There is much to like and much to dislike in this series, much and more of it in this single volume. WLW may be the best of both trilogies. The story flips back and forth between three main threads. Achamian and Mimara's remains my favorite, and the tragic Nonman Cleric featured heavily there. They face another epic danger from the ancient past, a part which stood toe-to-toe in quality with Achamian's final confrontation in the first trilogy.Esmenet's seat of power continues to sway in the heights, a precarious position on every page. Her family is more dangerous than any outside force. Her sons continue to steal the show, and I enjoyed those parts featuring her youngest far more than I did her own.We watch Kellhus' adventures through the eyes of Sorweel, the White-Luck Warrior himself, along with side bits in third-person. I find this character only slightly more interesting than Kellhus himself, who remains an empty ideal stripped bare of all mystery in the first trilogy. We've seen bits and pieces of this before. Sranc for orcs, Nonmen for dwarves and elves... Fantasy regurgitated into a dark Middle-Eastern smorgasbord with a dose of philosophy, rancid with the basest behaviors of the basest of men.And what does that say of me wanting to read the next one? My review for the first volume in this series is currently hosting an in-depth discussion of Bakker's work by people who read him more closely than I am. My reviews of the other volumes are apparently completely unread. Maybe, unlike Bakker, my work is not improving as it goes. This volume has a much better pace to it- the cuts between story-lines are very well handled, the battle scenes are, in general, more readable (slightly less "and then the [insert four pages of weird tribal names you will never see again in the entire series] fought the [insert four pages of weird tribal names you will never see again in the entire series] while the [...] and the [...]...", but still too much). Cleric becomes really fascinating, as does Mimara. One of my favorite characters got killed off, which was sad. Most notable, though, is the blatantly obvious Cormac McCarthy reference. Sure, they both write about groups of scalpers roaming the wilderness and being generally horrific beings, but now we have an almost word-for-word reproduction of a McCarthy scene (in Blood Meridian, and here, a bald, pale character with super-natural powers who is said to 'live forever' is 'found' sitting cross-legged in the wilderness, and then engages the group of scalpers in a semi-religious ritual involving 'communion;' when this is all done he then yells out lectures and sermons seemingly at random... yes, Cleric is the Judge). I'm not sure what to make of this as yet.
What do You think about The White Luck Warrior (2011)?
Another Awesome book in the series. Can't wait for the unholy consult.
—Mariah
For re-read project. Kickass. Go read now, greasers.
—kadutorres
