Prince of Thorns

Nice twist in terms of story lore. I was a bit confused where the story took place, and the clues are more or less subtly sprinkled in, with not too much exposition.

The main protagonist is a bit archetypal, similar to The Lies of Lock Lamora, a young masculin teen with a freakish tactical and strategic luck, who is also hyper-violent and clearly on the psychopathic spectrum, saved by a story plot-twist that explains why they are like that. But still needs to be redeemed in the next books IMHO.

Has a Cosmere , aka The Stormlight Archvive/Mistborn vibe in the greater powers that play a 1:1 worldwide game. Again, to be seen if relevant in the other two books.

Is rather similar, as pointed out by @kergoth@bookwyrm.social, to The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

Jorg is a violent monster struggling to understand his past and justify the way he is. The story was enjoyable enough that I will keep on reading. The ratings of the later books indicates that the series improves, otherwise I may have stopped here, but I'm willing to see where the story goes next.

3.5 stars. I liked it, I expected more to happen by the ending (therefore 3.5 stars); but probably not for everyone.

This is my second read, and I waited to review it until I finished the whole series. The main character, Jorg, is an insufferable psychopath 13yr old who somehow reigns over a troop of murdering criminals. Pretty hard to believe on even an imaginary level. On the bright side, the books get a lot better as the series moves on.

I liked it more than I thought I would. It's still too dark and grisly for my taste, but Jorg is a fun Roose Bolton-esque character to root for. Will definitely read the rest of the series and more from Mark Lawrence.

While the grimdarkness is excessive, and the gore, the setting is interesting and the characters are memorable. It does get a little silly at some points with the excess.

Enjoyed this a great deal. It did live up to the hype vis a vis the ol' ultraviolence, but I found the writing compelling enough to stick with it, and I'm glad I did. Jorg is one hell of a character, and his self-awareness at the end of the book helps redeem him (as a character, if not a human). Already bought the second book in the series.

Having a psychopath as the focalizer is difficult; this book does not pull it off.

Loved it. Went into it blind and was quickly intrigued by this evil "protagonist." Then there were other plot twists that were expertly told. I can't wait to read the next book.

Well, I do have to say that I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. It's quite dark, and the main character is clearly an anti-hero, but at times it seemed a bit over the top. In the end I did care about the main character somewhat, but it certainly didn't hold a candle to Abercrombie, which is the closest to this in style I've read to date. It was a quick read that carried me along from beginning to end without interruption, though. It was certainly action packed. I'm rather torn about the whole thing. I suspect I'll be re-reading it in the near future to clarify my feelings about it, and will certainly read the future novels, if for no other reason than to see how the author's skill develops.