I’m going to start this review with a little story of my own.  About six and a half/seven years ago I picked up a book called Prince of Thorns.  This book was different than anything I’d read before in fantasy terms.  I absolutely loved it and pretty much devoured the series in short order.  The main protagonist, Jorg, is not for everyone.  The Broken Empire series is awash with blood and Jorg, although he will grow on you if you give him a chance (imho), is somebody you don’t want to cross, not if you like breathing.  This was my first, but not last, foray into grimdark and I was absolutely sold.  Obviously I couldn’t wait to read the Red Queen’s War.  What a difference.  I expected more of the same, and I certainly got that in terms of good writing, but the story was so different, still bloody, still brimming with fantastic characters and Jalan was just a blast to read.  I seriously think The Wheel of Osheim is one of my favourite books ever.  Then Lawrence comes along with a magic/school for assassins story, his main protagonist a female.  So, colour me intrigued but maybe a little bit…

Red Sister is the first book in the third series written by Mark Lawrence and I’ll start by saying it gets off to an excellent start. I’ll give a brief overview of the plot.  We make the acquaintance of Nona at the start of the story.  She’s about to be fitted for a hangman’s noose for attempting to murder the son of a rather prominent member of society.  Unsurprisingly, and not a spoiler to say, she never makes her final fitting – that would have been a very short book would it not! Before her execution can be carried out she finds herself rescued, or more succinctly put, stolen away by Abbess Glass of the Sweet Mercy Convent.  Not yet ten years old Nona is different.  The people of her village knew this, and mostly avoided her, until that cruel day on which she was given away to a child collector to be sold in the City.  Abbess Glass recognises this difference and believes that rather than making Nona something to fear it makes her something special. From them on we spend time with Nona as she is initiated into the school and undertakes a number of trials and tribulations,…

Like any great story, The Wheel of Osheim is a book of lies . . . a story of lies . . . a very mythology of lies. Names, people, places, memories, histories – all damned lies. I’m treading on the edge of spoiler territory here (I can see the gaping chasm to my left) but, as we come to discover late in the tale, the entire story of Jalan Kendeth actually hinges on a single lie that’s too painful to even contemplate here. In wrapping up his third and final chapter of The Red Queen’s War, Mark Lawrence has truly outdone himself. I would actually go so far as to say that this is his best book, hands down, and that is no lie. While he’s used a number of different framing devices in spinning his tales of Jorg and Jalan, Lawrence’s approach here is perfectly suited to the shaping of lies. The book opens with Jalan’s comic escape from the bowels of Hell, seemingly robbing us of a resolution to the cliffhanger that ended The Liar’s Key. It’s several chapters later before we get the first fragment of Jalan’s journey through (and escape from) Hell. As for Snorri’s…

The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence is the second instalment in the Red Queen’s War trilogy that once again follows in the footsteps of two of fantasy’s most unlikely companions in Prince Jalan Kendeth and Snorri ver Snagason.  I awaited this book with eager anticipation and can say from the outset that it lived up to my expectations and then some. The story begins as Snorri and Jal take a somewhat less than cheerful departure from the Northern town in which they’ve been Winter bound.  Whilst Jal dreams of returning to his sun soaked home and jumping back into his former hedonistic lifestyle Snorri has other ideas and ultimately, the two being connected by strange magic, and Snorri having a mission of sorts, it looks like Jal’s desires will meet with temporary suspension.  Joined by the one remaining member of Snorri’s clan, Tuttugu, the three set sail on a dark quest.  Snorri has designs to use the magical key that he now owns to unlock the Gates to the Underworld and recover his family.  This key is very powerful, it can open any doors, it was forged by a trickster however and it is ultimately sought by others.  Snorri’s road is certainly…