The Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire Trilogy) by Mark Lawrence – average rating 4 stars on Amazon and 3.86 on Goodreads
Are you ready for a grisly tale? – This is perhaps one of the darkest stories I’ve read since A Clockwork Orange. Set in what appears to be medieval times, a teenage prince is driven by powerful forces and fate to return to his father’s kingdom to reclaim his place as heir. Along the way you’ll experience slaughter and the most blatant villainy witnessed and undertaken by Lawrence’s main character, Jorg. You’ll uncover supernatural powers set for and against this vengeful young man, whose life, and the lives of all those around him, hang on a razor’s edge at every moment.
Why I love it – I’m always game for a good historical fiction or fantasy that breaks from the mold and Prince of Thorns has both. Lawrence crafts a realistic depiction of what life must have been like in the dark ages, where chivalry was little more than a fancy label and the true brutality and ruthlessness of man manifests in extreme violence and cunning. Jorge epitomizes the opportunist and survivor in such an age, where the span between life and death kinetically hinge on cunning and mere whim. Jorge is a living dichotomy; the introspective soul searching for truth in a tangled web of lies and illusion, and the ruthless killer driven by a seething hate for his enemies. What Lawrence captures in this setting and plot is raw and real; not a pretty story by any stretch of the imagination. The dialogue is smart and the action savage – I’d give it 4.9 stars because though violent, I found it well-written, unique, and frighteningly hard to put down.
Tom Clementson (Motley Chronicles)
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