Reviews with content warning for Gore - Prince of Thorns

The Prince of Thorns is a well-written book about a deeply unlikeable main character that the author clearly, fully understands is so. Based on that, you probably already know if this is something you'll want to read.

The world of the setting is interesting without being bogged down by unnecessary exposition. Set in the future of our planet, it fuses fantasy with sci-fi elements while still leaning heavily into low-fantasy tropes. The book lets you know early on that something is up with its fantasy setting when the main character can reference Shakespeare and Sun Tzu from his studies, but figuring out how the ruins of our world have been built on is part of the pleasure of reading.

What isn't part of the pleasure of reading is Jorg. Jorg and his merry band open the story by setting a farming village on fire, hanging out watching the villagers they slit open die slowly, and raping their daughters. (Happily that last one isn't graphic, although expect it to get casually mentioned a few times with about the same level of interest as Jorg saying what they'd eaten for dinner that night.)

Incidentally, women in this book exist solely to be hot, raped, or die tragically. Sometimes in combination, like hot and dead, to spice things up. I came to this because I read and loved Mark Lawrence's later series, The Book of the Ancestor, which has phenomenal, mostly-female cast. The way women are treated here is like night and day, and while some of it can be chalked up to the POV character, that doesn't explain things like the utterly unnecessary, cringe-worthy scene where a pouty, giggling caricature of a sex worker who gets her jiggling ass used as a reading table and then croons over him being a prince, just so we know that Women Want Jorg. Great. There's also a weak attempt at a love-at-first-sight romance, with Jorg becoming instantaneously obsessed with his generically fiery step-aunt (who fits into the "hot" category, of course).

I can only assume that at some point between this and Book of the Ancestor that Lawrence realized his writing came across as sexist as hell and fixed it. Which is actually great! Good on him for improving.

Race is handled marginally better, in part because there are only two characters that read as non-white: Jorg's tutor from future-China, and the Nuban, from future-Africa. No, the Nuban never gets a name, and yes, he's the only one in the whole story who doesn't. They are, respectively, a Magical Asian trope and a Magical Negro trope, downplayed to fit in with the more realistic aspects of the setting. For better or worse, they're also two of the only likeable characters, just for not being inclined toward the casual murder of innocents. Both also

die tragically for Jorg,

but given the tropes you probably saw that coming.

So, all that being said, why read the book? Mostly for the strength of the writing and plot. The prose is readily readable and goes down smoothly, and the pacing snaps forward from plot point to plot point to keep you hooked. It is entertaining to see Jorg boast about how he'll accomplish this or that impossible feat and then follow along with his convoluted schemes to see how he manages it. He's a magnificent bastard to a T. And there are a few scant hints here and there in the book that he's heading towards becoming more likeable eventually, which drew me to try the next book in the series as well when I might have otherwise dropped the series here. I want more of this odd world, and I want to see if Lawrence can turn this violent, psychopathic child into someone worth caring about.

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surdiablo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

If you ever wanted to read about a ruthless, murderous sociopath protagonist for a change, this book is for you. It does not hold back in any way right from the beginning and it's such a wild ride seeing things from Jorg's point of view. It does require some suspension of disbelief however, a teenager being the leader of a vicious band of outlaws and always comes out alive in every scenario, but the way he does it is rather unpredictable or ridiculous that I had a good time reading it nonetheless. The story keeps shifting between present and past events however so that might ruin the flow if you dislike flashbacks chapters. I would recommend this if you are a fan of grimdark and don't mind mentions of rape or protagonist being a complete piece of crap.

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writingcaia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Interesting story this one of Jorg, the Prince caught in the thorns watching the ones he loves the most die while unable to stop it.
When you meet him he is a savage, brutal, uncaring, ruthless kid, only thirteen, which kind of boggles the mind. But, I guess it is the Broken Empire and there are explanations and manipulations but there’s still a lot of violence that felt a bit too gratuitous and less mentions to rape would have tasted much better, still we end up realising everything has a reason, somewhat.
The plot is solid, sometimes leading places you would never guess, which makes it surprising and fun, but then gore, again. It’s the authors choice I guess.
The writing is pretty good, but both plot and writing in the author’s Book of the Ancestor trilogy are far superior, which is one of the reasons for my rating too.
The ending was not bad, not too much of a cliffhanger, just enough for you to know what’s what and making clear that he will be likely a bit older on the next book but his aim the same. How he will get there? Well I want to find out.

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