For the final battle Bakker brings in everything that has come before into play. Under the sands of the final battleground are thousand year old catacombs that had housed the creatures of the first apocalypse. While the battle rages for the city above his head, Kellhus confronts his father below.
What is an apocalypse? Does the world have to physically be destroyed, or just redefined and rewritten? Is not every major shift in thought and civilization apocalyptic in that a world of thought and attitudes are always being supplanted by another?
In The Prince Of Nothing R. Scot Bakker has created a fascinating study of how thoughts and beliefs are shaped and formed. But these are not books of philosophy, they are stories of people, war and magic. The Thousandfold Thought, like its predecessors, is the work of a masterful storyteller.
Bakker's characters have depth and dimension beyond what is usual for fantasy. It seems we have entered a new era of fantasy, where authors are taking care to create characters that can join the pantheon of fictional heroes that has been built by "serious novelists".
With these three novels Bakker joins the ranks of Erickson, Banker, Scott and Barclay as part of a wave of fantasy authors who are breaking down the barriers between fiction and fantasy. Without pretension they set out to tell their stories and in doing so create whole new possibilities for the genre.
R. Scott Bakker has created a world which is simultaneously recognizable and alien. His plots, while intricate, are not convoluted; his characters are complex and not cartoons; and his writing is though provoking and challenging without being deliberately obtuse. The Thousandfold Thought is the masterful conclusion to a trilogy of the highest order. I can only hope that Mr. Bakker will soon create more worlds for us to discover.
Article comments
1 - WildHeart
This book was the fo shiz!!
2 - The Log
It was good, but I've readd better. The storyline was confusing at some points.