R. Scott Bakker's major work is a series known as "The Second Apocalypse," which he began developing in the 1980s. The series was first planned as series of three books. The first two books were to be the "The Prince of Nothing" and "The Aspect-Emperor". The third book has been called "The Book That Shall Not Be Named" by Bakker. He thought the title of this book was a spoiler for the first two books.