Review: King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

Title: King of Thorns
Author: Mark Lawrence
Series: The Broken Empire, #2
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Publication Date: August 7th, 2012
Edition: Kindle Edition, 458 pages
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | BAM




Synopsis:
The boy who would be King has gained the throne...
   Prince Honorious Jorg Ancrath vowed when he was nine to avenge his slaughtered mother and brother—and punish his father for not doing so. When he was fifteen, he began to fulfill that vow. Now he is eighteen—and he must hold on by strength of arms to what he took by torture and treachery.
   King Jorg is a man haunted: by the ghost of a young boy, by a mysterious copper box, by his desire for the woman who rides with his enemy. Plagued by nightmares of the atrocities he committed, and of the atrocities committed against him when he was a child, he is filled with rage. And even as his need for revenge continues to consume him, twenty thousand men march toward the gates of his castle. His enemy is far stronger than him. Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight.
   But he has found, in a chamber hidden beneath the castle, ancient and long-lost artifacts. Some might call them magic. Jorg is not certain—all he knows is that the secrets they hold can be put to terrible use in the coming battle.

Review:

So, this book took me a while to get through. Not for lacking in quality, because this book is fantastic, but life just got in the way.

Jorg, he's still kind of a shit person. He still wants revenge, but he no longer seems to think feeling remorse for things is weakness, especially after a particular loss. I also kept forgetting how young he is. This book, like the first, is told in alternating timelines set four years apart. So it's split between when he's 15 and when he's 19.

While not as fast-paced as book one, this book had a lot of great worldbuilding that really fleshed out the world, making it more obvious that this was some kind of post-post-apocalyptic world where humanity has gone back to a time before we used modern technology. I found that part really interesting and made me wonder what exactly happened that brought humanity to that point.

I think what I like most about this book though are the characters. Even though 90% of them are morally grey, at best. They are all such interesting characters and very different from each other.

I really enjoyed that the other perspective we got in the form of journal entries from Katherine, it added some context to certain scenes. That ending has me very curious/excited/nervous about the final book.

There's just not much more I can say about this book that doesn't spoil things.

If you like characters with questionable morals and motives, where nobody is a hero, with interesting worldbuilding. Then this is a series to read.