[Wilshire]

Speculiction did a second review/addendum/piece on TUC!

Oh, I wonder who privately contacted him about this ... hmm

Great review and summary. I like the baselines - this guy gets it.

[Madness]

Elitist Book Reviews!

[Dora Vee]

And the jury’s still out about Proyas. He may come to bear in the next series, but I’m mildly doubtful at this point. Some of that doubtfulness revolves around the fact that I’m not entirely sure that he’s even still alive.

[TaoHorror]

Elitist Book Reviews!

I found this review poorly written - interesting he points out something he calls "writing getting in the way ... " ... his review is guilty of same, 70% was explanation on how/why he writes a review and scant on anything beyond adjectives and adverbs for the rest of it. The previous reviews you've shared on this thread were much more impressive.

[Redeagl]

Elitist Book Reviews!

Turns out Bakker fans are not elitists after all

[Madness]

And the jury’s still out about Proyas. He may come to bear in the next series, but I’m mildly doubtful at this point. Some of that doubtfulness revolves around the fact that I’m not entirely sure that he’s even still alive.

(click to show/hide)

Fairly positive Moenghus suffocates him to spare him the fire, no?

The previous reviews you've shared on this thread were much more impressive.

The EBR people were burned by TAE, Tao. You have to go back and read their PON reviews. They loved the series and saw a lot of promise in TJE and ultimately were hugely disappointed in succession by WLW/TGO. The fact that they even reviewed TUC without my prodding is impressive as they weren't even going to read TGO after WLW.

[Dora Vee]

According to TV Tropes,

(click to show/hide)

Proyas was strangled to death in a Mercy Kill so he is spared from the fire

.

[Dora Vee]

I'm surprised no one included this one: http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/1337

Did I miss it?

[Hirtius/Pansa]

Hrrrrrg. I have such a seething petulant dislike of Luke Burrage. I even dislike his positive reviews of the first trilogy: his reasons for liking it are so facile and insubstantial—to my own facile and insubstantial mind lol.

[Dora Vee]

I've seen his earlier reviews on YT and...well, I forgot them. I guess that's telling right there. I have nothing against him though.

[Madness]

I'm surprised no one included this one: http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/1337

Did I miss it?

I listened to his review and, to be honest, thought I linked it here already but in quick review of the thread, I did not.

I remember Burrage being confused by the narrative to such an extent that I questioned whether he had even read the book.

...

HP, glad to see you're still lurking !

[Bolivar]

I agreed with EBR on this:

I remember reading THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE and thinking that it was well-written. But I’m telling you, I went back and looked at the prose in that book, and it is well-written. BUT the writing in THE UNHOLY CONSULT makes THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE read like it was written by an elementary school student. Bakker has come a long way in his writing skill and technique, and I can’t help but think that this is killing his ability to tell a convincing story. At least it feels that way to me. The writing, as impressive as it is, just keeps getting in the way.

TAE feels like so much of the purpose of the series is being eloquently explained by an omniscient narrator instead of the events happening to the characters. You can look at things like the Cants of Compulsion with Xinemus in the first trilogy and how it gets the message across with such force.

It reminds me of the complaints in the comments for Light, Time, Gravity posts, that the lengthy soliloquies by the author interrupting the story are too long and exhausting, only for Bakker to respond that he had already cut them down considerably in their current form. He remarked before that his blog hurts his commercial appeal by turning away would-be readers but now I wonder if it's also hurt him creatively as well, having an adverse impact on his storytelling and how he writes fantasy.

[TaoHorror]

Was the part about explaining the ruin Sorweel experiences from surrendering to Kellhus one of those lengthy soliloquies? I remember reading it and thinking after a bit that this is going on way to long, but stuck with it and by the end the intended effect of it hit me, which was awesome. I think Bakker ( correctly, in my case ) knew most, if not all, of us readers would not quickly feel for Sorweel's situation since we're not kings who lost their kingdom the first day of their rule. Speaking for myself, I don't have a lot of empathy for kings given their opulent life style they were born into while so many go hungry. So it was natural for me to just read through it - but after that drowning into metaphor after metaphor what he was feeling finally hit home and I got it. He was damn near destroyed by that experience and it took that much writing to have it resonate.

[Wilshire]

that his blog hurts his commercial appeal by turning away would-be readers but now I wonder if it's also hurt him creatively as well, having an adverse impact on his storytelling and how he writes fantasy.

I think its pretty clear to anyone paying attention that Bakker doesn't know anything about commercial appeal, or the who/what/where/why of him not having more. Reading anything he writes about the subject is ... laughable.

Personally, not regarding TUC but otherwise, his actions bespeak of someone railing against the lot he made for himself. Apparently scorned by academia he turned to fiction, but absent the wild success he planned on having there he appears to be looking to go back to 'legitimate' avenues for publications in scientific journals and the like. A different corner to shout from.

Ah well...I'll be pleasantly surprised if he publishes any fiction before 2025.

[BeardFisher-King]

Ah well...I'll be pleasantly surprised if he publishes any fiction before 2025.

"Seven years? Seven f***ing years?"

-to be written on my tombstone in the sad event that I should die suddenly anytime in 2018.......or.......http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=2626.msg43499#msg43499