Reread: June 8-9, 2016

On a reread I enjoyed this book just as much as the first time. I was able to appreciate the solidness of the Empire and its links with our world - religion, priests, some form of technology in the past as well as mentions of Shakespeare, Socrates and Aristotle. Jorg was a great character as always. His character doesn't match up with a normal 14-year-old but considering everything he's been through and what a dick his dad is, it makes sense. I always love reading how he can take control of the Brothers and how all these grown men flinch away from him in fear. The necromancer's steps made more sense to me this time around, as well as the destruction of the Red Castle.


Originally read: February 25 to 26, 2013

There is just something about Jorg that you know you're really suppose to hate him but he really just amuses me with his cockiness and cruelty.

The book is good, not the best, but I didn't mind it too much. I think I was expecting a bit more from it, or a different kind of story-telling but I can't complain too much. It still entertained me.

Many people are going on about the first chapter in which Jorg and the brothers rape some farmers daughters. The level of disgust people are showing for this confuses me, as I have read so much worse(in Game of Thrones where Daenerys basically describes a raping she is witnessing, it left me feeling a bit sick). I think we just can't forget that Jorg is not a Prince Charming, all goodness and Light but he is a bad person, yet we still root for him. His innocence was sapped away by the thorns, and I can't help but feel sorry for him.

Prince of Thorns is very much a fantasy, with the same cruel characters and disdain of a character's life I have come to associate with the writing of George R.R Martin. It just lacks the small writing you always see in fantasy novels and pages and pages of often unnecessary detail. Which isn't too much a bad thing.