The Darkness That Comes Before

Finally in audiobook!

I have been waiting and waiting for this to finally come out in audiobook. And just in time for summer! Great writing - a bit overwrought, but in a good way - like a blend of MAR Barker and HP Lovecraft and Gene Wolfe.
I got these in book form on a lark when they came out and have gotten most of my family and friends to try it out. In that same spirit, I am writing a review so that someone out there will also give it a try and like it.
If you like Joe Abercrombie, Brent Weeks, or any of the new school reflective fantasy (as in fantasy more reflective of our real world - its what I call it anyway), I suggest you give it a try.

Lots of Characters and intricate language, do yourself a favor and find the printed book's character list and lexicon appendixes online somewhere as a companion to the audio version.

34 of 34 people found this review helpful

Rough start, solid overall.

David DeVries voice drove me absolutely nuts when I listened for the first fifteen minutes. I gave it a chance because I thought it could shape up to be an excellent story.

I'm glad I gave it a shot because the story and narrator quickly evolved into something great. The story is interesting and mysterious and most of the characters are really well done. The first half of the book is a lot of world building and character introductions, while the last half really gets into the meat of the plot and builds the premise of what is to come.

Right after I hit submit on this review I will be purchasing book 2.

26 of 27 people found this review helpful

A very strange series

Would you listen to The Darkness That Comes Before again? Why?

I believe that I would listen to the entire series again, yes. It is very deep and complex, and at some times even confusing. I pride myself as an attentive listener of audiobooks, I don't jsut put them on and then tune them out, and at times I had a little trouble following along. However, this is in no way a refutation of the book or the series. They are both wonderfully written and performed.

What did you like best about this story?

I'd have to say that I liked the depth of all the characters the best. Baker does an amazing job at characterization. Each and every one of them is complex, conflicted and unique.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

While I didn't laugh out loud or cry while listening to The Darkness That Comes Gefore, I did have a strong reaction to the entire series. The main character, demands one from the reader. Love him or hate him, you will feel something towards him.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

holy Shrial shit batman!that was a good listen

i knew it would be a good listen because it was a great read! This series is every bit as enthralling as Erikksons Malazan series, and Ruthfuss's Kingkiller chronicles.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great Book, Poor Reader

What didn’t you like about David DeVries’s performance?

Yes, this book is challenging, but Devries' reading complicates, rather than clarifies. Very little distinction between different characters' voices makes it easy to lose track of who is saying what. Choices on inflection make it sound like he himself has no idea what's going on. Paragraphs are picked up with no breaks, missing the fact that a new idea is starting.

I would often listen to a section two or three times before going to the text and finding it much easier to understand.

Any additional comments?

I'm really enjoying this story, but I'll have to somehow find the time to read the sequels without audio.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

I never write reviews but I loved this

What made the experience of listening to The Darkness That Comes Before the most enjoyable?

This is a fully realized world. Great conflicts. Original characters.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Darkness That Comes Before?

Dark dark magicians.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I drive long distances and tend to listen in long blocks. I could easily listen for 6+ hrs

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Heavy world-building, but didn't engage me

I got about 2/3 of the way through this one and just couldn't sustain interest. This is elaborately plotted fantasy in which many factions and individual players are scheming for control of a world with a lot of history. A religious leader has appeared to organize one group of kingdoms into a Holy War against another country. "Schools" of magicians aligned with one group or another play their own shadowy games. A decadent emperor and his ambitious young nephew have their own agendas. A wandering monk with exceptional powers of psychological manipulation gets involved, and recruits a northern barbarian from a Mongol-like people.

Bakker doesn't do much in the way of easing the reader into his world, but throws us into the middle of the political games, leaving us to figure out who's who and what's what. While I can appreciate that kind of challenge and did find the world-building somewhat interesting, the storytelling just didn't engage me.

The major problem I had with it is that it simply doesn't feel very organic. Bakker clearly had some Big Ideas, and mapped out a complex plot and gave his main players complex motivations, and I applaud him for that. However, for my taste, he's too focused on moving the chess pieces and not enough on giving us a visceral connection to the world and characters. One guy from one kingdom does one thing, and another guy from another kingdom counters with a brilliant stroke, but so what? It's hard for me to care when I don't have much of a feel for either kingdom or either guy. When he does get into backstories, it's mostly to tell us information about the character, rather than really get in the person's head.

For political machinations in a fantasy world, A Song of Fire and Ice is still my go-to series. The characters there feel more like people in a lived-in reality. This one, I'm sorry to say, didn't offer me a comparable experience.

13 of 16 people found this review helpful

Absolutely amazing, second read

If you could sum up The Darkness That Comes Before in three words, what would they be?

Unique epic fantasy.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Darkness That Comes Before?

Nearly everything about the novel is memorable. There are some characters that fascinate me more than others, but even the ones I am less interested in remain gripping. The intellectual, moral, philosophical and political complexity of the story is amazing. I read it 5 years ago, read the whole series, in fact, and came back to this now. And it is still amazing.

What about David DeVries’s performance did you like?

I don't normally read epic fantasy, so am not accustomed to this many characters and wondered if the vast creativity and the suspense would translate into audio. DeVries' capacity to do a dozen different accents, and another half-dozen tones of voice, made this a really good audio book. That is not to say there are not a lot of complex names and geographies to keep in your head as you listen, but Bakker is writing to an intelligent audience.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Just loved it (again). And just bought the second in this series.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Lots of world building with very little plot.

What disappointed you about The Darkness That Comes Before?

The characters were not engaging or likable. The plot moves slowly. By the end of the book, I was left feeling "That was it"?

Would you ever listen to anything by R. Scott Bakker again?

No

Did David DeVries do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

He did an average job. The characters and the plot are so convoluted that David DeVries had a definite challenge in narrating this novel. I found myself looking at the Wiki constantly trying to piece together who was who and what was going on.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Darkness That Comes Before?

Honestly, I would have cut about 80% of the book. Great detail is gone into uninteresting and unimportant details about characters and settings that could have been left out. 80% of the book is uninteresting detail that does nothing to enhance the plot.

Any additional comments?

I actually finally started to get into this book in the last four chapters. Unfortunately, the ending is lackluster and the entire reading experience felt like a waste of time.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Abandoning at Chapter 5

I rarely abandon a book, but I'm done here. Although I had high hopes for the series, the story is unengaging, the characters indistinguishable, and the narration monotonous. The author came recommend based on authors I have enjoyed, Joe Abercrombie and GRRM, but DeVries isn't in their league. It felt like listening to a high school fiction project that was heavy on world building, chock full of nonsensical made up names, but devoid of emotional resonance or humor.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful