If we are defined by our enemies, then make an enemy of hatred; thus teaches Jorg's tutor. This is the only, paraphrased, sentence in the book which can be described as upbeat. Jorg does not agree with his tutor.

Prince Jorg of Ancrath, 15 years old when we meet him, is a very depressed 6-foot-tall kid. He saw his mother, a Queen, raped and murdered in front of him. He saw his little 5-year-old brother, Prince William, destroyed without mercy, head smashed into a posted sign. In running for his 9-year-old life, he crashed into a thorn bush which stabbed him in a hundred places on his skin and he was stuck, hanging there for hours, so the murderers, Count Renar's men, laughingly left him there sure he would die. He survived the assassination attack, but the poison of hate sank deeper than the thorns. His father, the King, couldn't wait to remarry and forget. So, at the age of ten, Jorg builds himself a team of anti-heroes, criminal psychopaths to a man with the exception of two, and leads his troop of dirty rotten bastards into a desperado life of rape, torture and murder. While planning on killing Count Renar when he feels ready, every move he makes as a gleeful murderer and torturer for the next five years hardens him to the feelings of others. He glories in bloody bits of folk strewn under his feet. He becomes an expert at killing children and burning down towns, and he even faces down ghosts in a graveyard. He becomes the stinking unbathed leader of his gory sword gang of equally disgusting smelly men who only best him in rotting teeth.

hA! What an enormous piece of crap this book is! But it's such damn gOOd crap! I didn't know how I'd feel about this one until I finished it, and now that I have, I'm giggling. Couldn't help it. I'm not supposed to be giggling. It's deadly serious, violent, horrific, stomach turning, and unrelentingly dark and sad. However, it reminded me of a performance art project by a great writer who stopped taking his anti-depression meds. It's highly stylized, written without a single sign of humor, hope, love, or affection, but still the flourishes of every sentence are more than excellent, they are poetic.

The writing is superb! Such incredible descriptive skill; it bowled me over. If it wasn't for the relentlessly dark plot, the completely evil protagonists who do not even pretend to want redemption (and the author doesn't give it) and the 300-pages-long moaning of Jorg's depressive grief and hate, all of which kinda inured me after awhile despite the constant maiming action, I'd be a fan. The author doesn't linger on each violent episode and I would not call this kill-pornography - not hardcore, anyway. But there is a lot of nastiness in every chapter mixed in with imaginative world building, adventures and a touch of magic and magical beings.

Some decades ago, tapes of whales groaning to each other were the wonder of the week in the media. Whale songs are eerily captivating, but as weirdly beautiful are the songs whales sing, they ended up being just cool sounds for ten minutes. This book caused a similar reaction from me. I cannot praise the writing enough, but it is pointless whale song.

Although it had me snorting with mirth by the end, I'm not sure why, but I am going to call the story a quest satire, even if it isn't supposed to be. As it is, even though I'm giving this five stars because it is good, and it has what is required of a compelling angry young man read, it's a basic sword-and-sorcery tale (the first in a series) with a heavy-metal music video feel, a post-apocalyptic graphic comic novel with hopeless heavily-muscled, death-seeking males on testosterone crack, high on the joy of smelling the voided contents of their victims. I'm giving the series a pass.

This book is like reading if Joffrey Baratheon had a POV in A Song of Ice and Fire. Jorg is unsympathetic, somewhat sadistic, and thinks everything is a game. He's a huge cliche of a character, with probably the thickest plot armour of any character I have ever read about. He's almost laughable because he tries so hard to be a badass, but he's like 13. It reads like bad fanfiction. This book isn't what everybody told me it was. I was sold a book with a villain as the protagonist, but what I got was an entitled little jerkwad. He's not half as wicked as Joffrey, not as sadistic as Ramsey Bolton, he's just...ok. he reminds me more of Kvothe from the Kingkiller series than anybody else, honestly. He's probably an unreliable narrator with a huge complex and self absorbed. What's more is his merry band drops like flies from page one, and despite the book's apparent attempt to make you care, the only one that has even a little development is Makin, and he mostly exists just to legitimise some of Jorge's bizzare choices.

Why did I give it three stars then? Honestly, because for the first ten-fifteen or so chapters, reading about such an unrepentant little buttmunch was entertaining. I keep drawing comparison to Asoiaf/game of thrones for a reason; this book wants you to put it on the same scale, but it's a watered down version with none of what makes Thrones a classic. It has a somewhat similar setting, the desire to be part of a similar grim dark fantasy, and it's need to justify the protagonist. It just can't hold a candle to other titles in the genre. I read this one before bed and it didn't bother me, in fact it almost helped me sleep because nothing really happens.

Overall it's just...ok. yet another entry in the oversaturated fantasy market that doesn't do enough to set it apart from others. Maybe with a better writer who could actually develop the characters beyond cannon fodder, but alas.

A book that tends to divide it's readers - I had to admire the raw, uncut spirit of this novel. It's violent, but no more than it needs to be - uncut, unpolished, with a hint of dystopia - I liked it.

Can't believe this book exists and it took me this long to read it.

I couldn't really decide if I want to give 3 or 4 stars to this book. Jorg is certainly interesting character, admittedly with not so original motivations but Mark did adequate job of making him interesting.
The type of world in which story takes place is one I'm not a fan of. It feels like too many things don't make sense (but this is only first book in trilogy so they may yet be explained), and since there isn't too much of world building I fear they never will be. I didn't really care for most of side characters.

The biggest flaw that made me give 3-stars in the end is **SPOILER** final confrontation between Jorg and Corion. The way Jorg survies that, and wins it, is just so so stupid and anti-climatic, just really bad writing. **END SPOILER**

I think I'm interested enough that I will finish trilogy, I'm just hoping the next two books don't repeat this books biggest flows and that they provide a good explanation for the state of world.

3/5

Usually, I don't read this kind of book, I'm more into Y.A Fantasy, so it was a first!
At the beginning I got some difficulty with the main character, maybe because he's 13 and rape, kill without conscience, but it is also "refreshing" to see such a villainous protagonist, I think I needed a book like this.
I like this one though and I want to know more about Jorg and his plan for the future.

I'm still dumbfounded by the brutality of this book.

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