I think the ending scene is very powerful and it make sense, however you don't know what comes after. :-) A more traditional way to end a book is to wrap up loose ends and give closure.
I will point out the largest sticking point for me in the series (though this applies more to teh genre than to this particular work): The roles of female characters. I get that the story is set in a land where women are whores or wives, but why? Why do so many fantasy novelists set up their worlds in such a way? This is a genre in which all rules go out the window, right? So why set up such a painfully traditional patriarchy.
Well, this is part of the reason I tend to prefer Science Fiction over Fantasy. When I think of the stereotypical "fantasy" novel, it tends to use a more primitive age as a setting, with all the dirt and sexism that that implies. If I was transported to a magical world I certainly would not want to be in one where I died from appendicitis or got drowned as a witch. On the other hand, I must admit I share your frustration. For example, why do both Sci Fi and Fantasy novels, including PoN, have so much horrible rape?
a lot of people today still have a hard time getting behind a strong female character.
For example, why do both Sci Fi and Fantasy novels, including PoN, have so much horrible rape?
Off the top of my head I can think of many fantasy books with rape, but I'm struggling to come up with many examples in science fiction. Care to mention any I can avoid?
For example, why do both Sci Fi and Fantasy novels, including PoN, have so much horrible rape?
Off the top of my head I can think of many fantasy books with rape, but I'm struggling to come up with many examples in science fiction. Care to mention any I can avoid?
Really? How many old pulp sci-fi stories are about saving beautiful women from being raped by evil aliens, monsters, or robots?
I finished the last book last night as well, and I have to say that the sexism does urk me a lot, but I found myself being able to look past it. It was the one thing that really nagged at me through the books, especially how they tease Esmi as being this really strong female character, and then constantly beat her back down.
So, now that it's been a while, have people continued the trend of recommending it to friends? It's interesting to observe how the meme of book-knowledge spreads through different groups on campuses. In recent months, it has been reintroduced to people at both RIT and the University of Rochester, and now new "crews" spend their hours talking about it. Perhaps later they will create podcasts and other media remarking on the book, and it will continue to spread?
I've only recommended the book to a few people. See, I'm home schooled, and as a result most of my friends are home schooled. Since most southern home school families fall somewhere on the spectrum of "conservative christian", many of them (or their parents) would be pretty offended by all the rape and murder going on. To make things worse, I can't convince most of the friends I'm not afraid of offending to read it, and the remaining few are way too busy to read it. I've had pretty much no discussion outside of the internet as a result.
I've managed to get one other friend to read it so far, and I'm waiting for her to finish the third book so that we can talk about the whole thing. I would ideally hope that I can get some of my fantasy-loving friends to read it too, but I think a couple of them might be too offended by all the sex. *crosses fingers*
That is Neuropath. It has been out for a year, but I guess they are doing a new hardcover, or it wasn't released in the U.S. It is currently available on amazon, so you don't have to wait if you don't want to.
That is Neuropath. It has been out for a year, but I guess they are doing a new hardcover, or it wasn't released in the U.S. It is currently available on amazon, so you don't have to wait if you don't want to.
I'll wait since I'm currently making my way through Anathem, and then I have Lessig's Remix to read before Judging Eye comes out (at least that's the hope.)
I got 268 pages into The Warrior Prophet and had to stop because my cat decided to pee on the bag that I had the book in, thus ruining the book. Of course he would wait until I can't afford to replace a book to do something like that. Grrr...
Also, I've reccommended it to lots of people, and my copy of The Darkness That Comes Before is currently out on loan.
I'm almost done with the books (will likely finish the last one this weekend) and as a rule I'm fairly impressed. The writing is phenomenal, the story is detailed without being too painful to sit through, the characters are very impressive and unique, and above all the philosophical insights woven throughout the story are meaningful to the fictional world as well as the real world. I seem to have had a similar problem as others, however.
this subject is just a pet peeve of mine.
I think that, at least in this particular case, the world was based heavily on a very specific time period in the real world. Humans, especially pre-modern humans, were rarely what we would considerprogressivein regard to gender equality. The fact that we have no example of a gender-neutral society like this is probably the (very sad) reason.
You can compose a fantasy world without having every single character be sexually depraved. At first while I was reading this I felt that Bakker may just be unable to write from a female perspective so he just took a cop-out and made them all typically submissive. As the books moved on I think we had more depth in Esmi specifically. She begins to ponder her own rape in a specifically moving and realistic way. In general though, the women in the book just seem to be methods of advancing the plot for Kellus and the Consult in sexual ways.
I'm still on the fence about whether Bakker did this out of some need to describe the world he created or out of some deficiency in his writing. I think I would be interested to read his other non-Fantasy book to see if it has similar issues.
I'm re-reading the first book again. It's really good as an audiobook, even though many of the pronunciations are different from those in my head.
The weirdest thing is that the pacing is REALLY different to how I remember. I thought that Kellhus meets Cnaiür right near the start, but I'm half way through and... not yet! And there's way more with the Emperor than I remember, considering he's not in the following books.
Comments
What have others observed?
And also it seems Bakker has another book coming out in March that isn't related to the Prince of Nothing. I have that pre-ordered as well.
It is currently available on amazon, so you don't have to wait if you don't want to.
Also, I've reccommended it to lots of people, and my copy of The Darkness That Comes Before is currently out on loan.
I'm still on the fence about whether Bakker did this out of some need to describe the world he created or out of some deficiency in his writing. I think I would be interested to read his other non-Fantasy book to see if it has similar issues.
The weirdest thing is that the pacing is REALLY different to how I remember. I thought that Kellhus meets Cnaiür right near the start, but I'm half way through and... not yet! And there's way more with the Emperor than I remember, considering he's not in the following books.