Scan barcode
A review by frasersimons
The White-Luck Warrior by R. Scott Bakker
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
2024 reread:
I had forgotten quite a bit of the developments in this one, and thought a plot beat that happened in another one, happened here instead. Fitting, since this one features ruminations on memory pretty heavily, when focused on the slow of slogs. Aka’s journey, along with the great ordeal, have problems of scarcity. Starvation and sustenance, coupled with the non man’s identity being kept by someone else in the party. Reminding him of who he is and what he has done. A really interesting take on a species that is so long lived, they unravel the thread of their memory.
Then, another trope with a bent, with a wild and strange dragon and an epic fight. The development of the judging eye and the fall and rise of Esmenet as empress, and the continued development of the white luck warrior. Evil is predominately featured and explored. From incest to withholding nourishment of many, many kinds, to the depravity mankind corkscrews into when, and sometimes because, they do not understand their nature or their mind. Man as an animal is on display, and civilization has sorely lacked in humanity’s development.
Things of the past begin to repeat too. It’s 20 years later and “fate”, as well as the fickle, weak memories of humanity are showing an awful cycle on display, cheerfully nudging that pit you had developed in your stomach from the previous trilogy, into something larger. Or maybe not. I’ve read some reviews blindsided by the ending of the series. I’m not sure what they thought they were reading, though.
So much happens in this second book! Lots of reveals, twists and turns, and epic battles. The slower section from the previous book with Esme was groundwork for a much more interesting story, which was the only so-so parts of the previous novel.
In the recorded books version on audible I find the narrator fairly inconsistent. Sometimes great, other times lapsing into this weird dramatic voice. Maybe he thinks he’s making slower sections more interesting or something but it’s annoying. Luckily the story is so good the annoyance of the narrator didn’t matter to me much.
I had forgotten quite a bit of the developments in this one, and thought a plot beat that happened in another one, happened here instead. Fitting, since this one features ruminations on memory pretty heavily, when focused on the slow of slogs. Aka’s journey, along with the great ordeal, have problems of scarcity. Starvation and sustenance, coupled with the non man’s identity being kept by someone else in the party. Reminding him of who he is and what he has done. A really interesting take on a species that is so long lived, they unravel the thread of their memory.
Then, another trope with a bent, with a wild and strange dragon and an epic fight. The development of the judging eye and the fall and rise of Esmenet as empress, and the continued development of the white luck warrior. Evil is predominately featured and explored. From incest to withholding nourishment of many, many kinds, to the depravity mankind corkscrews into when, and sometimes because, they do not understand their nature or their mind. Man as an animal is on display, and civilization has sorely lacked in humanity’s development.
Things of the past begin to repeat too. It’s 20 years later and “fate”, as well as the fickle, weak memories of humanity are showing an awful cycle on display, cheerfully nudging that pit you had developed in your stomach from the previous trilogy, into something larger. Or maybe not. I’ve read some reviews blindsided by the ending of the series. I’m not sure what they thought they were reading, though.
So much happens in this second book! Lots of reveals, twists and turns, and epic battles. The slower section from the previous book with Esme was groundwork for a much more interesting story, which was the only so-so parts of the previous novel.
In the recorded books version on audible I find the narrator fairly inconsistent. Sometimes great, other times lapsing into this weird dramatic voice. Maybe he thinks he’s making slower sections more interesting or something but it’s annoying. Luckily the story is so good the annoyance of the narrator didn’t matter to me much.