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A review by frasersimons
The Great Ordeal by R. Scott Bakker
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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: re read. I’m not sure this is my favourite of the series anymore, but it’s pretty incidental with these books on a re read. Probably, The Judging Eye takes the cake these days, just because it’s the introduction of the more interesting themes and has the slanted take on both dragons and elves, along with the eye itself. This one still has so much going for it as well. Plus it’s nice to see Mimara coming into her own. And again, kind of another slanted take on hordes of what? Goblins/orcs, something like that. When you read books with them in it they just Are. This, though, spends time on showing how such a thing could (kind of too easily really) become that, and continue the cycle of these things, as men are want to do, as ever.
You would think that, maybe if Kellhus wasn’t mad maybe, in like two decades they could have prepared better. Surely you could have muster points for each faction with literal farms established and labouring purely for the ordeal, no? But the thousand fold thought is inherently flawed and immoral, so why bother with all that, I suppose. Certainly though, this is where Evil gets more nuanced, kind of a feat, considering it’s also in absolutes after the degrees are established until the eye. It’s very gratifying to see the previously seemingly merely annoying child beginning to pay off as well.
Previous read:
Wow, this is my favourite book so far. You can tell this was going to be the finale but it had to be split up. There are a lot of awesome lore and more galaxy brain reveals, particularly going more into the philosophy and paralleling it with the actions of the various factions. More non-man wickedness, new creatures, and lots more action. The book hits the ground running as opposed to a bunch of setup that pays off like the other books. It was so good.
If you’re listening on audible the narrator got a lot better. Go figure, since he had 4 years to get better since the first two in the series! His pronunciation is still worse than the narrator for The Prince of Nothing narrator, but that guy is just incredible, probably the best performance I’ve yet to hear on the format. I recommend cutting his slow delivery by setting it to 1.25x or 1.5x speed. Even at the faster one, he still sounds like he’s reading normally. You’ll cut out 5 hours of the 21 that way. Well worth it.
You would think that, maybe if Kellhus wasn’t mad maybe, in like two decades they could have prepared better. Surely you could have muster points for each faction with literal farms established and labouring purely for the ordeal, no? But the thousand fold thought is inherently flawed and immoral, so why bother with all that, I suppose. Certainly though, this is where Evil gets more nuanced, kind of a feat, considering it’s also in absolutes after the degrees are established until the eye. It’s very gratifying to see the previously seemingly merely annoying child beginning to pay off as well.
Previous read:
Wow, this is my favourite book so far. You can tell this was going to be the finale but it had to be split up. There are a lot of awesome lore and more galaxy brain reveals, particularly going more into the philosophy and paralleling it with the actions of the various factions. More non-man wickedness, new creatures, and lots more action. The book hits the ground running as opposed to a bunch of setup that pays off like the other books. It was so good.
If you’re listening on audible the narrator got a lot better. Go figure, since he had 4 years to get better since the first two in the series! His pronunciation is still worse than the narrator for The Prince of Nothing narrator, but that guy is just incredible, probably the best performance I’ve yet to hear on the format. I recommend cutting his slow delivery by setting it to 1.25x or 1.5x speed. Even at the faster one, he still sounds like he’s reading normally. You’ll cut out 5 hours of the 21 that way. Well worth it.