The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Nov 24, 2011 Althea Ann rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2/13 - I'm currently on page 216 and it doesn't seem to be "getting better" yet. It's not the verbosity that's bothering me, it's the utter lack of characterization, combined with the lack of visuals. I feel like I can neither 'see' nor 'know' any of these characters. They're simply ciphers moving about. Not only that - this is not one of my usual things to complain about, but out of a Cast Of Thousands, literally 3 women have appeared 'on-screen.' Two are literally whores, and the third is a ha 2/13 - I'm currently on page 216 and it doesn't seem to be "getting better" yet. It's not the verbosity that's bothering me, it's the utter lack of characterization, combined with the lack of visuals. I feel like I can neither 'see' nor 'know' any of these characters. They're simply ciphers moving about. Not only that - this is not one of my usual things to complain about, but out of a Cast Of Thousands, literally 3 women have appeared 'on-screen.' Two are literally whores, and the third is a harridan who is described as 'whorish.' I don't have a problem with reading about misogynistic societies, but it almost seems like women here simply don't exist!

2/14 - I nearly, nearly gave up on reading this last night, but decided to plow through just so I don't get castigated by the fanboys for reviewing a book I didn't finish. Now on page 432. Starting with Part 3, the book has improved a bit. The writing has become a bit smoother, some characters have begun to emerge, and a couple of women even get to have a POV. This was the author's first book, and I feel like I'm almost seeing him learn how to write fiction as I read. (I'm sure he's written plenty of academic papers; he definitely has a command of English - I'm actually pretty impressed that I'm reading an unrevised proof, and there's only been one typo so far ["sneak peak" instead of "sneak peek."] Not bad.) I'm still not won over; I feel like the first third of the book needs a serious revision/edit, but my current opinion is upgraded from one to two stars.

2/16 - Finished it yesterday. As I expected, it doesn't end on any sort of note of resolution; and I'm not feeling that motivated to go pick up the next volume. The various factions of military, magical and political forces in this vaguely-Babylonian world can go philosophize about their Holy War without me.

Incidentally, I noted that among the gushing praises on the back of this book are recommendations from both Steven Erikson and John Marco. I've tried both of those authors: John Marco was a did-not-finish, and Steven Erikson was a this-is-not-for-me. I actually find the quality and style of writing here to be similar to Erikson, and I would say I didn't like it for similar reasons. If you love Erikson (which many people do) you may very well like this series. But my final rating is hovering around one-and-a-half stars. ...more

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Apr 06, 2017 Julia Sarene marked it as dnf

Shelves: 1-fantasy-all-subgenres, 1-fantasy-epic-or-high

Won't give a rating, as I gave up on it about 4 chapters in.
I know a lot of people love it - but I was bored out of my mind and had to relisten over and over to take anything in, as nothing was actually happening - no plot, just lots and lots of talking. And while good dialogue will keep me entertained - this felt like it was trying to be philosophical, but didn't manage to catch me that way either.
I returned it. ...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Chris Conley rated it it was ok

I wanted to enjoy this book, but ultimately, it proved a chore to finish. While it had a number of good ideas, and even some interesting characters, I didn't care for the writing. It was excessive. Descriptions of essentially everything were so dense that it made the story feel convoluted. I'm not saying that it was bad by any means, but it certainly wasn't my type of storytelling. ...more

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