Bakker, R Scott
Entry updated 1 April 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1967- ) Canadian author whose early work was Fantasy, but who has more recently published some sf work. The complex ongoing fantasy enterprise – which, under the overall title of The Second Apocalypse, comprises two series, the Prince of Nothing sequence beginning with The Darkness That Comes Before (2003) and the Aspect-Emperor sequence beginning with The Judging Eye (2008) – ambitiously sets various families and Hero figures at one another's throats in an extremely detailed fantasy world; there are some tonal resemblances to George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, though Bakker's metaphysics are more ambitious.
He is of sf interest for Neuropath (2008), a thriller whose serial-killer protagonist is a Mad Scientist neurosurgeon who – by way of advancing his philosophical thesis that consciousness is an illusion generated by the internal wiring that controls our behaviour – conducts grotesque neurological experiments on his victims. Some die; some are terribly changed, such as a female porn star rewired to derive orgasmic pleasure rather than pain from self-mutilation. The bleak argument about human consciousness and the precariousness of Identity is reminiscent of that in Peter Watts's Blindsight (2006). Bakker's non-genre philosophical novel Light, Time, and Gravity, prematurely listed on various websites as published in 2011, was serialized on his blog in May-June 2012 [see under links below]. [JC/DRL]
see also: Magnetism.
Richard Scott Bakker
born Simcoe, Ontario: 2 February 1967
works
series
The Second Apocalypse: The Prince of Nothing
- The Darkness That Comes Before (Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Canada, 2003) [Prince of Nothing: pb/David Rankine]
- The Warrior Prophet (Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Canada, 2004) [Prince of Nothing: pb/David Rankine]
- The Thousandfold Thought (Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Canada, 2006) [Prince of Nothing: hb/David Rankine]
The Second Apocalypse: The Aspect-Emperor
- The Judging Eye (London: Orbit, 2008) [Aspect-Emperor: pb/Larry Rostant]
- The White-Luck Warrior (Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press, 2011) [Aspect-Emperor: hb/Larry Rostant]
- The White Luck Warrior (London: Orbit, 2011) [vt of the above: Aspect-Emperor: pb/Larry Rostant]
- The Great Ordeal (New York: The Overlook Press, 2016) [Aspect-Emperor: hb/Shutterstock]
- The Unholy Consult (New York: The Overlook Press, 2017) [Aspect-Emperor: pb/Kiselev Andrey Valerevich]
Disciple Manning
- Disciple of the Dog (New York: Tor/Forge, 2010) [Disciple Manning: hb/]
individual titles
- Neuropath (London: Orion, 2008) [hb/Edward Bettison]
- Light, Time, and Gravity (no place given: Insomniac Press, 2011) [binding unknown/]
links
- R Scott Bakker
- Three Pound Brain (blog)
- Light, Time, and Gravity
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Picture Gallery
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