Prince of Thorns tells
the story of Prince Jorg Ancrath on his journey from the company of highwaymen
he leads at the outset to assuming his rightful place as a noble and contender to
reunite the Broken Empire.
The most interesting
feature of this book, at the outset, is the unsavory nature of the protagonist
who in the first few chapters alone commits multiple murders and rapes. As time
goes on, we learn more about what is driving his immoral deeds, but it'd be a
stretch to say he achieves any sort of Darth Vader-type redemptive arc.
The strongest features of
this story are definitely the lively pace and vibrant writing - it is a really
fun and quick read. Lawrence is very good at sketching out characters and
locales so they are brought to life with just the right amount of details, and
never feels heavy-handed as many authors tend to do when trying to present
characters as imposing or bad-assed. The plot moves forward at a great pace and
overall is very tight, excepting a detour into Gelleth which seems a bit
extraneous but can be forgiven because it's such a cool episode. Probably the
strongest justification for that detour is what it reveals about the setting -
which was one of the things I really appreciated about the book; the backstory
is very cool and novel.
I was amused to see
several mentions of "playing a game of thrones." (Also at least one
instance of the GRRM groaner "he was not wrong.") That said, at no
point did I feel like I was reading someone trying to imitate Game of Thrones,
Lawrence definitely has his own distinct style and feel, although Game of
Thrones readers would probably enjoy it too. So, a great way to help fill the
gap until the next SOIAF book comes out.
No comments:
Post a Comment