Tuesday 13 August 2013

Best book of the trilogy?


Authors don't tend to like cliches but if you ask them which of their books they like best then they tend to roll out the old line about choosing between your children.

And it's true - when you're that close to a book you love its parts rather than the whole, and ranking one book over another becomes an impossibility. Instead I've turned to the readers and asked them. Many found the bald choice to be almost as tough a prospect as I did when I considered it.

Here's the poll results (only for people who have read all three books)




A dead heat between King and Emperor. When I ran a similar poll between just Prince and King it was 25/75 in King's favor. So it looks as if the result is much the same but with the people who preferred King now split evenly between King and Emperor.

Of course such choices are harsh and artificial but it's interesting to see nonetheless.

I suspect authors have a built in bias to want their most recent book to be judged the best since they like to feel they're improving, but I'm happy to see an even split myself.

 Really the books should be judged by what they're trying to achieve and the context they're in. Prince of Thorns I like for its pace and for capturing that raw, immature, bridge-burning, defiant, hurt, and dangerous younger side of Jorg. King of Thorns I like for the twisty-ness of the timeline, the interdependence of the threads, the passion of the ending, and the growth in our protagonist. And Emperor I like for its sense of focusing down: on a place, on a time, on a person, and for the fact it brought about an ending which I felt held up rather than let down what had come before.


12 comments:

  1. I'm about 65% through EoT, and though a slow reader, I enjoy what I see.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a really tough decision for me, Mark.

    Prince of Thorns has a new sharpness to it, but the later books definitely show growth, change and development as a writer in you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Mark- really good books. Are there any message boards where the books can be discussed. There were a few interesting things in emperor that I would like to clarify and discuss

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These are all good threads (or make a thread on reddit r/fantasy)

      Just remember to use spoilers!

      http://fantasy-faction.com/forum/reviews-recommendations/prince-of-thorns-by-mark-lawrence/

      http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/94195-emperor-of-thorns-the-broken-empire-trilogy-3-by-mark-lawrence-spoilers/

      http://forum.malazanempire.com/topic/21744-thorn-series-by-mark-lawrence/page__st__220

      http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?31053-King-Prince-amp-Emperor-of-Thorns-Series-by-Mark-Lawrence/page32

      http://forums.terrybrooks.net/Threads?objectId=928183&currentPage=12

      http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/

      Delete
  4. Hmm, it would be hard for me to choose between them but if I had to I would choose Prince. Maybe because I'd never met anyone like Jorg before, maybe it was my intense need to find the good in him, maybe I understood him. Whatever it was he really spoke to me as a young boy. Not to say that the other two books weren't excellent because they were.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your summary of the merits of each book in your last paragraph here ... totally agree with you 100%! Well said!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're right about it being hard to choose, they are all 3 different but necessary to appreciate the whole.

    I chose King of Thorns, because I've freshly re-read and loved it and I haven't really absorbed Emperor yet, because I just finished it about 30 minutes ago so I'm still sitting at my computer mouth hanging open... :D I definitely can't wait for a re-read of Emperor!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't choose between them. Jorg's savagery at such a young age is shocking in 'Prince' and you know there just has to be a reason for it, but of course it takes all three books to reveal all the reasons. I think we all just want to understand such a dark morally bankrupt character and even in 'Emperor' he's still a boy (just) so his immaturity still puts in a regular appearance. I'd have loved to see him mature to an adult to see how much he would change but having said that ... I absolutely loved the ending.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I loved the brutality of Jorg throughout the series...found it refreshing from the norm of good character vs evil that you find from a lot of books in the genre. It was difficult to read the Justice parts which made me like 'King of Thorns' a tiny bit less than I would have even though I can understand how it made sense for Jorg's character history. But as a whole, I'd say I liked it the most. However, my favorite moment of all three books came out of Emperor of Thorns. When Jorg spared Lesha the pain that would come and gave himself a chance against the Perros Viciosos...so pragmatic in that bloodletting maneuver.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I loved the first two books which I listened to on Audible. I am just wondering when will EOT be available on Audible?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The US version has been out for a while. I've seen October 3rd listed for the UK version - the delay being the price paid to retain Joe Jameson as narrator.

      Delete
  10. I missed the vote, but I would have voted for King of Thorns.

    ReplyDelete