The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott BakkerMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
This is a 1-star review which is a reasonable estimate of my experience.
I didn't make it 10% through the book before Dorothy Parker's purported ghost launched it across the room. Within that span, we meet three different individuals. None of them are supplied with sufficient detail to establish a connection with the reader.
There are tons of references to other social/cultural elements of this world. There are several different "1000 shrines of..." or "1000 temples of..." references that feel a lot like Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. The difference is that the number of references to cultures existing outside of a Conan story are relatively few and eventually Conan takes center stage.
At 10% of the book, I was still trying to figure out which characters mattered and why. All of the references to mythic events, people, and other civilizational elements detracted from my engagement with the story.
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