For a dark, gritty, anti-hero driven fantasy, I felt strong Abercrombie vibes. There's a strong influence from A Game of Thrones -- and if you've ever read KJ Parker's The Engineer trilogy, you'll see some similarities in the tone and style of world. The setting of the world is interesting too, a sort of post-apocalypse world gone to hell that sparks similarities to Jack Vance's Dying Earth world.
This is the brutal story of Prince Jorg, a teenage princeling who abandoned his father's castle after witnessing the murder of his mother and brother. During this time away, he's been eking out a place for himself with band of marauders. These are brutal killers of the worst sort and Jorg has been living as a sort of apprentice murderer under their rules. Things get interesting when he decides to head back home and reclaim his stolen birthright by force and blood.
The narration is first person and well done at that -- I haven't been so entertained by first person narration in ages. This is some of the first person narration since Farseer and The Name of the Wind. I particularly loved Jorg's sharp insights into the human condition, which is generously sprinkled through the pages. The book/s almost had a sort of R Scott Bakker (from Darkness the Comes Before) vibe to it with Jorg's insightful philosophizing, almost addressed as a soliloquy to the reader. Clever stuff. And didactic.
Lawrence has managed to do well what few authors ever do: create a compelling anti-hero -- arguably one of the most complex and interesting in the whole fantasy genre. Make no bones about it: the protagonist Jorg Ancraft is one vicious bastard, but the genius of Lawrence is that you still kind of like him, despite the fact that he's, well, a pretty vile human being as a whole. But it's a vileness you understand. You know, kind of like that drunk guy you met at the corner bar who was abused by his father, had his wife stolen by his brother and his house auctioned by the bank -- you can understand why he hates the world.
Truth be told, it's tricky for an author to cook up a compelling anti-hero; to do so, you need the absolute perfect blend of good world-building, a protagonist that you can still sympathize with, and sharp, witty prose that binds the whole thing together and keeps you from hating the protagonist. Most authors can't balance this sensitive equation and fail horribly, either making the antihero so unlovable that you hate him completely or eventually turning the anti-hero into a good yet 'misunderstood' character.
Well Lawrence does not fall into these trappings.
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