Mark Lawrence (Writer)

Mark Lawrence, born January 1, 1968, is a Fantasy author that was born in the United States but raised in the United Kingdom. He currently has dual American and British citizenship, and previously in his life he has held secret-level clearance with both of those governments. When Lawrence is not writing, he works as a research scientist in the field of artificial intelligence, and influence from his day job can be found in multiple instances in his first two books of The Broken Empire Trilogy. With his scientific background, Lawrence has many times been asked why he decided to write Fantasy instead of Science Fiction, to which he has stated, “All the other fantasy writers have jobs that might inspire them to write things other than fantasy. I doubt any of them tend unicorns for a living. My mother read me Lord of the Rings when I was seven (I cried when Gandalf died), so I was introduced to fantasy a long time before anyone noticed I was good at mathematics. I’ve read fantasy books ever since and been involved in fantasy gaming.” Lawrence is married with four children, one of whom has a disability that makes both writing and his work in AI part-time jobs, with taking care of his daughter being his full-time job. He has also stated that being published and seeing success as a Fantasy author has made it easier for him to take time out of his day to write, while the added income from his Trilogy has at least matched the money he lost by working part-time.

Lawrence’s first work, Prince of Thorns, was published by Ace Voyager in August 2011. The trilogy centers on Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath, who at the young age of nine was thrown into a thorny briar patch by his mother where he then witnessed his mother and brother brutally slaughtered. After he almost bled to death, his father decided to treat with the man who ordered the attack, Count Renar, instead of committing his army to a battle on another front. In a quest for vengeance, the young Jorg broke out a small bloodthirsty army of thugs from his father’s dungeon and lead them away from his home. For most of the book, Jorg is 14 years old, which makes the brutal unforgiving darkness/grittiness featured in the book even more alarming and offensive to some sensitive readers. The book has received many accolades since it was released, with it being a nominee and finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy in 2011 and a David Gemmell Morningstar Award Nominee in 2012. Prince of Thorns has an average Goodreads rating of 3.84 out of 5 with 2,813 ratings and 527 reviews. Lawrence’s debut was initially designed as a standalone novel with the potential for future stories, but it has now been developed into a Trilogy, with the second book King of Thorns being released August 2012. The second book has released to even better critical success so far than his debut, with it already having an average Goodreads rating of 4.51 out of 5 with 468 ratings and 93 reviews In this book, the anti-hero Jorg develops further as a character as he becomes an adult, while still keeping much of his vicious, demented, and sarcastic personality. The third novel of his trilogy is Emperor of Thorns and its anticipated release date is August 2013. Not much is known about this forthcoming book, but Mark Lawrence has stated that he believes it may be his best work yet, and that it will provide a fitting conclusion to The Broken Empire Trilogy.

''The Broken Empire Trilogy

 * 1) Prince of Thorns (2011)
 * 2) King of Thorns (2012)
 * 3) Emperor of Thorns (Forthcoming August 2013)

Short works

 * Dark Tide (2012) released in Fading Light Anthology