I found this book while browsing the shelves of my local bookstore, and I'm glad I did. The protagonist and narrator is Prince Jorg Ancrath, who from a young age must deal with some pretty harrowing experiences. At the age of nine, his mother was brutally killed while he looked on helplessly from a thorn bush where their attackers left him for dead. This trauma eventually led him to leave home and seek out his own fortune among the mercenaries and cutthroats of society. As the story opens, Jorg has, through his strange mix of brutality and charm, won the allegiance of a small band of ruffians who join him in terrorizing the countryside. Oh, and he's only thirteen years old. His ambitions lead him back to the country of his birth, intending to challenge his father and claim the throne that is his birthright.
Several factors work synergically to make this an exceptional story. First is Jorg himself. His traumatic experiences harden him and serve to fuel his drive to rule and have control. yet his random flashes of humanity serve to make him a dynamic and unpredictable character, and his development is something I look forward to watching unfold in the rest of the series. Like Walter White on Breaking Bad, I find that even though I don't particularly like Jorg, I enjoy rooting for him and watching him overcome challenges.
Another facet of the book that fascinated me is the setting, which is a developing mystery. The series is called The Broken Empire, which has been split into about a hundred warring territories, all ruled by leaders with dubious claims to the throne of the emperor. Vestiges of a distant past remain in the religion of the people, as well as in the roads and various items left by a culture known as the Builders, which were clearly more advanced than the feudal society of the Broken Empire. Small clues are revealed at various times to flesh out the setting, but leaving enough of a mystery that I was hooked on learning more.
There are elements of fantasy in this story, like necromancy and sorcery, but the intrigue and action is what really sold me on this book. If you want a TL;DR, one of the reviews I read called the book "Game of Thrones on speed", which is an apt if incomplete description. I recommend that you read this book and discover it for yourself.
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