Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (Broken Empire: Book 1)

9/10

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence is a book steeped in controversy - a book that seems to have divided the Science Fiction and Fantasy community with regards to what is acceptable for people to like and enjoy. The book has been out for a couple of years already, the arguments for various perspectives have already been well established, but I hope I can still add something new to the conversation.

Prince of Thorns is a confronting story, deliberately so, that follows a 13 year old boy named Jorg who leads a gang of marauders as they pillage their way across the countryside. Jorg is a sociopath, a willing participant, and readers get to experience the world through his damaged viewpoint. Readers get to see, through Jorg's eyes, the cold apathy with which he dispatches his enemies. They get to see Jorg's uncaring reminiscence of when he raped those farm girls before setting them on fire. He knows he probably should care or feel bad about the things that he is doing, but he doesn't. And that is discomforting.

I think it is easy to understand why people do not like this book, so I think the better question would be what is it that people like about this book? One aspect is the writing - the prose is just so effective at transporting you away and putting you directly in Jorg's head. It is vivid, it is visceral, and it feels so real. The prose really allows you to escape, to live as someone else, and even though that someone else is an irredeemable psychopath, the effortless escape is just so appealing to a lot of people. Another aspect is the setting - a far future feudal society where we get a glimpse of what our world might become if we managed to trigger a nuclear singularity. This type of setting sparks a great deal of interest for a lot of people - we just love postulations about post apocalyptic worlds.

They are just two aspects, but they don't completely cover why I liked the book so much. For me, it was all about Jorg - not my empathy for him, but my fascination with him. Lawrence gives us a damaged boy doing horrible things in a damaged world, and I want to explore the how and the why. Is Jorg's psyche something he was born with, or was it forged by the environment he lived in, and the horrific events he was forced to endure. Does he have the capacity for growth or has that been shattered. Could he ever recover from the damage inflicted, and if he could, would he even want to? The thorns have been embedded deep within Jorg's body and mind, they have festered and those that remain continue to fester, and whether or not they ever get completely extracted, the damage may just be irreparable.

Prince of Thorns tells the story of a young boy broken by the depravity of humanity. It wasn't a fun story for me to read, and yet I still enjoyed it to the very end. I don't think Prince of Thorns is for everyone, but that is another aspect I like about the book - it dares to take a chance and shine a light on some pretty confronting stuff. It generates discussion wherever it is read, and the genre grows because of this discussion. Prince of Thorns is an important milestone in the modern fantasy landscape.
Ryan Lawler, 9/10

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Dubbed ‘the British answer to George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones’, there’s more than a little of A Song of Ice and Fire in debutant Mark Lawrence’s book. The Prince of Thorns is a dark story that follows the path of a ruthless thirteen year old prince who was irreparably scarred by the murder of his mother and brother at a young age. Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath has now dedicated his life to revenge, seeking to exact a grisly death on their killer Count Renar.

A considerable part of what gives Lawrence’s story such impact is the age of his violent protagonist. At thirteen, the darkness that controls Jorg is a truly horrific - yet captivating - power to behold. It’s easy to forget the few summers the prince has lived in the face of his sharp mind and sharper sword, but Lawrence ensures you’re reminded of it just often enough to keep the horror current – whether by noting Jorg’s stature, an offhand comment made by one of his comrades or during the more revealing flashbacks that remind us how recently his luxurious court life vanished.

Initially there’s a worry that this leading lad will be an irritating, snobby little royal who dishes out orders to his followers simply because his lineage decrees he can. This preconception is quickly banished however in the face of a prince who’s as indistinguishable from, and as road-trodden as the battle-hardened men he rides with. Obsessed with ‘winning the game’, Jorg has no qualms about sacrificing any or all of his pieces, the way in which he does so occurring so momentarily that it’s often easy to miss. This attitude is reflected in Lawrence’s clipped writing style, the author wasting as little time lamenting death as Jorg does.

Lawrence’s style and pacing is spot on here, the flashbacks and pre-chapter anecdotes adding much needed context and light relief to the dark tale. The gradual disclosure of the big picture, exposing Jorg’s part as a pawn in the larger game of kings and kingdoms, is also artfully done, creating a number of spine-tingling moments that really accentuate the prince’s place in the grander scheme.

The pacing falters somewhat on the crew’s venture into the Gorge of Leucrota, and Jorg’s penchant for good luck will feel a little too convenient a little too often for some, but these are small gripes in a book that really is very difficult to put down.

A dark debut with a lot of clout, Prince of Thorns is fantastic tale of one boy’s fight for control in a world threatening to engulf him.
Alice Wybrew, 9/10