The Book Plank

Author interview with Mark Lawrence Author bio: Mark Lawrence is married with four children, one of whom is severely disabled. His day job is as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments. At one point he was qualified to say 'this isn't rocket science ... oh wait, it actually is'. Between work and caring for his disabled child, Mark spends his time writing, playing computer games, tending an allotment, brewing beer, and avoiding DIY.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Mark, Welcome over to The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions! BP: First off, could you give us a short introduction as to who you are? What are your likes and dislikes? What are your hobbies. ML: I could list the hobbies from my dust jackets but the tr...

Last week I wrote a blog post about the genre books that I enjoyed and found to be the best of 2013, on purpose I avoided including the best book of 2013, I had to give all the nominees another look over before I could decide which books were for me the best. After a lot of debating, scrapping and adding books, I came to the final list of books. Be aware that I am using bullet points instead of numbers, these books are the top 5 of this year.  Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, Harper Voyager I read the whole Broken Empire just this year, from the first page in Prince of Thorns I new this book and the whole series would a winner for me. The start of the series was dark and gritty and there were some very violent scenes in the book that got a lot of criticism however for me, looking at the whole setting, idea and goal that Mark Lawrence wanted to achieve it was just spot on, and well come on. it's fiction for pete's sake. Anyway after finishing the first book, King of T...

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, Broken Empire #3 To reach the throne requires that a man journey. Even a path paved with good intentions can lead to hell, and my intentions were never good. The Hundred converge for Congression to politic upon the corpse of Empire, and while they talk the Dead King makes his move, and I make mine. The world is cracked, time has run through, leaving us clutching at the end days, the future so bright that those who see it are the first to burn. These are the days that have waited for us all our lives. These are my days. I will stand before the Hundred and they will listen. I will take the throne whoever seeks to thwart me, living or dead, and if I must be the last emperor then I will make of it such an ending. This is where the wise man turns away. This is where the holy kneel and call on God. These are the last miles, my brothers. Don't look to me to save you. Don't think I will not spend you. Run if you have the wit. Pray if y...