Bakker makes you think about more than just the fantasy world he created. The story of Kellhus, the Dunyain, Achamian the mage, Esmenet the whore and Cnaiür the barbarian has all the trappings of your typical epic fantasy, but Bakker turns them all upside down, twisting them beyond recognition into a story that’s at once depraved and hauntingly beautiful. But beyond that, this book and the two that follow it are some of the most compelling, best-written fantasies I’ve ever read. It’s dark-very dark, very violent and at times gratuitously so-with sexual violence that will make your skin crawl. It’s been described as a cross between Tolkien and Nietzsche.
The Darkness That Comes Before is the first of Bakker’s The Prince Of Nothing trilogy.
