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A review by isauldur
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
2.0
DNF at the halfway point.
There was really nothing to the plot that kept me interested. It all feels like standard fantasy revenge politicking, and the "post-apocalyptic" paint job doesn't make it any more unique.
The characters are grating, Jorg especially. He's an odd mixture of that edgy teen who draws skulls all over his notebook and a little boy who says "well, my mommy said I was an intimidating psycho." His attitude is so edgy it's not even disturbing, just cringey. His idea of numbing himself because pain is bad can work, but the approach Jorg takes feels...unrealistic and unnecessarily radical. If he were less wanna-be badass and more driven by actual pain, I feel like I'd be more invested.
The worldbuilding isn't there so far, the story was disjointed and haphazard, and even Jorg can't define his own motivations to return home after all this time.
The author tries to hard to be the grimest darkest there is, but it comes across like the sulky fake goth brooding from early 2000s superhero films. Some reviews call this novel unique, but everything this book is doing was already done. First by GRRM to a lesser degree, then by Abercrombie. Jorg feels like he read those books, then edgily said "Those books are for babies. I'm the real grimdark." Except it verges on the silly.
Overall, this wasn't a fun read. I was mostly bored and didn't really care about anything that was happening. I will give Mark Lawrence another try, though, with another of his books. I've heard too many good things about him to just ignore his other stuff.
There was really nothing to the plot that kept me interested. It all feels like standard fantasy revenge politicking, and the "post-apocalyptic" paint job doesn't make it any more unique.
The characters are grating, Jorg especially. He's an odd mixture of that edgy teen who draws skulls all over his notebook and a little boy who says "well, my mommy said I was an intimidating psycho." His attitude is so edgy it's not even disturbing, just cringey. His idea of numbing himself because pain is bad can work, but the approach Jorg takes feels...unrealistic and unnecessarily radical. If he were less wanna-be badass and more driven by actual pain, I feel like I'd be more invested.
The worldbuilding isn't there so far, the story was disjointed and haphazard, and even Jorg can't define his own motivations to return home after all this time.
The author tries to hard to be the grimest darkest there is, but it comes across like the sulky fake goth brooding from early 2000s superhero films. Some reviews call this novel unique, but everything this book is doing was already done. First by GRRM to a lesser degree, then by Abercrombie. Jorg feels like he read those books, then edgily said "Those books are for babies. I'm the real grimdark." Except it verges on the silly.
Overall, this wasn't a fun read. I was mostly bored and didn't really care about anything that was happening. I will give Mark Lawrence another try, though, with another of his books. I've heard too many good things about him to just ignore his other stuff.