Mark Lawrence

nixie

nixie

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Noticed last week Waterstones had the Gormenghast Trilogy in and decided to go pick up today. Whilst there I thought I'd pre order Martin's ADWD any way if you pre order you get a complementary book. It's Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns, the blurb looks pretty good but this worries me slightly...

SET TO BE THE BRITISH ANSWER TO GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S A GAME OF THRONES.

Is it going to be a poor rip of AGOT? Now he looks to be a new author, the book not being released till Aug 2011 so why the free publicity,why give out exclusive reading copies?

Has any one heard of him?
 
nixie said:
Noticed last week Waterstones had the Gormenghast Trilogy in and decided to go pick up today. Whilst there I thought I'd pre order Martin's ADWD any way if you pre order you get a complementary book. It's Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns, the blurb looks pretty good but this worries me slightly...

SET TO BE THE BRITISH ANSWER TO GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S A GAME OF THRONES.

Is it going to be a poor rip of AGOT? Now he looks to be a new author, the book not being released till Aug 2011 so why the free publicity,why give out exclusive reading copies?

Has any one heard of him?
Click to expand...

Never heard of the dude, but I typed him into google and this turns out to be a complete list of the reviews to date:

princeofthorns.com/reviews.html

Reading further I discover the book has nothing in common with AGOT - I guess the author has no input to the blurb!

It further transpires that giving out free books is an excellent way of kick-starting new authors, though it only works if the book is a good one.
 
nixie said:
SET TO BE THE BRITISH ANSWER TO GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S A GAME OF THRONES
Click to expand...

I suspect we're going to be seeing a GOT reference on the cover/blurb of every fantasy book for the next few years. He was name-dropped on Name of the Wind as well, which is nothing at all like GOT. It's just the biggest fantasy name out there so people put it on to sell copies.
 
soulsinging said:
I suspect we're going to be seeing a GOT reference on the cover/blurb of every fantasy book for the next few years. He was name-dropped on Name of the Wind as well, which is nothing at all like GOT. It's just the biggest fantasy name out there so people put it on to sell copies.
Click to expand...

There was an awfully long time when every new author was 'the new Tolkien' and their book was 'comparable to Lord of the Rings' :)
 
Well the blurb looks interesting it was that one sentence that made me a little wary. I take it authors don't really get a say on the blurb. Although it must be costing a fortune to give away books specially as its a debut.
 
Ahhh yes, but it get people talking eh?

Like here. Now I'm tempted just by this...
 
nixie said:
Well the blurb looks interesting it was that one sentence that made me a little wary. I take it authors don't really get a say on the blurb. Although it must be costing a fortune to give away books specially as its a debut.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing somebody thinks it's good then and is prepared to bet their money on it... I got my free copy when I pre-ordered ADWD, but I gave it away to a friend :)
 
The problem with blurbs like that is when they backfire. As a non-fan of GRRM, I'd probably be more unlikely to pick up a book that is compared to his fantasy.

I wish publishers would stop this. It's OK to compare things in a review, or on a forum, but when it comes to selling an author's work, I'd rather they let the work stand on its own.
 
D_Davis said:
The problem with blurbs like that is when they backfire. As a non-fan of GRRM, I'd probably be more unlikely to pick up a book that is compared to his fantasy.

I wish publishers would stop this. It's OK to compare things in a review, or on a forum, but when it comes to selling an author's work, I'd rather they let the work stand on its own.
Click to expand...

...weirdly, if you let google order 'Prince of Thorns' hits chronologically, the one immediately before the hit on this thread (posted three hours previous to it) is a hit on the forum belonging to the author Conn Iggulden (no, I don't know him either, but he seems to be very popular) where he says:

I've just finished a proof of 'Prince of Thorns' by Mark Lawrence - excellent and dark, on a par with GRR Martin. Great new talent, that one.

...so that seems to hit your buttons, it's a mini-review on a forum & it's doing the comparing things business right :)

Having read both Lawrence and Martin myself, I'm of the opinion that GRRM blows Lawrence away, but hopefully there's room for both.
 
Just reposted my review in the reviews forum (missed it first time as the Chrons was offline). It's great, and not really like GRRM. If you put a gun to my head I might say it was more like somewhere between Bakker and Abercrombie, but even that's not a satisfying comparison. It is more its own thing.
 
I think they've noticed, Vertigo, but everyone is being very cool about it. :cool: ;)

(Either that or they need glasses... :rolleyes: )
 
I didn't until you pointed it out...

Guess I'll have to buy a copy myself now!
 
Ah well no harm in crticism! And he appears to have a wry sense of humour so I don't think the hole would have gone that deep ;)

And TJ I thought that at first but felt that if I'd been the one looking I'd have leapt on Mark to get an "honest" author's blurb! But maybe everyone's just much cooler than me!
 
The Judge said:
I think they've noticed, Vertigo, but everyone is being very cool about it. :cool: ;)

(Either that or they need glasses... :rolleyes: )
Click to expand...

Or a little strange that the author is talking about himself in the 3rd person.
 
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