Prince of Thorns

By: Mark Lawrence

Narrated by: James Clamp

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Author Mark Lawrence has won over audiences everywhere with Prince of Thorns, his exciting debut novel.

Nine-year-old Prince Jorg is forced to watch as his mother and brother are slaughtered. Fleeing the palace, Jorg joins a bloodthirsty band of thugs. But he’s determined to take back what’s rightfully his, so he returns to the castle a few years later - unaware of the dark and powerful magic that awaits.

©2011 Bobalinga, Ltd. (P)2012 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

“Vivid … full of wonder. This book is brilliant.” ( Galaxy Book Reviews)

Dark tale of evil and free will

The book is very dark, but raises interesting questions about morality, free will, identity and what can (or should) be forgiven.

Speed it up to reduce the too-long pauses.

The story is as entertaining as I recall from reading it in print, but the narration has awkwardly long gaps between statements, especially in dialogue.

Playing at 1.10 speed helped in most regards, but caused pacing issues elsewhere.

The end, as good as the beginning

I listen to all three books in the series over the course of 4 days. It was a fantastic series. A compelling story, and I recommend you listen to it. All of it.

I'LL DIE WHEN I'M READY

DREAMS TELL A MAN WHO HE IS.
This story is told in first person, by a guy who loves to hear himself talk. I might have liked this better if written in third person. At times I just wanted the kid to shut up. I am always weary of people who brag about themselves. Tell me they are smart, honest or tough. It usually ends up being the opposite. This guy was tortured at 10 years old and now at 14, he is a bad ass, okay we get it, now let's get on with story, shall we. The first half of the story is all about convincing you that this fourteen year old is a bad ass. He even kills without warning his own followers, sometimes because their looks irritate him. I fail to understand how you can get a group of guys to follow you if they never know when you are going to kill them next. I listened to all of this and there are glimmers of real writing, but it is surrounded by double talk. The second half of the story reads more like Conan the Barbarian. The late middle part of the book, where he is under the mountain and fights necromancers, is the best part of the book. When he is doing something and not talking about doing something.

I SWALLOWED THE NIGHT AND THE NIGHT SWALLOWED ME
I always feel it to be a cheap trick to do a lot of double talk. A lot of people seem to think it clever and you even it see it in some of the classics, but this guy does it constantly. I DON'T LIKE TO BE ANGRY, IT MAKES ME ANGRY. ALL OF A SUDDEN IMPOSSIBLE ODDS, SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE. YOU LOSE THE GAME AND WHAT DO YOU LOSE? YOU LOSE THE GAME. IN A REAL FIGHT AND MOST FIGHTS ARE REAL. EVEN AS THEY LEFT ME, THE WORD SOUNDED HOLLOW, CHILDLESS.

AND IF PEOPLE CALL YOU KING, THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE.
Probably the biggest fact that you comes out of this story, is that kings are nothing but the biggest bully on the block. That is how they get started and then it is nepotism from then on.

I'M A SOLDIER (reviewer) AND THAT'S THE END OF IT.

A game of Thorns and Power

Any additional comments?

This is a rich smooth syrup of poetic prose. Words so thick you can not see through them. Not a watercolor but an oil painting with texture, depth and color, mostly red. This is also a study of madness as seen from the inside and a how-to on making a monster.

All the characters are Jorg. It is his vision that is your window to his world. You only see through his eyes. All others are what he tells you they are. Reality is what he wants to believe. His values, that all can be sacrificed and all is a means to an end, is what drives this book. That all must bend to his will. That one or two well placed corpse will make others more compliant. He is assured that men will fallow him because they will! Things will happen as he wants, because it will! Because he is Jorg.

Do I like Jorg? No. Would I ever want to meet him? Hell no! Do I want to read the next book, as well as anything else by this author? Yes please. Because fellow readers this man can write!

One way to judge a book is by the echoes it leaves in your mind. Do you think about it? Where you changed by it? Did it disturb you? This one will be lurking in the dark corners of my mind for a long time.

Not your average story of a Princeling Hero

I really enjoyed this story because the main character, Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath, isn't a white-moraled character unable to do what needs to be done in order to survive. Well, that's probably stretching it a little bit. It's less about survival, more about attaining his goals, which largely revolve around revenge.

He has just enough humanity that you feel for him, but not enough that he won't make sacrifices.

So I loved him.

What I didn't love is that Jorg is like...13 at the beginning of the book and 14 when we get done, I believe. Normally I loath teenage protags cuz they are whiny and hopeful and naive, but Jorg is not...which leaves me feeling odd about him. I just can't picture him as a teenager. It's only mildly strange because my mental image doesn't always line up with the reality of the book's description. The other thing is that he's the leader of a rough and tumble group of road-hardened brigands. He's talking about trying to keep Little Rikey in line with a look that says, "I'll fucking murder you" and then I find out he's only 13!

The rest of the book was alright, but kinda made me wonder, "where are we going?" It seemed like we were headed towards revenge against Count Renner, and then we veered off into Jorg needing his father's approval.

There are a couple of decent gaps in what goes on at the end. You sort of figure it out...theres some context clues, but I'm still left going, "Wait. What happened?"

In so far as the voice actor is concerned, he has a lovely voice. I enjoyed what he did and how he played all the characters. What I didn't enjoy is the speed at which he reads and the rather large spaces he puts in between people talking. You have a conversation going on and one character interrupts another, but he puts a large pause there and it's weird. Also, conversation doesn't flow very well if you're going to put 2 seconds between every person talking.

I'm going to continue the series because I already listened to all of The Red Queens War and met Jorg as Jalon Kendirth (sp?) And now I'm fascinated to see what happens.

Hmmmm…

I’m torn. I bought this because I read one of Lawrence’s other books, The Prince of Fools. This book is confusing to listen to, I felt myself unable to picture the scenes that played out. I kept losing track of what was happening, I think the most confusing thing was that the MC is supposed to be a 10 year old? A child who saw his mother and brother slain? There was no child like voice or something to distinguish the MC to other male voices, so I found myself constantly wondering what the hell was going on.

The most disorientating thing was that apparently this “child” is some kind of masochist or something, how a 10 year old child can choke out a full grown man is beyond my meager comprehension. Obviously there were some incongruities with how one would picture the scene being narrated to you. As I picture a 10 year old, you know; a 4th grade child give or take choking a damn Viking. No. Nope. Even the setting the author put to paper has them in a medieval landscape, the whole bit mind you: complete with malnutrition and a feudal economy. With that information, how could anyone picture a child about knee to waist height choking a battle hardened Viking man?

I just couldn’t get past it. A blood thirsty 10 year old child is not something I find particularly palatable. I loved A Prince of Fools when I read it this summer, this book was supposed to be the first of the entire Red Empire series. I’ll totally pick up the King of Thorns, I know Lawrence has a following and someone that likes him will read this and get mustard or something on his neck beard as he screams in rage while eating a hotdog. For that particular group I apologize for my lack of imagination.

Incredible

This was a brutal story. I was a bit thrown off by some of the cybernetic stuff randomly thrown in... but oh my god it was worth it. If you like brutal dark fantasy, pick this up!!!

Well written

It is such a pleasure to find a well written book. Not perfect, but wrought well.

Not bad, but a little choppy

This was pretty good, though I do feel it meandered at times and could use better transitions between chapters. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to continue the series and I thought i would love it. Narration was excellent.