unJon Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Finished this a few days ago and was surprised there wasn't a thread for this yet. I thought this was an excellent return to the world of the Broken Empire. Here were several nods to the original trilogy and I'm sure a few I missed. I really liked this protagonist and the loved that the Viking barbarian is actually much more cultured and knowledgable. I was afraid that all of the 'Three's Company' style miscommunications when Jal is being a coward but everyone thinks he's been brave would grate, but it never ended up bothering me at all. His berserker moment at the Black Fort worked well and showed something deeper may be going on here. I have a desire to re-read the original trilogy to see the scenes with Jorg in this boom and see how the two POVs mesh together. I also have a vague memory of the Key that opens the door to the dead coming up in the first trilogy but do not remember the context. Also I'm forgetting how the Red Queen and Silent Sister acted in Emperor of Thorns. I remember being a bit underwhelmed by SS appearance as she was name-dropped a bunch in that trilogy, but we may have a deeper insight into their appearance now. Plenty of room for this trilogy to grow. The AIs haven't made an overt appearance yet. And the Blue Lady acting behind the Dead King is a nice way to keep the stakes high for this trilogy, which I wondered how Mark would accomplish given that Jorg's stakes were about as high as it could get in this world. All in all I enjoyed the book immensely and hope to get some discussion here going to see what connections others saw but I missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Lawrence Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 All in all I enjoyed the book immensely and hope to get some discussion here going to see what connections others saw but I missed. It gets even more interesting when they spot connections that I missed :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rababal Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 What I hate about books like these is I wait a year for them and then devour them in a day. I've no restraint Anyway, love this new book and absolutely loved Jorg's cameo. Snorri was great and I can't wait to see Jal's use of the dark side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 Hah! How did you guys forget the very brief appearance by Katherine ap Scorron whose only role in this book was to kick Jalan soundly in the balls ! :laugh: Overall i liked this book but didn't love it.Jalan as the main protagonist is very likable but not as interesting as Jorg but the neat twist at the end has me thinking we will be meeting a different Jalan in book #2 ,so really looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Fitzpatrick Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Really enjoyed it. As much as I loved the Broken Thorn books at times Jorg was just an unbearable little shit. Jal though was much easier to read as a narrator. I also thought Jal and Snorri balanced each other out perfectly and that there was lots of laugh out loud moments throughout. Very satisfying read and now I'm really looking forward to the next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston de Foix Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Really enjoyed it. As much as I loved the Broken Thorn books at times Jorg was just an unbearable little shit. Jal though was much easier to read as a narrator. I also thought Jal and Snorri balanced each other out perfectly and that there was lots of laugh out loud moments throughout. Very satisfying read and now I'm really looking forward to the next. I was actually disappointed by this book. I am generally a fan of Lawrence, and even his short stories have been of excellent quality. This book just didn't do it for me. Having the Dead King as the Nemesis/villain was a strange decision because readers of the Broken Empire series know all about him. It's like watching the middle set of the Wimbledon final when the winner has already been announced. Lawrence has tried to do something interesting with Jal's character by having him lie fundamentally to himself, but it seemed a little too close to Jorg's memory issues. I think a prequel set at the "decline and fall" stage of the Broken Empire would be more interesting. A contest between the Stewards and the Emperor's line, mayhaps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Lawrence Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Really enjoyed it. As much as I loved the Broken Thorn books at times Jorg was just an unbearable little shit. Jal though was much easier to read as a narrator. I also thought Jal and Snorri balanced each other out perfectly and that there was lots of laugh out loud moments throughout. Very satisfying read and now I'm really looking forward to the next. Book 2 is written. If get my way it'll be called "The Liar's Key". Should be out June 2015. I'm 1/3rd of the way through the final book now. Glad you enjoyed Prince of Fools. Seems to be going down well. It's good to see people who've not read the Thorns books being very positive about it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circle_breaker Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Haha so no King of Fools? Guess that would be a little to cliche Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unJon Posted July 11, 2014 Author Share Posted July 11, 2014 I was actually disappointed by this book. I am generally a fan of Lawrence, and even his short stories have been of excellent quality. This book just didn't do it for me. Having the Dead King as the Nemesis/villain was a strange decision because readers of the Broken Empire series know all about him. It's like watching the middle set of the Wimbledon final when the winner has already been announced. we will see where he goes but I thought the Blue Lady was being set up as the real nemesis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixFlame Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 A bit over halfway through and loving it! The storylines intersecting at the Fallen Angel was hilarious. It was super fun to see the same characters from Jal's point of view instead of Jorg's. It's a fun take on the buddy roadtrip narrative, as well as the match-up of barbarian and nobleman. At first I wasn't sure how I liked Jal's "mistaken for heroism," but the locket mini-twist really sold it for me. I'm also picturing an AU where Jal attempts to smack Jorg around at the queen's behest and Jorg's wondering if this is some very thespian "hiding in plain sight" assassin...likely before stabbing him in the liver. As a history geek I love picking out the references. It was really amusing seeing how some historical rivalries still seem to exist a thousand years from now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anatúrinbor Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 About 25% through and I'm finding it a light and entertaining read, but not much more. The narrator's wit is what's carrying the novel. Not finding any of the other characters interesting. Obviously, it's still very early on and hopefully my opinion will change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Lawrence Posted August 6, 2014 Share Posted August 6, 2014 A bit over halfway through and loving it! The storylines intersecting at the Fallen Angel was hilarious. It was super fun to see the same characters from Jal's point of view instead of Jorg's. It's a fun take on the buddy roadtrip narrative, as well as the match-up of barbarian and nobleman. At first I wasn't sure how I liked Jal's "mistaken for heroism," but the locket mini-twist really sold it for me. I'm also picturing an AU where Jal attempts to smack Jorg around at the queen's behest and Jorg's wondering if this is some very thespian "hiding in plain sight" assassin...likely before stabbing him in the liver. As a history geek I love picking out the references. It was really amusing seeing how some historical rivalries still seem to exist a thousand years from now. It was tempting to have a full-fledged meeting but then it would have to appear in the Broken Empire books, plus Prince of Fools would have been quite short and a stand alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndance Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 Enjoyed this one a lot, but still not as much as Broken Empire. Isn't a bad thing, just means I loved the Broken Empire that much. I will say though, I love Snorri but I can't stand Jal. In the Broken Empire Jorg was an asshole, but I still loved him as a character. Jal is an asshole too, in his own way, but I really don't like him. Wouldn't mind if GRRM took over and knocked him off early on in the next book. I loved the parts where Jal and Jorg crossed paths. Great stuff there. I like how it left off too. Very wide open for what could be a large scale, epic journey for these two. It's not on par w/ Broken Empire....yet, but I can hold off on judgment until the next one is out. I wasn't fully hooked into the Broken Empire until King of Fools, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 It gets even more interesting when they spot connections that I missed :) We do the research so you don't have to :P Good to hear the series is on schedule. I'm crossing my fingers we'll get a Snorri POV - although it may have been more fun when he had the devil in him, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Lawrence Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Jal or Snorri? 61% of people prefer Jal in this poll... http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=53a74ffce4b0c9adf839da09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Jal or Snorri? 61% of people prefer Jal in this poll... http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=53a74ffce4b0c9adf839da09 Forget the Scottish referendum. this is what matters! I can at least vote in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjornbert Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Finished the book. A very good read, of course. Love Jalan a lot mor than Jorg. He's not extremly likeable, but I could sympathize better with his action's than with Jorg'sOne interesting connection is that In the original trilogy, in Prince of Thors, Jorg is more evil than normal because of the sorceror's influence, in King he's better than usual because of memory renovat and in Emperor we see his true selfIn Prince of Fools we saw the good Jalan. I thought at the end the good angel had a very positive impact on him. I even thought he might become a good person. But because of the ending, I presume the evil influence will be prevalent in the second book. We might need to wait for the third book to see his true self. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Lawrence Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Finished the book. A very good read, of course. Love Jalan a lot mor than Jorg. He's not extremly likeable, but I could sympathize better with his action's than with Jorg's I suspect the instinct to run away is more universal than the one to stand and fight :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frey Pie Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 Finished this one a few days ago. Like a few others I originally didn't like jal too much but towards the end he was beginning to grow on me. I think the part with jal trying to win over the norsemen and ladies in the pub only to be outdone by the noble norsemen was my favourite part, especially when jal got his one up on himWill we see jal becoming more like jorg in the next book I wonder? And more garyus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frey Pie Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 Also has anyone tried the short story about Jorg? Sleeping beauty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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