r. scott bakker's "prince of nothing" series is best read when you don't know what you're getting into. although there is a glossary in the back (as i discovered AFTER i finished the first book), the author doesn't ease you into the socio-political structure of the three seas. you are required to piece together the bureaucracy of inrithism, the customs of the scylvendi, the differences between the sorcerous schools. you get that an apocalypse is probably coming, that there's something dark and nasty in the north, but each time something fantastical finally reveals itself, it is shocking.
