them.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2016 17:39

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Do we have any reason to believe that Inri Sejenus was anything but a fraud? It certainly sounds like the cults have much more direct interaction with the outside than shrial order/the thousand temples do. I don't necessarily believe anything he had to say about the outside.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 22:26

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Strom Cuzewon posted:

Well Kellhus 's realisation that all souls are one would support the idea that the gods are just aspects of The God, so Inri can't have been too far out. Which raises the question of how and why he was able to come to those conclusions.

Yeah actually, was he the one who first said that sorcery causes damnation? We do know that to be true so maybe he was on to something. The implications of the judging eye are much more interesting now after the third book than they were when it was introduced, though it kind of seems like "cheating" the same way sorcery is. Does using the judging eye cause damnation? Is she invisible to the gods and about to give birth to the no-god?

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 23:13

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Strom Cuzewon posted:

Nah, damnation was something that the tusk mentions a few times - it's in the same bits about prostitutes that Esme thinks about.

The Judging Eye is interesting because it seems to say that morality is a measurable thing, that damnation is an objectively observable phenomenon. It's fundamentally different to sorcery, because it's concerned entirely with the Outside, and doesn't have anything to do with the Onta.

Where are you getting the implication about Mimara being damned and giving birth to the no-god? I never got that impression.

Okay maybe I'm wrong here. I thought the sorcery bit was only Inrithism but I don't know now. At the very beginning Achamian refers to previous holy wars against the schools but I don't think we get any details of those.

Mimara is being explicitly protected by the consult. We don't know why but they made explicit reference to her baby and a prophecy.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2016 00:12

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

It definitely picks up - book 1 is a lot of moving pieces into place. Still, if you're not digging his style, you may not end up liking it - I was definitely positive about the whole thing by the end. I found the world he created fascinating at that point - the politics, the schools, etc were all very cool.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 20:13

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Also yeah, with the war underway there certainly are more of those. Upon thinking I do agree that Warrior Prophet is pretty drat great so yeah, read that. Not sure about best fantasy novel, but absolutely a contender.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2016 20:43

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I like Xinemus too. That whole book is great.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2016 21:11

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Man the wiki for this is really bare-bones and funny

quote:

Proyas is a devoted follower of Maithanet, and he is present beside Maithanet as the Shriah announces the target of the Holy War.

He recognizes Achamian when the Mandate sorcerer is crowd-surfed to Maithanet's side.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2016 22:02

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

The Prince of Nothing: The sorcerer is crowd-surfed

# ¿ Aug 21, 2016 22:03

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Uhh....

quote:

And with details forthcoming, it looks like we have a deal for the television rights to The Prince of Nothing� there�s not much I can say yet, except that the more books I can sell, the greater the chance of seeing the series on the screen! Time to pull out the purple tuxedo�

I think these books are pretty close to unfilmable but all I can do is hope.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 20:37

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Steve Buscemi should be Iyokus instead of Achamian

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 16:32

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Dazerbeams posted:

I'm in the middle of A Thousand-Fold Thought and I have mixed feelings. I like the concept, and the side characters are all interesting, but I find the main character to be pretty dull. How does the second trilogy compare?

Yeah I'm gonna second that the answer here depends thoroughly on who exactly you mean by the main character.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2016 00:18

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Not sure what the title should be, but "religion" or "fantasy" would be good thread tags.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 18:58

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Both that and "The ground pitched a chapped marmoreal rind" are good. I vote chortles, as well.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 19:34

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

R Scott Bakker & The Prince of Nothing: Instead of crimson the dead are smeared black with... seed

# ¿ Mar 17, 2017 05:52

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Bummer there's no amazon sweden to buy the kindle version from. You got a swedish ebook store or something we could check out?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2017 20:44

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Cardiac posted:

Sfbok.se, who apparently sell outside of Sweden for credit card payments . Only physical copies though.

I thought about it but...$47 and nebulous shipping time? It looks like it might come out as early as the 5th in germany - will probably just get that ebook version.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2017 21:33

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

You can get it for Kindle now if you're willing to make up a UK address.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 08:22

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I haven't finished it yet but I think he always had the third one planned, at least by the time The Judging Eye came out. He said the name of the third trilogy would be a spoiler.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2017 18:52

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

He also said kelmomas was one of the few in a Q&A somewhere.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2017 21:23

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

I wanted them to go to atrithau at some point - it's weird that there's a settled city way in the north and no one bothers stopping by. It's pretty interesting that magic doesn't work there and I want to know why.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2017 18:21

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

Cardiac posted:

The non man part is basically LotR Moria, which I guess you figured.

Cil-Aujas is definitely Moria, Ishteribinth is...something else.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 16:04

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:09

Jeffrey of YOSPOS: Dec 22, 2005; GET LOSE, YOU CAN'T COMPARE WITH MY POWERS

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.

Better than almost all of TuC, honestly.

Yeah it was bizarre but almost certainly my favorite part of the last two books.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2018 16:15

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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > R. Scott Bakker & The Prince of Nothing: Better than Fucking a Hole in the Ground

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