THE UNHOLY CONSULT

The much-anticipated third installment of R. Scott Bakker's acclaimed series, The Aspect-Emperor

The fourth and final volume in The Aspect Emperor series brings all the forces of an Empire-wide conflict together at the final battleground of a last Armageddon that has been a millennium in the making. Untold thousands of men have survived The Great Ordeal, the long, wasting march to the ends of the Earth, and now they gather at the gates of the colossal fortress Golgetterath, a dizzyingly immense structure built around the remains of a massive spaceship that brought the alien abominations known as the Inchorai, and their leaders, The Unholy Consult, to this plane of existence.

Arrayed against the Inchorai and the Consult are Men of all nations - and Nonmen as well: superior, near immortal beings who have been corrupted and driven half-mad by time and the depredations of a thousand years. The alien Tekne of the Consult is awesome to behold, but the sorcerous Logos of Man and Non-Man hopes to be its equal.

The leader of Men, the great Aspect Emperor Anasurimbor Kellhus, begins the invasion but soon disappears into Golgetterath - does he intend to conquer The Consult, destroy it from within, or join it? Crazed with loss and bewildered by hope, the old Wizard Achamian and the pregnant prophet Mimara draw near to gaze upon the Aspect Emperor with Mimara's infallible Judging Eye in order to unveil his motivations. But before that can happen, the biggest of all battles will take place and forces will be unleashed in an epic finale which few but Bakker could conceive and write.

Drawing in all the strands of six rich and compelling previous novels, Bakker brings all his fierce intellect to bear on this vividly complex and masterful final volume.

R. Scott Bakker is a student of literature, history, philosophy, and ancient languages. His previous books include the Prince of Nothing trilogy: The Darkness that Comes Before, The Warrior Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought. The Aspect-Emperor series is a sequel series that includes The Judging Eye, The White-Luck Warrior, and The Great Ordeal.