[SPOILERS... Sort of... ] 
 If you can imagine Alex, the prodigiously intelligent and ultra-violent teen anti-hero from 'A Clockwork Orange', leading an army of grizzled bandits into a vicious guerilla war over yet another claim to the Iron Throne (with a low-key temporal twist), you might get an idea of what 'The Broken Empire' promises. The first-person story-telling that fails so grandly for Patrick Rothfuss in 'The Name of the Wind' and 'The Wise Man's Fear' succeeds here brilliantly; if Mark Lawrence wasn't profoundly influenced by Anthony Burgess' most famous work, which also happens to be narrated by its psychopathic protagonist, and displays much of the same blue-black gallows humor, I'll fuckin' memorize Book 3 of the 'Kingkiller Chronicles'. 
 Fantasy has some of the worst designs in publishing, sitting just above romance, and just shy of even with SF; but The Broken Empire features some very compelling, restrained and stylish cover art: 
 It could be argued that Westeros did have an 'Alex' of its own in Joffrey. But that little prick had the cruelty dialed up to 10 and the intellect dialed down to 5, with none of the wit of Alex or Prince Jorg. Lawrence manages to create a thoroughly believable and compelling rogue, an unapologetically selfish, brutal, and amoral thug, who is still somehow likeable, and even sympathetic. Many readers disagreed, and couldn't get past the narrator's crimes, or enjoy a story told by a narrator they disliked. Fair enough. I felt it was a bold decision by Lawrence, and one that was true to the harsh world that Jorg lives in. As a precocious observer of human nature whose bloody course was set by childhood tragedy, trauma, and blood betrayals, Jorg still defies explanation as a product of his culture -- he's his father's son. The ugly events that defined his young life are related as interludes, adding depth and perspective to the characters as the main plot races forward. When the tale approaches it's gore-spattered climax, however, the clues and questions seem to reveal that the hook-briar and the hatred might be exaggerations, used as emotional set-dressing for an underlying magical manipulation.* 
 The wry approach to violence that British writers all seem to share is displayed to good effect in 'Prince of Thorns', and Lawrence fires Jorg like a bullet, tearing a bloody hole through a strangely alien version of Medieval Europe. This story moves fast. It also happens to be one of the best fantasy novels I've read. Mark Lawrence has created the best fantasy since ASOIAF. It actually feels like historical fiction at times, but Jorg's Medieval Europe is not the one we know and love; Lawrence plays a subtle game, using sleight of hand and alchemical word-play ('The Day Of A Thousand Suns'), with just enough clues to make the Walter M. Miller twist surprising without feeling cheap. For anyone who happens to be as picky as I am about Fantasy novels, and can't stand the boring 'hero's quest' used ad nauseum by all the Tolkien imitators out there, Lawrence is near the top of my short list of writers who don't mind spilling the blood of hobbits or heroes: George R. R. Martin, Steve Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Glen Cook, Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, and Richard K. Morgan. 
 Hey look! Fan art! 
 Footnotes: *(The only wrong note Lawrence hits, IMO; a slightly hollow deus ex machina development from the only writer I know of who could actually build a synthetic god using a machine. I won't specify, but it felt like an editorial concession, and a bit of a sell-out... 'The Devil made me do it!' But I fucking love this book, so I'm reserving judgement. Even if it was a concession made for the sake of 'selling' Jorg, it's a minor complaint that doesn't really diminish the work in any significant way, and it actually fits the plot.) 
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