The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence

Winter has locked Prince Jalan Kendeth far from the luxury of his southern palace. The North may be home to Viking Snorri ver Snagason but he is just as eager to leave. However, even men who hold a key that can open any door must wait for the thaw.

As the ice unlocks its jaws the Dead King moves to claim what was so nearly his. But there are other players in this game, other hands reaching for Loki’s key.

Jalan wants only to return to the wine and women of the south, but Snorri has a different and terrifying goal. The warrior aims to find the very door into death and throw it wide. Snorri ver Snagason will challenge all of Hell if that’s what it takes to bring his wife and children back into the living world. He has found the key – now all he needs is to find the door.

But pawns are played to sacrifice and the Red Queen set both these men upon her board. How many moves ahead has the Silent Sister seen? How far will they get before their part in the game is over?

My main barrier to really enjoying this book was Lawrence'a writing style. It's a personal thing really. I gravitate towards simpler, less rambly styles like Christopher Farnsworth- probably a reflection of my impatience as a reader. Some, however may enjoy the richness in detail. Alas, I found it tedious as I kept having to reread paragraphs to understand what was going on. In the end, I felt as if I didn't really have a firm grasp of the story. Also, the characters sometimes spout odd, modern remarks that are out of place with the time and world - “Christ on a bike?” I mean, do they even have bicycles in this world? Colour me confused.

It's been a long time since I was unable to finish a book. This was that book.

I suppose if you love selfish, arrogant, immature protagonists who refuse to learn anything from their experience, you'll love this. I don't and I didn't.

Being an optimist, I assume that the thoroughly unlikeable fellow eventually recognises the admirable qualities of his companions, discovers the hero within and sees some value in caring about anything but his worthless self, but I got tired of waiting for it and put the book down with relief.

Goodreads may need a “stopped reading” button for books like this. This being on the “Best of 2015” list renders the entire list useless to me, but the prominence of thinly veiled romance trash on the list had already raised a distrustful eyebrow anyway.

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this a lot more than the first book. There were only a few slow parts that cost this half a star (and I round 4.5 stars down). Overall a really enjoyable book. Almost as good as his Book of Ancestor series.Audiobook: Another great job by Tim Gerard Reynolds. But that's no surprise. He continues to be one of my favorite narrators. He does a bunch of voices that really make this a must listen for me.Full ReviewWhile I didn't care for Mr. Lawrence's Broken Empire books all that much, I found [b:Prince of Fools 18693743 Prince of Fools (The Red Queen's War, #1) Mark Lawrence https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385072473l/18693743.SY75.jpg 25595312] to be a large improvement. I still didn't even it as much as his Book of Ancestor series, which is what got me to finally read him in the first place.This book came awfully close to those however. I'm not sure if it's due to Prince Jalan growing on me or simply that the last book set the stage for this one to be that much better.I continue to enjoy his world building the most. I want to know all the secret history of the world far more than I care about the current story of the characters of the book. However much of this series deals with uncovering more secrets of the past, so that's probably another reason I liked it much better than his first series.Overall this was a really enjoyable book and I immediately jumped into the third and final book. It's one of the perks of picking up an already completed series that when they are this good you can just binge the whole thing.