In the Shadow of Ishual
by rsbakker
Aphorism of the Day: The inability to distinguish ‘political’ from ‘nice’ has saved more lives than penicillin and taken at least as many as speeding.
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Madness has been kind enough to post a teaser from the beginning of The Unholy Consult on the Second Apocalypse Forum, for those who are interested. The book is inching toward completion, and barring any revisionary madness (no relation), looks like it will be even more of a behemoth than The White-Luck Warrior.
Also a reminder for those of you in the Toronto area, I’m scheduled to give a talk entitled, “Less Human than Human: The Cyborg Fantasy versus the Neuroscientific Real,” at the 2012 Toronto SpecFic Colloquium this October 28th. Bring family, friends, pets and quirky strangers – just be sure to leave your souls behind…
If you can’t make it, I’m also scheduled to give a talk and reading at Laurier University sometime mid-November. I’ll post the details when I get them, perhaps on my new, fancy-pants author website, where I hope to post sundry observations on the nature of children, chocolate, and spectacular sunsets. Every three pound brain needs a skull and hair…
Or at the very least, a zipper.
Three Pound Brain 
Wow great stuff now that’s what i call a TEASER. Bring it on Mr Bakker we all know it’s going to be great. Let’s hope for a 2013 release…
It’s getting close, Mog my man. Never fear!
So…. do Shae and Aurang still do it? I’d imagine Shae’s present circumstances make it a bit difficult. Unless he’s upgraded in the time since Apocalypse.
Bit of a circle jerk, really…
Not your standard hareeem…
Would we be correct in making an association between Shae’s pin (from the False Sun), the door to the coffers of Sauglish (from WLW) and Shae’s circle on the shield of Sil? Or is that inquiry naught but selection bias from appropriated detritus of text?
How many more sections are in this chapter? Is a Mimara section next, or do we continue Akka’s POV as they journey down the valley to Ishual?
In the event that these two sections are all there is to chapter one, when the book comes out, I plan on just skipping chapters, hundreds of pages if necessary, to read the Ishual stuff first, so hopefully the progress down to Ishual doesn’t take hundreds of pages and we get there as quickly as the slog crossed the continent.
You want Ishual? It’s roots go deep. Personally, I love the way this whole leg of the tale turned out, but I think some might find it surprising. As I mentioned, I’ll be giving the rest of the chapter to Pat in a couple months time, so you won’t have to worry about too much of a slog, Adam!
Thanks for the reply!
It’s great to hear there is indeed more to the chapter, very much looking forward to it. Below you mentioned you have a lot of short story ideas, it would be cool to see the Atrocity Tales published as your “Unfinished Tales or “Lost Tales” ala Tolkien after the series is finished. I reference those two because someone just mentioned on the forum that you once said you wrote a chapter of Kellhus in Atraithau but you or your editor decided to take it out of The Darkness that Comes Before prior to publication; that sort of ‘Lost Tale’ would be perfect for such a volume, are there any other chapters you’ve taken out? I think you once mentioned you started writing more new POVs for The Judging Eye and then read A Feast For Crows and changed your mind on it. Something like that would also be fascinating to read after the slog of slogs of the series is completed.
Speaking of Kellhus in Atraithau, the forum reread has stalled for nearly a month after Kiyuth, and I’ve been grumbling that it becomes a slog (suddenly) to get through the next couple hundred pages. In all your books after The Darkness that Comes Before, you interleave the chapters of various storylines so that we move from storyline A (Slog of Slogs) to storyline B (Great Ordeal) to storyline C (Momemn) and back again, not always ABCABCABC order, but never an AAA, BBB, CCC order we get in Darkness that Comes Before. The AAA, BBB, CCC order reminds me of Lord of the Rings, was that an inspiration for how you structured the first book? What made you decide to change the way the books were laid out in the sequels, rather than maintaining the same structural approach as the first book?
Curse you, Bakker! I see your new tease…I ain’t gonna read it! Can’t make it to your Toronto talk, but your paper title makes me think you should take the stage with a White Zombie serenade.
No! Curse you, Mitt Romney!
I just wanted to write that…
Rob Zombie is a choir boy – though his Freebird sequence in The Devils Rejects almost convinced me otherwise.
Early birthday present from the wife is a plane ticket to come see your lecture. Can’t wait!
Hooly moly! Awesome. Make sure you introduce yourself Jake!
Oh, yeah! Thank you, Mr. Bakker! I’ve been waiting for any news regarding The Unholy Consult, and your post blew my mind today. I haven’t read the teaser yet, but I plan on coming back from my theory class primed and ready to read some Unholy Consult. I am a huge fan of your work, and am eagerly awaiting more books, and future blog posts.
I don’t have the time to comment much, but I felt the need to show my appreciation today.
Danke, Rob!
Read it at lunch today. Awesome, and wetting my appetite. I can’t wait to get the entirety of it. On an aside- any chance of a reappearance of a certain batshit-crazy, steppe-stomping, closeted warrior? Possibly given “new legs” if you know what I mean? You don’t have to answer. Unless the answer is an undebatable “no”. I feel like the end of the third book left his ultimate outcome ambiguous….although, maybe my love of him and excessive hope is clouding my interpretation of that end.
I love me some C too, Justin, but his last scene in TTT was just so perfect, I dunno if a re-emergence would be appropriate.
I agree it isn’t needed- I’m not a fan of throwing things in for cheap thrills. I don’t need to see Chewbacca just because it’s a prequel….and that isn’t helping anything of course….that’s a whole other debate. Anyway, I just love Cnaiur. I think he is one of the most fascinating characters in literature, and to see him again would be sweet. I would totally trust Bakker to make it cool- not just a Cnaiur a la Gandalf the White kind of appearance. I would expect it to be like a FrankenCnaiur of sorts. He was pretty broken by the end….but the Consult can rebuild him….they have the technology…..The Six Million Sheckle Most Violent of All Men Man.
To be honest, Bakker, you got yourself a whole spin-off series there. “Diff’rent Souls”. And I want mention in the credits if you haven’t thought of that first! Heh. Ah well. I totally get not having him in there. Literary speaking, he was perfectly done up to a perfect ending. So he had a momentous romp of an arch. But that fanboy in me has hopes that trump the appreciation of artfully done material. I feel like I keep reiterating myself. I have had too much coffee today.
In an unrelated topic- do you have any ideas for a short story for the website that features a creature made by the consult that questions if it has a soul or not? Or how about any pre-Earwa tales?
I have a sick number of short story idea scribbled here and there. Like I say, I can’t shower without something occurring to me. But it’s strange how having too many ideas waters down the motivation to do any one of them. And given the juggling act I have going now, it’s probably best not to clutter the air with yet another ball… So, maybe, at some point following the completion of the series.
Life would be so much easier if it would just break out, make a few lists. My number one wish, believe it or not, the thing I covet more than anything else, is having a the cash to hire a personal assistant.
read it yesterday, pretty durn awesome. interesting confirmations of several theories. I like that you still kep us hanging about Ishual, as well.
gah, what’s going on with me fingers? ’bout time an edit function was added imo.
Thanks, naiv. I promised Pat over at the Fantasy Hotlist that I would give him the rest of the chapter sometime in the near future. Ishual looms…
Both your Toronto and Waterloo speaking engagements are in the middle of the university term; I’ll have to deal with midterms. I’ll likely be unable to make the commute from Ottawa. Hopefully many people can make it from the GTA, the K/W and further afield.
Frickin midterms, man. I’m guessing it’ll be podcast, or even videoed.
Hope there’s some magic recording boxes there that puts it all on the sacred youtube! Good luck with it! 🙂
Someone out there probably collects zippers as a hobby
Would such a person be morose or obnoxiously happy?
Cheers, Bakker. Thanks so much for the excerpt and plug for the forum.
I’m sorry I can’t be at the Toronto talk – though I’ll consider flying down for Laurier’s. I second the hope that there will be a video/audio/transcript recording of both talks.
Those going to either lecture should try and get a TPB outing going afterwards. Just saying.
Also, updates on this author website :)?!
Shit. I just realized that I had forgotten to reply to the designer! Goddamn, I’m bad at multitasking – which is to say, who knows when the new site will be done!
I think the thanks are owed to you, Mike.
Loved the excerpt. Now I just need to resist the temptation to stop reading Delany’s Dhalgren and re-read all the previous Second Apocalypse novels.
Thanks, dharma! Tempted to stop reading Dhalgren? Double thanks!
I’d enjoyed the little morsel you gave us! Finally we get to the meat of the story…it will be a long wait until the release date, whenever it will be. I’ll second the interest on having your lecture published here, after the conference (I’m on the wrong side of the Ocean, ehehe).
Keep on rockin’
Thanks, Mass. I have a bunch of audiovisuals I’m hoping to use… It’s forcing me to be… argh… technical.
Love the books, man. I have never been so fascinated by a fictional series. To write a fantasy series that reads like the history of a world as real as ours is no small feat.
I know I’m gushing but it’s not every day you can tell one of your favorite authors how much you enjoy his stuff. Keep up the amazing work! TUC can’t come any sooner.
First off, a general thank you to RSB for his works. I found the Darkness almost immediately upon publication, picked it up because it had “London Ontario” in the author’s description, and have been reading religiously ever since. Looking forward to the next.
I definitely will do everything I can to make the Laurier engagement, but without a date and my work sched, all I can do is cross my fingers. No chance on TO.
Thought about my comments on the Structure of TDTCB I posted a few weeks ago and have decided I see some sense in it. We have five ‘books’ in the first novel, The Sorcerer, The Emperor, The Harlot, The Warrior and The Holy War. The first four name four kahiht, and the last names the stage on which these World Souls play. In that respect the structure makes more sense. Esmenet is the one who names people kahiht late in the book, but she notably leaves herself out–however the book/author, on a meta-level, names her equal to Achamian, Xerius/Conphas, & Cnaiur. Esmenet’s internal monologue during her chapters in “The Harlot” section of the book contain numerous ruminations on her becoming kahiht without her explicitly thinking such an untoward thought. Reading through the lens of ‘Esmenet is kahiht,’ is fascinating.
SOO COOL! i check for unholy consult news every day! please i have to ask about more details regarding the release of it!
Thanks, Coithus. Next year for sure. I’ll post concrete details when I get them. I love your handle!
when do you think it will be in my hands mr bakker!? a few months? half a year? a year?? i know you dont have any concrete answer but if you could guess when do you think XD
Here from Argentina, I am waiting for this book more eagerly than any other, ever. Thanks for your marvelous writing!
Damn you mr scott bakker, by doing this you give me expectation and anxiety in relation to the release date. And beleive me that is the last thing I need. I am a psychoanalyst that works in a hospital in the suburbs of the suburbs of Sao Paulo. If you think you know hell you really don’t. All my rape victim patients will now have to see me looking over to the horizon thinking that I am really paying attention to their stories of woe, what i am going to be thinking in truth is “when is that god damned book coming out” They deserve better man.
The most I can hope is that keeping your eyes on the horizon helps keep your heart close to where it needs to be, chicola. I have friends with similarly difficult jobs, and all of them have defense mechanisms that sound callous until you hear the relentless specifics of what they do.
Otherwise, no more guilt-free moping for me!