Prince of Fools / The Liar's Key / The Wheel of Osheim

The Red Queen's War #1-3

by Mark Lawrence

Mark Lawrence Red Queens War Collection 3 Books Set Titles in the Set Prince of Fools, The Liars Key, King of Thorns

Genres: Fantasy

Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

My books vary a LOT - so here's a handy guide.

[My new book The Book That Broke The World is out now!]

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Mark Lawrence is married with four children, one of whom is severely disabled. Before becoming a fulltime writer in 2015 day job was as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments. At one point he was qualified to say 'this isn't rocket science ... oh wait, it actually is'.

Mark used to have a list of hobbies back when he did science by day. Now his time is really just divided between writing and caring for his disabled daughter. There are occasional forays into computer games too.

Reviews

[Jaiden B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was a brilliant blend of both humour and action. I enjoyed the contrast of story between the tales of Jalan and Jorg, and how they intertwined, as well as the friendship between Jalan and Snorri. An excellent read, would highly recommend 😁

[Andrew Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheer brilliance. Multi layered characters, an eerily familiar setting and a ton of laugh out loud moments that balances out the grim and sad events perfectly. Snorri & Jalan are in my opinion the greatest fantasy double act committed to print. Their dynamic goes beyond an odd couple forced together by fate, they are polar opposites that somehow compliment and strengthen each other. I don’t ever remember caring about two fictional characters this much, so their journey, fraught with so much danger, left me genuinely fearing for their lives - that is some elite level story telling right there.

[Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy semi-sequel to the Broken Empire Trilogy, we meet new characters in a parallel setting. Adventurous, imaginative, and a fun compelling read.

[JBirdsTheWord · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed a ton. More importantly, this series surprised me with its slow unveiling of the force behind its mythos. Superbly fleshed-out characters, too!

[Lorna Smithers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This trilogy consists of Prince of Fools, The Liar’s Key, and The Wheel of Osheim. When I started reading these books I hoped they would be told from the perspective of the Red Queen who appears briefly in Emperor of Thorns and is quite fascinating. However, instead, the main character is her grandson Jal. I disliked Jal from the outset and, unlike Jorg, he never really grew on me.

Jal is a habitual liar and a coward and although he gets a bit less cowardly towards the end he never stops lying to himself. The nature of lies and lying is explored deeply and perhaps this is Lawrence’s aim. The Liar’s Key (related to the Norse trickster God Loki) is interesting in itself. So are the angelic and demonic beings who possess Jal and his companion, Snorri, in turn.

I liked the Norseman, Snorri, whose character is summed up by the scene where he is captured and forced to fight in a betting ring. After defeating a bear he asks for a bigger bear. I also liked the Silent Sister and Jal’s uncle who is confined to his bed by his disabilities, yet still plays a leading role.

The best part of the trilogy was the final third where we find out more about the Builders and the nuclear disaster that nearly destroyed our world. However, as Jal really grated on me, it was a struggle to get to the end.

[Chase Estell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Lawrence was the man that got me into reading as a shut-in teenager. I started off with the (extremely edgy) Broken Empire trilogy, and fell in love with Jorg as a character that I could subconsciously plant myself onto. Stumbled across Prince of Fools out of chance at a Books-a-million and hoped Jorg would make a cameo appearance. He did, but by the time I got to that point, I already found myself caring less of Jorg and more and more of Jalan.

Jalan is very likely my favorite book protagonist ever. Something about the way Mark writes his wit, that "seeing red" cliche being done in a much better way than most books have it, the much more apparent visual growth occurring over the books, its got a charm. Believe it or not, Jalan is not much of a badass to begin series. It's a tangible change that has its gives and takes during his adventures. Just recently discovered there's more Jalan for me to read in short-form, so I'll be picking up those books soon.

Thanks for getting me into fiction, Mark. You're always the first writer I look to for new reading material.