Commentaires client les plus utiles
|
|
3 internautes sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Worth the Wait, Mars 11 2009
The Judging Eye continues the saga of Earwa begun in Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing trilogy. For one who read and enjoyed the preceding books immensely, The Judging Eye has been much anticipated and it has not disappointed. All of the elements that made The Prince of Nothing books so enjoyable are evident in The Judging Eye. Bakker is an accredited philosopher and as a result his works have greater depth of thought and theme than much of the work in the fantasy genre. This trend continues in his latest book. Since The Judging Eye is the first in The Aspect Emperor trilogy, there is some sense of prelude in this volume. At the same time there is the necessity of providing back-story for the events that are unfolding in this book that will be unfolding in the coming volumes. This tricky task, in the hands of lesser authors, can present a formidable obstacle often resulting in a disjointed narrative but not so with Bakker. What is presented in the way of prelude and back-story is seamlessly woven into the events of the present work so that we never feel that we are enduring obligatory exposition.
Characters introduced in the initial trilogy continue to entertain and new characters introduced in the present work are every bit as fascinating. Bakker is a master of presenting characters, events, and settings with amazing depth, consequently endowing these elements with rich and meaningful context. Throughout we feel immersed in an world with a palpable sense of dramatic and violent history. For me, one of the most compelling aspects of Bakker's works is the questions they raise both of the philosophical sort and with respect to the sense that there is always more going on than either the reader or the characters themselves can penetrate. We are continuously compelled to read on. The good news is that the wait for the first volume in the Aspect Emperor trilogy is over but the bad news is that now the wait for the next instalment in this series begins.
|
|
|
5.0étoiles sur 5
Better than the first series, Aoû 2 2009
I have to admit - I was one of the folks who read R. Scott Bakker's first trilogy, the Prince of Nothing, and struggled trying to get a handle on the backstory of the first novel. The second novel, The Warrior-Prophet, was, to my mind, the best of the set, and the third, The Thousandfold Thought, was convoluted and left me feeling unfulfilled, the story seemingly incomplete.
I'm happy to say that the first installment of this new trilogy, The Aspect-Empereror, had me hooked from the get-go and didn't let go. I finished the last half of the book with nary a pause in reading, after moving through the first half at a slower pace. By the ending chapters, I could barely tear my eyes away from the page. I'm now left salivating at the prospect of the next novel in the series.
The Judging Eye is told from three different locations, by a handful of different characters, equally split amongst new characters and old standbys from the first trilogy. It takes place approximately twenty years following the conclusion of the Thousandfold Thought, on a continent newly conquered and united (mostly) under the god-like rule of Anasûrimbor Kellhus, the Aspect-Emperor.
One third is told from the Andiamine Heights, the Emperor's palace in the capital city of Momemn. Esmenet, empress and wife of Kellhus, the Aspect-Emperor (who only makes a couple of appearances throughout the novel) tells the tale here, as well as her youngest son, Kelmomas, a despicable child if I've ever seen one (and worthy heir to his father, based on the first trilogy.)
The second tier takes place on the frontier of the Ordeal, Kellhus' massive army trudging across the Ancient North to war against the "evil" (relatively speaking) Consult and the No-god, Mog-Pharau. While we see no actual war in this first book, the background of the war's major participants is told through the eyes of young King Sorweel of Sakarpus, a hostage of the Aspect-Emperor and unwilling participant in the Ordeal. He's an interesting character who develops slowly throughout the first novel - I was a little worried at the prospect of a child's perspective on the main battlefront of the book, but so far there hasn't been any battle to report. Sorweel himself is a tortured soul for a boy in his mid-teens, and looks to have an interesting religious/cult-like backdrop forming in his shadow. I'll reserve judgment on him until the next two novels.
The third and final segment of the storyline is to me the most interesting and entertaining, and certainly where most of the action was. Drusas Achamian, former lover of Esmenet and sorcerous teacher to the Aspect-Emperor, is now a renegade Wizard after having denounced his emperor (and wife) in front of the entire First Holy War's host. He's lived in seclusion for the last two decades, continuing to dream nightly of his sorcerous predecessor Seswatha's fight during the First Apocalypse. Without giving too much of the plot away, Achamian is determined to "out" Kellhus and expose his treachery and deceit by undertaking a long, arduous and peril-fraught trek into the Ancient North and discover his long-hidden homeland of Kuniuri.
The third tier is also told in part by Mimara, daughter of Esmenet, who has sought out Achamian as a teacher. Joining him on his journey, she discovers something about herself that is completely new to the readers of the series. I'll leave that for you to discover.
Unlike RSB's previous works in this series, I didn't really get stuck on any segments of the novel that were overly expository or spent too much time dawdling in philosophical argument. The Judging Eye gives a ton of backstory about the Nonmen that always intrigued in the first trilogy, and the action and intrigue rarely lets up for the duration of the novel. As disappointed as I was with the ending of The Thousandfold Thought, I found myself enthralled with this new installment and I'm looking forward to the next novel, The White-Luck Warrior.
With any luck, maybe Achamian will see his fight through this time. :)
-nick
[...]
|
|
|
0 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
2.0étoiles sur 5
Disappointing sequel, Mai 5 2009
I loved the first trilogy (The Prince of Nothing), which featured a very fresh story line and interesting characters. I really wanted to find out more of what happened after the end of the last book. Unfortunately, I found this book to be a let-down. The first 3/4 of the book just seems to be setting the stage for the next books to come. That's fine, but there still needs to be some interesting things happening along the way to keep the reader engaged. I found myself wishing for the book to end about 1/2 way through. I suddenly found that I didn't like the characters that I had really enjoyed in the first trilogy. The characters went from interesting to, somehow, unlikable.
The final 1/4 of the book is very good, once the action begins to pick up. In fact I found the book to be hard to put down towards the end. But unfortunately it took too long to get to that point, and I'm not really looking forward to the sequel very much now. Hopefully the next book can reignite my interest in the series, which is still a fresh take on the fantasy genre.
|
|
|
|
de Scott Bakker
de Joe Abercrombie
de R. Scott Bakker
de Brian Ruckley
de Steven Erikson
