When he was nine, he watched as his mother and brother were killed before him. At thirteen, he led a band of bloodthirsty thugs. By fifteen, he intends to be king.
It's time for Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath to return to the castle he turned his back on, to take what's rightfully his. Since the day he hung pinned on the thorns of a briar patch and watched Count Renar's men slaughter his mother and young brother, Jorg has been driven to vent his rage.
Life and death are no more than a game to him and he has nothing left to lose. But treachery awaits him in his father's castle. Treachery and dark magic. No matter how fierce his will, can one young man conquer enemies with power beyond his imagining?
Who doesn’t want a healthy dose of white male rage to fuel their readers? Well, Prince Jorg certainly has abundance amount with psychotic tendencies and little sympathy. If
Game of Throne’s King Joffrey had a stand-alone story,
Prince of Thorns is that in a nutshell.
I took the plunge and read this much-hyped book that many 4-star reviews claim that it’s unique. and I, being a hopefully individual really, REALLY wanted to like this book, but it never got my full attention. This was no page-turner, rather I would read this for about five minutes and then go about my day. I don’t think the writing was the issue. It was something else.
The first book of the Broken Empire series, this fourteen-year-old, self-titled murdering rapist Jorg returns to his father’s castle after four years on the road with a band of ex-con brothers. Jorg’s been busy plundering, murdering, thieving, and raping farmer’s daughters. Why? Because he’s a basic King Joffrey and the small fact that he saw his mother and younger brother slaughtered before his very eyes when he was just ten, as the hook briar thorns held him in place. Does that excuse his horrendous behaviour? The answer to this question is always NO.
Anyway, Jorg comes parading back to his father’s castle, only to find out he has a step mum and his aunt (through marriage) is super-hot. He demands to be the prince of the Ancrath, but to prove his worth (and inheritance), Jorg must go and defeat the “red castle”. Instead, he side-tracks and goes into the wilderness to face a necromancer, ghosts and probably something else. Through white male rage (fighting and verbal abuse), he defeats the mysterious foes, returns to his father, only for him to get literally stabbed. At this point, I should have stopped reading, but I was 75% in and I invested too much time to let it slide. Jorg finally gets his revenge on the man responsible for killing his precious mother and brother. Jorg ambition to become king is only the start of his problems.
“Tell me, tutor,' I said. 'Is revenge a science, or an art?”
I have nothing against the writing or the world-building (assume to be the 14th century but it talks about old-world technology) because it’s shrouded in mystery. I’m sure Lawrence will expand on this in his later books. The story is told from Jorg point of view in the first-person narrative, which means that Jorg spent 300+ pages thinking, recounting, reminiscing, and clearing his own head to move the plot forward. What I wasn’t too fond of (but I wouldn’t remove stars) was the erratic pacing of events. There are two time-lines sandwich between alternating chapters, and as I took a few breaks from reading this book it was confusing to come back to events that I thought happened at present time actually happened in the flashback. It disrupted the flow of the story.
“Memories are dangerous things. You turn them over and over, until you know every touch and corner, but still you'll find an edge to cut you.”
Now is where PoT starts losing stars. Why can't male authors write a decent female character? This was an issue in another fantasy novel I read, The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley, where females came across as either sexual interests, angry or heartless. Except for Jorg’s mother who we never meet because she’s dead before the narrative begins, essentially Lawrence’s female characters are either rape or murder victims (sometimes both) or the evil seductress. Oh, wait there was the prostitute Sally, despite not joining the dead, was treated creepily by Jorg. And that’s just the minor characters. The main female character, Katherin Ap Scorron, Jorg’s step-aunt was portrayed as a pretty woman, way ahead for her time who always looks down at Jorg. That is it. She had a few scenes and she had a little to do with the plot, only to serves as Jorg’s forbidden love interest.
“Hate will keep you alive where love fails”
The only minor characters I liked were the Nuban, Makin and Sim. They had depth and substance and I would gladly read their life stories. But, without a shadow of a doubt, I can say I loathed Jorg. He’s an arrogant, melodramatic fourteen-year-old who is incredibly irresponsible. He takes us on this journey of murder and mayhem and he’s saying…
“The way to break the cycle is to kill every single one of the bastards that fucked you over. Every last one of them. Kill them all. Kill their mother, kill their brothers, kill their children, kill their dog.”
Lawrence made sure Jorg has no redeeming features, devoid of kindness and makes him the epitome of the worst in humans. From start to finish, he murders, slaughters, rapes, tortures, burns whole villages, and even that is not enough for him. After saying that, Jorg is an unbelievable character, like, he’s not a warrior yet he wins every battle he fights because his victories come in moments of sheer stroke of luck. His road brothers, who are cruel grown thugs with brutal strength are afraid of him. Only some of these characters were real or complex. Like I’d straight up go and slap Jorg in Tyrion Lannister style and then run before he gets the chance to stab me.
“You soon learn there’s no elegance or dignity in death if you spend time in the castle kitchens. You learn how ugly it is, and how good it tastes.”
It’s a shame that I couldn’t enjoy PoT. I liked the author’s writing on old age philosophy about life and death. This is a much-hyped up book that I think isn’t one of Lawrence’s best. I’ve heard that his other series
The Book of Ancestor and
The Red Queen’s War are far better. That said, PoT isn’t a bad book. I feel as though it was written for more of a male audience. If Lawrence had concentrated on worldbuilding, less conflict, and giving some likeable qualities in Jorg, this would have been a praiseworthy five-star book. I probably will finish this trilogy and pray Jorg behaves like a grown-up.
Rating: 3/5
Publishers: Doubleday
Publication date: September 13th 2011
Genre: dark epic/ high fantasy
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