King of Thorns Review
Since I am an author, Amazon has decided that any reviews I post are by their very nature biased, and has opted to remove such reviews. My opinion is further corrupted by the fact that I know many authors personally, sharing publishers with more than a few (especially after the Penguin/Random House merger), and see several of them as rivals on the field. This may lead some to believe that my thoughts on the books I read are less than trustworthy.
But fuck that. I have been reading books and having opinions on them for thirty years, and take a dim view of having my integrity questioned. There are authors I love personally whose work I refuse to promote because it is sub-par, and authors I think are total jerks who I cannot deny produce stellar books.
So I will attempt to post more reviews here and on my goodreads page, and if you don’t trust me to be honest, by all means, feel free not to read. I don’t intend to waste much time trashing books I dislike. Odds are I will never finish them in the first place, and I will only review books I finish. But when I think there’s something special out there, I will try and take the time to let people know, as is the case here.
So. On to King of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence.
King of Thorns is the second book in the Empire Trilogy. If you like, you can first read my review of the first book, Prince of Thorns, here.
With my reading time becoming increasingly precious, only the very best authors make it to my reading pile at all, and of those, I went with Lawrence to read after finally finishing edits to The Daylight War. Lawrence’s poetic prose is amazing, far and away the best of the modern fantasy authors. The prose can get a little hard to follow if you’re sleepy or your brain is fried after a long day, but this is hardly a quibble.
First person narrative is arguably the most difficult POV style, and Lawrence pulls it off brilliantly, putting you in the mind of a thoroughly despicable character and somehow making you root for him to succeed. The limited scope, however, forces Lawrence to jump around in time a bit and use some plot devices to feed information to the reader at an even pace that keeps ratcheting tension. At times this can be a bit confusing, but for the most part the frustration only invests you further.
And let’s face it, I can hardly point fingers at people who jump around in time to tell a story.
As with many fantasy series, there is more magic in book two than the first, sometimes in ways that are convenient for the protagonist, though it is largely window dressing. Almost everything that happens in the book plays second fiddle to Jorg’s inner struggle as he attempts to find himself and unravel his own thoughts and desires from the influence of others. This is the REAL story, and it is a very satisfying one.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mark when I was in London last summer, and he is a great guy in real life in addition to being one of my top ten favorite authors.
We share publishers in the UK (and thanks to the Penguin Random House merger, soon the US), and you can bet I will be pulling strings to get an early review copy of the third and final book in the series.
I’ve been looking for something to keep me occupied after finishing A Dance with Dragons and the Hunger Games trilogy, so I believe you have just gave me something to pick up!
I find it strange that authors reviews of books to be questionable – that is like saying people that work in book stores are not allowed to review either because it keeps them in a job. Book lovers are book lovers, no matter what your profession.
Two excellent books. I can’t believe Amazon pulled your reviews. Do you think it’s a knee jerk reaction to things that happened last year when reviews were being posted under false names? Can’t see why they would remove your reviews though if it’s clear who you are and you’re using your own name! Can I be curious and ask who your other 9 favourite authors are?
BTW very excited that The Daylight War is out in just a few weeks! 😀
Lynn
I spotted your review on the cover of this book in work and that’s the reason I took interest in it, otherwise I would have just put it on the shelf. Now it’s on my to-read list.
I’ll usually trust authors opinions provided I have faith in the fact that they’ve read the book they’re being quoted for and aren’t just being paraphrased for a good quote by a publisher.
I’m not sure if your just biased because you’ve met the author, or was simply reading a different book. King of Thorns was appalling, it was hard to follow, jumping from scene to scene sporadically with no apparent purpose or order. It didn’t explain important scenes in any depth which was extremely frustrating. For example, after Jorg fights Makin and turns it up a level, feelign the ‘song’ of the sword there is no further description, they just carry on setting up camp like nothing occured. The book is uninteresting and of far inferior quality to the 1st in the series
Just finished reading this book and have been going over reviews because I can’t wait for Emperor of Thorns (felt the same way after Daylight War).
The author’s writing style is unique and captivating….the dialogue has some of the most wit I’ve come across in a long time (including real life, not just limited to literature) and the plot…..oh the plot…the wait to see how our little Jorgie will continue to evolve as a person, a Brother and a king is almost too much to bear.