The Darkness That Comes Before
core novel 2003 The Second Apocalypse
Record
| First published | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.85 (24,687 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 608 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781590201183 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Darkness That Comes Before opens a fantasy epic centered on a holy war mustering to march on the distant city of Shimeh, drawing together a wide cast including a hardened barbarian warrior and a sorcerer haunted by apocalyptic dreams tied to an ancient, defeated evil. Into this gathering conflict arrives Anasûrimbor Kellhus, a monk trained from birth in an isolated order devoted to absolute control of thought and behavior, who claims to be searching for his long-vanished father. As Kellhus moves through the holy war's factions, his extraordinary ability to read and manipulate those around him begins to reshape the loyalties and ambitions of everyone he encounters, setting him on a path that will determine the war's course as much as any army involved.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Second Apocalypse
- Series: The Prince of Nothing core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: R. Scott Bakker
Notes
- From the series record (The Prince of Nothing): Completed trilogy, the series' first arc.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Prince of Nothing: position 1 of 3: next The Warrior-Prophet (2004)
- Internal chronology, within The Second Apocalypse: position 1 of 7: next The Warrior-Prophet (2004)
Sources
← The Second Apocalypse dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.