Novel: Prince of Thorns
Author: Mark Lawrence
Pages: 336
Rating: 4/5
Before I started reading this book, I was looking for something to read that was going to be epic and really leave an impression. This novel did that from the opening line. There was lots of action. Lots of blood - so not for the faint hearted.
The novel is about Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath and his band of outlaws - whom he calls "brothers". He is out to get revenge on Count Renar who sent a group of soldiers to kill him and his mother and brother. They succeeded in the murders of both Jorg's mother and brother but he was thrown into a thorn bush - hence the name "Prince of Thorns".
During Jorg's quest to kill the Count, he leaves behind him a bloody trail of murders, rapes and very often his own "brother's" deaths at the hand of his sword. Jorg is not a character that you would want to mess with, given the fact that he is only 14 years old. He is very cruel in his slayings but he is a character that I grew to love. Mainly because we get the background story of his life prior to being on the road with his outlaw "brothers". I felt a sense of pain coming from him deep within that he is scared to show anyone else.
One thing that I found Lawrence did really well with this novel is that he used the 1st person narrative. We get everything from Jorg's point of view and I think that also helped with the "liking and rooting for the bad guy".
If you can get past the first few very gory and brutal chapters then I'm sure that you will love this novel just as much as I did. It really got me thinking about a lot of things, like where people come from and why people are the way they are. In the end revenge isn't sweet and nor does it do anyone any justice but you'll have to read the book to find out if Jorg got his revenge or not.
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