I'm reading the Prince Of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker.
I'm about 60% through book 1 and I still don't know how I feel. The below is possibly a little spoilery. Here are the main characters we've seen:
You have one character who's a fantasy rationalist, sort of an objectivist in his philosophy, and reading from his perspective is really cool and interesting. It's all about reading cause and effect with uncanny precision and figuring how best to manipulate people. There's been a suggestion that he'll grow a bit to be less of an asshole objectivist and more of a decent rationalist, so I'm okay with his character. This is basically the thing keeping me going.
There's a barbarian who's completely immersed in tradition, but is smart enough to want out. He's been taken advantage of by a different objectivist type, so he's very suspicious of that sort of thing, but he's also intelligent enough to see the virtue in it. I enjoy reading from his perspective as well.
There's a sorcerer (sorcery in this world = blasphemy; it's literally speaking forbidden words and using one's will to "cut" reality) who's smart, but also really mopey and insecure. I normally don't mind insecure characters, but the moping annoys me. He's meant to be a spy for his School, but mostly he seems to be wandering around and moping.
There's an Emperor and his nephew, who are both paranoid egomaniacs. They're playing some intrigue game, which I'd normally be into, but this has mostly been tedious. Maybe it's just because I'm not that deep into the world yet.
There are a couple others who have shared brief moments of their perspective.
And then there's Esmenet. I have a real problem with her. So far, she's the only female whose perspective we see. Guess what her job is. Go ahead. Did you say prostitute? Of course you did, because of course she's a prostitute. There's also a really disgusting scene that almost made me quit reading where some crazy monster thing essentially rapes her (I mean, he paid, it wasn't clear that he was a monster until the end, and she didn't struggle, but it's very rapey), and the author goes to great pains to describe how orgasmic the experience is for her. Now it's clear that the reason it's so orgasmic is because of some fucked up magic the thing was using. Even so, many chapters later and it's still bothering me. So that thing happens, and she decides to do what? Find the guy she's in love with - Grand Magus Mopey up there - so she can warn him (the monster thing is after Mopey's School). All she does is have sex, think about Mopey, think about her dead daughter, and think about how impressed she is with everything because she's just some worthless whore and can you believe she gets to be involved in this craziness??
So far, it's been some pretty Frank Miller shit with this character. If she doesn't do a 180 soon, or if some foil isn't introduced, or some context isn't given, I think I might just quit this series.
EDIT
Reading a little further, we have a new female narrator - already raped before we see through her perspective, and turns out her profession is... prostitute? No, of course not. She was a concubine. I'm most of the way through this book, so I'm going to finish it, but if the ending isn't amazing I don't see myself finishing the others.
I'm about 60% through book 1 and I still don't know how I feel. The below is possibly a little spoilery. Here are the main characters we've seen:
You have one character who's a fantasy rationalist, sort of an objectivist in his philosophy, and reading from his perspective is really cool and interesting. It's all about reading cause and effect with uncanny precision and figuring how best to manipulate people. There's been a suggestion that he'll grow a bit to be less of an asshole objectivist and more of a decent rationalist, so I'm okay with his character. This is basically the thing keeping me going.
There's a barbarian who's completely immersed in tradition, but is smart enough to want out. He's been taken advantage of by a different objectivist type, so he's very suspicious of that sort of thing, but he's also intelligent enough to see the virtue in it. I enjoy reading from his perspective as well.
There's a sorcerer (sorcery in this world = blasphemy; it's literally speaking forbidden words and using one's will to "cut" reality) who's smart, but also really mopey and insecure. I normally don't mind insecure characters, but the moping annoys me. He's meant to be a spy for his School, but mostly he seems to be wandering around and moping.
There's an Emperor and his nephew, who are both paranoid egomaniacs. They're playing some intrigue game, which I'd normally be into, but this has mostly been tedious. Maybe it's just because I'm not that deep into the world yet.
There are a couple others who have shared brief moments of their perspective.
And then there's Esmenet. I have a real problem with her. So far, she's the only female whose perspective we see. Guess what her job is. Go ahead. Did you say prostitute? Of course you did, because of course she's a prostitute. There's also a really disgusting scene that almost made me quit reading where some crazy monster thing essentially rapes her (I mean, he paid, it wasn't clear that he was a monster until the end, and she didn't struggle, but it's very rapey), and the author goes to great pains to describe how orgasmic the experience is for her. Now it's clear that the reason it's so orgasmic is because of some fucked up magic the thing was using. Even so, many chapters later and it's still bothering me. So that thing happens, and she decides to do what? Find the guy she's in love with - Grand Magus Mopey up there - so she can warn him (the monster thing is after Mopey's School). All she does is have sex, think about Mopey, think about her dead daughter, and think about how impressed she is with everything because she's just some worthless whore and can you believe she gets to be involved in this craziness??
So far, it's been some pretty Frank Miller shit with this character. If she doesn't do a 180 soon, or if some foil isn't introduced, or some context isn't given, I think I might just quit this series.
EDIT
Reading a little further, we have a new female narrator - already raped before we see through her perspective, and turns out her profession is... prostitute? No, of course not. She was a concubine. I'm most of the way through this book, so I'm going to finish it, but if the ending isn't amazing I don't see myself finishing the others.