Prince of Thorns / Broken Empire trilogy

Has anyone read The Prince Of Thorns or the rest of Mark Lawrence's trilogy?

Personally some of my favorite books of the last few years. I love the author's ability to use pretty sparse prose but then go into these amazing phrasings and images.

I'm actually reading through King of Thorns (the second book) currently, I believe. ^_^

I read the first book a few months ago no, I think, and remember rather enjoying it — although it does have some rather disturbing elements (as does the second book). I don't remember what I thought of the prose itself.

The second — thus far, at least — I'm finding to be an enjoyable, easy read, although I do occasionally feel that the descriptions are a little thin for my taste.

I've read the series, and very much enjoyed it, especially for a first effort. Jorg's a interesting character. Dark as all hell, but entertaining enough that I stayed interested, and even sympathetic to him. He's not a saint, and in most books-perhaps even this one, he'd be a villain, but at the same time, he's interesting enough, and complex enough avoid Darkness Induced Apathy.

He's...for lack of a better word, Chaotic Evil, as well. Most villain protagonists are the smooth, magnificent bastard, calculating, in control types. Jorg's a lot more impulsive, and in a lot of cases, stupid, than that.

I enjoyed the setting a lot-I'm a suck for post-apocalyptic stuff, and this one was cool because it was very subtle, for the most part. It kept you guessing, and it would take you a while to realize the castles were things like parking garages and malls. It also have that lovely Tolkien aspect of being vague enough, and with enough Cryptic Background References to tickle the imagination.

Ending stuff: I was a little iffy about the ending, but I found some author commentary that helped clarify a lot of things. I'll try to dig it up. I figured out the brother thing pretty early, but the pearly gates still came out of left field.

edited 13th Oct '13 7:59:38 PM by DrTentacles

Ehee! I love Jorg. Sometimes I half-jokingly describe him as the fusion of Ramsay Bolton and Theon Greyjoy. The books are dark, but the gallows humor keeps it from being depressing. It's why I can't get through Bakker—I loves me a dark story, but I get bored when everything's grim and serious.

Regarding book 3, I interpreted the pearly gates thing to just be in Jorg's head, since it was the religious imagery he was raised with, but I could be totally off-base. It was a rather sudden ending and I wish there'd been more resolution with Katherine, but overall I loved it. My favorite detail was "Uncle Rike." Oh, regarding the "guess the modern technology," the bit that sent me laughing was realizing the capitol building was a prison and had an electric chair. Oh, and the poor custodian!

Glad you're liking it! It hits some dark notes, but Jorg's pithiness still makes me laugh. Book two was my favorite of the three, though I love them all. One of the bits at the end was so gloriously awesome I had to put the book down I was laughing so hard.

edited 13th Oct '13 10:36:04 PM by phoenixflame

Ending: The WOG that I found said you're right about it being in his head, because of the religious imagery he was raised with. Lawrence is on the Westros forums a lot...time to do a binge. It's cool seeing authors you read posting on forums. Also, I thought the capitol was the Louve, though I got the electric chair. Must re-read. I also loved the Data-gosts.

Yeah, I loved how these were written, especially Jorg's internal monologue. This series wouldn't have worked nearly as well if it was from the standard outside perspective. It's a pleasure seeing Jorg lie to himself.

Some of the pop culture references were hilarious as well, stuff like song names coming up as old wizened sayings and some as just great jokes in the writing itself.

As a purely narrative experience it had some things lacking and most of the twists were fairly predictable, but overall still a great read. Highly recommended.

So, I've finished King of Thorns, I believe. Overall, I rather enjoyed it, and am looking forward to reading the next book.

I will confess that a few elements felt insufficiently foreshadowed, including Jorg inviting the trolls to live in the Highlands, being able to use the ghost-version of a "Builder's Sun" to get rid of an undead horde — that felt a little deus-ex-y to me, I think — and his finding the gun — which I would have liked elaboration on, for that matter.

I was surprised by and really liked the character of Miana; I'm very much looking forward to seeing how she and her relationship with Jorg develops. I also really enjoyed Katherine's development — especially her development into a dream-witch. I was saddened that she was lost at the end — although I have some hope that she was dream-witch enough to manage to get away. Thinking of Katherine, I rather liked the gradual teasing of the events contained in the box, and the events that they finally revealed.

I really liked the revelation near the end that Egan had killed his brother; I felt that it proved an interesting — and foreshadowed — surprise.

edited 18th Oct '13 8:40:09 AM by ArsThaumaturgis

The whole thing with Egan at the end had me fist pumping. I don't know why but it was such a "FUCK YEAH!" moment for me.

To me the only element that came out of nowhere was the gun. Thus far the purpose of the last four years was to intersect the present battle so I figured the trolls and Gorgoth would be back. I will say though, regarding the former, that little adventure gets fleshed out in Emperor of Thorns, and the...ermm...complexity of the situation I think made it better suited for the third book, though I think Po T could have given a little more foreshadowing.

Miana is awesome. I loved how when Jorg was having a BSOD, she got friggin' pissed and decided to save herself.

Speaking of Eo T, one detail that made me chuckle was Jorg's father dying of a random heart attack, robbing Jorg of any vengeance. Buahaha, I can just imagine the douchebag smiling in his final moments.

edited 21st Oct '13 10:19:11 AM by phoenixflame

Regarding the gun, fair enough, I suppose; I do think that at the least a little more time (along with something along the lines of "but we'll go into this in more detail later") could have been given to foreshadowing it.

You make a good point regarding Gorgoth and the trolls; I missed that point.

Regarding Miana, heh, I did indeed enjoy that scene. ^_^

I haven't read your spoiler for Emperor of Thorns, since I have yet to read that book. :P

I just finished KOT. Way better than POT. I loved how they mixed the fantasy and post-apocalyptic elements, even if the premise kinda strains itself.

And now finished EOT. A bit abrupt, but good nonetheless. The series far exceeded my expectations.

Have you read Prince of Fools? It's set around the same time, but Jalan is a very different character—“I’m a liar and a cheat and a coward, but I will never, ever, let a friend down. Unless of course not letting them down requires honesty, fair play, or bravery.”

It intersects briefly with Prince of Thorns too, in a way that had me flipping back to the part in the first book going "Wait that random bandit brother was...!!!"

edited 30th Apr '15 11:32:43 PM by Phoenixflame

I got it downloaded, but haven't started it. It'll be a while yet, I like to keep an author rotation.