4 reviews for The Liar’s Key
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The Liar’s Key
by Mark Lawrence
Description:
The Red Queen has set her players on the board… Winter is keeping Prince Jalan Kendeth far from the longed for luxuries of his southern palace. And although the North may be home to his companion, the warrior Snorri ver Snagason, he is just as eager to leave. For the Viking is ready to challenge all of Hell to bring his wife and children back into the living world. He has Loki’s key now all he needs is to find the door. As all wait for the ice to unlock its jaws, the Dead King plots to claim what was so nearly his the key to the underworld so that his dead subjects can rise and rule.
About The Author
Mark Lawrence was born in Champagne-Urbanan, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. He went back to the US after taking a PhD in Mathematics at Imperial College to work on a variety of research projects including the Star Wars’ missile defence programme. Returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He says he never had any ambition to be a writer so was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight. His first trilogy, the Broken Empire, has been universally acclaimed as a ground-breaking work of fantasy. Mark is married, with four children and lives in Bristol.
Skryf Review
“Amazing Reading”
Naman
The Liar’s Key is probably my favorite work by Mark Lawrence to date, surpassing even my love for the entire Broken Empire trilogy. It’s also stronger than its predecessor Prince of Fools, which I rated highly as well, but I was never able to shake the feeling that the first book of Prince Jalan’s adventures was still missing a little something – it didn’t read as fluidly as it could have, perhaps. However, The Liar’s Key charges out the gate at full speed and never once does it falter. Chalk it up to the story finding its stride in the second book, but I found this one went a lot more smoothly.The Liar’s Key is the kind of sequel every reader dreams about. The story is riveting and superbly well-constructed, just one reason why Mark Lawrence’s writing is such a force to be reckoned with. A pure blend of dark magic and adventure, this book launches Jalan’s saga to a whole new level. It unlocks a whole slew of secrets from his past, raising the stakes for everyone involved. Perhaps my only quibble is the ending and how fast we blew through it, but that’s not even really a true quibble because even now I suspect I only felt this way because I was enjoying myself so much I didn’t want it to be over. I have to say I felt that cruel cliffhanger like a punch in the gut
Anupama
Time still heals all wounds, for now. But the world grows thin around this tome as the letters light up on the pages, their magic burning bright, casting long shadows toward the black void of Osheim.I might not be mistaken when I claim to be the only one who The Liar’s Key was handed to as a ‘required reading’ last year, when I was asked if I would read and critique the first draft of The Wheel of Osheim.Without any spoilers offered I would only say: when a book lights a fire in you, you burn its mark into the world. And as it happened, on a cold December day, I sat down at the computer and started building a whole site dedicated solely to Mark Lawrence and his works.
Kaushal
It’s interesting to compare Jorg of Ancrath with Prince Jalan. No doubt Jorg is the darkest of men, but he never pretended to be anything else. Prince Jalan is a vain fool. On this re read I found Jalan a lot more annoying. Lawrence teases us the reader glimpses of this Jalan leopard changing his spots; there is no doubt that Snorri’s integrity has had an effect on Jalan, but how much? The story shows that as much as Jalan is swayed from his selfish existence by his friendship with Snorri, his path towards Improvement also seems to come by chance… But IS it chance? Or the machinations of the Red Queen and the Lady Blue?I do feel more sympathy for Jalan as more is revealed about his family history, the story of his blood, and we learn more about his mother’s death. I am interested to see how the rest of the story pans out in terms of the shaping of his character through the adventure to come.
On first impressions, it seems that Jorg is the more complex character, but as the story progresses, I realise Jalan is just as complex. Thus far in his life he has chosen to, and been forced to, hide his potential and depth. How much potential does he in fact have to do the right thing, to be the right person, to be the better person?