/lit/ - Literature

I love this one!

What does /lit/ think of Scott Bakker and his Second Apocalypse books? I read them a while ago and found them quite fascinating.

His books are heavily infused with philosophy, especially the first three books. I'm a total noob when it comes to philosophy, and many times I scratched my head and had to reread some passages, but it was invigorating and unique nontheless. I don't think many books exist in the fantasy genre that are so heavy on philosophy.

The strongest point are the characters though, their trials and inner dialogue. I have seldom read a character as deep as Drusas Achamian (annoying as he might be from time to time).

Unfortunately that might also be the reason why it never was very successful or caught on with the usual fantasy demographic. Bakker even had to go back to teaching, which is delaying the sixth book even more.

The premise in itself is nothing that special, it's heavily borrowed from the crusades. Wiki explains it better than me:

"It depicts the story of the Holy War launched by the Inrithi kingdoms against the heathen Fanim of the south to recover the holy city of Shimeh for the faithful. During the war, a man named Anasûrimbor Kellhus emerges from obscurity to become an exceptionally powerful and influential figure, and it is discovered that the Consult, an alliance of forces united in their worship of the legendary No-God, a nihilistic force of destruction, are manipulating events to pave the way for the No-God's return to the mortal world." (spoilers after that)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Scott_Bakker

Have you read it and what do you think? I recommend it to anyone interested in fantasy, even if you are not that into philosophy.

pic: Faces on covers of fantasy books usually puts me off and I wouldn't even bother picking that book up, but in this case I'm glad I did. There are other covers though without face, this is the one I've got.