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King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (SPOILERS ALERT)

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By Gaston de Foix,
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SkynJay Council Member

SkynJay

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I was another one who probably only picked up the second book because of Mark's presence here. But add me to the glad I read it pile. I had a hard time with it at first, but by the end I was racing through the read.

I hated the Katheryne letters only because I didn't feel any purpose or resolution from them. If she shows up in the final book and the letters turn up to be set up for that, then I retract the complaint. I also liked Jorg as a character better this time around, but his complete personality shift was a little too instantaneous. I would have believed he was starting to have regrets by the Wedding Day, but in Four Years Earlier he is only a few weeks/months out from PoT's murdering monster.

Looking through the thread I realize that just assumed the commandeered building was an old concrete parking garage, didn't think of an older high rise.

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Migey Council Member

Migey

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Well, my memory on the books is a little fuzzy but...

I think the Katherine letters were foreshadowing and set up for the Prince of Arrow twist, and also to set up and explain her magic holding the wizard guy in place. They also provided us with a small viewpoint of the characters of Egan and Orrin (I think those were their names) because apart from the letters, we don't get much view of their personalities.

And I think someone made a very interesting point earlier in the thread or somewhere else; we've never yet seen the true Jorg. In book 1, he's extra assholey because he's being manipulated and partially controlled by other assholes, and in book 2, he's extra nice (well, comparitively) because a great deal of his (potentially extensive) natural assholery is locked up inside the box. Hopefully, in book 3, we'll see the real Jorg, who probably won't be quite as much of an assholish psychopath as book 1 Jorg, but probably a little nastier and slightly less pleasant then book 2.

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Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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I was another one who probably only picked up the second book because of Mark's presence here.

Well, I'm very glad you did - but it's certainly an insight into either taking reviews with a pinch of salt or into how people's views are apt to drift... cos you ended your 4* review of book 1 with "A great debut novel, cant wait for more." which rather suggests I wouldn't have to depend upon posting here to chivvy you on :)

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SkynJay Council Member

SkynJay

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And I think someone made a very interesting point earlier in the thread or somewhere else; we've never yet seen the true Jorg. In book 1, he's extra assholey because he;s being manipulated and partially controlled by other assholes, and in book 2, he's extra nice (well, comparitively) because a great deal of his (potentially extensive) natural assholery is locked up inside the box. Hopefully, in book 3, we'll see the real Jorg, who probably won;t be quite as much of an assholish psychopath as book 1 Jorg, but probably a little nastier and slightly less pleasant then book 2.

Certainly a good point. But he starts down the nice guy path almost immediately, even before box, unless my reading skills are failing me(they might be, as I said I had trouble in the early going).

Well, I'm very glad you did - but it's certainly an insight into either taking reviews with a pinch of salt or into how people's views are apt to drift... cos you ended your 4* review of book 1 with "A great debut novel, cant wait for more." which rather suggests I wouldn't have to depend upon posting here to chivvy you on :)

I know, I know. Ill read the next one too. To be fair, I have read a ton of fantasy since we saw PoT's drop. There is no doubt tastes and memories change, but I got to it eventually, right? You can keep on me next time if I need prodding =)

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Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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Don't shoot me but hated this book couldn't follow it or finish it

Heh - I won't shoot you and not even because you're not in range and I don't own a gun.

You're entitled to your view and should register it here: http://www.goodreads...-king-of-thorns with the 11 people out of 1495 who also hated the book. Readers need to be warned!

Presumably you liked Prince of Thorns in order to purchase book 2?

& a belated merry Christmas to you :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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Loved both books,

Loved how emotionally tied to the Justice story I was

Wasn't able to follow how Jorg knew Egan had stabbed Orrin in the back and let him bleed out... Did I miss the evidence there

I love how consistent Jorge mindset is .... And the Vikings being from the lands of fire and Ice

Good to hear! Hope Emperor of Thorns floats your boat too this Summer.

Jorg knew about Egan and Orin because he'd been told - it wasn't a secret. The reader can be forgiven for not realising when Jorg thinks of 'the Prince of Arrow' it's not the one they're thinking of ... but then again, I didn't want 'em to realise :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
WrathOfTinyKittens Council Member

WrathOfTinyKittens

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Finished this the other night. I thought it was great - an improvement over the already-solid PoT.

Good to hear! Actually I often get messages from people who improved their opinion about Prince on a second read. I think books with a definite 'voice' have great potential for striking someone wrongly on one day and 'catching' on another. I mention the phenomenum here http://www.dreyslibr...id-top-fantasy/

It looks like the wagons are circling into two camps - those who liked Prince best, and those who like King best. Hopefully the last book will be the best of the lot.

This was definitely the case with me. I like PoT on first read, but wasn't in love with it or anything. I reread it prior to cracking KoT, and it really went up a notch or three in my estimation.

Ken Marshes where is that at, near Holland? Since when I think marshes somehow I think of somewhat Holland and their low lying land.

Heimrift is the viking like people, but it is basically located around Poland, or Russia?

Heimrift is about twice as far from "Hanver" (which is Hanover, Germany) as Hanver is from Lux (Luxembourg, presumably). Overlaying that and the rough direction from the map, I would estimate that Heimrift is somewhere in the neighborhood of Gdansk. It doesn't seem like it could be as far west as the German border, despite the Germanic name, but I could be wrong.

Jorg's castle the Haunt - basically near the Alps right?

Given that we know Crath City is roughly in the same place as modern Paris, the Renar Highlands are probably the northern part of the Massif Central.

Arrow, where Germany meets Denmark??

As someone said, Arrow seems to be part of modern Belgium and France, with the "peninsula" perhaps ending somewhere in the Calais/Boulogne-sur-Mer area.

Ancrath no idea.

Well Crath City is on the site of Paris, which we know from the cemetery. So it's just part of northern France and maybe into western Belgium, depending on how far the territory goes.

Castle Red? no idea, but it did have many bombs underneath - where those atomic bombs?

Yes, they were atomic bombs - IIRC Mark once linked a post where he explained that it was indeed physically possible to set off a nuke by starting a fire underneath it.

I don't know where Castle Red is, aside from being a little bit north of Luxembourg. It looks like it's a bit to the northwest, and the only city of much size in that region is Aachen. On the other hand, Aachen didn't have any mountains last time I was there :) but the Thousand Suns apparently created volcanos, so why not mountains too?

All of this is just with Google Maps, the map from the book, and a topographical map of Europe. I don't really think the scale is perfectly correct (for example, Tall Castle is said to be only a few days away from the Haunt, but the Massif Central is several hundred miles south of Paris), but on the other hand we have an example from the book of geography being forcibly changed by nukes, so who knows.

Mark, how am I doing? :)

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MotherStark Freerider

MotherStark

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ok..I finished KoT. I guess this is kind of post apocolypse? I somehow missed the references in PoT. but KoT better read. I like Jorg better. He says some clever things. I like MIana and hope she stays around and doesn't get killed by the Dead King. Makin is a great character. wish there was more of him... I'm not too savvy with the words here but I'm glad I read it..and hopefully EoT will be a great read as well.

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Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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Finished this the other night. I thought it was great - an improvement over the already-solid PoT.

This was definitely the case with me. I like PoT on first read, but wasn't in love with it or anything. I reread it prior to cracking KoT, and it really went up a notch or three in my estimation.

Heimrift is about twice as far from "Hanver" (which is Hanover, Germany) as Hanver is from Lux (Luxembourg, presumably). Overlaying that and the rough direction from the map, I would estimate that Heimrift is somewhere in the neighborhood of Gdansk. It doesn't seem like it could be as far west as the German border, despite the Germanic name, but I could be wrong.

Given that we know Crath City is roughly in the same place as modern Paris, the Renar Highlands are probably the northern part of the Massif Central.

As someone said, Arrow seems to be part of modern Belgium and France, with the "peninsula" perhaps ending somewhere in the Calais/Boulogne-sur-Mer area.

Well Crath City is on the site of Paris, which we know from the cemetery. So it's just part of northern France and maybe into western Belgium, depending on how far the territory goes.

Yes, they were atomic bombs - IIRC Mark once linked a post where he explained that it was indeed physically possible to set off a nuke by starting a fire underneath it.

I don't know where Castle Red is, aside from being a little bit north of Luxembourg. It looks like it's a bit to the northwest, and the only city of much size in that region is Aachen. On the other hand, Aachen didn't have any mountains last time I was there :) but the Thousand Suns apparently created volcanos, so why not mountains too?

All of this is just with Google Maps, the map from the book, and a topographical map of Europe. I don't really think the scale is perfectly correct (for example, Tall Castle is said to be only a few days away from the Haunt, but the Massif Central is several hundred miles south of Paris), but on the other hand we have an example from the book of geography being forcibly changed by nukes, so who knows.

Mark, how am I doing? :)

Pretty good. This should help!

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Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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ok..I finished KoT. I guess this is kind of post apocolypse? I somehow missed the references in PoT.

I would have bet a lot of money against that ever happening - but I would have lost the money several times over, so good thing I didn't!

I'm not sure how you did it but you're not alone, so don't worry :)

I hope EoT meets with your approval too!

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  • 4 months later...
Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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I don't see the Horse Coast on that map - is it the unnamed territory south of Rome?

I don't see the Horse Coast on that map - is it the unnamed territory south of Rome?

'The Horse Coast" is written in the sea along the coastline shared by Wennith, Morrow, and Cantanlona.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Mark Lawrence Landed Knight

Mark Lawrence

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I thought Prince was better than ok. King was really good. Just finished it, and now I am anxiously awaiting Emperor.

Good to hear! You've only got a month to wait.

The (free) Sleeping Beauty tale is Jorg-centric but probably best reached via my forward http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/sleeping-beauty.html

And if you want even more Broken Empire tales to tide you over then you could get hold of the Unfettered anthology that has another one. This one isn't free, but I don't make anything from it and the money goes to a good cause, plus there are some stories by other guys who seem quite popular (Rothfuss, Sanderson...) .

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