I found this to be far better than the first book. There really was vast improvement. Overal though the series is still just good not great. It doesn't live up to all the hype for me personally. ( )

There weren’t enough superlatives to describe the brilliance of R. Scott Bakker’s first volume in “The Prince of Nothing” trilogy, “The Darkness That Comes Before”. After such an astounding debut, I wondered if the second volume could match the intellectual depth and overall intensity of the first book. Well, “The Warrior-Prophet” more than lives up to the lofty standards set by the previous book, providing one of my favorite fantasy reading experiences ever.

Reading Bakker’s work is like being deliciously overwhelmed, caught in a stunning sea of nuances and detail that boggles the mind. It is akin to gazing at a great painting and finding yourself lost in the minute details for hours on end. It is the rare work where I find after finishing a paragraph, I pause to reflect on what I have read, digesting the various ideas and philosophical insights in the book. In that regard, “The Warrior-Prophet” requires active thinking when reading, coaxing the reader to confront and discuss these ideas Bakker presents, an aspect I greatly enjoyed.

The Holy War started by Maithanet, the Shriah of the Thousand Temples, continues its march southward to the sacred city of Shimeh. Immense and bloody battles ensue throughout the course of the book between the invading Inrithi factions and the heathen Fanim. Anasûrimbor Kellhus, a mysterious Prince, gradually asserts a greater influence on the Holy War by offering indispensable counsel to the Great Names administrating the war. Furthermore, Kellhus’ remarkably godlike actions and manner begin to transform him in the eyes of the Inrithi from a minor outlying figure into a larger-than-life prophet. But not everyone is pleased with Kellhus’ seemingly divine transformation and the power it brings him.

Drusas Achamian is a Mandate sorcerer traveling in company with Kellhus and their two consorts, Esmenet and Serwë. Tortured by apocalyptic dreams that he believes are prophetic, Achamian is convinced that Kellhus is necessary to the success of the Holy War and must be helped. But in assisting Kellhus, Drusas may have to sacrifice everything he has.

Bakker crafts a dark and profound tale filled with magnificent battles, glorious world-building, and an immense depth to his characters unseen in fantasy. Kellhus, who is unbelievably godlike in his abilities, is stunning. His penetrating intellect and manipulation of the other characters would come off as ludicrous in the hands of a lesser writer. But with Bakker, Kellhus is a dominating success.

The world-building is incredibly deep and innovative with a tremendously imagined historical background. There are some twists and turns, but the plot is mainly straightforward, concentrating on the massive battles of the Holy War. And it is in these war scenes that Bakker does some of his best work, presenting fantastically descriptive and bloody battles that rank up there with some of the best in fantasy.

Last Word:
“The Warrior-Prophet” is a stunner of a novel, a dark, delicious and deeply engaging masterpiece featuring an incredible amount of depth and painstaking detail. R. Scott Bakker’s “The Prince of Nothing” series is not just stupendous, it is becoming monumental. ( )

This is an ambitious book, one that is at times riveting and yet at other times frustrating. It has a dark tone, gritty and frequently ugly. Bakker has a dazzling inventiveness that reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Steven Erikson. The world building is impressive; Bakker seems to be pulling location after location, character after character, culture after of culture, political faction after political faction, out of a hat, and yet each feels interesting, unique, and apt. And Bakker describes these people, places and things in concise (despite this book's heft) and very effective descriptive language. The battle scenes have a wonderful immediacy, bringing to mind a ride on an emotional roller coaster of terror, exhaustion, confusion, and elation in turns.

The male lead characters, Kellhus, Achamian, and Cnaiur are intriguing and complex. They each have a bit of the tragic Greek hero in them. Kellhus is again a very ambitious character, one who becomes less sympathetic as the book progresses (indeed at times he almost becomes a bit of a caricature). And yet I found myself confident that he still has a chance for redemption. Bakker also does a nice job of building a large cast of colorful characters within the conflicting factions of the Holy War.

The female characters are less convincing. Serwe gets less focus here than she did in the first book, and when she does appear she seems to be little more than a symbol of woman as sexual object and/or dupe of man. Esmi also gets less screen time in this book. I found her character the least compelling of the main POVs in the first book, and if anything I found Esmi's actions to be less and less convincing as this book went along, leaving me with little empathy for her as it ends.

My biggest frustration with the book has to do with military strategy and tactics. Victory seems to be determined purely by where the author wants the plot to go. These are contests of will as opposed to contests of training, intelligence, leadership, logistics, communications, reconnaissance, etc. Generals seem to forget that they (or the other side) have sorcerers available much of the time, until it’s time for the battle scene to conclude cataclysmically. It made absolutely no sense strategically for the Fanim to fight the turning battle of part 2 of the book in the location and manner that they did. And Kellhus’ role in this same battle felt like something out of a comic book.

Still, this is an intriguing book. I’ll definitely be moving on to book 3. ( )

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