/lit/ - Literature

Sorry you were filtered.
Bakker is in fact one of the most Christpilling authors I’ve ever read, especially in the fantasy genre.

>>21814930
Bakker is a sheltered academic obsessed with violence and homosexuality while being too frightened to experience either of them

>>21814930
Elaborate or post an excerpt (or both). I have a feeling that you're just baiting me, and I'm not about to waste money on another book if it's going to suck ass.

>>21814965
This is my perception as well, though again I admit, his prose is very skilled (and is the primary reason I was interested in reading him in the first place).

>>21814868
Why do you guys keep spamming this "meme" author. It's not funny, it's almost shilling like the lionshill on /g/.

>>21814992
Because I have a genuine question, and I hardly ever post here anyway.

>>21814868
Post some spoiler free prose excerpts so I can be convinced to read it.

>>21814965
He just like me

>>21814868
Gormenghast
Blood Meridian
Lonesome Dove
Moby Dick
Little Women
Song of Ice and Fire

>>21814968
You are being baited.

>>21814868
try hogg

>>21814868
>>21814930
>>21814965
>>21814968
>Crying “Glory to the God!” Athjeäri and his thanes broke ranks, crouching forward on their mounts, slowly dipping their lances. More Houses abandoned the line and pounded toward the Kianene: Wanhail, Anfirig, Werijen Greatheart, and then old Gothyelk himself, bellowing, “Heaven wills it!” Like an avalanche, House after House followed, until almost all the mail-clad might of the MiddleNorth cantered out to greet their foe. “There!” footmen on the line would cry, glimpsing the Red Lion of Saubon or the Black Stag of Gothyelk and his sons. From a trot the massive warhorses were urged to a slow gallop. Nesting thrushes took flight, burst slapping into the sky. Everything became breath and iron, the rumble of brothers before, behind, and to the side. Then, like a cloud of locusts, arrows swept among them. There was a hellish racket punctuated by screaming horses and astonished shouts. Warhorses toppled and thrashed, yanking knights to the ground, breaking backs, crushing legs. Then the madness fell away. Once again it was the pure thunder of the charge. The strange camaraderie of men bent to a single, fatal purpose. Hummocks, scrub, and the bones of the Vulgar Holy War’s dead rushed beneath. The wind bled through chain links, tousled Thunyeri braids and Tydonni crests. Bright banners slapped against the sky. The heathen, wicked and foul, drew closer, ever closer. One last storm of arrows, these ones almost horizontal to the ground, punching against shield and armour. Some were struck from their saddles. Tongue tips were bitten off in the concussion of the fall. The unhorsed arched across the turf, screamed and swatted at the sky. Wounded mounts danced in frothing circles nearby. The rest thundered on, over grasses, through patches of blooming milkwort waving in the wind. They couched their lances, twenty thousand men draped in great mail hauberks over thick felt, with coifs across their faces and helms that swept down to their cheeks, riding chargers caparisoned in mail or iron plates. The fear dissolved into drunken speed, into the momentum, became so mingled with exhilaration as to be indistinguishable from it. They were addicted to the charge, the Men of the Tusk. Everything focused into the glittering tip of a lance. The target nearer, nearer … The rumble of hooves and drums drowned their kinsmen’s song. They crashed through a thin screen of sumac … Saw eyes whiten in sudden terror. Then impact. The jarring splinter of wood as lances speared through shield, through armour. Suddenly the ground became still and solid beneath them, and the air rang with wails and shouts. Hands drew sword and axe. Everywhere figures grappled and hacked. Horses reared. Blades pitched blood into the sky. And the Kianene fell, undone by their ferocity, crumpling beneath northern hands, dying beneath pale faces and merciless blue eyes. The heathen recoiled from the slaughter—and fled
KINO

>>21816518
Purple prose shit

>>21815166
This is the prologue.

>>21814868
Bakker does that because he wants you to be horrified. Violence is sexualized in modern culture and so he uses that.

The whole "Golden Path," questioning of utilitarianism doesn't work if you can just shrug off the evil. This was a major failure with later Dune books. Saying billions died off camera doesn't elicit a response.

Bakker wants you to think about where utilitarianism begins to break down and, if Hell is real, what it means for what good actions are in this world (e.g. should you destroy all/most life to save them from damnation?)

>>21816518
Absolute kino.

>>21814930
SA does have Patristic theology as a major undercurrent.

>>21817127

>>21817149
The Ordeal reaches the Intrinsic Gate. Skethula guards the passage.

>>21814868
someone needs to post the poopy faggot scene to shut this retard down once and for all

>>21817166
Does it trouble you?

>>21817149
This quote is simply wrong taken literally. You can't see the limits of seeing. You can know the limits of seeing. This is why we can't know the limits of knowing. This might sound like it's splitting hairs but it's really not, unless he is just using "to see" equivocally.

>>21817174

>>21816518
dude's names are absolutely retarded, tolkien's worked because he was an autist that wrote a language. bakker reads like any other dipstick mashing together letters

>>21816518
Literally how am I supposed to pronounce these names?

>>21817099
Billions died directly after the first Dune book in Paul's jihad, detailed in Messiah, not just in the later books. You see how it wears Paul down, and how he ultimately rejects the Golden Path because of it. This leaves Leto to take up the mantle and because of his ancestral memories and knowledge of the dangers of prescience, he successfully leads humanity down the Golden Path and averts Arafel, or, the destruction of the entire species. It wasn't really a question. If anyone questioned it, it was Paul. Leto didn't, and he succeeded.

>>21817166

>>21817516

>>21817516
>>21817523
Yeah, that’s about what I thought this book might be. Removing this trash from my tdl.

>>21816518
>>21817516
>>21817523
Could you post an excerpt about a magical battle, or magic being used in general? I think a real test of prose for fantasy novels is when they have magic and its written poorly. I like how Erikson handles it a lot.

Anyway, reads like Melville and Homer had a baby so read the Iliad and Odyssey, and everything by Melville. I think Milton and Shelley have a similar feel with the use of similes and vast powers and fighting.

>>21817516
>>21817523
What possesses a man to write a scene about smearing shit around the floor with your bare toes?

>>21817955
I think Bakker is actually just insane.

>>21817955
Is it really that grizzly of a thought, that someone in a jail would use feces to make a point?

>>21818489
First of all it is bizarre to assert that years of imprisonment (I assume medieval because fantasy) would strap your frame with luxurious muscle. Exercise (warring against iron restraints) is the least important thing when it comes to building and maintaining muscle. The more important things are sleep and nutrition. He's probably not getting fed very well and I can't imagine he sleeps very well in a medieval dungeon cell either. So the weird fixation on a naked dude's muscles is just gay.
Second of all, there are much more eloquent ways to convey the idea of unconstrained freedom than literally taking a shit and smearing it around the floor with your bare toes. Perhaps I am missing context, but I fail to see why this could not have been demonstrated another way. It is disgusting for the sake of being disgusting. Yes, it is fucking grizzly, and the fact that you don't think it is fucking grizzly is concerning. And this is coming from someone who believes that art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. Maybe the people who enjoy reading about smearing shit around the floor with bare toes should just not exist. I don't feel I'm being unfair here, it is simply degenerate. This is the kind of shit you write at 3am drunk or high and then just delete later because you realize how fucking weird and retarded it is.
Lastly, he misspelled "breathes".

>>21818598
He's a prince who acts insane. The room he's locked in is extremely luxurious and he has slaves bring him food and shit. He just got locked up by daddy for being too fucked up.

>>21818598
lmao fair enough. I haven't read the books so I cant comment, just doesn't seem that far out of the norm from le epic grimdark style fantasy novels.

>>21818755
Grimdark is like, killing your enemies and feeling no remorse. Grasping the power because you believe you deserve to wield it. I do not think smearing shit around has ever been grimdark. I would not describe American Psycho as grimdark. To me, grimdark has adolescent connotations like Shadow the Hedgehog or some shit.

>>21818818
Is this edgy:
>“You are not a prophet! What are you?ʺ
>The transformation of his expression was subtle enough that someone standing three or more paces away would have missed it, but for Achamian it was enough to send him stumbling back in horror. As one, Kellhus’s every facial nuance went dead— utterly dead.
>Then, in a voice as cold as winter slate:
>“I am the Truth.”
>“Truth?” Achamian struggled to regain his composure, but the horror spilled through him, unlooping like entrails. He fought for his breath, to see past the glaring sky, to hear through the buzzing world. “Tru—”
>An iron grip around his throat. His head yanked back, his face thrust to the sun, like a doll hoisted to the sky. He hadn’t even seen Kellhus move!
>“Look,” the dead voice said. No strain. Nothing of this physical cruelty in his voice. Nothing.
>The sun speared Achamian’s eyes, seemed blinding even with them clenched shut.
>“Look,” without added emphasis, except for the finger which caressed his trachea in such a way that bile began to burn the back of his throat.
>“Can’t... see...”
>Abruptly he dropped face forward against the ground. Before he’d regained his knees, he’d begun his arcane muttering. He knew his capabilities. He knew he could destroy him still.
>But the voice would not relent.
>“Does this mean the sun is empty?”
>Achamian paused, turned his face from the grass and scree, squinted at the figure looming above.
>“Do you think,” a voice crackled across every possibility of hearing, “the God would be anything other than remote?”
>Achamian lowered his forehead to the biting weeds. Everything spinning, slumping...
>“Or do I lie, in that, since I am all souls, I choose the one that will turn the most hearts?”
>And tears answered. Don’t hit me... Please, Papa, please. Don’t—
>“Or should it speak of treachery that my purposes move beyond yours? Encompass yours?”

>>21818848
I have got more,
>They drifted like reavers come from the furnace, men hard-bitten by the trials of the sun, and they fell upon the villages and stormed the hillside forts and villas of northern Enathpaneah. Every structure they burned. Every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until none were left breathing. So too, every woman and child they found hidden they put to the sharp knife.
>There were no innocents. This was the secret they carried away from the desert.
>All were guilty.
>They wandered southward, scattered bands of wayfarers, come from the plains of death to harrow the land as they’d been harrowed, to deliver suffering as they’d suffered. The horrors of the desert were reflected in their ghastly eyes. The cruelty of blasted lands was written into their gaunt frames. And their swords were their judgement.
>Some three hundred thousand souls, perhaps three-fifths of them combatants, had marched under the Tusk into Khemema. Only one hundred thousand, almost all of them combatants, would leave. Despite these losses, with the exception of Palatine Detnammi, none of the Great had died. Using the Inrithi caste-nobles as compass points, Death had drawn circles, each one more narrow than the last, taking the slaves and the camp-followers, then the indentured caste-menial soldiers, and so on. Life had been rationed according to caste and station. Two hundred thousand corpses marked the Holy War’s march from the oasis of Subis to the frontier of Enathpaneah. Two hundred thousand dead, beat into black leather by the sun.
>For generations the Khirgwi would call their route saka’ilrait, “the Trail of Skulls.”
>The desert road had sharpened their souls into knives. The Men of the Tusk would lay the keel of another road, just as appalling, and far more furious.

>>21818891
The second series gets significantly edgier than this, but the passages are rather long and sometimes almost incomprehensible, so I'll only post them later,
>As the Warrior-Prophet had promised, the ancient capital of Xerash had capitulated of her own accord.
>As a gift, the embassy brought the twelve heads of those who had orchestrated the earlier closing of the gates, including that of Captain Hebarata, who had mortally offended the Warrior-Prophet. But the Lords of the Holy War were not appeased, and the Warrior-Prophet spoke harshly to the Gerothans, saying that some example had to be set, some sacrifice made, both to atone for and to warn against what had happened. As though justice were to be found in the clarity of proportion, he announced his Toll of Days, saying that since four days had passed since Gerotha had shut its gates against him, so four out of ten Gerothans had to forfeit their lives.
>“By dawn’s light tomorrow,” he decreed, “twenty thousand heads must be hung from the battlements of your city walls. If you do not do this, verily you shall all perish.”
>That night, while the Holy War celebrated, all Gerotha screamed. Dawn’s light found her walls slicked in blood, their entire circuit ornamented with severed heads, thousands of them, either bundled in fishing nets or strung through the jaw along hanging ropes of hemp. When the heads were counted, it was found that the Gerothans had exceeded their measure by 3,056.
>In all of Xerash, no city, town, or fortress would bar her gates against the Holy War again.

>>21818848
Just sounds like nonsense without context. But at least it is not revolting unlike the image of a man smearing shit around the floor with his bare toes. I really cannot stress this enough.
A man smearing shit around the floor with his bare does is disgusting.
>>21818891
Also unable to judge without proper context. Indiscriminate slaughter is not uncommon in history, and I don't know the history of these desert people. The Fremen from Dune for example, might be justified in striking back at a universe that showed them nothing but violence and oppression. However it is not detailed how they murder women and children in the text. I would say that something is grimdark if it appeals to adolescents and doesn't really try to comment on the suffering or spell out a greater truth with it.
>>21818902
I mean, it is a holy war after all. God in our bible straight up smites cities like Sodom just for being degenerate. It's not unusual to expect genocide when you are literally a warrior of God.
That being said, I don't think I would read this based on these excerpts. I can't put my finger on it, but it seems like it might be trying too hard. It could be grimdark.

>>21818953
>Just sounds like nonsense without context
That's the real difficulty here, I can't post the super-edgy parts because they're all incredibly long or hard to digest even when you have context
Granted, all that I have posted is also all just large scale stuff. I haven't posted any real chill or more calm moments.

>>21818848
>>21818891
>>21818902
>edgy
This is par for the course for dark fantasy stuff.

>>21814868
The thing about Bakker is that you get these flashes of what might have been an actually good story; a vivid description of a battle here, a dramatic scene that delivers there, and the conceit of the main character being tormented by glimpses into the mythic lore of the setting in his dreams is a compelling way to deliver exposition, and build up the threat of the ultimate enemy ... but its all just drowned out by mountains of shit.

You have to wade through vast quantities of pretentious pseudo-intellectual gibberish about the innermost nature of man and life and birth and death and so on and so forth for every sliver of good prose. And every chapter is like this. There's this constant breathless quality to Bakker's narration, like every moment has to be more powerful and profound and revelatory than the last, but of course after the thousandth earth-shattering emotional revelation the thousandth fucking character goes it all just feels impossibly naff. A good editor would have excised a hundred thousand words from these books and they would be infinitely better for it.

Here's a case in point for you, just came across this:

>Awe is the heart aimed at all horizons. Awe is how we belong to what beggars our conception. Awe redeems the vacancy of our imperium, lets us hope and hate as our fathers had hoped and hated, to strive for what the honest heart can comprehend. Awe dares souls to swell beyond the horizon, to shrug away the demented iterations, to believe in what cannot be seen. It calls on us to be what we were and what we remain: Men who can kill for the tale’s sake. So we might dwell in the husk of ancient certainty unto the end of our bloodless days. So we might tremble at beauty, numb to truth.

Jesus Christ what tedious shit. Maybe if this stuff was used sparingly at key moments it would build atmosphere, or at least be bearable, but it's every chapter, all the fucking time, to the point where you just roll your fucking eyes at it. Who does Bakker think he is that we want to read his overwrought ramblings? If he were actually an impressive person with some sort of remarkable life experiences we might trust him to know better than us. Astronauts, for example, aren't necessarily the best writers, but when they wax poetic about what it's like to see the earth from orbit, then fair enough, they have something to say. But the reason I'm reading a fantasy novel by some C-list failed academic is because I want to see his autism go into compelling world-building and medievalism, which, when he pulls his head out of his own arse every so often, he does rather well. But it's far too little far too late.

>>21816518
>Vulgar Holy War’s

aka People`s Crusade, but Bakky couldnt call it that, since his fantasy religion is an opaque meme, so the next most creative thing he could came up was using latin borrow word in a world without latin language. Curiously he still writes about Fanim (meme muslim) Jihads though.

>To redress his negligence, he’d raised a host worthy of his jihadic fathers: the survivors of Anwurat, some sixty thousand strong, under the peerless Cinganjehoi, who had set aside his enmity to his Padirajah;

>>21820422
That's a lot of words to say you got filtered bud

>>21821313
No but seriously are you going to argue that the passage I've cited is good prose. Imagine if some anon posted that asking for feedback. He'd be laughed off the board.

>>21821313
garbage posts like this are why I stopped browsing other boards. kill yourself immediately.

>>21820422
>Who does Bakker think he is that we want to read his overwrought ramblings?
from that except, frank herbert

>writes turgid prose
>enjoys literal shit
It always checks out, doesn't it.

>Awe is the heart aimed at all horizons.
If I read this whilst sitting at a streetside cafe, I would whip the book straight into oncoming traffic, dump my coffee on the sidewalk or nearest poodle/toy doggie in the lap of one of my fellow customers and leave.

>>21821470
Honestly he reminds me of Cormac McCarthy - and I mean that as an insult to both of them. Will never understand why the literary world decided that one man and one man alone could be forgiven for writing in ridiculous pseudo-biblical prose. I will never stop laughing at the line from the Road:

>in the darkness before the day yet was

It's honestly as bad as anything - and everything - in bakker

>>21821364
>>21821410
It is objectively good prose when in context. Try reading the books. Once again, you were just filtered.

>>21821541
using the word objectively makes everyone around you think that you're an absolute faggot, in case you were unaware

>>21821724
You are coping, objectively.

>>21821541
If you genuinely think that's good prose then there's no hope for you anon. I'm sorry. I've read every single book. Just finished TUC today, so you haven't got me there. Like I said, there's some good stuff in those books, buried very, very deep under a mountain of cringe tryhard pseudoprofundity.

>>21821752
>Just finished TUC today
Sure buddy. Of all the days today is the day you just finished the last book. Ok LMAO

>>21821766
what an insufferable person you must be to know

>>21814930
>Bakker is in fact one of the most Christpilling
He writes queer fantasy, the fuck are you on about?

>>21821766
Well ... yes, that's why I came to /lit/ to see if anyone was talking about it. That's why I happened across that passage in the first place. I don't just have piles of bakker quotes saved on my computer.

>>21821792
Jesus christ, you don't write shit like this unless you lust after men.

>>21821792
Thats obviously written to be disgusting and horrifying though.

>>21821801
Very convenient you came when you were finishing the last book (not before) and exactly when there was a thread about Bakker! Very convenient indeed.

>>21821818
Faggots are still jerking off to it. There's a reason why people usually just skip to the part where the guy gets killed.

>>21821831
Bakker gets talked about all the time on /lit/. You really think its so conspiratorial? Assume I was making it up, though, are you still going to defend his prose?

>>21818694
Sounds like the average royal to me. Why are people itt seething so much over a fair portrayal?

>>21821848
Bakker rarely gets dedicated threads, especially nowadays. Even on /sffg/ they don't talk about him as much anymore. I don't even remember the last thread that got actual traction.

>>21822121
Look are you really so determined to maintain that I haven't just finished the series. Why? Is that not a perfectly reasonable explanation for why i'm here talking about it? What point are you trying to make by calling me a liar about something so innocuous? Would it make a difference if I'd finished it a month ago? A year?

>>21821792
People actually read this fag shit?

>>21821831
OP here, this thread has been ongoing for a little over two days, so it’s not completely unreasonable to assume that anon just happened upon it. Also, the reason I posted this in the first place was to get some other opinions on Bakker’s work because I was originally considering reading the series (before I discovered the faggotry and cuck shit, of course).

>>21821925
>liberals don't believe in physiognomy until le heckin ugly and therefore stupid royals are involved

>>21823527
>I was originally considering reading the series (before I discovered the faggotry and cuck shit, of course).
How did you not know about the cuckoldry? It's the series main selling point.

>Dark things are happening in an apocalyptic dark fantasy book series?
>Wow this isn't heckin wholesome my guy
Maybe you should ask r/fantasy for recommendations

>>21817705
>As though walking across the back of roiling smoke and dust, a Schoolman drifted toward them. He slowed, floating the height of a tree-top above them. His black silk robe boiled in the mountain wind, its gold trim undulating like snakes in water. White light flashed from his eyes and mouth. A barrage of arrows winked into cinders against his spherical Wards. The ghost of a dragon’s head ponderously ascended from his hands. Cnaiür saw glassy scales and eyes like globes of bloody water.

>The majestic head bowed.

>He turned to Balait, crying, “Run!”

>The horned maw opened and spewed blinding flame.

>Teeth snapped. Skin blistered and sloughed. But Cnaiür felt nothing, only the warmth thrown by Balait’s burning shadow. There was a momentary shriek, the sound of bones and bowels exploding.

>Then the froth of sun-bright fire was gone. Bewildered, Cnaiür found himself in the centre of burnt ruin. Balait and the other Utemot still burned, sizzling like swine on the spit. The air smelt of ash and pork.

>All dead . . .

>A mighty shout braced the cacophony, and through screens of smoke and fleeing Scylvendi, he saw a bloodied tide of Nansur infantrymen rushing toward him across the slopes.

>A stranger’s voice whispered, “Measure is unceasing . . .”

>>21822121
He gets mentioned in sffg, but it's almost entirely shitposting and only a few anons genuinely like him.

>>21824077
Removing this trash from my tdl.

>>21824077
I really enjoyed Achamian's battle against the Scarlet Spires, it was a great reveal on how powerful exactly is a Mandate magician compared to the rest

>>21817705
>Could you post an excerpt about a magical battle, or magic being used in general?
Dazzling geometries leapt through the smoke, lines and parabolas of razor light, punching through wood and papyrus, shearing through stone. The Scarlet Schoolman screamed, tried to run. Achamian boiled him in his skin.
Darkness, save for glowering fires scattered through the ruin. Achamian could hear the other Schoolmen shouting to each other in shock and dismay. He could feel them scramble among the queues, hasten to assemble a Concert.
“Think on this, Eleäzaras! How many are you willing to sacrifice?”
Please. Don’t be a—
The roar of flame. The thunder of toppling shelves. Fire broke like foaming surf about his Wards. A blinding flash, illuminating the vast chamber from corner to corner. The crack of thunder. Achamian stumbled to his knees. His Wards groaned in his thoughts.
He struck back with Inference and Abstraction. He was a Mandate Schoolman, a Gnostic Sorcerer-of-the-Rank, a War-Cant Master. He was as a mask held before the sun. And his voice slapped the distances into char and ruin.
The hoarded knowledge of the Sareots was blasted and burned. Convections whipped pages into fiery cyclones. Like leathery moths, books spiralled into the debris. Dragon’s fire cascaded between the surviving shelves. Lightning spidered the air, crackled across his defences. The last queues fell, and across the ruin Achamian glimpsed his assailants: seven of them, like silk-scarlet dancers in a field of funeral pyres: the Schoolmen of the Scarlet Spires.
The glimpse of tempests disgorging bolts of blinding white. The heads of phantom dragons dipping and belching fire. The sweep of burning sparrows. The Great Analogies, shining and ponderous, crashing and thundering about his Wards. And through them, the Abstractions, glittering and instantaneous …
The Seventh Quyan Theorem. The Ellipses of Thosolankis … He yelled out the impossible words.
The leftmost Scarlet Schoolman screamed. The ghostly ramparts about him crumbled beneath an arcana of encircling lines. The Library walls behind him exploded outward, and he was puffed like paper into the evening sky.
For a moment, Achamian abandoned the Cants, began singing to save his Wards.
Cataracts of hellfire. The floor failed. Great ceilings of stone clapped about him like angry palms to prayer. He fell through fire and rolling, megalithic ruin. But still he sang.
He was a Scion of Seswatha, a Disciple of Noshainrau the White. He was the slayer of Skafra, mightiest of the Wracu. He had pitched his song against the dread heights of Golgotterath. He had stood proud and impenitent before Mog-Pharau himself …
Jarring impact. Different footing, like the pitched deck of a ship. Shrugging slabs and heaped ruin away, tossing thundering stone into sky. Plunging through meaning after dark meaning, the hard matter of the world collapsing, falling away like lover’s clothing, all in answer to his singing song.

>>21817705
>The sky cracked. Iros shuddered. The impossible sun tipped and stumbled. Plumes of ejecta exploded from points along the mountain’s perimeter, scarcely visible for the Diurnal’s encompassing glare. The mound that had been Nogaral shrugged then slumped into its contradiction. It was as if a dome of cloth had been pressed into a dimple. Summit became basin. Illumination became shadow. The mountain had been rotten with Viri, its innumerable ways fractured by the cataclysmic impact of the Ark thousands of years before. The underworld mansion imploded, collapsed inward and downward, tier upon tier, hall upon hall, undone by this final indignity. This last outrage.

>The Man and the Inchoroi toppled with it. Though suspended, they remained bound to the earth, and as with all drastic changes of circumstance, the meaning of their sorcery ceased to be. Only Aurang’s wings saved them. The Inchoroi seized the Man from kicking emptiness, bore him up beyond the Diurnal blue into the truth that was cold and night.

>They set foot upon the depression’s edge. The Day Lantern painted a dishevelled landscape, drawing their shadows into the darkness of the great concavity below. The earth still shivered, resounded with hidden percussions, knocking dust into smoky halos about the debris.

>Shaeönanra laughed in the crazed, marvelling way of children who find their destruction multiplied beyond belief. Once again, he succumbed to the sacrilege of Fate, he who walked ways invisible to the Gods. He exulted at this Sign, rejoiced that his hated foe would have a pit and not a barrow to memorialize his fall. And as the echos trailed into cavernous thunder, he began singing, as a true Long-boned Son of Umerau should,

>Your pride lies shattered with your shield,
>Your wrath curls bleeding upon the field,
>Now you linger in my shade weeping,
>Mourning an honour that is my keeping,
>Praying for children who are mine to enslave,
>Beseeching lovers who are mine to deprave.

>So the Archidemu Mangaeccu intoned: a paean for his vanquished enemy, a lament that was at once a psalm to his own glory–and the might of their Holy Consult.
>For nothing mattered apart from what they had seen. Nothing.

>They coupled on the smoking slopes, Man and Inchoroi, their silhouettes entangled, arching against a skewed, perpetually setting sun. They grunted for wonder, wheezed with ecstasy. They gazed in delirium, cried out across the great bowl of ruin, over flames arrayed in descending echelons, like teeth growing out a shark’s throat.

>And daylight Stained everything, a false pocket of sun in the night.
>The infinite night.

>>21824190
The thing is, after the hundredth magical battle his descriptions, however vivid, become increasingly uninteresting. By the time you reach the climactic battle at the last book you're bored, because you've already trawled through hundreds of pages describing the ravening, teeming swarms of sranc blotting out the horizon etc. etc., so when it happens - again - it can't help but be underwhelming. Oh no, what could the enemy have in store - could it be - more sranc?

>>21824021
>gay rape and shitplay happening in a dark fantasy book series
At a certain point you have to wonder exactly whose "dark fantasy" it is. The author's, or the reader's? Maybe even a Deep Dark Fantasy.

>>21820402
As someone who read every single book, I have to agree. There are some genuinely cool concepts, the lore and worldbuilding is neat, and Bakker has the general gist of how to build a compelling story down. There are some great characters. But his NEED to spew poorly written "philosophical" nonsense bogs everything down so fucking much.

>>21821792
>the stench of feces and sizzling lamb

Whether or not you are man enough to stomach the content, you must admit the prose itself is vivid and compelling.

>>21824550
It has its moments, but for the most point it's overwrought to the point of silliness, and repetitive. Past a certain point you realise that every major battle, every magical confrontation, is described in the exact same way. I got so tired of reading one breathless, hyperbolic description of just how many scranc there were after another.

Bakker tried to ape Tolkien archaicism's with somewhat of Herbert dialogue.

However his sentances are too long winded, and the philosophical ideas are presented in haphazard and jumbled way. Like a first year student in philosophy trying to summarize Thomas Aquinas.

I think if you are looking for the middle-ground beatween poetic sci-fi/fantasy then I think Frank Herbert would be the perfect golden mean or middle-ground. With Tolkien and Wolf being on the totally seperate ends , with one having a normal poetic epic narrative and Gene Wolfe being the subversion of that. Bakker totally loses it and comes out tone deaf with edgy descriptions and the Tolkienisms.

>>21816518
Tolkien’s charge of the rohirrim made a stronger impression without being so insufferably purple and drawn-out

>>21814965
That’s…spot on.

>>21817099
Or he is a closet homosexual.

Bakker defenders in denial

>>21824657
Bakker is obviously way smarter than Herbert.

>>21817516
>>21817523
>it’s Dune meets Lord of the Rings!

>>21821541
>objectively

2/10 bait anon

>>21824777

>>21824205
>nogaral
>viri
>inchoroi
>aurang
>shaeonanra
i hate this guys made up words

>>21823834
It's too bad that the real epick cuckery is too long to be posted here. My favorite one was when a guy in the second series got cucked by another, so he cucked him back and the other guy tried to kill himself over it. It was hilarious.

>>21824172
Love every moment that Achamian cuts loose.
[spoilers] I just finished Thousandfold Thought and I don't understand what happened to Achamian, he was abducted by the demon sent by Iyeokus but then he just wakes up in some random house like a month later. What gives? Also very sad we don't get to see Kellhus talk to his inner Seswatha [/spoilers]

>>21824986
>Also very sad we don't get to see Kellhus talk to his inner Seswatha
I can't remember well enough to answer your first question, but I'm fairly sure Kellhus doesn't get the dreams in the first place.

>>21824205
Bakker is so fucking good.

>>21824777
name the book that rivals god emperor

>>21824657
>>21824657
>archaicism’s
>sentances
>beatween
>seperate
Opinion discarded. You must have finished high school English 101 to post here.

>>21824886
I honestly like them because they sound so foreign and strange, like something not of this earth. But it’s clear there’s a lot of Babylonian/Sumerian influence on his conlangs.

>>21824901
>100 pages into first apocalypse book
>the love of one of pov character is literally selling her body while he watched her do so. she's standing on her balcony welcoming him back home, as she's fresh from the downdicking
>their big love story is actually pov character going after (but never finding) a sex customer that hurt the girl.
Dropped it after that and never looked back. Don't know why a few select fags think this is good.

>>21826357
>Masculinity so fragile he can't hear about other people's fucked up relationships without getting upset.

I mean ,it's not like it's unrealistic. Girls in porn and whores often have BFs.

He can't legally marry so it's a illicit affair on more levels, and he is a spy so she can't rely on him.

>>21824986
I think something weird is going on with time and circularity in the world. In many ways, Akka is Seswstha. The actual Seswstha stories make no sense. He fights no the No God over and over, losing most of the time, but somehow appearing again. There is even a memory where he is captured by the Consult and nailed to a wall of dying men, which seems like it should be the end.

Akka's dream changes at the end because the No God will come back.

There is a weird relationship with the Outside, where magic and the Gods come from that is explained way more in the second series. There is also a huge amount of similarity between the identity of the No God, revealed very late, and the identity of the original No God. It's like time is stuck in a loop sort of.

Also, the Ciphrang demons and gods appear to be humans, or collections of human souls, so overwhelmed by their hunger that their untethered subjective side becomes demonic. They rule over a hell, torturing the damned, but it is as much a hell for them because they are never satisfied. But they also exist outside time, so people who become Ciphrang in the future are already there now.

IDK, you have to read the later ones to get the full picture.

The end is very open to interpretation, but it is more of an ending than the end of the first series.

>>21820422
>If he were actually an impressive person with some sort of remarkable life experiences we might trust him to know better than us
LMAO
What a fucking retard

>>21826357
One of the main characters, a mage, is a cuck.
But you are a supposed to feel pity from him.
Is not like his cuckoldry is shown as something good.

>>21824077
>>21824190
>>21824205
Thanks!

>>21827302
Is a common pet theory, almost already a proven canon theory, that the reason why the No-god is invisible is because he trascend times and he already "won" against the gods.

Something that I saw never discussed and is my personal pet theory is that the reason why the gods are so deranged and have such a "hunger" for the soul of their followers is also because the No-God / Inchorois won.

Is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Inchoroi want to seal the outside because the gods are deranged hunger soul addicts so they create the No-God to seal the outside.
But we know that the gods trascend time.
So maybe the reason they are so hungry and crazy is precisely because (in human future) the Inchoroi succeded in sealing the outside and the gods can't consume souls.

>>21827497
Yeah, but I don't think it is a full loop, I think it's more like the Earth's orbit in two dimension when you add a time dimension, a helix. Partly this comes from the incredible variance in Seswstha stories when Esme reads the histories and partly because of the near repetitions in history, e.g., Annasurimbur's as both No God's, that the father of the presumed original No God also has the split personality of the second. I think a twist will be that the son, who is supposedly No God #1 actually conspired to have his father thrown in. He had caused if I recall. And this would mimic how Kellhus goes all the way across the world just to grab No God #2 and seemingly conspired to have him enter the carapace. Seswstha isn't just nailed to a wall in one vision, he is also waiting in the Ark as people are put into the carapace. How does he escape? It seems he is next. Maybe he didn't. Maybe the dreams are about a number of people, the way the memories pass to all the Gnostics.

But, I think something different happened this time because of Kellhus. Kellhus remarks early on about the strangeness of what comes after dictating what comes before. Later, he correctly makes a prophecy, shocking himself. Then he picks a low probability path that should kill him, but lives. He also rips out his own/Serwe's heart and has those visions of the No God and later tells Proyas it comes to him in his sleep. I think the No God is essential to awakening the God of Gods, in a sort of Hegelian dialectical way, hence, the "Absolute."

Kellhus inexplicably can't kill Cnaiur and we get lots of signs that Cnaiur becomes Ajokli, potentially with Kellhus but maybe not.

I think more likely is that Kellhus is in the other head at the end of the story and woke the No God on purpose (Kel being there at the end to become NG2 is terrible writing otherwise).

I think Kellhus might also be in the No God. We see in book 3 that sorcery can be used to let one person possess another, when Esme is possessed. Would Kel really have killed his father like that? Maybe, but he also knew the Dûnyain wanted him, so that seems like a dumb move. I think its possible Kellhus jumps to his son why Ajokli takes control of him. It doesn't seem like Ajokli talking for much of the Golden Room scene, there is a huge tone shift when he arrives and he begins to speak very differently. I think he shows when he can because Kellhus is taking over his son so he can glass himself.

This makes the No God's speech at the end make way more sense. It doesn't sound like Kel, but his father. Why did he do this? We won't know unless Bakker writes the end. I think he is trying to get rid of the cycle and let humanity be free from this destiny. Freedom is what Hegel is all about after all, and all the Dûnyain were about.

>>21824077
>>21824190
>>21824205
It really does read like the Iliad in a few spots, the use of similes is great i never see that in modern fantasy novels anymore.
>Pallas Athene granted strength and daring, that he might be conspicuous
>among all the Argives and win the glory of valour.
>She made weariless fire blaze from his shield and helmet
>like that star of the waning summer who beyond all stars
>rises bathed in the ocean stream to glitter in brilliance

>Rank and file
>streamed behind and rushed like swarms of bees
>pouring out of a rocky hollow, burst on endless burst,
>bunched in clusters seething over the first spring blooms,
>dark hordes swirling into the air, this way, that way –
>so the many armed platoons from the ships and tents
>came marching on, close-file, along the deep wide beach
>to crowd the meeting grounds.

>So he commanded
>and the armies gave a deep resounding roar like waves
>crashing against a cliff when the South Wind whips it,
>bearing down, some craggy headland jutting out to sea –
>the waves will never leave it in peace, thrashed by gales
>that hit from every quarter, breakers left and right.

>depiction = approval
14 y.o. 105 IQ /pol/tards have ruined this board

>>21827273
realism =/= good
disliking homosexual cuck shit =/= fragile masculinity

>>21816518
>the God
>Athjeari
I cant read anything with names this fucking stupid

>>21820873
If you think Bakker was anything but deliberate with his copying of the First Crusade, you're retarded. He wasn't trying to hide it. That you think you're clever for seeing the intentionally obvious parallels between the two crusades is max cringe.

>>21817705
>Just then, light flared across the Citadel. A crack boomed over the city, like thunder rising out from the ground. A chorus of unsettling disharmonies reverberated in its wake. More flashes of light, and Kellhus saw sheets of masonry crash down the Citadel’s foundations. Debris tumbled down the hillside.
Hanging in the air, the sorcerers of the Scarlet Spires had formed a great semicircle about the Citadel’s immense barbican. Through a dark hail of arrows, glittering fire washed over the turrets, and even from this distance Kellhus could see burning Fanim leap into the baileys. Lightning leapt from phantom clouds, exploding stonework and limbs alike. Flocks of incandescent sparrows swarmed over the battlements, plummeting into face after howling face.

>>21825771
to me, they break up the prose in a way that makes a nice sentence sound ugly. reading these sentences out loud, they dont flow.

>Winded, [Martemus] watched the first of Conphas’s assassins stride up behind Prince Kellhus, raise his short-sword...
>There was an impossible moment—a sharp intake of breath.
>The Prophet simply turned and caught the descending blade between his thumb and forefinger. “No,” he said, then swept around, knocking the man to the turf with an unbelievable kick. Somehow the assassin’s sword found its way into his left hand. Still crouched, the Prophet drove it down through the assassin’s throat, nailing him to the turf.
>A mere heartbeat had passed.
>The second Nansur assassin rushed forward, striking. Another kick from a crouch, and the man’s head snapped backward, his blade flew from senseless fingers. He slumped to the earth like a cast-off robe—obviously dead.
>The Zeumi sword-dancer lowered his great tulwar and laughed. “A civilized man,” he said, his voice deep.
>Without warning, he sent the tulwar whooshing through the air around him. Sunlight flashed as though from the silvered spokes of a chariot wheel.
>Now standing, the Prophet drew his strange, long-pommelled sword from his shoulder sheath. Holding it in his right hand, he lowered its tip to the ground before his booted feet. He flicked a clot of dirt into the sword-dancer’s eyes. The sword-dancer stumbled back, cursing. The Prophet lunged, buried his sword point deep into the assassin’s palate. He guided the towering corpse to the earth.
>He stood alone against a vista of strife and woe, his beard and hair boiling in the wind. He turned to Martemus, stepped over the sword-dancer’s body...
what would you do in this situation?

>>21831199
This dood really killed someone with one (1) kick while crouching? He's superman?

The prose seems so kino but I can't get past the stupid fucking names

Conphas egotism and grandiosity was honestly awesome to read and I feel it's the most vivid prose in the whole of the first book.

>>21831311
Ngmi

>>21831262
He's a product of 2000 years of genetic engineering!

>>21831369
You're probably right but don't tell me you enjoy his names. I have a genuine hard time remembering names as it is, I've got absolutely no hope with those IKEA furniture sounding niggas

>>21831343
Yeah. He starts to actually make more sense after the rape (you know the one) and his response to it. He's a narcissist sociopath whose worst nightmare is to Dûnyain, who can be all he wishes to be but then don't even enjoy it.

>>21831343
His mental breakdown is the best part.

>>21832464
>I remember nothing. When I woke up there was blood... and shit.

>>21821792
lmao the state of modern fantasy

>>21831491
If it means anything to you, 99% of the unpronounceable names posted in this thread are one-off characters that die in the sentence they're brought up homer style. Almost every name in >>21816518 that's hard to pronounce is a one-off. More important recurring characters have easy names

>>21816948
Uhhh. hahaha. This is real? Those are the first paragraphs meant to hook a reader into his book? This isn't a joke right?

>>21835105
If you're not an illiterate normie who only experiences stories through anime and videogames there's nothing wrong with that opening.

>>21835511
The worst part about the opening is the absolutely horrendous naming for everything. Some of them look like he fucking mashed the right side of a norwegian keyboard and called it a day. The vizier shitting himself to death is also cringe.

>>21835862
Literally who cares about the names lol

>>21831199
>Heh, it's been awhile since I had to use more than 1% of my power.
>I guess it's ok if I cut loose just this once.
>Unsheathes sword from fucking shoulder scabbard.
>Teleports behind u
>Kills u B4 u r ded
>Heh...
>Thanks for the fun
>Flicks blood off sword completely with one flick and arm is long enough to sheathe sword again into shoulder scabbard with perfect coordination and not even looking
>Turns 360 degrees and starts walking away
>Nothing personable
This is terrible even by Chinese cartoon standards. Anons itt actually read this guy?

>>21836005
It break suspension of disbelief. When I see a name like áéíóúý all I'm thinking about is some dumb american sitting at a keyboard thinking
>yo bro this totally sounds like foreign n shit
instead of being immersed in the setting

>>21814868
try between two fires

>>21836137
That's a (You) problem.

This thread is kino and I'm gonna buy the books, thanks anons. The magic and combat scenes were what worried me the most, since if those aren't good it'll never hook me.

>>21835094
Hmm maybe I'll give it a go then, I'm actually just finishing up with the Odyssey (Fagles translation) so maybe I'll enjoy them. The fight scenes do sound kino

>>21824657
>CTRL + F "Wolfe"
>only 1 result
Jimmies rustled

>>21816948
>here's a big fat autistic lore dump about people you know nothing about and don't care about in a conflict you know nothing about and don't care about all dying from some shit you know nothing about and don't care about, oh and their names are all retarded so you will forget them all as soon as you turn the page
fucking horrendous

>>21814868
I actually liked Bakker more than Wolfe, but anon honestly Wolfe has much better prose. Bakker is good because he has original, cool and interesting shit without going quite full anime, not because of his command of the language, which is fine when he literally steals from classics and eh for the rest of the time.

>>21816948
I read the entire series, and actually I don't understand the literal first passage.
>"One cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten"
What does Bakker refer to here? Definitely not the plague that nearly wiped out the Anasurimbor line. Not Ishual itself, since No-God needs not to raise walls. Not the No-God or Apocalypse, either. Consult makes the most sense, but they are not really forgotten either, and that would absolutely nothing to do with history of Ishual. Did he mean Dunyain, the world being helpless against their method when it is unleashed? But Dunyain were not forgotten - no one knew about them in the first place in order to forget them.

In retrospect it feels like a cool-sounding line for the sake of a cool-sounding line.

>>21837706
>What does Bakker refer to here?
>>Ishual was the secret refuge
>>no one could besiege a secret

Literally the entire theme of the whole series: ignorance (and context-dependence) guide your actions, your thoughts are not your own, the 'darkness' comes before.

>>21837706
>Not Ishual itself
The ignorance that the Ishual as a secret represents. An unaccounted factor.

>>21836137
>some dumb american
Jokes on you, the author is Canadian.

>>21821792
This is supposed to disgust the first time reader, not be pornographic.

The experienced rereader will be less affected because they know it is not one man manipulating another, but simply moments of the Thousandfold Thought, and that it is the thought that becomes real and dictates the shadows on the cave wall. The Thought is substance, the men merely accidents.

>>21832464
Some lessons have to be taught.

>>21837706
>I read the entire series, and actually I don't understand the literal first passage
>But Dunyain were not forgotten - no one knew about them
According to Plato's philosophy, knowing something is simply unforgetting what you always already knew.
Add to that, that in Earwa the future determines the past.

>>21831410
nice dune reference

>>21838124
So America 2: less important edition

>>21816518
>>21816948
Phew, thank you. I was already headed to a download site thinking this would actually be good. I was imagining something on the level of Samuel R. Delany going off those early comments.
Fantasy is such garbage.

>>21838451
Bakker is kino
You're a pleb if you don't understand the mastery of his prose
>They jostled before him, now as eager to avoid as to close with him. “Where are your mighty warriors?” Cnaiür screamed. “Show me your mighty warriors!” His limbs fevered by all-conquering hatred, he cut them down, weak and strong alike, fighting like one mad with heartbreak, hacking shields until arms were broken, pounding figures until they stumbled and spouted plumes of blood. The advancing ranks engulfed them, but still Cnaiür and his Utemot killed and killed, until the turf beneath their feet became bloody muck, treacherous with corpses. The Nansur relented, scrambled back several paces, gaping at the Utemot chieftain. Sheathing his broadsword, Cnaiür vaulted the bodies heaped before him. He caught a wounded straggler by the throat, crushed his windpipe. Roaring, he heaved the thrashing man above his head. “I am the reaver!” he cried. “The measure of all men!” He sent the body crashing at their feet. “Is there no cock among you?” He spat, then laughed at their astonished silence. “All cunts, then.” He shook the blood from his mane, raised his broadsword anew. Panicked shouts erupted among the Nansur. Several threw themselves against the men packed behind, mad to escape his deranged aspect. Then rumbling hoofs breached the din of the greater battle, and all heads turned. More Utemot horsemen exploded into their midst, impaling some Nansur on long lances, trampling others. There was a brief moment of pitched melee, and Cnaiür hammered down two more, his sword now blunted to an edged iron pipe. Then the men of the Nasueret Column were fleeing, casting away weapons and shields as they ran. Cnaiür and his kinsmen found themselves alone, chests heaving, blood streaming from unstaunched wounds. “Ayaaah!” they cried as cohort after wild cohort galloped by them. “War and worship!”

>>21824993
Not the dreams, when Achamian goes to teach Kellhus the gnosis he finds he can't even speak it and Kellhus puts him into a hypnotic trance so that Kellhus can 'talk to Seswatha'
I don't know if Kellhus actually talked to a Seswatha personality inside of Achamian or if he simply used hypnosis to overcome some subliminal conditioning inside Achamian. I was hoping at some point we'd get a Kellhus pov chapter where he thinks back on it but we only get like two Kellhus povs in that whole book and he doesn't think on it.

>>21814930
>Christpilling
he's an atheist feminist who thinks christuanity is evil

Daily reminder that Kant was fully retroactively refuted by Bakker.

For example, while Quine fatally weakened the synthetic/analytic distinction, it was Bakker who provided the proof that calcified dogma is not observably different from analytic fact using a combination of the philosophy of information and semiotics of abstraction, joining the logical systems of Floridi to the physics of messaging via Landauer's Principal and computational entropy. Incomputability, Krylov Complexity, Yao Entropy, have disasterous consequences for proving analytics that are not tautologies, and nowhere is this more apparent then in the Dunyain-Logos Paradigm, as viewed from the Absolute Judging Eye Vector, Whale Rape Gang Bang Hypothesis laid out in The Great Ordeal. Bakker brings philosophy from Kant to Quine full circle, unsublating both, so both can be resublated as an organic whole into the dynamics of whale-mother-cave-rape-as-logos, which provides proof of the incompleteness of Logos due to the incomputability problem. Turing would have been proud!

Note that Kant is also more seriously retroactively refuted vis-á-vis the transcendental aesthetic via the proof of Meat Fueled Murder Rape Orgy (where the inefficiency of the alien space nuke, and resultant high level of radiation released, reminiscent of primitive, WWII era nuclear weapons, results in the Scalded as a boipussy dynamical system, which, shows that even a simple system represented by a differential equation can, and will necissarily produce chaos if it reaches a phase of three in any cycle.) The result is that the faculties cannot be an anchor of anything, as strong variance driven by "initial" conditions invariably leads to chaos. Bakker symbolizes this using the stochastic forces of nuclear radiation, as from those quantum activity we still see the larger classical objects of emergence in the rape orgy.

This shows the teleology of rape, the Inchori Theory and defeats appeals to classical ethics as such.

Again, even more than retroactive refutation, which others have done, Bakker RETROACTIVELY SUBLATES Kant.

>>21838577
Post more magic. I want to see what the fight between these two was like.

>>21840198
Nemukus Mirshoa and his Kishyati had battled their way deep into the High Cwol ere the Felling of the Canted Horn. They pressed down shattered hallways, cleared reeking storage chambers, long barracks crowded with refuse and offal. All was grunting strain and threshing fury in the murk, notched swords beating down black iron cleavers. The Men knew nothing of what transpired under the sun, for Ursranc packed the gloomy halls, their ferocity waxing more violent with every cubit they surrendered. The contest possessed no clear front. The devastation wrought by the original Ciphrang assault had complicated the labyrinthine interior, linking levels with shattered ceilings and floors, mazing corridors with blasted walls. What was more, they encountered Ursranc of a different breed, more mannish in stature, far less given to frenzied demonstrations, more want to rely on skill and grim determination. These were the dreaded Inversi, palatials armed with swords looted from the crypts and reliquaries of Ishterebinth, decked in iron-scaled hauberks and bearing shields emblazoned with a golden tracery of upside-down flames. More and more the Sons of High Ainon found themselves battling foes as lethal as themselves—even moreso, given the Ursranc’s greater stamina. What had been a steady advance ground into vicious stalemate. Urdrûsû Marsalees, the once-obese Palatine of Kûtapileth, renowned for his mighty cudgel, fell to an Ursranc bearing an ensorcelled Cûnuroi blade, the famed Pitiril, which sliced through his shield as if it were paper. Grinar Halikimmû, Sacred Hewer, the famed caste-menial champion of the Sranc Pits, was likewise felled by an arcane relic of the ancient Cûno-Inchoroi Wars, immolated by Isiramûlis, the eldest of the Six Cinderswords known to be forged by Emilidis.

Death came swirling down.


The High Cwol was given over to screams and slaughter. The Men were driven relentlessly forward by the masses surging behind them, until they found themselves on the masticating front, straining cheek to jowl with the Ursranc, stabbing, grappling, killing and being killed. Ever at the fore, Mirshoa and his Kishyati kinsmen found themselves battling across the bottom of a well that had been smashed through five different floors. Melees of varying intensities knotted each of the floors exposed above, and the Kishyati, ghoulish for the white paint smeared across their faces, endured a continuous rain of projectiles. Mirshoa lost his right ear to an Inversi Captain after a block cast from above robbed him of both his balance and helm. The young man would have perished, had not a second block struck the creature as it lunged for the kill.

>>21840335
Nice stuff, thanks.

>>21837691
Literally filtered.

>>21838451
>tranime faggot
>dogshit opinion
woah i didn't expect that!

More actual sorcery:

Under the direction of the wounded Saubon, the longbowmen of Agmundr raked the heights of the inner wall, forcing the Enathpanean and Kianene archers to shelter behind crenellations. Someone raised the Mark of Agansanor, the Black Stag, upon one of the outer towers. A great shout was raised by the Inrithi encircling the heights.

Then came a light more blinding than the sun. Men cried out, pointing to mad, saffron-robed figures hanging between the towers of the black keep. Eyeless Cishaurim, each with two snakes wrapped about their throats.

Threads of unholy incandescence waved across the outer wall like ropes in water. Stone cracked beneath the flashing heat. Hauberks were welded to skin. The Tydonni crouched beneath their great tear-shaped shields, leaning against the light, shouting in horror and outrage before being swept away. The Agmundrmen fired vainly at the floating abominations. Teams of Chorae Crossbowmen watched bolt after bolt whistle wide because of the range.

The tall knights of Ce Tydonn were decimated. Many, seeing the hopelessness of their plight, brandished their longswords, howled curses until the end. Others ran. Those who could scrambled down the ladders. Several warriors leapt from the battlements, their beards and hair aflame. An unholy torrent consumed Gothyelk’s Standard.

Then the lights flickered out.

For a moment all was silent save for those left screaming upon the heights. Then the Kianene upon the walls burst into cheers. They rushed across the stolen summits, cast those Tydonni still living from the wall, including Gothyelk’s youngest son, Gurnyau. Mad with grief, the old Earl had to be dragged away.

The Men of the Tusk withdrew in turmoil. Riders were dispatched, charged with finding the Scarlet Spires, who’d yet to enter Caraskand. They bore but one message: “Cishaurim defend the Citadel of the Dog.”

>>21840852
>coping so hard about being autistically attached to a tranime website
I'm truly sorry for you

Friendly reminder for all anons ITT that:
1. B*kker's books are unironical pulp trash
2. 99% of the posts mentioning him and his books are made by the same autist (probably B*kker himself) who also spams this garbage on /a/, /co/, /pol/, and /g/
Don't fall for this cringe meme please

>>21842211
Anagogic sorcery and the Phsuke = like being in the middle ages with a 30ft flame thrower, artillery, firing lightning like a gunshot

Gnostic sorcery = like having a modern jet fighter with 500lb JDAMs, laser interceptors, modern cluster bombs


Metagnostic 3+ meaning per utterance sorcery = blinking in and out of existence like Goku, shrugging off direct hits from advanced plasma weaponry that can shred starships, unshaped by nuclear weapons.

It's a shame it doesn't look like we will get the No God, at least soon, because it seems like we could have opponents both capable of welding metagnostic sorcery.

Do we know when the Consult finds and attacks the Dûnyain? How long have they been practicing sorcery? Seems like it could have been years, and Kellhus became unworldly after a few months. We only see one use it, but I would assume the others have it and can work it as well, plus they have access to better tutors, unless Seswstha told Kellhus important secrets when he met him by hypnotizing Akka.

Given the Inchori and Mikeritrig are groveling before and clearly scared shitless by the Dûnyain, it stands to reason that they outclass them by the same level as Kellhus, who can behead a 10,000 master of sorcery without a thought.

It would be cool to see a Dûnsult versus Most Holy Aspect Emperor and Warrior Prophet battle. I assume when Kellhus crushes the one with a mere gesture it is only because they are in the Topos of the Golden Room and he has allowed Ajokli to take over. I am pretty sure Ajokli manifests because Kellhus is possessing Kelmomas so he can have him go kill Kellhus's possessed body since it is pretty clear he intended to wake the No God and betray the Gods (he went through a lot of work to bring the No God to them).

>>21842263

I assume Kellhus is talking earlier in the scene because he begins to speak very differently as Ajokli takes control. But Kellhus doesn't fall for the Goad like the other Dûnyain. When he says he doesn't fear the Pit, Hell, because he goes there as hunter not as victim, I assume this is him still speaking. After all, we know he goes to the Outside, and he destroys two Ciphrang there (the Decipitants).

Gnostics don't know about the Outside, don't go there, but Cisharum do (the last one speaks of seeing the Granary). My guess is that Kellhus has mastered their magic as well. This is how he floats without the Mark and how he goes to the Outside. This is the magic of the God of Gods, who he mentions coming to him, but all we see is visions of Kellhus seeing the No God, who he tells his father speaks to him. I wonder if it's both and the two are deeply related, necessitating each other.

>>21842253
I’m not Bakker, I’ve just been searching for new (to me) and interesting fantasy series’ to occupy some of my downtime. But after reading through everyone’s posts, I’ve since dropped it from my wishlist.

>>21842343
I am Bakker.

Bakkerites, you know what to do. Find this man. Fill him, his friends, and family with your seed. Show him what he has forgotten.

You will read to him my words and he shall read them himself. He will imbibe them and become as tou, born of the same Thought.

If any many besmirch the honor of your Aspect Emperor and Most Holy Warrior Prophet ye shall punish him. If he repent he shalt yet live as one among us. But if he shalt blaspheme the name of Bakker, then he will pass into darkness.

Let no man insult Bakker around you lest you cut the eyes from his head just to let him gaze upon the mewling atrocity you have made of his face. He excruciations may yet purify him. If not, then he was already lost, fit only for rutting with to unleash the darkness of the seed whose surplus occludes the vision of the Logos.

>>21842228
Don't care. Didn't read. Go back to your tranime board.

>>21842942
Kek

>>21842974

>>21843023
Not on your tranime board.

really makes you... think, huh
can we remove this banner? it's triggering me

>>21814868
>Any books with prose better or on par with Bakker?
most published books.

>>21843041
Prove it.

>>21842263
>>21842211
Not clicking on spoilers but kino, thanks.

>>21843106
post an excerpt of Bakker's prose you think is good

>>21814965
Read Neuropath and this was my conclusion. Whole thing read like he really wanted the villain to fuck his self-insert MC but was too cowardly to commit

>>21843760
Plenty in this thread

>>21842942
Kek*2