The Judging Eye: Book Review

I just finished reading The Judging Eye, which is the first book in the Aspect-Emperor series, which is in turn the second series within the larger Second Apocalypse series by R. Scott Bakker. The book picks up twenty years after The Prince of Nothing. Before I begin, this whole review will have spoilers of that initial series because there really is no way to talk about this series without do so. Click off now if you want to protect yourself. 

Anasûrimbor Kellhus has taken over the Three Seas to form an empire, and now, after twenty years of painstaking care and preparation, Kellhus is now declaring a Great Ordeal that will march up to Golgotterath to destroy the Consult before they can resurrect the No-God. It is the ultimate gamble taken to stop the world from ending.

It took me about a month to get through this book, which is longer than any of the other entries. This is in part because I chose to read the story slower, because Bakker is so dense as a writer, and in part because the story itself is much slower than the other entries. The Judging Eye reads like a 400 page prologue to everything that comes later. It isn't plot driven, instead resting heavily on characters; it doesn't resolve any plot lines, even the one that serves to climax the story; and you finish the story basically wishing for more.

I think Bakker pulls off what he is trying to do in this novel. I was engaged with the story every step of the way, and this is because of the strength of his characters, as I hinted at. I don't need a strongly plot driven story to keep me interested, but I admittedly slow down regardless of my enjoyment. I don't know. That's just how it is. While I did enjoy the story, I can already tell that this is going to be my least favorite entry in the whole series (unless I really don't like how the story continues and ends. I doubt that). This sentiment is simply inevitable given that this book is really just set up for everything else to come; presumably that everything else is going to be better; the story would be quite a disappointment, otherwise.

Overall (No Spoilers)

Let's start with the characters, given that this was the obvious strength of the story.

There are a number of returning characters from the Prince of Nothing, from Kellhus, to Achamian, to Esmenet, to Proyas, to Saubon. Kellhus receives no pages from his perspective, which is the perfect way to introduce his character for this new series. Proyas and Saubon are merely mentioned and then briefly depicted in the end of the story, though I know from word of mouth, at the very least, that they will become more relevant later on in the series. I can't really say anything about them yet. Because of this, Achamian and Esmenet take center stage, as they did before.

Achamian has by far the most interesting and complete story arc in this story. Through it, we get to see some cool homages to Tolkien and some of the most atmospheric sequences in a story that I have read in some time. Additionally, not only is his story the only one that has a climax, his storyline also stands out as having some of the most interesting potential for the future of the story. And for his character, especially, he is basically the ravaged aftermath of what happened in the Prince of Nothing. He is embittered and fixated, and once he gets moving, you know that he's going to stir the pot in potentially horrific ways.

Esmenet's story takes an interesting turn in this entry. In the previous series, she has climbed from the status of a prostitute to being the Empress, the second most powerful person in the Empire. But she finds that there are massive caveats to take along with this advance in status, and she is now expected to confront these major hills looming before her. At this point in the story, she is not quite the empowering character that I think some people were hoping for her to be, but it is also the beginning of the story, with no climax or even complete arc to be seen, so seeing how she tackles the coming issues could very well change that.

The series also introduces several new characters. Mimara is a new perspective character, and she proves to be one of Bakker's more likeable female characters. He was criticized for his portrayal of women in the original series, and it is clear that he listened to criticism. I personally did not think the female characters in the previous series were poorly realized, just that they lacked variety and seemed to lack agency. Mimara helps address this, as she is a headstrong woman whose motivation actually drives other characters into action with her. And she is not relegated to a position of manipulation, like Esmenet and Serwe were in the first series (especially the latter).

Sorweel is the next major perspective added to the series and is a refreshing vantage point on the story that helps had more depth and uncertainty to the story. He is also probably the most sympathetic character that Bakker has ever written, so I am very interested in the direction that he goes throughout the story.

Chucky is another new perspective, and is the youngest of Kellhus' and Esmenet's children. All of Kellhus' children through Esmenet are terrifying, with Chucky being an interesting twist that adds dimension and mystery—and I think that he is one of the more fascinating characters that will develop over the course of the story in profound ways. Notably, the fact that he is the first child of Kellhus to actually get a perspective is something that we should take note of.

Psatma, in her arrogant humility, is more peripheral, but also has the occasional perspective chapter. She represents one of the major factions in the story that will be a thorn in the side of Kellhus and Esmenet in the story to come. Her side of the story also has some of the weirdest scenes in the story yet, and I'm waiting with bated breath to see what depravity will arise in the future. But not really. I promise I'm not a freak.

A side character that stands at the forefront for me is Lord Kosoter. His presence and character are so compelling and fascinating to me, so it was inevitable that he would become my latest waifu. But seriously, I swear this kind of character always manages to jump to the very top of my favorites every time they show up on the page or screen. He is like another Marlo Stanfield, with his emotionless, reserved disposition carrying a certain terror in everything that he does. It is no mistake that I actually have a character much like this in my own novel that I am writing.

The climax of the story is the Tolkien homage I was referring to, though I won't specify more than that for the sake of spoilers, even if they are relatively minor. I will say that the locale in this part of the story baptizes you in one of the most unnerving atmospheres imaginable. You are plunged into isolation and silence, only to find horrors beyond all belief.

And while this sequence is great overall, I do think there are parts in the end that I thought could have been refined or executed a little better. There are parts that also lack clarity, though I'm not sure how separate this is from what I am mentioning above. It is also impossible to parse in a spoiler free fashion, so I will leave it at that.

As for the prose, my thoughts are much the same for the rest of his books, but I just have to mention again that Bakker has so much description that I envy and would like to emulate. And this is coming from someone who generally wants his prose to be grounded with the occasional flourish, so I think this says something. At the same time, related to my preferences, there are parts where I think Bakker could be less poetic and more grounded, because the descriptions or musings are a little too obscure.

This about wraps up my spoiler free thoughts. I thought the book was good for what it was. But the book was a 400 page prologue for everything else to come, so it is my least favorite book in the series so far.

Overall, I thought the book was an enjoyable read. I will give it a 7/10.

Spoilers

Achamian

Achamian has by far the most interesting arc in the story, and his plot line serves as the climax of the story. After living like a hermit for twenty years, Achamian is finally given a kick in the ass by the arrival of Mimara, who I will talk about more later.

In the intervening time, however, Achamian reveals that his dreams have been changing over the years. Even though he has renounced his loyalties to the Mandate, he still suffers all Seswatha's dreams, which he knows in intimate detail. Yet, Achamian is now beginning to notice changes, with new dreams cropping up. Notably, these dreams actually show the banalities of Seswatha's life. Previously, the dreams would only show the important parts of his life (Seswatha never shits!), but with these banal sequences entering in, Achamian initially does not know what to think. And as the story progresses, this is taken in interesting directions, as the dreams continue to change, and not simply to reveal the banalities, but to even change in such a way that Achamian's lies actually become truths.

It is with this backdrop that the plotline centered on Achamian comes into play. Achamian decides to hire a group of scalpers (called the Skin Eaters), men who have refined a profession of hunting and killing Sranc, to take him up north. He lies to them, telling them that he is seeking out the Coffers, a major collection of treasure that resides in the Ruins of Sauglish. This is simply a facade designed to get Achamian north, where he can then continue his search for Ishual, which is the place where the Anasûrimbor line was preserved and where the Dûnyain currently reside. This will reveal the origins and the nature of Kellhus, the man who has enslaved the world for the purposes of saving it. But while Achamian is on this journey, he eventually gets a new dream that reveals that a map to Ishual is located in Sauglish, hidden in the Coffers! So, the lie he fed to the Skin Eaters is suddenly validated by his Seswatha dreams, telling him that he indeed needs to go to Sauglish. At first, I thought that Bakker was just revealing the details of Achamian's motivations as the story progressed, but it turned out that this was a new dream that did not come to him until after he set out on his journey.

(But now there has been another complication: I read the summary of The Judging Eye at the beginning of The White-Luck Warrior, a summary written by Bakker himself, and the way he wrote it suggested that the dream actually did come before he set out to hire the Skin Eaters. Now I am just confused, because I thought the text was pretty clear. I don't know.)

I find this twist to be fascinating. First, Achamian suggests that this implies that he is literally creating reality with his fiction. This opens a whole host of questions about the limitations of these abilities. To what extent can Achamian actually flex this muscle, so to speak? No doubt, there will be limitations. And to what extent does Achamian even have conscious control over this ability? He might be able to do profound things, but that doesn't mean he has willed it to happen. But the second thought I have regarding this twist is much more sinister. And that is the suggestion that Achamian is misunderstanding what has actually happened. Outside of the context of Seswatha's dreams, the simple fact that his dreams have changed is not that profound. And for this twist, he literally might just be seeing things that he wants to see. Maybe there is no map hidden in the Coffers, and Achamian just dreamed it. You know, a normal dream. This might be anti-climactic, but it could also work if written well. Achamian is obviously a complicated character, so the thought of him being so consumed by his crusade that he deludes himself can be an interesting direction to take the story.

And while I am touching upon Achamian's complexity, it is worth mentioning the central conflict highlighted by this plotline. Anasûrimbor Kellhus is a fraud. He has set himself up as the Jesus Christ of Earwa and used the religion to take over the world and manipulate everyone around him. But, at the same time, he is doing this to save the world. The threat seems real. And Kellhus might be the only one capable of stopping the Second Apocalypse. He is essentially the ultimate grimdark Chosen One, and remains my favorite usage of the chosen one trope. Achamian is wholly correct when he realizes that Kellhus is a fraud. And even if Kellhus is the one man capable of stopping the apocalypse, Achamian is still wholly warranted in tracking down the origins of the Dûnyain, if only to make sure nothing shady is up. But you also know that there is a serious personal grudge coloring his actions here. We don't know how he will take the information. And the idea that Bakker might have him misinterpret the information, or operate on incomplete information, leading him to undermine Kellhus even as Kellhus is necessary to save to world is just too horrific to ignore the possibility. I really hope that Bakker plays around with perspective like this, one way or another.

Mimara

Mimara is another very interesting character with a fascinating ability revealed at the end that, as with everything in this book, opens up so many possibilities that I can't wait to see unfold. She is a character that Bakker has mentioned before. She is Esmenet's daughter—namely her first daughter that she had to sell into slavery because she could not afford to feed her. She was eventually found by Esmenet in a whorehouse pretending to be her mother because she looked like her. But she rejected her mother and left when Kellhus refused to teach her how to do sorcery (she is one of the Few). After this, she tracks down Achamian, because she suspects that he is her real father, and tries to learn sorcery through him. Of course, he refuses, but is also motivated to finally take action, which Mimara takes advantage of when she follows him.

Mimara's very presence among the Skin Eaters, the band of scalpers that Achamian has chosen to travel with, provides so much tension, as she is a woman among a bunch of rapists; it is only Achamian who can really protect her. And her interactions with the men, like Soma, are interesting. And because I probably won't talk about his character in any other place in this post, I will quickly touch upon something about Soma's character. It was just a passing remark, but I remember Mimara mentioning how she trusted Some because, unlike the other members of the group, he was not a man. Was this literal or figurative? I would assume the latter, either implying that he was a wuss or perhaps castrated, but it also occurred to me that he might be an actual woman, which could be interesting. But not likely.

The most interesting part of Mimara's character is her newfound power at the end of the story, the story's namesake, The Judging Eye. While all of the Few have the ability to see the mark of sorcery and the threat of the Chorae, she also has the ability to see the morality of the mark. She can see that the mark is condemned, and further, she can see what looks like the divinity of the Chorae. This is significant because it shows that Kellhus is a fraud. He, as the incarnation of the God, has rewritten the scripture so that sorcery is no longer condemned. But with the Judging Eye, Mimara can see that Kellhus' proclamation carries no metaphysical weight.

But there is another ability that the Judging Eye seems to confer, when paired with the Chorae. Not only is she able to see the divinity of the Tear of God, but she is able to use the artifact to fight against the encroaching threat that their group was facing. This is rather hard to describe, as the threat was ill-explained and rushed. Either way, when the group was about to be destroyed by the darkness embodied by the ghost of a Nonman King (I think?), Mimara is the one who is able to push it back and save their lives. I don't know how her ability to use this Chorae will mix with her learning to use sorcery, but that is a question worth considering.

And while I am on the final stand, I want to talk about the scene as one of my negatives for the book. Because this comes from the Cil-Aujas section of the book, which is an homage to the mines of Moria, Mimara's last stand has been compared to Gandalf's last stand against the Balrog. Maybe this isn't fair, but either way, I think the scene was nowhere near as impactful (I'm talking about the LOTR movie. Haven't read the books). I thought Bakker's version was too rushed. I did not really understand the threat they were up against, and then the threat poofed out of existence far too quickly. The events kind of just happened, and I was left whiplashed, honestly. I don't think the threat needs a complete explanation, but I hardly even knew what was going on at all. This is just a problem of grounding. Bakker does sometimes suffer from getting too lost in his poetry, and I think this was one example that kind of frustrated the reading experience a bit.

Quick aside: the scene where the Nonman King speaks through the mouths of Achamian and the other unconscious man has interesting parallels to how the No-God spoke out of the mouths of the Sranc in the Seswatha dream we saw in the Prince of Nothing.

Addendum: What did Mimara see when she looked at Anasûrimbor Kellhus? She has the Judging Eye.

Skin Eaters

I think the Skin Eaters also deserve some mention. They are the group of scalpers that Achamian hires to take him north, and they have such an interesting dynamic right out of the gate. Lord Kosoter, Bakker's own Marlo Stanfield, was already mentioned above, and his qualities are only enhanced by how he fits within the larger group that he is a part of. He is the leader, but he doesn't pay you any mind, or even move a muscle, unless you are worth noticing. He acknowledges Achamian only because he recognizes him as a veteran of the First Holy War. The dynamic he has with Sarl is distinctive and entertaining. And I should also mention that he has a Chorae, which I think will become important later in the story.

But the character with the most mystery about him is Cleric. Cleric is a man first seen obscured in a cloak, but he is quickly revealed to not be a man at all, but a Nonman, which we have only seen from afar up to this point. And there is so much to this character. He is what is called an erratic, a Nonman who has basically gone mad. He has lived for thousands of years, but has lost most of his memory of that time—now left a mere shell of himself. The Nonmen used to be a powerful and towering species, basically superior to human beings in every way, until their species was ravaged with infertility and other atrocities that left them in their desolated state today. And there are multiple interesting suggestions that Bakker has made here. First, he explicitly states on multiple occasions that Nonmen have the face of Sranc, and also that Sranc have the faces of Nonmen, which poses so many questions. Second, there are multiple remarks about how human beings were to Nonmen what Sranc are to human beings. This also poses questions about the roles of humanity in history and how that might tie into the current storyline. But I will save the wild speculation for the speculation and prediction section that I will place at the end of this review.

There are also interesting questions regarding Cleric/Incariol specifically. The latter name is his Nonman name, but Achamian notably does not recognize his name from his readings despite the fact that he ought to know him. This implies that something is up. Cleric is not who he claims to be, and he certainly cannot be trusted. And his role in the climax of the story is also ambiguous. There are multiple points where he seems dead, only to come back suddenly. We do not know what has happened in that time, but we can certainly speculate endlessly.

Chucky

Chucky is the youngest son of Esmenet and Kellhus, and he is the one that we have the greatest understanding of at this point in the story. And he seems to be the worst of the bunch. Part of what makes him so terrifying is that he is just a child, someone who pines after his mother, but he is also psychopathic and murderous. Esmenet thinks that Chucky is normal, but he is so intelligent that he thinks much like an adult, and he is constantly manipulating her attachment to him as a mother. This is one of Bakker's most fascinating character achievements, I think. Bakker has managed to create a child character, someone who has the typical naivety and playfulness and attachment to his mother and father, while also giving him a very adultlike feel in how he approaches the world. It is a very interesting conglomeration that Bakker manages to pull off. I remember GRRM talking about how Bran was the hardest character to write, because he was so young, and Chucky has to be another level above that. Chucky never felt like a poorly written child character, but something deliberate. A preternatural child, if you will.

I think Chucky's relationship to his twin brother is another interesting twist to his character. And I mean this aside from the fact that he killed his brother. Chucky was born conjoined to his brother (though I heard it mentioned that he might not have been physically conjoined, but mentally conjoined? My reading was that it was physical). Either way, this fact combined with the fact that Chucky was born with high intelligence, and Samarmas was born mentally retarded, makes me wonder about their connection.

While reading, I immediately considered the possibility that Chucky basically stole Samarmas' intelligence and awareness, making him more intelligent than he should be. I could not escape the fact that Esmenet thought that Chucky was normal. Why, when the other children were quickly sorted accordingly? Is this because Chucky is able to hide his abilities better, even from Kellhus? Is Chucky smarter than his father, just younger and untrained?

Another possible explanation is the fact that Chucky seems to have a "Dark Passenger" in his head. It does not seem like his Dark Passenger is metaphorical, like Dexter's was in the show, but a literal thing like in the books. With this disconnect, his Dûnyain abilities might be invisible to someone like Kellhus, even, which is a fascinating thought. Though there is reason to doubt this, as well. There is a part where the Dark Passenger tells Chucky that he should not see his father, as his father will see through his face. So, this just asks the question, why did Esmenet think that Chucky was normal? Did Kellhus trick her about this? That's certainly not beyond his character. We just need the reason why.

Another quick thing to mention, which I can't believe did not occur to me while reading (I heard another suggest it): perhaps this Dark Passenger is actually Samarmas, and Chucky absorbed his consciousness. Or maybe Samarmas actually invaded Chucky. Maybe Chucky is actually nice and caring, and it is just Samaras invading his mind and controlling him that makes him this way. We will see.

Esmenet

I already mentioned Esmenet's predicament in the non-spoiler section, that she is a ruler faced with all the responsibility and the discontent associated. An interesting thing that stood out to me was that was that Esmenet does not seem to be part of the illusion that Kellhus is the incarnation of the God. She seems to understand that he is Dûnyain, even, but she has "chosen" this path. She also is incapable of loving Kellhus, knowing that he is purely pragmatic. So, while she is constantly being manipulated by her son, she seems less under the thumb of her husband.

(I admit I can't remember how things wrapped up in The Thousandfold Thought. Of course, I know that Esmenet chose him and married him, but I forget if she learned what he was in that book).

But because Bakker is Bakker, there are obvious reasons to doubt that she is free of manipulation, as well. There is one notable scene, where Kellhus returns home and speaks with Esmenet, and we get this reassuring scene where Kellhus basically tells her that he trusts her to be able to handle the threat posed to the empire, namely the White-Luck Warrior and her children. But I immediately thought that he might be using her. What if the plan is precisely for her to fail? Kellhus would do it. The question is why, which I will touch upon in the speculation section.

Psatma

Psatma is harder to commentate on because of just how vague so much of her perspective is, though I can use this to say that a little more grounding to the scenes would be helpful. Especially the moments leading up to where she has period blood sex with some man, stole his youth, and all in front of a crowd of worshiping people, I had no idea what was going on. However, the latter half, where the actual freakish sex scene happens, actually benefited from the lack of clarity. Bakker can get away with so much of this weird shit because he is so poetic and vague about much of it. And I think her perspective shows that there is a delicate balance between poetic prose and precise prose.

Another thing I want to talk about is a bit more involved, and from an aspiring writer's perspective. I really liked how Bakker wrote this seemingly contradictory character with clashing traits. I described her with the words "arrogant humility," and I think this is the perfect description. Bakker somehow managed to take these two contradictory traits and put them together in a way that makes sense. We are first introduced to her roundly condemning other pious individuals for not having the right motivations. They care about status and signaling their piety. But not Psatma. She is actually pious. She doesn't do it for worldly gain. She constantly has her eye on Yatwer, and she thinks about that all the time. She's at the top of that hierarchy of humility, bois.

I don't have much more to add. The White-Luck Warrior is so peripheral and barely touched upon that I don't really know what to say or even speculate about. The title of the next book suggests that things will change, though.

Sorweel

I really enjoyed the chapters from Sorweel's perspective. Not only is he a well-developed character in his own right, but he is also an excellent writing choice by Bakker, as he serves as an outside perspective to the Great Ordeal.

Sorweel is a younger character, I can't remember if his age was ever mentioned, but the impression I get is around ten years of age. And because I am an aspiring writer, I was focused on how Bakker wrote his character and how his age seemed to leak off the page even if I didn't remember if he was ever explicitly aged. Namely, his tendency to look up to others, like his father and then to Zsoronga; he had not passed into the age of rebellion just yet. And Bakker's ability to capture the perspective of the character, like the typical boredom of a child as he is forced to learn a new language, is as good as GRRM when he writes Bran's character. And what both authors seem to do well is write about important political and philosophical matters from the perspective of a child. Bakker was able to communicate important ideas (like the scene with the broken vase) and even potentially profound developments regarding Kellhus' power, while not losing Sorweel's perspective. He does not entirely comprehend what is happening all the time, but the reader might. (Addendum: He is actually around fifteen, apparently).

Something that I did not actually grasp until it was suggested to me was that Sorweel's slave might be protecting the boy from Kellhus' third eye. There is this weird scene where Porsparian (the slave) produces mud of some kind and then blesses Sorweel by rubbing it on his face. I thought that this was just some cultural thing to worldbuild and give the story depth. But it was suggested that the mud might actually be a magic ritual that prevents Kellhus from reading Sorweel's face. This becomes significant at the end of the story, when Sorweel sees Kellhus in person for the second time. Sorweel consciously rebels against him, reminding himself of what was done to his father, and Kellhus passes him by. My original thought was that Kellhus was tricking him, making him think that he was getting away with it, and making him toil over the thought that Kellhus might be playing some game; and this could still very well be true. But if the mud ritual is what it was suggested to be, then Kellhus might not actually being manipulating him. Bakker explicitly brings up this ritual after the encounter, so I think there is a good case to be made that it matters one way or another.

Speculation and Prediction

Before I even begin, let me just say that these theories do not necessarily fit into some cohesive whole. They are just the scattered musings of my fanatic mind.

The first thing I want to talk about is what I mentioned above in the section talking about Cleric. We know that Nonmen and Sranc have the same face, and that human beings are to Sranc as Nonmen are to humans.

Let's touch on the first one: the fact that they look alike has the obvious implication that they are related in some way. And we already know that the Sranc are the creation of the Inchoroi, who crash landed on this planet, and so are essentially aliens from outer space, with Golgotterath being their massive spaceship. The Inchoroi mostly likely used the Nonmen as a model for the Sranc, or perhaps even corrupted them like how Uruk-Hai were corrupted Elves.

But the second one is another thing worth considering. Where did human beings come from? We understand that mankind came out of the east, but this is vague. Perhaps mankind is another kind of corruption, and the Nonmen are the only natural race on Earwa. How this ties into the Inchoroi, however, is rather fraught, so it is really speculative. But I suspect that mankind and the Nonmen will have some interesting reveals about their past.

Another theory I want to consider is the idea that Kellhus might have a hand in Achamian's mad trek into the North. This comes down to the fact that Mimara actually saw Kellhus and was therefore subject to whatever manipulation that he could put upon her. He refused to teach her the Gnosis, and it doesn't take a genius to see that Mimara would probably track down Achamian as the next resort. So, Kellhus would try to stop her, if we understand his motivations, right? Maybe he simply was limited in his ability to manipulate her; he's not omnipotent; and she left and was able to think things over after the fact; she is headstrong, after all. But maybe he did manipulate her, and maybe we don't actually understand his motivations. Maybe he has something planned for Achamian, and he knew that Mimara showing up on his doorstep would throw him into action. And this would explain why Achamian isn't dead. It really is quite baffling that Kellhus did not kill him, and the book's suggestion that Esmenet's guilt would be sufficient to explain this is easily undercut by the fact that Kellhus would not care about how she feels. I think Kellhus left Achamian alive for a reason, and him using Mimara to push him into action is simply an extension of this.

This leaves the final theory, which is something that I have been thinking over for some time. One major pattern that has stuck out to me is the naming pattern for the series. There will be three series that used to be individual entries in a trilogy: The Prince of Nothing, The Aspect-Emperor, and The No-God. Who is the Prince of Nothing? Kellhus. Who is the Aspect-Emperor? Kellhus. Who is the No-God? Certainly not Kellhus. He's here to stop the destruction of the No-God.

Except my proposed theory is going to suggest that he is the No-God. What this means is that Kellhus is not only a fraud who is organizing the whole world under a lie, but that he is the very threat he claims to be fighting against. The idea is this: The First Apocalypse failed. The No-God was defeated by the Heron Spear, even if the original Ordeal ended in failure. But the Consult are going to try again. And they are going to take a couple thousand years to do it. In the intervening time, they will cultivate the Dûnyain, a sect of monks who use eugenics to help them approach enlightenment intergenerationally. But the real reason is to create a vessel for the No-God (Kellhus) that is able to accomplish the complete destruction of the world, unlike the last time. The previous No-God was originally a person who had not been selected for like Kellhus has, and is therefore not equipped to withstand the Heron Spear (whatever that is). But Kellhus will be. I think The Unholy Consult might end with the No-God being released on the world, with the knowledge that the Heron Spear no longer works. It would be the ultimate second act low, the ultimate Empire Strikes Back ending, where all hope seems lost before the final act of the story.

This would also tie into Esmenet's plotline, as she would simply be Kellhus' tool for destroying the Three Seas, the point of last stand after the Ordeal is destroyed. She completely breaks under the pressure and the Three Seas rips itself apart as a result.

There are good reasons to doubt this theory. First, because it is vague. Apparently, the Dûnyain are a better vessel for the No-God, which assumes that there has to be a vessel that becomes the No-God, whatever that means. It also leaves completely open the question of why the Dûnyain would be an improvement. We quite simply don't know enough to really say what any of this actually means.

And there are two other reasons to doubt the theory, both relating to Kellhus' character and relating to the themes of the story surrounding his character. The question is how much Kellhus actually knows. The original idea I had was that this was all unwitting. After all, the Dûnyain were ignorant of some things, like magic and the Apocalypse. So, if the entire purpose of the Dûnyain was to create the No-God, it would have to be unwitting, which would help with motivations, at least. The monks simply think they seek enlightenment, but they are really just tools. I think the unwitting involvement, conjoined with the fact that there is vessel used for No-God, also neatly explains the strange depiction of the No-God as vulnerable: "What do you see? I must know what you see. Tell me. What am I? I cannot see." And if it is unwitting, it should also be noted that Kellhus would not be manipulating Esmenet, as he would not know to destroy the Three Seas.

Another possibility is that Kellhus only had a vague understanding of his purpose upon entering the world. He filled in the details as he arrived, and is now taking more conscious action toward the goal of becoming the No-God. This is so vague that the theory has little to no substance to fill it out, but I could honestly speculate millions of possibilities. Who knows?

I mentioned that there are thematic reasons to doubt this theory, as well. One of the most compelling reasons the chosen one trope works for me in this story is that Kellhus is an amoral character trying to save the world. There is complexity there that cuts right into your heart. Under this theory, Kellhus becomes an amoral character who wants to destroy the world, which is nowhere near as interesting. Perhaps the interest is preserved if Kellhus is unwitting, but I don't know. It would depend the execution. Related is something that I mentioned in my review of The Darkness That Comes Before: what untold atrocities can you justify when you are up against someone who wants to kill everybody? Another appeal to this story is the moral discussion about what is permissible in situations like the Apocalypse. As before, this theme kind of fails if Kellhus isn't actually trying to save the world.

Overall, the theory is probably wrong. It simply comes from extrapolating who/what the No-God is from how the series are titled, so I doubt it carries that much weight. But I knew it all along, if it ends up being correct.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought the book was an enjoyable read. I will give it a 7/10.