King of Thorns

By: Mark Lawrence

Narrated by: James Clamp

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The follow-up to Mark Lawrence' s thrilling debut novel Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns continues the tale of antihero Jorg Ancrath. After wresting back control of his kingdom from those who murdered his family, Jorg sees the land erupt with hundreds of battles fought by lords and petty kings. More daunting still, he faces an enemy many times his own strength. Jorg may not be able to win this battle in a fair fight, but he wields a rage and cunning that just might even the odds.

Also listen to the first book, Prince of Thorns.

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

Still no Unicorns ,,, but

Any additional comments?

Still Dark ,,,,Brooding and Violent but a much deeper plot. I like this book a lot better than the first book and i really liked the first.Seemed a bit less harsh with deeper characters.

The back story is great. Builders Sons,, Book of Kirk.. Took me longer than it should have to figure it out :) If you like The First Law books by Joe Abercrombie or The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks you will like these books. I am downloading Emperor of Thorns now.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Horrible

Would you ever listen to anything by Mark Lawrence again?

No

Any additional comments?

The first book was bad but I finished it and started this one because I had bought all three at once and thought perhaps it would improve. I was wrong: King of Thorns is worse. The book is disjointed with no story line, merely lurching from one unpleasant scene to the next and growing more gruesome as the book continues. I finally quit when I got to the scene where the father makes his six year old son, who has been naughty, break his dog's leg as punishment. The author must enjoy this sort of thing because he goes into great detail about the dog's fear and what the leg looked like after being hit with a hammer. I don't need a book to be filled with roses and sunshine, but I don't need gratuitous violence, gore and suffering either. This book has absolutely no redeeming features and I simply cannot fathom how it got so many 5 star reviews.

Great sequel!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

James Clamp returns with a masterful reading of Mark Lawrence's "King of Thorns." One of my favorite audiobook performances.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I like Jorg...and I hate him. I guess that's why I like him. He's complicated, but not arbitrarily so.

What does James Clamp bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Clamp manages distinct voices for each character and is very consistent. He breathes a kind of personality into Jorg that I might have missed if I were just reading it on my own.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Jorg wrestles with the unintended effects of his necromancy (trying not to give too much away).

Not close to Red Sister

I found this book lacking in the outstanding character development that Mark show us in Red Sister ( a must read), and his follow up book Gray Sister. The book left me ambivalent and not really caring about Jorge or what is next. if not an audible book to pass gym time...meh

excellent protagonist. disgusting story.

I struggled with this book. on the one hand I love the wit and voice given to the characters. oftentimes it was laugh out loud. but the story was so disgusting and dark, a bit too much for my taste

Superb- fantastic

Inspired and original Mark Lawrence continues to improve (and after writing the first in the series which I thought could bear no improvement) "King" continues to follow Jorge in his journey of self discovery and adventure.

Lawrence continues to reveal himself as potentially one of the 21st century's best fantasy (or is it SCI FI?) authors- but with character and plot development equal to, or better than, any genre.

I would recommend this to ANYONE who loves great fiction and especially lovers of low FANTASY.

THANK YOU MARK!

Tension spoiled by Lawrence bouncing around timeline & disposable characters

My biggest qualm with the book is that the first half is just a bunch of wandering and adventure without purpose. It’s also hard to really care about Jorg or any of his brothers, so when the stakes are high, I just didn’t care if someone would die. Additionally, with all the jumping around timelines, it can get a bit confusing at times. Specifically the big flaw I see in the time jumps are that characters are seen in the future before they’re put into a risky situation in the past. So then there’s no tension since I know they make it out okay.
The story is interesting. It’s odd, because it feels like fantasy, but the Lawrence tries to make it sci-fi. Only problem is he doesn’t really explain how it could possibly/theoretically work. He just says vague things that are somehow meant to convince.

totally disjointed.

I enjoyed the first book in this series. I enjoyed moments of this one. However, I found it impossible to follow the story and keep the time line straight. The story jumps so frequently between the present and flashback and there are few clear indications which time you're currently observing. very frustrating.

I don't know what to make of this one

I liked this volume up until the last few minutes. Jorg is obviously a bad guy, but he sometimes did the right thing, and then told himself he did it for the wrong reasons. I liked that. And I also liked that his reasons for being ruthless, violent, and power hungry made sense. But then at the end, he somehow becomes all powerful, which I hate because it takes the conflict out of future stories (like in Mistborn) or they inexplicably need to go backward in the sequels to keep it interesting (like in the Matrix). I prefer my protagonists to have to struggle. They're boring and unrelatable otherwise. I also worry that jabbing him fully embrace his dark side will make the character one dimensional in the next volume. I'm going to listen to it, but I'm definitely giving it the side eye at this point.

Fantastic

I read Prince of Thorns a year ago, and I loved it. I only waiting this long to read King of Thorns because I didn't want to blow through the entire series in a week.

The plot is tight and quite captivating. The prose is beautiful, which is something of a rarity in the genre. And the characters are fascinating. The growth of Jorg was something that I wasn't really expecting, but it was really interesting to follow.

I would recommend the book and the series to anyone who likes fantasy or good writing. Anyone looking for a good series to tide them over between episodes of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire would definitely enjoy these.

James Clamp's narration is excellent. I wouldn't change a thing.