The “Prince of Nothing” trilogy by Scott Bakker, consisting of “The darkness that comes before”, “The warrior prophet”, and “The thousandfold thought”, is fantasy unlike I’ve ever read it. The story and storytelling are outstanding, but what makes the book series so special is the constant philosophical/psychological discourse about freedom of choice, and consequences thereof (e.g., religion, beliefs, and biases).
To give you an impression, some quotations below. Overall: highly recommended reading!
The Darkness that comes before
The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movements of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how can you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to the darkness that comes before?
Because they cannot see what comes before them, they assume nothing comes before them. They are numb to the hammers of circumstance, blind to their conditioning. What is branded into them, they think freely chosen.
Volition is one more thing moved in the soul, and not the mover we take it to be. While few dispute this, the absurdities that follow escape comprehension altogether.
There were two pasts, he understood that now. There was the past that men remembered, and there was the past that determined, and rarely if ever were they the same. All men stood in thrall of the latter. And knowing this made them insane.
I am my thoughts, but the sources of my thoughts exceed me. I do not own myself, because the darkness comes before me.
By definition, the future cannot anticipate the present. What comes after cannot come before.