Lee Hunts

I just finished reading The Great Ordeal, which is the third book in R. Scott Bakker's Aspect-Emperor series, and the sixth book in the larger Second Apocalypse series. It took me nearly two months to read this book, in part because I burned out on reading after Christmas and had to take a break, but also because this book is so dense that I had to read the fucker much slower than usual. And if we are being honest, these two factors are almost certainly intertwined. Bakker's books keep getting more dense, particularly in terms of the prose. It also gets deeper into philosophical ideas, the subjects nowhere near as simple as they used to be, but this was never really an impediment, given that I find these kinds of things to be intrinsically interesting. Either way, I read this one very slow, and I imagine that the last book will be another slog like this one. But what did I think of it? Let's get into that. No Spoilers Prose Because I mentioned the prose above, I figure I sh...

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 becaus...

“Honour, eh? What the hell is that anyway? Every man thinks it's something different. You can't drink it. You can't fuck it. The more of it you have the less good it does you, and if you've got none at all you don't miss it.”                The First Law Trilogy is a grimdark fantasy written by the author Joe Abercrombie. A grimdark fantasy is notable for being anti-Tolkien in nature. The genre dismisses the hopeful, idealist aspects of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and replaces it with violent, amoral, and nihilistic themed storytelling. The most notable of this genre would be GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series, though Martin has rejected the nihilistic charge. In contrast, I would say The First Law does seem to be more brazenly nihilistic. Review (No Spoilers) Overall, I did enjoy the series. If you are the type who can't read a book with characters that have unapologetically repulsive quirks, or a book with ...