The Darkness That Comes Before

R Scott Bakker is a local boy.  London, Ontario that is.  I picked up this book, the first in a trilogy an age ago and became one of those books that languishes on the to read shelf for far too long.  I am glad I picked it up and read it, it is a good book, but it leaves a slightly bad taste in my mouth.

In short the book is heroic fantasy, world creation, an evil force threatens creation which means you need the forces of good right?  To step in and save it all.  But that is where I think the strength, and in a personal way, the weakness of this book lies. The cast of good has very leaden feet, so mush so that by the end of this first book you are left scratching your head as to who the villains are and who the hero's are.  That is the books strength, it keeps you wondering and the characters, strengths flaws and virtues draw you in.  Some aspects of the evil side of things are were it is too much for me.  He has truly horrendous horribly horrifying demons.  The stuff they do, the thoughts they think are just so evil and nasty that it made me feel like I needed a bath.

That part though is just me.  There are many things in life I do not need to have described, or to see on a news clip, to know they are there, and to understand their gravity.  I personally do not like to see it directly because my imagination is a powerful thing.  So maybe with this book it is my fault?  Who knows.

I can say though that the book is well written, it comes alive and some of the scenes described are fantastic. The characters are complex and fill out nicely though might be lacking in sympathy.

I am not sure about him yet.  I will read a few more and decide if the author is depraved or not.  If  I bump into him at the local convenience store I will hope he takes this criticism with a light heart.