Ben Emery's Blog

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For the untold billions that have been desperately awaiting to hear some review or other from me, I apologise in the delay; I have been busy with far less important tasks than reading. Anyway, to the matter at hand.

[insert slow clap here] This book was fantastic. Easily the best of the three in the series, and, despite the length of it, the one I imagine I finished the quickest. Aptly bloody and with enough surprises in it to keep me hooked, this third leg of young Jorgy's journey through empire is one of the better things I've read for some time.

Jorg's character was developed masterfully, and the flashbacks and alternate POV throughout were flitted between smoothly, and gave the whole thing a very well-rounded feel.

However, and I am reluctant to add this 'however', the ending fell short of the build up. While I had guessed the twist at the end, that was not the disappointing part of it. As I neared the last few chapters I was unsure of how Lawrence was going to end it all, and, while I cannot think of a better way in which to finish this series, to me it felt somewhat rushed, and lacked the power of the rest of the novel.

But that was all that let it down. An easy four stars and a highly recommended read for anyone.



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The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Let me begin by saying that I am loath to write a bad review of something that someone has worked so hard upon, especially within a field in which I place myself. That being said, please enjoy the following diatribe.

608. That is the page number at which I found myself enjoying this book. Page 608 of 749. How do I remember that number, you ask? Because the first 607 pages had been such a colossal struggle that I made a note of the page at which it took a turn for the better. That glimmer of hope, however, was swiftly extinguished by the subsequent 141 pages, and what should have been a thrilling and nail-biting ending was instead a spectacularly disappointing return to the dull plod of the rest of the book.

The main character, Theo Vilmos, is, from the outset and continually, a non-entity. He is not engaging, or enigmatic, or even likeable. There was nothing to draw me into him or his plight, and more than once I hoped his death lurked in nearby pages so that either the story might end or at least have a dramatic twist in it. A self-declared musician of average ability, he lacks any skill useful throughout all of this adventure, with the exception of being able to sing with a group of goblins around the 550 page mark. This becomes of significance later when, at the culmination of these radical events which see Theo thrust into an alien world, and without involving spoilers, the one figurehead of power and evil in all of Faerie is nearly (but not quite) toppled by goblin music. Oh yeah.

Do you like repetition? Then this is the book for you! Granted, nigh on 800 pages of text will make it considerably harder to avoid repeating oneself, but at some point it becomes either laziness or a lack of imagination. Not only in descriptions of places or people, or backstories repeated to keep them fresh in the reader's mind, but conversation as well, and that for me was too much. At one point, relatively early on in the story, our beloved Theo is dragged into this Faerie world by a foul-mouthed sprite. Now, granted he is a stranger there and ignorant and terrified of nearly everything, but for what felt like a quarter of the book, the sprite just called him an idiot - or rather - an eejit. And not even in increasingly creative ways. The same insult, again and again, in response to the heroic Vilmos saying something stupid. It was tiresome and boring to say the very least.

Did I mention the repetition?

"Why stick with it then?" some people might ask, "if it were as terrible as you claim?"
To that I would reply, "an ironclad determination."
Curiosity, too, drove me onward, and it would be unfair of me to say otherwise. I was curious as to what the author had planned; as to what would come next. Curious, but not intrigued. Barely interested. I found myself glazing over as I read; words going in but not registering in my mind. A shame, given that I had entered with such high expectations of this book, given Williams' extensive catalogue of works.

While I do concede the ideas conjured up by Williams are fantastical in places, and the intertwined nature of our world and that of Faerie using fairytale lore was very good at times, it is all that spared this book from a 1 star rating, though not enough to salvage this story altogether. The ending, anti-climactic as it was given the epic build up of 700 pages, left me only with a lighter heart that I might pick up something better to read next.

Again, I did not enjoy writing this review any more than I enjoyed the book; it is only my opinion and, while I have been discouraged from reading any more of Williams' novels, I hope not to dissuade anyone else from reading one of his many successful works.



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So...yeah...pretty much what it says in the title. I'm running a free book promotion for the weekend of 16-17 April, because in all honesty this self promo thing is hard work and this is one of the best ways to get it out there to as many people as possible. Seems to be working well enough already!

It's been a while since I've been able to get on to Goodreads and have a look at my profile, but having done so I was taken aback by how many people had added The Rise of Kings and the reviews it has received from those that finished it.

So, as the title of this post might suggest, I just wanted to say thank you.

It means a great deal to me that people have not only read what I have created, but also enjoyed it, with a smattering of four and five star ratings.

You all have my gratitude, and I hope to produce the sequel, The Hearts of Nations, shortly, to the same reception.

Thank you once more.

The Rise of Kings

Not really blog worthy but I just really wanted to share.

Due to recent sales of The Rise of Kings in the USA, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, I will now be referring to myself as an international author, no matter how wildly exaggerated or unnecessary that may be.

Thank you for your time.

Ok, so while it is a little late to be writing a blog about The Rise of Kings, published as it is and beyond my editorial powers, I can keep track of my progress as I wade through the second in The Flameweaver's Prophecy series: The Hearts of Nations.
My first draft of it was excruciatingly short for a novel, particularly one that was supposed to expand on The Rise of Kings, and the initial feedback I received from beta readers was to the same effect.
So now it begins; the relentless slog through the manuscript in an attempt to slow down and pad out what I had first hastily scribbled. As well as correcting more than several embarrassing spelling mistakes.
Once more into the etc. etc.
Wish me luck.