Prince of Thorns: Broken Empire 1

By: Mark Lawrence

Narrated by: Joe Jameson

Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Prince of Thorns is the first volume in a powerful new epic fantasy trilogy, original, absorbing and challenging.

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.

Mark Lawrence's debut novel tells a tale of blood and treachery, magic and brotherhood and paints a compelling and brutal, and sometimes beautiful, picture of an exceptional boy on his journey toward manhood and the throne.

©2012 Mark Lawrence (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

‘Dark and relentless, Prince of Thorns will pull you under and drown you in story. A two in the morning page turner. Jaw-dropping’
Robin Hobb

‘This is a lean, cold knife-thrust of a novel, a revenge fantasy anchored on the compelling voice and savage purpose of its titular Prince. There is never a safe moment in Lawrence’s debut’
Robert Redick, author of The Red-Wolf Conspiracy

'Prince of Thorns got hold of me from page one and didn’t let go until I finished it on my second reading session on the second day. There’s humour here, gut-wrenching realism, high adventure, something that might be magic in the story, and certainly is in the telling of it. It was almost as if the shade of David Gemmell had returned, somewhat nastier for the experience. Thoroughly recommended. Thanks Mr Lawrence'
Neal Asher

'Prince of Thorns is one of this year’s most anticipated fantasy debuts; and now I know why! It's incredible'
civilian-reader.blogspot.com

Great story

Loved it, narration fantastic it came alive and I could picture the whole thing unfolding

Disappointing

What would have made Prince of Thorns: Broken Empire 1 better?

The smugness of the protagonist is painfully off-putting. I'm sure there are people who would write it off as the character being a 'hot-headed teenager', but it made for tough going. I had hoped that as the story progressed, the needless killing, boastful nature, and general douchebaggery of the character would subside for a character that realises the errors of his ways, but instead these aspects intensify.
The story itself is less than inspiring - feeling like something that was dreamed up (ie rehashing every other novel of it's ilk) in and afternoon with a bit of time to spare.

Would you ever listen to anything by Mark Lawrence again?

No. I feel like he finished the last page of A Dance With Dragons and thought to himself "you know, I think I could probably do this as well" and picked up his quill.

Which scene was your favorite?

Every point where it seemed the main character would die.

What character would you cut from Prince of Thorns: Broken Empire 1?

Prince Jorg.

Any additional comments?

I simply cannot understand the plaudits going out to this book.
The narration/performance was very well done, for the record.

Hmmm... morbid and far fetched

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This was beyond saving for me I'm afraid. This story was boring in it's eccentricity. Just didn't do it for me.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The story starts out kinda promising but soon turns morbid with a semi humorous twist. Hard to describe it. It's so over the top that I had trouble listening any further beyond the first couple of hours.

What didn’t you like about Joe Jameson’s performance?

Very UK, the man is a voice magician. But he made the unbelievable story only more far fetched and for me that resulted in sort of a turn off.