4.5/5 (9/10)

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This is my second encounter with Bakker's captivating dark fantasy, The Darkness That Comes Before. My initial read was close to its original publication date. I vividly recall it being one of the finest dark fantasy books I had come across at that time. The writing was engaging, the plot interesting, the world-building outstanding, and the characters unforgettable. The only drawback I noted was that the intricate nature of the world and characters required me to spend about 100 pages to fully understand them. I was certain it deserved a 5-star rating and was among the best dark fantasy books I'd ever read!

So, how did it fare more than a decade later, considering my extensive experience with numerous other dark fantasy stories, especially after the rise of the grimdark fantasy subgenre? Remarkably well! It still ranks among my all-time favorite dark fantasy books. Bakker's writing remains highly engaging, and the depth of the world-building and plot is still excellent. His characters may be difficult to like, but I was always drawn into their diverse story arcs. This second time around, I found the story a bit easier to get into in the early stages.

This is a complex, multi-POV fantasy set in the brutal world of Eärwa. For the first time in a long while, The Thousand Temples is unified under a powerful and mysterious new leader. This leader is threatening to call the faithful to arms for a Holy War. The Inrithi nations are fragmented, more accustomed to bickering among themselves for power than anything else. However, the leaders of various nations see an opportunity for glory and gain in the Holy War. Agents across the Inrithi nations and from multiple other factions in Eärwa rush to discover whether the Holy War's target will be the unclean sorcerers of the various lands or the powerful heathen nation of Kian. To make matters even more complicated, it seems that agents of the long-forgotten No-God might also be interested in the events! The story was complex, compelling, and filled with action and intrigue as the various factions vied to seize the Holy War and turn it to their own advantage.

Another major strength of this book was the characters. None of them were particularly likable, but all were interesting and had fascinating stories. Kellhus was one of the most memorable and unique characters I've encountered in my years of reading. The Dûnyain monk's ability to manipulate any situation to his advantage was both horrifying and captivating!

This was a dark story, not surprising given that many of the main characters were rather despicable and that the story and world resembled the Crusades in the medieval period, with the added excitement of magic and supernatural creatures. However, I didn't feel it was overly grim, as I find is often the case with modern grimdark stories. Bakker managed to temper the real horrors of his brutal world by not dwelling on the brutality and horror. Much of it was described in a detached way, making it more palatable for the reader.

This book rates highly for me, alongside Gardens of the Moon and Game of Thrones. Overall, I loved it, and it remains one of the best dark fantasy stories I've read. Rating: 5 stars.

Audio Note: I thought David DeVries did a good job with the audiobook. His character voices were decent, and he handled the voice acting well.

How should I review this book? Let me first address those who reviewed this book and thought the author was like a "Tyranothesaurus Rex" due to his use of arrogant-sounding vocabulary words. I witnessed many people complaining about this, and I'm truly puzzled. Because the only words I didn't understand were the ones he created for the different sects, organizations, cults, or whatever. Are you people angry that Tolkien said Lothlorien instead of London? Bakker does not abuse his thesaurus at all.

That being said, the proper names he created can take some time to get used to, but there is a glossary in the back of the book which helps to explain things for the reader. I did enjoy this book and thought it was a pretty solid opening for a trilogy. However, those of you who do not have much tolerance or patience for the build-up of a story might not enjoy this one.

There are several major events that begin to unfold simultaneously, and they are clearly going to reach a climax in the latter books. There were also a few portions where I really wished the author would have provided more information. Overall, I rate this book 3.5 stars, but I'll be nice and round it up to 4.

Unsure what my final rating for this will be, but it's close to a five-star for sure.

My "issue" with it, if it can be called that, is the naming conventions and the sheer amount of names in this book.

While that's usually okay, my brain just refuses to log most of them into long-term memory.

This is especially true because the audiobook pronounces names in unexpected ways, like with a silent C at the beginning, making me initially assume they're new characters.

As a result, I definitely didn't grasp a significant portion of what was happening in the book.

There are entire characters whose names I saw many times, but I'm unsure of their roles.

A reread would really clarify this, now that I know what and who to focus on.

Other than that, the prose is so mesmerizing and Bakker has such thought-provoking or evocative word choices.

The characters I did latch onto were really interesting in unconventional ways, and Bakker constantly threw me for loops.

The setup for what's going on is crazy, and some scenes had me going "WTF WTF WTF."

I also think he writes good dialogue, although it does fall into that Malazan trap of everyone being a bit too philosophical.

I can forgive it, though.

There were times when the prose made it very hard for me to picture the scene, and I would reread several times without any idea of how to envision what was happening.

But that could be a skill issue on my part.

I don't think the book was as depraved as people make it out to be.

It's certainly dark, but not the abhorrent, detestable yuck fest I was led to believe.

However, I know there are another 6 books, so we'll see.

Overall, it's a solid introduction to the world that has me very intrigued to know more.