Kadomi reviewed Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence (The Red Queen's war, #1)
Review of 'Prince of fools' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
First off, in retrospect I should really downgrade my old ratings of the Broken Empire series. I read them many years ago, at a time when I felt less discerning about SF&F. It was when grimdark was fashionable, and grimdark is ultimately a setting of toxic masculinity. The Broken Empire books were the author's first version of the anti-hero, and Jorg of Ancrath kind of glorified violence.
Someone recently recommended these books to me, and so I went back to this world. Jalan of Red March is another anti-hero. 10th in line to the throne of Red March, Jalan likes to wench, gamble, and enjoy all the fun stuff in life. He hates responsibility, lies about his deeds and is a coward.
Unfortunately for him, he gets swept up by the machinations of his grandmother the Red Queen, who is battling the influence of the Dead King. In an attempt …
First off, in retrospect I should really downgrade my old ratings of the Broken Empire series. I read them many years ago, at a time when I felt less discerning about SF&F. It was when grimdark was fashionable, and grimdark is ultimately a setting of toxic masculinity. The Broken Empire books were the author's first version of the anti-hero, and Jorg of Ancrath kind of glorified violence.
Someone recently recommended these books to me, and so I went back to this world. Jalan of Red March is another anti-hero. 10th in line to the throne of Red March, Jalan likes to wench, gamble, and enjoy all the fun stuff in life. He hates responsibility, lies about his deeds and is a coward.
Unfortunately for him, he gets swept up by the machinations of his grandmother the Red Queen, who is battling the influence of the Dead King. In an attempt to kill a Captain of the Dead King, Jalan gets hit by the spell and is bonded to a Norse warrior, Snorri. To get rid of the spell, they have to travel north and deal with this danger, and the unlikely bonded friends are changed.
Time-wise, Prince of Fools is set in the same period as Prince of Thorns. In fact, we get to meet Jorg very briefly when Jalan and Snorri pass through Ancrath. There's some name-dropping, some familiar characters. But mostly, it's a travel story of those two guys heading north forever more.
The most fun elements of this setting are when you get hints of the setting actually being a post-apocalyptic world. At least for me.
I liked this book. I still think none of the women stand up well in a Bechdel test. The women in this book are all bedmates of Jalan, or the Ancrath women, who ultimately do not really matter here (Katherine and her sister). I am not counting the Red Queen and the Silent Sisters because we don't really meet them in depth. It's a dude-story, two bros travelling together to do violent, manly things. Jalan and Snorri are both likeable characters but nevertheless, it's a grimdark dude story.
I don't mind reading dude stories, I just like to think my tastes have evolved. Do I want to see how the story continues? Well, yes.