Tagged: mark lawrence

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence(Cover picture courtesy of The Royal Library.)

The path to the throne is broken – only the broken may walk it.

To reach the throne requires that a man journey. Even a path paved with good intentions can lead to hell, and my intentions were never good.

The Hundred converge for Congression to politic upon the corpse of Empire, and while they talk the Dead King makes his move, and I make mine. The world is cracked, time has run through, leaving us clutching at the end days, the future so bright that those who see it are the first to burn. These are the days that have waited for us all our lives. These are my days. I will stand before the Hundred and they will listen. I will take the throne whoever seeks to thwart me, living or dead, and if I must be the last emperor then I will make of it such an ending.

This is where the wise man turns away. This is where the holy kneel and call on God. These are the last miles, my brothers. Don’t look to me to save you. Don’t think I will not spend you. Run if you have the wit. Pray if you have the soul. Stand your ground if courage is yours. But don’t follow me.

Follow me, and I will break your heart.

Um, wow?  There’s really nothing else to say about this.  What a stunning conclusion to such an unusual trilogy.

First off, Jorg is his usual horrible/awesome/ruthless/sarcastic self.  He really makes no apologies for who he is and doesn’t even try to become a better person now that his child bride Miana is expecting a child.  The plot flips between his actions and adventures five years ago and his current trek for the Congression in order to become Emperor of the Broken Empire.  It’s reminiscent of Don Carlo’s character in Ernani except without the whole vowing to be a better person if he becomes emperor.

What I did like the most about Jorg’s character is that despite his all-around awfulness, you get the feeling that he’s broken on the inside as well and is fully aware of it.  Even with those limitations on his character he grows within those limits quite well.  As the end draws nearer you can feel his need to fulfill the purpose Fexler told him about despite the consequences.  And how he fulfills that promise and solves the whole Dead King problem is absolutely brilliant on Mark Lawrence’s part.  The epilogue also sticks to how Jorg’s character is and imagines a realistic ending for such a broken man.

As usual the world-building in The Broken Empire trilogy is amazing.  We get to see all kinds of new places, learn about the promised lands where the radiation from the nuclear bombs went off and see all kinds of new characters that have grown out of the dark underbelly of the broken empire.  What I found particularly interesting were not only how certain religions survived, but also the cult of mystery that surrounds ‘mathemagicians’.  In a place that has essentially reverted back to the Middle Ages I suppose advanced math would be sort of magical.

The plot wasn’t nearly as confusing as it was in King of Thorns.  I found the switches between different points of view had a more natural transition and that the little subplots were better explained.  Overall it was a little more fast-paced because of that and Mark Lawrence kept me guessing until the end.  Even in the epilogue I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to Jorg until it was revealed within the narrative.  Now that is the mark of a good storyteller.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence(Cover picture courtesy of The Streetlight Reader.)

To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake. I’ve walked from pawn to player and I’ll win this game of ours, though the cost of it may drown the world in blood…

The land burns with the fires of a hundred battles as lords and petty kings fight for the Broken Empire. The long road to avenge the slaughter of his mother and brother has shown Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath the hidden hands behind this endless war. He saw the game and vowed to sweep the board. First though he must gather his own pieces, learn the rules of play, and discover how to break them.

A six nation army, twenty thousand strong, marches toward Jorg’s gates, led by a champion beloved of the people. Every decent man prays this shining hero will unite the empire and heal its wounds. Every omen says he will. Every good king knows to bend the knee in the face of overwhelming odds, if only to save their people and their lands. But King Jorg is not a good king.

Faced by an enemy many times his strength Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But playing fair was never part of Jorg’s game plan.

I believe I said this before, but it bears repeating: Jorg is like Genghis Khan if he’d gotten started on the whole conquering business in his teen years.  Trust me, King of Thorns and the whole of The Broken Empire trilogy is brutal in terms of blood, guts and gore.  It’s not for the faint of heart.

With that said, I still love Jorg as a character.  Mark Lawrence has managed to create a character that is far from sympathetic, but is more empathetic.  Readers get an in-depth understanding of who Jorg is and why he is the way he is, but it’s hard to feel sorry for him very often.  Rather, he’s an interesting character so you can’t help but keep on reading to find out what happens to him.  Although the narrative was a little more disjointed, you can certainly tell how Jorg has changed from the first book now that he’s eighteen years old.  Is he any less ruthless?  No.  But he does feel at least a little sympathy for some human beings by this point.

My only complaint about King of Thorns is the disjointed narrative.  We get treated to excerpts from Katherine’s diary, Jorg’s point of view four years ago immediately after the events of Prince of Thorns and the current wedding day/battle.  During each of these points in the narrative there are flashbacks within the flashbacks, so I admit it did get a little confusing.  Could Mark Lawrence have written this in a better way?  Probably.  Does it still work out?  Yes.  The plot is tied up nicely by the final battle and even though Jorg has changed, his last main action at the end of the novel is so completely in character you can’t help but laugh.  Then again, maybe you won’t because I personally have a morbid sense of humour.

What I really liked about this second book in the trilogy is that Jorg is an even better character than before, but also that we got to see more of his world.  This post-apocalyptic quasi-Medieval world is absolutely fascinating!  You can tell Mark Lawrence really put effort into world-building because we get all kinds of subtle hints at the events that brought along the apocalypse as well as how it changed the world.  I don’t want to give things away, but from the sounds of the Builders and the political strife that occurred after their fall it’s no wonder Jorg is the way he is.  It’s a brutal, cruel world and seemingly good men like the Prince of Arrow are swallowed up by it.

Overall, I absolutely loved King of Thorns.  It was fast-paced if a little disjointed at times, the characters acquired more depth and the world-building was expanded upon.  If you like dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic fiction you’ll love The Broken Empire trilogy.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

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Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence(Cover picture courtesy of Fantasy Book Critic.)

Beware the Prince of Thorns…

When he was nine, he watched as his mother and brother were killed before him.  By the time he was thirteen, he was the leader of a band of bloodthirsty thugs.  By fifteen, he intends to be King…

It is time for Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath to return to the castle he turned his back on, to take what’s rightfully his.  Since the day he hung pinned on the thorns of a briar patch and watched Count Renar’s men slaughter his mother and young brother, Jorg has been driven to vent his rage.  Life and death are no more than a game to him—and he has nothing left to lose.

But treachery awaits him in his father’s castle.  Treachery and dark magic.  No matter how fierce his will, can one young man conquer enemies with power beyond his imagining?

When Savindi from The Streetlight Reader told me Prince of Thorns was quite unlike any other book because of the main character, Jorg, I was definitely intrigued.  What had Mark Lawrence decided to do that was so different?  Who was this mysterious Jorg?

Well, the short answer is that he’s a miniature Genghis Khan.  When the opening scene in a book begins with Jorg and his men raping and pillaging, it tends to set a rather dark tone.  Rightly so, as it turns out.  Prince of Thorns is not an uplifting book at all, but what saves it is that it is an incredibly interesting book.  Not just because of Jorg, but because of the future world it takes place in, one where there seems to have been a huge nuclear war that wiped out most technology and made it revert back to Medieval times.  If that sounds familiar, it probably is, but Mark Lawrence put such an interesting spin on things that I wasn’t bothered by his use of that particular trope.

Prince of Thorns isn’t really so much about the post-apocalyptic world, but rather Jorg himself.  This is one messed up teenager, something that I don’t say lightly.  Seeing his mother and little brother killed at the age of nine while being trapped in a thorn patch and unable to help seriously affected him.  He tends to lash out at the world, taking his revenge upon practically anyone in his ultimate quest for vengeance on Count Renar.  If you’re quite sensitive, you will absolutely hate Jorg.  But if you’re a little more open-minded, Jorg is an interesting character from a psychological standpoint.  The success of Prince of Thorns is proof that main characters don’t have to be sympathetic to be popular.  What they have to be is interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention.

Overall, I really enjoyed Prince of Thorns and I can’t wait to see where Mark Lawrence goes with this series.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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