King of Thorns v Coffee Friends

Book: King of Thorns
Author: Mark Lawrence
Publisher: HarperVoyager
Published: 2013

This is book two in the Broken Empire series. It is a much less… visceral read than the first, at least in the beginning. Jorg has matured from roaming n’er do well to the ruler of a minor fiefdom. One that allows him to position himself as a direct antagonist towards his father.

Unfortunately for him his little kingdom is about to be wiped off the map by a huge army lead by the ‘honourable’ Prince Orrin of Arrow, a man that even Jorg can’t help but admire.

Unfortunately for the Prince Orrin however Jorg has been busy the past 4 years since the end of PoT. This is where the interesting structuring of the book comes into play. It is mostly told as a series of long flashbacks showing Jorg’s adventures travelling across the land on a ‘heroic’ quest and seeking allies.

These flashbacks are interspersed with episodes in the present showing a twenty-iah year old Jorg preparing for war. Because although the odds are overwhelming, Jorg does not intend to go quietly into that goodnight, and as we will learn he has learnt some new tricks.

I remember really liking book one because of how different it was to anything I’d been reading at the time. If the First Law was like an AC/DC album, Prince of Thorns was like a Slipknot or Korn one. While King of Thorns is noticeably less dark than its predecessor, that is relative. It’s still a violent, darkly philosophical look into the worst of humanity, and I loved it.

Beer: Coffee Friends
Brewery: Begyle & Temperance Brewing Companies (collaboration)
Style: Coffee American Brown Ale
Strength: 5.6%

Spitefully bitter coffee infused beer from Chicago. Love it! Medium strength for an American beer in my experience but tastes great. I got it as part of this month’s Beer52 box, and I’m a bit miffed that it’s not going to be easier to get more of it easily in the UK.