Match BookPrince of Thorns
Mark Lawrence
2011 · 373 pages · Fantasy
How it reads
Prince of Thorns is fantasy (grimdark fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are power and politics, war and redemption. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It opens a series. It ends on a cliffhanger, so have the next book ready. At 373 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something dark
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
- you hate waiting for a sequel
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- fantasy
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- fictional world
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- dark
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- power and politics, war, redemption
- Ending style
- cliffhanger
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
The Hundred Thousand KingdomsN. K. JemisinShares: fantasy, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, cliffhanger ending- Blood SongAnthony RyanShares: fantasy, dark mood, fast paced, cliffhanger ending
- A Time of DreadJohn GwynneShares: fantasy, dark mood, fast paced, cliffhanger ending
The Dragon RepublicR. F. KuangShares: fantasy, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, fast paced
The Blade ItselfJoe AbercrombieShares: fantasy, dark mood, grimdark fantasy, cliffhanger ending
Gardens of the MoonSteven EriksonShares: fantasy, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, cliffhanger ending
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