The White Luck Warrior
R. Scott Bakker
“MURDER! MURDER IS OUR
SALVATION!”
Wutteat Father of Dragons
page 556
White Luck Warrior is the
second book in the Aspect Emperor Trilogy, which is itself the sequel
series to the Prince of Nothing trilogy (aka Drusus Achamain is Not
Allowed Nice Things!). For those of you who didn't read my review of
the Judging Eye, I'll try to explain things as we go, just stay with
me.
Kellhus, who has united the
civilized lands of the known world into a single empire for the sole
purpose of forging an army to attack the strong hold of the Consult
(a group of genocidal aliens and their slaves, creations and
worshipers) and destroy it before they can create a second No-God (a
thing of unknown nature that prevents sapient creatures from giving
birth to live young and allows for control over the Sranc, who I will
get to later) has led the greatest army ever assembled in human
history into the wild wastes where that fortress is located. He has
in essence, conquered Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, used
those lands to build a massive army and lead it marching into the
wilds of west Siberia. The army is marching through lands completely
barren of any human habitation, not even nomadic tribes and there's a
good reason for that. These vast plains are utterly infested with
Sranc, humanoid creatures created to crave the flesh of human beings.
My own view of the Sranc is they are what is created when you have a
bunch of manics in charge who care more about fear, terror and murder
then creating an army that wins wars (as evidence I would like to
point out that the Consult has been trying for thousands of years to
wipe out sapient life and not only have they failed but they've had
new forms of sapient life emerge into civilization). They're brutish
and savage in a way that makes even most fucked up person looked
angelic but they're also frankly pretty damn stupid.
Which does have me echoing
a complaint I've had for decades now. Why? Oh WHY? Do people keep
thinking ravening psychopaths are the best choice for super soldiers?
Sure they can kill a lot of people but indiscriminate body counts
don't win wars! Killing the right people at the right time wins wars
(sometimes not killing the right people wins wars!). Sure it's hard
to win a war without killing people but having legions of stupid
motherfuckers with one tactic available to them is a sure fire way to
get your ass handed to you. Course there are other tools in the
Consult's armory the Ursranc for example are Sranc who are more
capable of thought and able to obey complex instructions. We are
informed of their existence in this book but we don't really get to
interact with them beyond seeing them whip a yoked legion into battle
(it's pretty simple, you chain up a bunch of Sranc and march them
towards a bunch of men, while starving them and then unchain them
when they can smell all the man flesh on the move). We see a lot of
battles here, as the Sranc will flee the army until the mass of them
reaches the point that the plains cannot support them, then in hunger
and insanity the Sranc horde will mob forward until the army kills
enough to force them to break.
There are logistical
problems to consider here as well. The Army of the Great Ordeal as
it is called, is vast. With soldiers, sorcerers, witches nobles and
slaves from every nation in the known world. Hundreds of thousands
of men and horses (and women as Kellus has trained women in sorcery
as well) marching and fighting... The amount of food they need is
vast and there is no way to keep constant supply columns going
without stripping the army of the men it needs to ward off the Sranc
attacks. Kellus has tried to reduce the logistical strain by
breaking the army into 4 columns increasing their ability to live off
the land (made difficult by the fleeing Sranc eating everything they
can) but making them more vulnerable to attack. Add in to this that
the Consult is aware of their march and is unleashing abominations to
whittle down their numbers. The Army of the Great Ordeal is locked
in a death struggle against wild Sranc, an enemy army of shadows and
monsters and against an increasingly empty and hostile land... And
this is only the trip to the actual battlefield. In the middle of
this Sorwell, captive Prince of Sakarpus, the last nation between the
Consult and the Empire and thus the last to fall, wrestles with his
beliefs and concerns as he realizes that Kellus' war with the Consult
is real but the goddess Yatwer demands that he kill the God-Emperor
anyways (this is complicated by the fact that the gods cannot see the
Consult and the No-God, meaning even if Kellus is telling the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth... They wouldn't know and
would still try to kill him). What parts of this story line that
isn't taken up with the army's struggle to survive and keep marching
forward are filled by Sorwell internal conflict and the actions he
takes has he veers back and forth between seeing the God Emperor as a
divine agent on a real mission or as a lying demon leading everyone
to their doom.
Meanwhile Drusus Achamain
with the daughter of his ex-wife Esmenet (who is currently Kellhus'
wife and Empress of humanity and trust it's as awkward as you think)
Mimara and the ragged remains of the Skineaters venture deeper into
the wilds of the north. The North was once the center of human
civilization but was utterly destroyed in a war against the Consult,
Drusus is something of an expert on this civilization because... Well
he dreams the life of one of it's greatest heroes every time he goes
to sleep, the founder of his school. Drusus has become an expert in
digging through these dreams for facts and information. It's in
these dreams that he realizes that he knows where a map leading to
Kellus' birthplace is. This is important because Kellus is a
Dunyain, the result of a eugenics and schooling program to create
people capable of rejecting desire in exchange for rationality.
They've focused on breeding for intelligence and motor control and
relentlessly training people in full expression of their mental and
physical gifts. This genetic legacy and training program enabled
Kellus to walk into the first Holy War a penniless vagabond and walk
out the God-Emperor of Mankind. The common way of explaining it
within the book series is the phrase “Kellus to us as adults are
children.” Ask yourself how easy would it be to outsmart and
manipulate a society of people with the mental and emotional
development and control of 5 years and you get an idea of Kellus'
situation and abilities. Drusus intends to learn as much about
Kellus as humanly possible and then wreck Kellus' shit as revenge for
stealing his wife and basically screwing him over again and again.
To do this he has lied to the Skineaters and led them into one of the
dark heartlands of Sranc, an impenetrable forest that has driven off
constant attempts by humanity to explore it and has swallowed up
whole companies of hard bitten adventurers. Drusus means to push
through it with a handful or so of men, a single Non-Man sorcerer
(Non-Men are pre-human sapient who were made immortal at a terrible
price, think Elves with all the nice parts taken out) and Mimara, who
is learning more about her abilities to look into people's soul (aka
The Judging Eye).
These abilities are
terrifying and come at an awful cost but Mimara might not be able to
survive without them. For that matter neither may Drusus. Mix in
their relationship which whips between one between a father and
daughter to a coldly hostile one and back as they both have to deal
with the trauma of their experiences and the problems of the march.
Especially has the Skineaters become increasingly insane. Captain
Kosoter for example is going madder and madder as they head farther
north and becoming as dangerous to his own men as he is to the enemy.
Cleric, the Non-Man mage is impossible to predict as always and may
turn on them on any moment (has he is the kind of Non-Man that kills
the people he loves so he can remember them, the price of immortality
being unable to remember anything but the most traumatic of events).
Clerics true name and the reasons for his wandering now have to be
discovered and brought to light or they may be murdered by their own
allies. In fact, being murdered by their own allies in the
wilderness is a concern that Drusus and Mimara will have to deal with
and one that may be more dangerous to them then all the Sranc in the
world.
Lastly in the Imperial City
Esmenet is fighting hard to maintain any level of control over a
rapidly spinning apart Empire. Without Kellus and his army, and in
the face of revolts being inspired by the gods (who are blind to the
Consults plots) and starting a feud with her brother in law
Maithanet, who was basically made the Pope. She was egged onto this
by her psychopath son Kelmomas, her youngest surviving child. Kellus
often reminds me of a sociopath in his behavior but Kelmomas takes it
to a whole new level, murdering his own twin to make sure his mother
pays more attention to him in the last book for example. Getting her
to feud with his Uncle weakening the Empire when they can least
afford it because he doesn't want him ratting him out to Esmenet.
Because of the madness of one small prince the entire Empire may fall
to ruin, bringing all of humanity into a state of warfare and madness
when they can least afford it, because if Kellus' army fails, if the
Consult wins... Then the No God will emerge and every man, woman and
child that falls in that war will have been a waste that humanity can
ill afford. To be honest this remains my least favorite story line.
While I go back and forth on whether I prefer the army story or the
adventurers story line, I always kinda of sigh when we hit this one.
That isn't Esmenet's fault although there are times I want to shake
her until her teeth rattle but rather while the behavior shown in the
story line is completely realistic (people back stabbing each other
and going apeshit) I've never been able to really grasp the
motivations. I mean for fuck sake if Kellus is lying (if he is why
is he leading a massive army out into the wilderness?) then we're all
going to find out soon. If he's telling the truth we literally do
not have the time and resources to waste on this. But no, the rats
have to eat each other right fucking now. It's depressing really.
In the midst of this is the
character that the book is named after, the White Luck Warrior. A
creature of Yatwer (a goddess) he is able to see his future, present
and past all at the same time. Because of this he always knows which
actions will work out best for him. Sent out to start tearing down
the empire he is on a quest to murder the imperial family. We don't
spend a lot of time with him which is good because the sections
written from his view point have to be read 3 or 4 times sometimes to
finally figure out what you're reading (maybe that's just me). I
find the idea fascinating mind you but I feel I don't want to read it
from a first person view.
You know I'm not going to
lie to you folks, while incredibly well written and layered with
history and atmosphere a lot of this book is depressing on a massive
scale. While I like it... I frankly had more fun reading the Judging
Eye. Because of this White Luck Warrior get's an -A. Tense, dark
and moody but at times exhausting and depressing. Still a good read
however. I should note that this isn't something I would hand to
anyone of a young age or to anyone who can be thrown into a funk
because of their entertainment.
Okay, next week? Let's do
something fun... Hey I haven't reviewed a Superhero graphic novel yet
have I?
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