The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence is the third and final book in his Red Queen’s War trilogy. It continues the story of Jalan Kendeth as he continues to follow the path upon which fate has set him. The Red Queen’s War trilogy is set in the same world as, and dovetails with, Lawrence’s earlier Broken Empire trilogy. In some ways that is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because the world in which the trilogies are set is awesome. It’s set in our world in the future, millennia after a nuclear war (the Day of A Thousand Suns) decimated the world and let magic in for the survivors. Some remnants of our world survive, but the current inhabitants have no cultural knowledge or background of them. So plastic shop dummies (I knew those things could survive nuclear attacks) confuse the heck out of them! This leads to one of the funniest moments in Wheel of Osheim involving an “iron pineapple.” You’ll just have to read it to find out what I’m talking about. It is a blessing because the protagonists of both series, Jorg and Jalan, are on separate quests to discover more about the…
Prince of Fools is the first in a new series – The Red Queen’s War – by Mark Lawrence who wrote the Broken Empire trilogy. This new series is set in the same world as The Broken Empire, but focusses on a different set of characters. Emperor of Thorns was one of my top reads for 2013, so I had high expectations of Prince of Fools – I’m happy to say it lived up to them. What I liked The setting. Both Red Queen’s War and Broken Empire trilogy are set in a world which is strongly implied to be ours many millennia after a cataclysmic event (the “thousand suns”) in which magic plays a part. Some references to our world bleed through but often in an almost unrecognisable form. It’s a great deal of fun spotting these references. These are very subtle – for example our protagonists meet a circus elephant, who is, of course, called Nellie. A week later I still can’t get the children’s song out of my brain and now you can’t either. You’re welcome. Anyway to return to the setting. One very interesting choice Lawrence made with the Red Queen’s War trilogy is to set…
This week I finished The Gem Trilogy by Kerstin Gier, which I absolutely adored. I will say though that it is one long book divided into three parts rather than three separate books with an overarching storyline – the first two novels don’t really have a strong ending. For this reason you may wish to wait before starting the trilogy as the final book, Emerald Green, is not due out in English until October – unless you read German, that is. There were several twists in the final volume, some of which were clearly signposted along the way, others more surprising – I found that Gier had a nice balance there. I continued to enjoy the character of Gwen and her adventures. The fact that the subtitle of “love throughout the ages” can be applied to more than one couple was very appealing to me. I would certainly recommend this trilogy, although I recommend waiting a few months until the English translation is available! Check out the Gem Trilogy on Kindle, Kobo, iBook and Audible formats. The next book I read/listened to was Brandon Sanderson’s new YA novel The Rithmatist. As an aside, I would not recommend listening to this…