A short review of King of Thorns

Honorous Jorg Ancrath welcomes us back to his now much-richer and more developed world in Prince of Thorns sequel King of Thorns. More magic, more character development and more detailed scene-setting are the order of the day, with a most satisfying mystery at the heart of a novel that starts Jorg on the road to redemption.

Lawrence has decided to start our antihero on the path to better-manhood with a pleasingly light touch, not reversing Jorg's previous bloodthirsty rampaging too much but giving a very real feeling of the simple yet awesome altering power of merely growing up. 

The only minor annoyance is his need to constantly remind his readers that this is the reason Jorg is changing, mindful that to take all the anti out of his hero might alienate those who liked the first book. Unfortunately, since it's a first-person narrative, that leaves poor Jorg doing a lot of internal monologuing and pondering on the nature of growing up that he doesn't really need to - his musings on adulthood could probably be halved and the point would still be well-made. However, the lighter shadings of Jorg's character are deftly filled in, while secondary characters get some much-needed history and colour as well.

The central mystery in the novel, which once more jumps back and forth over a four year period, can be guessed at early on, but uncertainty about how exactly it came about keeps you galloping through the pages to see if you're right and why you're right. 

Through both the mystery and other events early in the book, the magic of Jorg's world comes more alive and Lawrence resists giving too deep an explanation of it while sketching intriguing possibilities of how our world of science could transform years later to this medieval-based magic-riven society. The book also neatly ties up scientific ignorance and the inability of the current inhabitants of the world to understand their past in some clever observations of just how peculiar our civilisation would appear to the folks in the Broken Empire.

Typically of fantasy series, the second book is stronger than the first and if book three - Emperor of Thorns due out in August - finishes things off in anywhere near as strong a style, Lawrence should have quite a gaggle of loyal fans awaiting his next missive.