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A review by cygny
King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
"Somewhere along the line Makin turned from my rescuer, sent out by Father to recover me, into a follower, and ever since he decided to follow my lead the man had been teaching me. Not with books and charts like Tutor Lundist but in that sneaky, indirect way the Nuban had, the kind of way that gets under your skin and turns you slowly by example."
I'll start by saying I read this for the most part as audiobook. I had the physical copy from the library but I listened to the most of it, apart from the last 150 pages or so. I'm not sure if it was purely due to the audio or that I would have thought some of the following things if I had just read it.
I was confused several times in the first few hundred pages. We had several time shifts (each chapter did say when we were, but sometimes I really wondered where I was exactly in the story) and added to that the diary, which was from another POV. A lot of things happened quickly, small events following one after the other and I wondered what was the use, why they were mentioned. Most of them made sense in the end, but there were so many that I probably can't even remember it all.
But this being said, I really loved it a lot and do plan on buying the books and reading them again. You can definitely see a change in Jorg. He claims it is due to a certain event but I don't agree with that. I felt he had grown on himself, the fact that he was now responsible for so many, the fact that he had good men who were giving the right example, must have done at least something to him. Don't get me wrong, he is still an evil man who does evil things, but he also does good things. And I felt he didn't just do it for himself or his goals.
I loved the relationship he had with certain characters. I loved some of the new introduced characters and was really sad when some old ones died. I kept waiting for more of them to die but at least some were spared.
Still love the idea of the Builders and to find out extra little fragments about them. Really hope it all will be explained. Also love the name Builders, instead of Old ones or something.
I'm still confused about the magic wielders and what their final goal is. I still wonder about how much of what Jorg has done, really were his ideas and how many were whispered to him. I knew very early on about a certain ghost who was following him but the final discovery really made me so sad for Jorg and made me wonder how many motives were not his own. I hope to find out all about it in the final book.
And then I have all these HBTs (Half Baked Theories). I will forget about them since I can't annotate in audio or library books and that's why I need to reread and add all the stickies.
I'll start by saying I read this for the most part as audiobook. I had the physical copy from the library but I listened to the most of it, apart from the last 150 pages or so. I'm not sure if it was purely due to the audio or that I would have thought some of the following things if I had just read it.
I was confused several times in the first few hundred pages. We had several time shifts (each chapter did say when we were, but sometimes I really wondered where I was exactly in the story) and added to that the diary, which was from another POV. A lot of things happened quickly, small events following one after the other and I wondered what was the use, why they were mentioned. Most of them made sense in the end, but there were so many that I probably can't even remember it all.
But this being said, I really loved it a lot and do plan on buying the books and reading them again. You can definitely see a change in Jorg. He claims it is due to a certain event but I don't agree with that. I felt he had grown on himself, the fact that he was now responsible for so many, the fact that he had good men who were giving the right example, must have done at least something to him. Don't get me wrong, he is still an evil man who does evil things, but he also does good things. And I felt he didn't just do it for himself or his goals.
I loved the relationship he had with certain characters. I loved some of the new introduced characters and was really sad when some old ones died. I kept waiting for more of them to die but at least some were spared.
Still love the idea of the Builders and to find out extra little fragments about them. Really hope it all will be explained. Also love the name Builders, instead of Old ones or something.
I'm still confused about the magic wielders and what their final goal is. I still wonder about how much of what Jorg has done, really were his ideas and how many were whispered to him. I knew very early on about a certain ghost who was following him but the final discovery really made me so sad for Jorg and made me wonder how many motives were not his own. I hope to find out all about it in the final book.
And then I have all these HBTs (Half Baked Theories). I will forget about them since I can't annotate in audio or library books and that's why I need to reread and add all the stickies.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury