The Broken Empire trilogy

I don’t often write about the books that I read.

But then again, I am not always totally blown away by the books I read.

For me to praise a book and sing ode to it in a dedicated blog post- heck! That should say something!

Funny story with The Broken Empire trilogy- I actually read the second book first and  then discovered that it was the second book and went in search for the first and third one. Yes, I guess it did complicate the reading process for me a bit, but it was my own stupidity and the series didn’t read any worse for it.

It is  easy to throw one word descriptions toward a book. Few of the one word descriptions I would/did use include “masterpiece”, “entertaining” etc.

Let me tell you now in a few extra words what this trilogy really made me feel.

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Having read all 3 books I want to take a month off from work and start over again (this time from the First book!) even though having the time, it wouldn’t take a full month to read those books. I flew through the second book in the series in 8 hours one lovely Sunday. The possibly only sunny day in Ireland this year which I spent indoors, on my couch, munching and literally eating the book with my eyes. That’s how great the experience was!

At first I was surfing on the edge of thrill this book was giving me and the more deeper I dived, the more brilliant… I mean, literal verbal gold started to shine out at me. Many of the thoughts, many of life’s situations, many emotions described by Mark Lawrence hit me so bluntly in the face that I found myself lowering the book at times and just think about what I had just read. I felt like a child discovering the world again, like a scientist with a hovering light-bulb over their head. It was … darn it-  the overall experience was inspiring!

Now, I know, it is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. I mean, if you are slightly fainthearted with an active imagination and overdosed empathy then you will not enjoy this book. Then again, I have issues with my ability to  over-empathize and I would say it rather enriched my reading experience.

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The main character Jorg is a boy of 9 in the first book, a boy of 13 in the second book and 20 in the third book. Don’t get put off by Jorg’s age though. Even though he is not even a man yet (by modern guidelines) his adventures require more balls than some adults nowadays have! I don’t want to give too much away though and I would like to finish off by saying- there is some amazing camaraderie which only occurs in between men… Violent men. And there is a great journey of “growing to become who one is meant to be”. I know- deep!  There is a bit of magic and a bit of reality, the past and the future are intertwined so brilliantly that while reading you are swept into a world of “Where the fuck am I?” because your mind’s eye draws an utopic picture based on Lawrence’s words.

The writing is complex, a lot of hard work has gone into those books by the author. You will be jumping in between past and present and it all comes together perfectly in the end. Ah, I feel I could just go on and on  praising this trilogy but if you want to get the real feel then just read it! 🙂

 

PS! Don’t you just LOVE those book covers? 🙂 I do!