Andrew E. (andrewelf) reviewed on 1/22/2014 + 3 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

When your protagonist rapes a woman after destroying her village within the first few pages of a book, you better go to extraordinary lengths to make the character worth following for the next few hundred pages- let alone a multi-book series. Prince of Thornes, while well written and offering some intriguing twists on the fantasy genre, doesn't really do it.

Certainly not for lack of trying. Lawrence brings a cast of loathsome and often amusing characters and puts them in a pretty well imagined world that offers the possibility of secrets and adventures. But Jorg, the "hero" of the series, is hard to root for from the very beginning unless you like your anti-heroes very, very dark (and 14 for some reason). And at a slim 336 pages we really don't get deep enough into the world to care what's going on. Lawrence also relies on the deus ex machina to get his characters out of waaaay too many situations therefore bleeds the tension out of most of the book.

As to the physical book, while the cover art is really good- Ace seems to have blown their budget on the cover- the book itself is cheaply printed and the map in the front is too small and not detailed enough.

Overall can't really recommend Prince of Thorns.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details