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Fans of R. Scott Bakker’s The Second Apocalypse series slog on, book after book, chapter after chapter, one page to the next, seeking revelation.  In Earwa, Bakker has crafted a world so dense and possessed with epochal mystery that readers find themselves consuming every morsel only to be twice as hungry for more Meat.  Through his five Earwan novels thus far, Bakker has conceived and kindled the reader’s lust, patiently starving us on our journey, hoarding his greatest secrets.  With The Great Ordeal, the penultimate book in The Aspect-Emperor series, Bakker begins to betray the final mysteries of his cosmos, feeding and goading readers more than in any of the preceding novels.

The Great Ordeal follows the four story arcs continuing from the end of The White-Luck Warrior: Sorweel, Serwa, and Moenghus arrive at Ishterebinth, Achamian and Mimara wander the ruins of Ishual (and beyond), Esmenet strains to hold the fragments of family and empire together (Kelmomas plays in the dark), while Kellhus leads his Exalt-Generals, Proyas and Saubon, and his Great Ordeal onward to the ancient fortress of Dagliash.  The novel reels from revelations about the Dunyain and Nonmen to the bloodletting in Momemn and the northern wastes.  At the end of The Great Ordeal, all four arcs deliver the world to a state of havoc, savagery, and disaster, and the reader is left hanging on a precipice unlike any other in Bakker’s series.

The Great Ordeal marches not only further but also delves deeper into Earwa’s story.  Unlike Tolkien, Bakker does not give us an epic with a Silmarillion to be published later.  The Second Apocalypse, and The Great Ordeal in particular, unfold the current drama and the ancient mysteries as one.  The darkness that comes before characters, factions, and whole civilizations begins to take shape and loom into sight.

A distinct and surprising delight of The Great Ordeal is Bakker’s use of specific, rhythmic, and lyrical stylings adapted for individual character POV.  I had not expected Bakker’s writing style to change in any new significant ways in the interim between 2011’s The White-Luck Warrior and The Great Ordeal, but I found myself rereading sections just to form the words in my mouth.

New characters, new magic, new places, new heartbreak.  Thaumazein, wonder, awe.  For Plato it was the origin of all philosophy.  For Shakespeare it was the spark of all human character.  For Bakker it is the gasp of realization that the mind’s ignorance knows no bounds.  We are doomed to stumble in the dark.  “Could tragedy be a passion?”  Yes.  Scott Bakker proves it—with a fury. 

I recommend this book by Bakker with more fervor than any other in the series.  Page for page, this volume was a most haunting pleasure to read.  Revelation and unforeseen revelation infect the reader and the characters both in substantial measure.  Just as Bakker has hoarded his secrets over many books, The Great Ordeal itself seizes and then accelerates, disgorging dreadful truths by the end.  My advice: put the book down after you finish chapter 11, call in sick before you start chapter 12, read straight through to the end.

10/10 – This story is exactly what I want from the last-but-one book of an epic sequence.

Finally, The Great Ordeal retells the age-old story of fateful human frailty.  An inquiry for the reader and an inquisition for the characters. 

Do not wait.  Get this book. 
This is what you have been waiting for.
Descend. 
Consume.

- Andy T a.k.a. Bakkerfans from Twitter and Facebook a.k.a. mrganondorf from www.second-apocalypse.com

P.S.  It is now evident to me that R. Scott Bakker is a liar.  He pretends to shake out crumbs in an occasional interview or blog post, but reader be warned: his answers hide more than reveal.  An unreliable author of unreliable characters—he’s been manipulating us all along, holding back the flood that drowns: The Unholy Consult.

So I had the strong impression that the Earwan universe is starting to resolve into dichotomies along these lines:  Yatwer/Gilgaol, Birth/War(death), Oppressed/Priviliged, Woman/Man, No-God/God, Tech/Magic.

I'm reminded of Nietzche's line: "Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman--a rope over an abyss."

It feels like Nonmen are Humanity's Ancient Past and the Inchoroi are Humanity's Distant Future and they are clashing, smashing into each other until both are now nearly extinguished.

I can't make up my mind of Ajokli is like a deputy super ciphrang for Yat or Gil or if he is the X factor, 3rd way, everyone is fucked agent.  Probably the latter.

Hello!

So Bryan Bakker (that's Scott's brother for the daft among us) has consented to do an interview.  What questions would y'all like asked?  Ppptttthhhhhh,

-mg

A thread for the Circumfix and how it relates to the rest of the series.

Especial praise for Scott on this symbol.  The Circumfix snags and adds to the reader's incoming assumptions about the Crucifix and just a goddamn awesome symbol.  As a ring with Kellhus bound to one side and Serwe to the other, it resembles a coin with the sides differentiated by dualities.  On one side is life, on the other death.  There is man and woman.  There is human and Dunyain.  Intellect, heart, submission, and authority.  The God and the believer. 

With the Circumfix literally hanging, Scott calls to mind a coin flipping through the air with no way to predict how it will land.  Will Kellhus live or die?  Will he be an Inrithi prophet and obtain the gnosis?  Or will he unite the Three Seas under Faminry and take up the Water?  Will Cnaiur rescue him or Achamian or no one?  To mean it heightens the narrative tension even knowing how events turned out.  The coin flips and we don't know if the story will proceed down the green shoot of the twig or the dead one.  Alternatives murdered when it finally comes down. 

The Dunyain, who of all people set out to master circumstance, is now bound to the an ancient symbol of absolute unpredictability.  It conjures up the same old questions--did Kellhus do enough to be prepared for any outcome?  Part of me wonders if Kellhus, at some point before being physically bound to the tree, comes to believe that the Shortest Path involves surrendering to consequences he cannot predict or control.  That Kellhus comes to believe that he should act out this role that his father has assigned for him withing the Thousandfold Thought.  That Kellhus' comes to believe that the best option is to give in and trust that submitting to hanging on the wheel (for specific aim X). 

This definitely calls to mind the Cross and Jesus giving into the Father's will.  Perhaps Moenghus thinks he can harness a special kind of magic if he can convince a Dunyain to do the most unDuneyain (undone ) thing of all? 

Wouldn't it be an intriguing reinterpretation of Christianity to think that Jesus goes along with the Father's plan only to come to realize that the Father's plan is flawed and must be replaced.  So Jesus sets out to kill the Father and rewrite destiny.

Of course, as a ring it also signifies recurrence.  First there was Sejenus, now there is Kellhus.  The first apocalypse and now the second.  Esmi and Esmi again.  Seswatha and Akka.  Ansurimbor appears, predicts his future coming, leaves and returns.

It is perhaps worth noting too that the Coin has no 'heads.'  Kellhus and Serwe both face in, though what it means I know not.

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Unrelated.  Perhaps being one of the Few entails having a portal in one's person that acts as a conduit from the Outside to Earwa.  Becoming a sorcerer is the act of expanding this portal and controlling the flow in specific ways.  The size of the portal is different per person.  Seswatha is born with larger nascent access to the Outside than an ordinary Mysunsai.  Perhaps the point of the Dunyain is to create an individual that is the Fewest of the Few, the one with the largest nascent portal.  This person is also bred to be incredibly strong of body and mind.  Moenghus exposes Kellhus to the Circumfix as a way of further enlarging Kellhus' capacity to channel the Outside.  Only a Dunyain would be strong enough to endure it, live, and make use of it.

I don't get a sense of holidays in Earwa and that strikes me as just impossible.  Surely someone marks the yearly return of the day Mog died.  It might be like Christmas except maybe you exchange pictures of stillborn babies to remember how life could always be worse.

Sejenus' life should inspire holidays around the 3 Seas.  Am I missing something, or did Bakker leave it out, or is it part of all the secrets he's hiding?

Overall, I didn't like it.  I feel like there was a general problem with character motivation.  Holden's moralism came off as fake/stupid and Miller's 'final case' seems to little to late to make sense of him as a character.  I was disappointed by the lack of machination from the Colonel.  I like the alien component until the end when it just gets boring and predictable.  I was hoping for a lot more from this book/series, but I will not be reading book 2.  Anyone else?  The more I read of Daniel Abraham, the less I like him.