Prince of Fools!

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Nelson Mandela

There is a chance Mark Lawrence had this quote in mind when he conjured Prince of Fools as it was an enthralling and gripping exploration of courage and fear and how one cannot exist without the other.

We follow a young Prince Jalen as he is swept up in an adventure that is for once not of his own design and, likewise, one that he cannot escape. And oh he has many means of saving his own skin does our Jalen, including flashing his perfect smile and trumpeting his royal credentials but his preferred method is simply to run, and specifically, to run in whatever direction he is facing.

Jalen lives in a world of moral grey with a cheeky smile on his face as he indulges in all the pleasures of being a member of the royal family, albeit 10th in line to the throne, while shirking as many of the responsibilities as he can.

“Enjoy the world while you can, I say. A shallow enough philosophy by which to live, but shallow is what I’ve got. Besides, deep is apt to drown you.”

You can’t argue with his logic and I knew the Lawrence had completely sucked me in when I realised I'd missed an entire Queens speech, something that would normally be used to establish plot, characters and the whole thrust of the book, to his inner musings about how much of pain the arse everyone was. At that point he became really fun too and I couldn’t help but admire how deep his knowledge of his self was and his decision to embrace it.

A far as the story, Jalen finds his fate intertwined with Snorri Ver Snagason, a viking whose heroic qualities are only outnumbered by the troubles in his life. I swear he was given this name because Mark Lawrence is sadistic and it was ANOTHER burden for this ‘golden age’ hero to bear. We meet him as a prisoner brought to tell the Red Queen and her heirs tales of horror from the North about the Undead King.

Despite being released, Jalen sensing the opportunity for a way out of a debt falsely denies him his freedom and has him thrown into the fighting ring. How and why they journey together is something I wont ruin for you but throughout their journey he often misinterprets the actions of Jalen as heroic and tell him so. His openness to seeing such a coward become a hero is an adorable quality for a rough and tough viking, who, when faced with a bear, will ask for it’s bigger brother and though him we see the opportunity for Jalen to become, perhaps, something more. Snorri’s journey is very much in counter balance to Jalens and gives us a different set of questions to consider like what makes a true hero, is anyone incorruptible, how much light and dark can co exist inside a man and what does it make him decision by decision?

As the two are bound together by a magic/curse of sorts they must travel to Snorri’s homeland, during which Jalen will finally be forced to take stock of his own choices and decide what sort of man he wants to become. The answer to that question is first and foremost, one that is still alive, whether he will move past that is where the reader is most drawn in.

The story is entertaining and very well paced. The characters are rich, detailed and relatable as human beings despite their far off fictional setting. The writing is tight, fast paced and imaginative and I think this is an outstanding yarn and one that I can easily see myself reading again before the release of the next book.

If you want to purchase a collectors copy of this book here are some options.

Signed US 1st Edition for $31.99 - http://www.vjbooks.com/Mark-Lawrence-The-Prince-of-Fools-p/lawfool01.htm

Signed UK 1st Edition £19.99 http://www.goldsborobooks.com/books/prince-of-fools-red-queens-war-book-1-mark-lawrence-4072.html