Prince of Thorns (Broken Empire, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jan 08, 2012 Michael rated it really liked it

I had heard so many good things about this book and although I'm not a fan of the gritty dark fantasy I think this was done exceeding well. Mark's prose is very well written and I found myself noting a number of particularly well done sentences, which is unusual for me to notice.

From time to time, fans of my series ask me to do a prequel on my character Royce and how he was when in the Black Diamond Thieves Guild and before the calming influences of Gwen and Hadrian started to shape him. From no ...more

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Oct 26, 2013 Maryam rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

At the first I didn't like it, but when passed the half of book, It became more and more interesting.I didn't like the last pages though and I think maybe the writer shows more in his further books as this is the first book of the series and his first novel as well. ...more

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Nov 15, 2014 Nancy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I struggled with this book most of the way through for the main reason that Jorg, the main character, is just so nasty. I couldn't find it in me to like him and so I ended up reading half of it then putting it down for over two months before coming back to finish it. In fact, for most of the book, all the way through to Jorg's destruction of Castle Red and his revelations as to why he behaved the way he did, I was wondering why I was actually reading it. The ending was quite good though, but I p ...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Jacqie rated it it was ok

Shelves: didnt-finish

I had high hopes for this one because of the Robin Hobb blurb. I like dark fantasy, like early GRRM, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch (though I guess I wouldn't really qualify the last as primarily dark fantasy). So I don't have a problem with grit or anti-heroes.

But I did have a problem with Honorous Jorg Ancrath (ridiculous name). I got 80 pages in to the book, which I feel is a fair shake and enough for me to decide if I want to finish it or not. If the author hasn't convinced me to keep reading I had high hopes for this one because of the Robin Hobb blurb. I like dark fantasy, like early GRRM, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch (though I guess I wouldn't really qualify the last as primarily dark fantasy). So I don't have a problem with grit or anti-heroes.

But I did have a problem with Honorous Jorg Ancrath (ridiculous name). I got 80 pages in to the book, which I feel is a fair shake and enough for me to decide if I want to finish it or not. If the author hasn't convinced me to keep reading in that time, then the job hasn't been done.

So, we start in a village that's been pillaged (hah!) by our antihero. We don't know why, we just know that Jorg is a mean little bastard who'll stick his sword in a farmer's stomach and then tell him about how he'll rape his daughters and then burn them alive for the fun of it. Was this a village in Jorg's kingdom? Another kingdom? I don't know, and it didn't seem to matter. Jorg is 13 years old, yet he commands a band of the meanest mother----ers that have ever walked. Don't know why this is, either. Jorg will kill any of his followers at the drop of a hat, as we soon see, which of course he must be able to do to continue to command the respect of these mean mother-----ers.

Then we go to the Lichroad. A ghost comes to Jorg, but he is scarier than it is when it tries to possess him, so it leaves. This illustrates part of the problem I had with the book. We are told that Jorg is a disturbed, frightening individual, but we are not shown it. We don't know why the ghost leaves- it's not shown. Jorg just tells us it does.

Next we move on to yet another village. It's also been pillaged, but by different people than Jorg's, so he takes offense. His scouts badly miscalculate the number of baddies (they say 20 when it's really about 100, oops) but even this isn't enough to set Jorg off his stride. He just doesn't care, you see. He'll break or stand, but never bend. This is total 13 year old bravado, but it happens to work in this situation. He goes to see the head knight, uses the knight's stirrup to leap up onto the knight's horse, stabs the knight in the eye with his own dagger, and then rides off, controlling the horse. I had to think about this one- logistically it just didn't seem to work. To control the horse he'd have to be in front, but that makes it almost impossible to stab someone in the eye with their own dagger. Leaping on behind makes more sense, but then you'll never control a horse, unless you're a 6 foot tall 13 year old. Despite being outnumbered about 4 to 1, Jorg's band of baddies cleave through the soldiers. We aren't really shown how they do it, either, we just read that they're wreaking mayhem. Joe Abercrombie can write some amazing fight scenes that give you a sense of epic-ness as well as the bad luck and randomness that can make the difference in a fight. I love reading those scenes. Here, it was not to be.
Next, Jorg runs screaming at about 50 soldiers by himself. He kills one, and everybody else flees, due to his scary feyness, I guess. Jorg is the epitome of the saying "it's better to be lucky than good."

We also get a lot of flashbacks. I'd estimate about a third of the book so far is flashback. At that point, you might want to re-evaluate your starting point for your book. Chapters are no more than 10 pages long, tops, with several at 2 to 3 pages apiece. This leads to a James Patterson style of reading- quick, easily digestible bits with lots of action and movement.

As an anti-hero, Jorg just isn't interesting to me. He talks about the experience that scarred him, but it seems like he had to be pretty wrong before that as well. I just don't buy him being able to dominate these hardboiled guys. Even if they were scared of him, wouldn't they just kill him? One quarter of the way through the book, it's not holding together well enough logically or engaging me enough emotionally to keep me going. It's dark, sure, but it's not interesting darkness.

ETA: apparently, he really is a 6 foot tall 14 year old. Why bother with it? Why not make him a bit older, especially since he really is older except for the Gary Stu wish-fulfillment? ...more

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