“Prince of Thorns” by Mark Lawrence (Voyager/Ace)

Review by Abhinav

“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 and what is left of them lies in my mother’s tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. 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.”

From being a privileged royal child, raised by a loving mother, Jorg Ancrath has become the Prince of Thorns, a charming, immoral boy leading a grim band of outlaws in a series of raids and atrocities. The world is in chaos: violence is rife, nightmares everywhere. Jorg has the ability to master the living and the dead, but there is still one thing that puts a chill in him. Returning to his father’s castle, Jorg must confront horrors from his childhood and carve himself a future with all hands turned against him.

As I remarked in my review of Mazarkis Williams' The Emperor's Knife, I rarely do negative reviews. I fully support doing negative reviews, but I try and do as few of them as possible, since I’m far more interested in telling my readers about the great books that I’ve enjoyed reading. Mark Lawrence’s debut novel from last year, Prince of Thorns, unfortunately falls in the category of novels that I did not enjoy reading at all. It wasn’t as tough a read as The Emperor's Knife, but it was quite close.

The Week In Review

Trying something new this week: a collection of links to the most interesting posts I spotted from around the blogosphere – ranging from reviews, commentary, interviews, and more. I’ll probably keep the number of links down to about five, but sometimes there will be more, sometimes less.

They’ll be pretty basic posts – just text and the links, probably – but hopefully they’ll help generate more interest in the blogs I follow and like. So, in no particular order, here are a few links to things I found particularly interesting…

Stomping on Yeti: “Fact: Internet Polls Suck” [Comment]

The abominable blogger takes a look at possibly the dodgiest reader poll ever compiled by man.

Staffer’s Musings: “Pillars of Hercules” by David Constantine [Review]

No secret I’m a fan of Justin’s site, and especially when he reviews books that didn’t really work for him. Cheryl and ‘Fizzy’ are great creations, and this approach to negative reviews is one of the best out there. While you’re there, check out… well, pretty much everything else he’s posted. Great blog, deserves to be read by way more people than read this one.

A Dribble of Ink: “Prince of Thorns” by Mark Lawrence [Review]

Probably the best review I’ve read of the book (which I thought was fantastic), and more proof of why Aidan’s A Dribble of Ink is one of the best blogs out there (and not just taking into account book-related blogs).

Jim C. Hines: “Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price?” [Article]

An author (whose work I really want to read) gives some thoughts on a recent pricing issue he’s experienced on Amazon, while also pulling back the curtain on Amazon’s policies regarding self-published authors’ work and how much control the company demands.

Tor.com: “Warhammer 40k: 25 Years of Orks in Space” by Robert Lamb

This article was originally published on HowStuffWorks.com, but Tor kindly shared it, and that’s how I stumbled across it. It’s a great, fun look at “five sciencey reasons to be thankful for the Warhammer 4oK universe”.

There are special 25th Anniversary events taking place in (I believe) all Games Workshop stores today, in case you’re a fan and want to join in the celebrations.

Michael Sullivan: “A Digital Feast” [Article]

This is actually from January, but I really liked the post, and wanted to link to it again. Michael takes a look at writer communities, past and present, and how the internet has changed things. Really liked this one.

*   *   *

Also, because I think this week’s been pretty good as blog-content goes, I would like to draw your attention to the Robert Jackson Bennett Interview & Giveaway, my review of Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed, and yesterday’s guest post by Jon Sprunk.

That’s all for this week. Anything else you’ve seen out there you think people should read?

“Prince of Thorns” by Mark Lawrence (Voyager)

A dark beginning…

“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 and what is left of them lies in my mother’s tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. 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.”

From being a privileged royal child, raised by a loving mother, Jorg Ancrath has become the Prince of Thorns, a charming, immoral boy leading a grim band of outlaws in a series of raids and atrocities. The world is in chaos: violence is rife, nightmares everywhere. Jorg has the ability to master the living and the dead, but there is still one thing that puts a chill in him. Returning to his father’s castle, Jorg must confront horrors from his childhood and carve himself a future with all hands turned against him.

Prince of Thorns is one of the most hotly-tipped debuts of the year, and its release has been preceded by quite a lot of online uzz. After reading it, I can see why: it’s pretty incredible. Lawrence has written a dark and engrossing tale, and one that grips from very early on.

Introducing… Mark Lawrence, author of “Prince of Thorns”

The Prince of Thorns is one of this year’s most anticipated fantasy debuts. In advance of its release, I thought it might be nice to introduce the author, Mark Lawrence, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new novel and writing.