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The Great Ordeal
- Narrated by: Kevin Orton
- Length: 21 hrs and 13 mins
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The Great Ordeal
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Publisher's Summary
The much-anticipated third installment of R. Scott Bakker's acclaimed series, The Aspect-Emperor.
Praised by fans and critics worldwide, R. Scott Bakker has become one of the most celebrated voices in fantasy literature. With The Great Ordeal, Bakker presents the long-anticipated third volume of The Aspect-Emperor, a series that stands with the finest in the genre for its grandiose scope, rich detail, and thrilling story.
As Fanim war drums beat just outside the city, Empress Anasurimbor Esmenet searches frantically throughout the palace for her missing son, Kelmomas. Meanwhile, and many miles away, Esmenet's husband's Great Ordeal continues its epic march farther north. But in light of dwindling supplies, the Aspect-Emperor's decision to allow his men to consume the flesh of fallen Sranc could have consequences even he couldn't have foreseen. And deep in Ishual, the wizard Achamian grapples with his fear that his unspeakably long journey might be ending in emptiness, no closer to the truth than when he set out.
The Aspect-Emperor series follows Bakker's Prince of Nothing saga, returning to the same world 20 years later. The Great Ordeal follows The Judging Eye and The White-Luck Warrior and delivers the first half of the conclusion to this epic story. Returning to Bakker's richly imagined universe of myth, violence, and sorcery, The Aspect-Emperor continues to set the bar for the fantasy genre, reaching new heights of intricacy and meaning.
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What listeners say about The Great Ordeal
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-11-23
so good
in love with this dark tale. I wonder why the reader chose to pronounce the character's names differently than in previous books.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Fraser Simons
- 2019-09-01
Favourite of all the books so far
This book doesn’t have the slow start of the other books. It starts off running and never relents. A lot of cool reveals, world building, and lore reveals as usual, too. Maybe the next one will end up being my favourite but this is a high bar.
It’s nice that it’s been 4 years since Kevin Orton narrated the other books because he’s gotten much better, even if his pronunciation is still worse than the amazing narrator for The Prince of Nothing trilogy. I recommend listening on 1.25x or 1.5x; it will cut right into the slowness of the narration and not affect the performance.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-01-24
The Greal Ordeal.... for listeners as well
Right off the bat, I do not like to poorly rate performances as I think this is entirely subjective on the part of most listeners. We tend to like what we like in terms of a voice; having just the right pitch, tone, certain accents or added theatrics on the part of the reader voice to bring characters and their dialogue alive varies from one listerner to another. As far as I'm concerned, as long as I can understand the words and the voice acting (if the performer goes that route) is not too bad, I am a happy camper.
I thought the performer did a great job with the material and he certainly helped me to get through this brick.
I loved R.Scott Bakker's first series! His choice of words / writing is of great quality and his vision of a bleak low-fantasy world with all the politics and intrigue that my heart can desire was very much welcome. This series certainly has that, however (and perhaps I didn't notice in the first series), character introspection tends to eat up a lot of the plot's pace. While well written and deep at times, I felt myself wishing at times that the story would advance and that there would be some kind of action in the real world. I like a slow burner story (and can appreciate one), but this second series and this book in particular felt stuck in the mud at times with protracted character inner dialogue, feelings and thoughts.
I love the world and the characters, but I think that we could do with a little less of them thinking- dreaming and more of them doing - saying in that grim world.
That being said. if you enjoyed the first series so much and want to see this plot and characters to the end, I do not blame you. I for one will be reading the final book in this series and would not be against seeing more in the future.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Mike
- 2020-11-12
Tedious
The Great Ordeal is a very appropriate name for this book as that is exactly how I felt listening to it. It's too bad because his first Trilogy was awesome. Should have just left it alone
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