We have a Winner: Debbie Haupt
Congratulations: i hope you enjoy your “signed copy of King of Thorns (US edition) Kindly donated by the wordsmith himself Mark Lawrence.”
everyone else better luck with the next comp but make sure you go and buy
Prince of Thorns http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-1/dp/0007423632/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365445837&sr=1-1&keywords=mark+lawrence
and Pre-order Emperor of Thorns http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emperor-Thorns-Mark-Lawrence/dp/0007439067/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365445837&sr=1-4&keywords=mark+lawrence
The Author
Mark Lawrence is married with four children. His day job is as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments.
Synopsis
The second book in the Broken Empire series, Lawrence takes his young anti-hero one step closer to his grand ambition.
To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake. I’ve walked from pawn to
player and I’ll win this game of ours, though the cost of it may drown the world in blood…
The land burns with the fires of a hundred battles as lords and petty kings fight for the Broken Empire. The long road to avenge the slaughter of his mother and brother has shown Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath the hidden hands behind this endless war. He saw the game and vowed to sweep the board. First though he must gather his own pieces, learn the rules of play, and discover how to break them.
A six nation army, twenty thousand strong, marches toward Jorg’s gates, led by a champion beloved of the people. Every decent man prays this shining hero will unite the empire and heal its wounds. Every omen says he will. Every good king knows to bend the knee in the face of overwhelming odds, if only to save their people and their lands. But King Jorg is not a good king.
Faced by an enemy many times his strength Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But playing fair was never part of Jorg’s game plan.
Buy a copy of King of Thorns: http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Thorns-Broken-Empire-2/dp/0007439032/ref=pd_sim_b_2
Pre-Order Emperor of Thorns: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emperor-Thorns-Mark-Lawrence/dp/0007439067/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360664896&sr=1-1
Review
The second book in this unique Fantasy/ Scifi blend. Firstly a must in my opinion is that you read book one, King of Thorns just doesn’t work without having experienced Prince of Thorns.
The main Character Jorg, so basic, so simple and yet so complex and so diverse its an amazing feat to have achieved
on paper, for me something this complex comes with a fair bit of yawning and desire to skip a few pages. But not with this book (or Prince) the clear writing and story direction just enthrals the reader.
It is not however a book you can sit there and tear through in a day, it has too much depth too much plot
for that, this is a week long read, a book to put down and stop and think through whats happened and then go back for more. The writer has the ability to take you on an emotional roller coaster through the eyes of Jorg (mainly) and
also through the eyes of Katherine which makes a great counter perspective.
The utter honesty of this book is what really grabs you, when trawling the mind of someone like Jorg there must be times when the author wonders “should i do this, should i go there?” and he never backs down its warts and all, all the inglorious and hidden thoughts are there, to delight and disgust the reader. Do i like Jorg? not a chance, does he fascinate me, yes and that’s why i keep reading and reading.
Where does the story go next? only Emperor of Thorns will tell us, because Jorg is keeping us in the dark on that
one!
Not for the faint hearted but Highly recomended
(Parm)
parmenionbooks 
What a great review, thanks for the contest
Thats very kind of you thank you.
And the Comp…well thats thanks to the Big man himself. (ML)