Book Review: Prince of Thorns: 4.5 Stars

Title: Prince of Thorns
Book 1 of The Broken Empire
Author: Mark Lawrence
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Page Count: 373
RRP: £7.99
Genre: Dark Fantasy 
Year of Publication: 2011
ISBN: 978-0007423637
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-Book/dp/0007423632/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398425364&sr=8-1&keywords=prince+of+thorns

*All above information is based on the copy of the book that I own and have read.

Extended Rating:         80/100
    Continuity:                  8/10
    Creativity:                   8/10
    Originality:                 7/10
    Expression:                 9/10
    Captivation:                8/10
    Readability:                7/10
    Relatable:                   8/10   
    Twists and Turns:      9/10
    Imagery:                     7/10
    External:                     9/10
   

BLURB

Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse. They say these are violent times, the end of days when the dead roam and monsters haunt the night. All that’s true enough, but there’s something worse out there in the dark. Much worse.

A tale of blood, magic and brotherhood as an exceptional boy makes his journey towards manhood and the throne - this is the first book in THE BROKEN EMPIRE, a powerful, richly imagined and compelling new Voyager trilogy from exciting new British talent Mark Lawrence.

REVIEW

    This book I picked up on promotion when pre-ordering A Dance With Dragons. It was reviewed to be the ‘British answer to George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones’. As a fan, I welcomed the brag and duly read forth. I can tell you now, that I was not disappointed.

    We find Honorous Jorg Ancrath, a fourteen year old prince, has travelled from the confines of his father’s lands and is mercilessly razing towns and villages to the ground with his band of rugged, murderous road brothers. On a quest for vengeance, Jorg is a young man nurtured and fuelled by his own deliciously potent internal darkness, which claws at the reader’s mind from the pages, taking hold. I found the first hand account, with its vigorous descriptions and conversational tone, gripping to say the least. This was one of those books where the world around you shrinks in so that your world consists only of that which is oozing from the pages before you.

    Prince of Thorns offers multiple interesting snags for us. One of these being how, despite the apparent late medieval setting of it, in a world not dissimilar to how ours would have been at that time, we have recognisable names of note dropped in on us as we read. Philosophers and scholars whose works we are familiar with are mentioned as being a part of Jorg’s academic education, and the names of global locations differ very little from our own, while remaining unique. Such snippets are a fabulous tool with which to pique our interest, and certainly left me wondering over the context. Such context is gently and sparsely supplied through four-years-prior flashbacks of Jorg’s past, and what we discover is always perfectly placed.

    As mostly a fantasy sci-fi reader, I revel in stories where the world is not overly far-fetched, where the majority of the world and its workings can be logically underpinned, and the magical content is not ridiculously overbearing. Lawrence has provided such a world in this first instalment, injecting a comfortable amount of disturbing magical presence into his land, seasoning it with our character’s shallow understanding of its workings. A powerful, intimidating, and succulent blend.

    This first third of The Broken Empire saga drew me in and had me turning the first pages of its sequel King of Thorns before I’d even managed a fresh coffee, having polished this one off with gusto. Although there were some doubts over its recommendation and direction, Jorg as a logical, intelligent, and ambitious character had me dying to know how he’d get what he vowed to do done (and no doubt my dying would be an event he’d savour, from what I’ve read). Generously recommended, but not for those with a distaste for blood and more than a little gore.