“The Prince of Nothing” trilogy by Scott R. Bakker is the other most praised and recommended epic fantasy series of these years, along with George Martin and Erikson.
It’s the story of a holy war waged across exotic lands, and the man who for reasons unknown uses his godlike intellect to enslave it.
No clunky analogy of medieval Europe here. Odd, fascinating characters in a world full of trouble and sorcery.
In an attempt to get the hardcover edition with the pretty covers you see below I got instead the UK version that has the newest (ugly) covers and that, I discovered, misses some appendixes.
I asked on the forums and here are the scans of those few pages missing. If you get the US editions of the books everything should be there and there should be 100 or so pages of appendixes in the last book of the trilogy.
– Achamian’s Map
– The Major Languages and Dialects of Eärwa (pt 1)
– The Major Languages and Dialects of Eärwa (pt 2)
– The Major Languages and Dialects of Eärwa (pt 3)
This series will also be an example of “setting as milieu”, this first trilogy is complete but Bakker should write more books in the same setting. He even commented that the PoN trilogy should be what “The Hobbit” was for Tolkien, so just an appetizer of things to come. Unfortunately the author disappeared from the internet and the first book of the new planned duology was delayed indefinitely. It won’t arrive sooner than 2009.
Nonmen, Sranc, and Men:
The first forgets,
The third regrets,
And the second has all of the fun.—ancient Kûniüri nursery rhyme
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