YossarianLives
2018-03-05, 03:37 AM
A few days ago I finished the third book of Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy. I'm still very much in the process of digesting the series, but I'm curious to see if anyone here has read it, and what their opinions of it are.
What I liked:
First off: it was nice to read a fantasy series by an author that actually has half-decent prose and doesn't get bogged down in endless details. As much as I enjoy reading novels in the vein of A Song of Ice and Fire and The Wheel of Time, Broken Empire had the scale of a true fantasy epic, without taking half a dozen tomes to actually reach the climax. When the Dead King rose to power and his armies started to conquer the Hundred at an alarming rate, it came as a genuine surprise. All too many fantasy series' would have had an entire book devoted to foreshadowing, preliminary attacks, and PoV chapters from insignificant characters who end up as zombie-chow.
I loved the world building. Not being a scientist, I imagine quite a lot went over my head, but it was fun to spot the butchered names of real-life locations and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) references to pop culture. Rather than exposition being done entirely at the author's behest, it felt like I could, using my real world knowledge, extrapolate from the scant information given by the world map.
From a technical standpoint, I thought the writing was really solid. Good pacing and character development, compelling story, believable characters, a consistent atmosphere. Twists that genuinely caught me by surprise. Prose that went further than merely conveying the story. Jorg's road brothers were mostly a bunch of murderous *******s, but by the end I loved each and every one. Even the minor characters got a satisfying character arc!
What I liked less:
Compared to the other two books, I thought Prince of Thorns was rather weak. To me the bits of ancient technology we did see (the nuke and A.I. in Gelleth) felt out of place, perhaps because the world hadn't been sufficiently developed yet. It didn't help that Jorg was thoroughly unlikable - it definitely didn't help that the book opens with him raping and brutally murdering an entire village. At the age of thirteen. I came very close to dropping the series before the second chapter was over. To me, Jorg felt like an arrogant and temperamental child for nearly all of book one. Which is technically accurate, I suppose.
This might be a somewhat controversial statement, but I didn't much like the series' treatment of women. It was worst in Prince of Thorns, in which literally every female character serves as the target of rape, murder, or excessive lust. Usually at the hands of the protagonist. I understand that it's trying to be grimdark and historically accurate, but at times it got pretty ridiculous. It definitely got better as the series went on, but far from perfect. Of the three major female characters (Katherine, Chella, and Miana) they're still all objects of lust for Jorgy.
Jorg's characterization in the last book, Emperor of Thorns, felt inconsistent. Sometimes it felt like he was becoming a better person, growing to genuinely love his family and friends. Growing beyond petty selfishness. Then he would go on a random murder spree for little to no reason. I did like the moment where he found out his father had died of natural causes, effectively completing the cycle of revenge without him.
Excuse my amateur literary analysis. I just liked the series and wanted to share my thoughts, while hearing what others have to say.
What I liked:
First off: it was nice to read a fantasy series by an author that actually has half-decent prose and doesn't get bogged down in endless details. As much as I enjoy reading novels in the vein of A Song of Ice and Fire and The Wheel of Time, Broken Empire had the scale of a true fantasy epic, without taking half a dozen tomes to actually reach the climax. When the Dead King rose to power and his armies started to conquer the Hundred at an alarming rate, it came as a genuine surprise. All too many fantasy series' would have had an entire book devoted to foreshadowing, preliminary attacks, and PoV chapters from insignificant characters who end up as zombie-chow.
I loved the world building. Not being a scientist, I imagine quite a lot went over my head, but it was fun to spot the butchered names of real-life locations and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) references to pop culture. Rather than exposition being done entirely at the author's behest, it felt like I could, using my real world knowledge, extrapolate from the scant information given by the world map.
From a technical standpoint, I thought the writing was really solid. Good pacing and character development, compelling story, believable characters, a consistent atmosphere. Twists that genuinely caught me by surprise. Prose that went further than merely conveying the story. Jorg's road brothers were mostly a bunch of murderous *******s, but by the end I loved each and every one. Even the minor characters got a satisfying character arc!
What I liked less:
Compared to the other two books, I thought Prince of Thorns was rather weak. To me the bits of ancient technology we did see (the nuke and A.I. in Gelleth) felt out of place, perhaps because the world hadn't been sufficiently developed yet. It didn't help that Jorg was thoroughly unlikable - it definitely didn't help that the book opens with him raping and brutally murdering an entire village. At the age of thirteen. I came very close to dropping the series before the second chapter was over. To me, Jorg felt like an arrogant and temperamental child for nearly all of book one. Which is technically accurate, I suppose.
This might be a somewhat controversial statement, but I didn't much like the series' treatment of women. It was worst in Prince of Thorns, in which literally every female character serves as the target of rape, murder, or excessive lust. Usually at the hands of the protagonist. I understand that it's trying to be grimdark and historically accurate, but at times it got pretty ridiculous. It definitely got better as the series went on, but far from perfect. Of the three major female characters (Katherine, Chella, and Miana) they're still all objects of lust for Jorgy.
Jorg's characterization in the last book, Emperor of Thorns, felt inconsistent. Sometimes it felt like he was becoming a better person, growing to genuinely love his family and friends. Growing beyond petty selfishness. Then he would go on a random murder spree for little to no reason. I did like the moment where he found out his father had died of natural causes, effectively completing the cycle of revenge without him.
Excuse my amateur literary analysis. I just liked the series and wanted to share my thoughts, while hearing what others have to say.