The Broken Empire - Book 3
Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last! Yes, I finally finished this book and this series. I vowed that I would finish it before I allowed myself to even think of reading something else. And it was a slog, let me tell you. The first book in the series was fascinating, intriguing, full of interesting characters full of flaws and quirks. The second... well, it got off track a lot, I thought and I had a helluva time following all the time jumping. This final book, which I was hoping would return to the plusses of the first, sadly, was the hardest of all to get through.
I guess, in the end, I just didn't get the point. The writing itself is good. Mark Lawrence can turn a phrase. And I enjoyed all the references to the pre-apocalyptic world, some of the pop culture that remained in very oblique ways. There was a big deal made about the archway entrance to the big city, and I felt that I should have known what monument it was, but I assume it was European and sadly, North-American me is probably not as knowledgeable as I should be about those types of things.
Was this the story about Jorg's journey from child to young man and how the choices he made were preordained? Was the story about removing magic from this world? Did the world blow up in the end? Was it another apocalypse? Or did it all take place in Jorg's head? I sincerely don't know... and to be honest... by the end... I didn't really care. I'm all for dark fantasy books - God knows, I love CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy, but usually there are a few bright spots, positive things in the narrative... somewhere so that the story isn't totally bleak and unforgiving. Sadly I couldn't find them here.
I wanted to love this trilogy and it started off so well, but sadly, in the end, I didn't.
Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last! Yes, I finally finished this book and this series. I vowed that I would finish it before I allowed myself to even think of reading something else. And it was a slog, let me tell you. The first book in the series was fascinating, intriguing, full of interesting characters full of flaws and quirks. The second... well, it got off track a lot, I thought and I had a helluva time following all the time jumping. This final book, which I was hoping would return to the plusses of the first, sadly, was the hardest of all to get through.
I guess, in the end, I just didn't get the point. The writing itself is good. Mark Lawrence can turn a phrase. And I enjoyed all the references to the pre-apocalyptic world, some of the pop culture that remained in very oblique ways. There was a big deal made about the archway entrance to the big city, and I felt that I should have known what monument it was, but I assume it was European and sadly, North-American me is probably not as knowledgeable as I should be about those types of things.
Was this the story about Jorg's journey from child to young man and how the choices he made were preordained? Was the story about removing magic from this world? Did the world blow up in the end? Was it another apocalypse? Or did it all take place in Jorg's head? I sincerely don't know... and to be honest... by the end... I didn't really care. I'm all for dark fantasy books - God knows, I love CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy, but usually there are a few bright spots, positive things in the narrative... somewhere so that the story isn't totally bleak and unforgiving. Sadly I couldn't find them here.
I wanted to love this trilogy and it started off so well, but sadly, in the end, I didn't.
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