Sunday 13 November 2011

That book with all the rape ...

In the last few months I've had occasion to blink at some fairly extreme portrayals of the book I wrote (Prince of Thorns)

Here are just four of many:


"Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence.  It was exactly as I expected it to be–which is to say, full of unrelenting rape"

&

The idea that someone thinks Mark Lawrence's rapefest is "one of the very best" in SFF makes me want to live on a different planet.



(referring to THIS scene from Donaldson's Lord Fouls' Bane (1979))  "Prince of Thorns makes that depiction seem beyond mild in comparison"


&

"All men. All rape. All violence."



Facts have surprisingly little bearing in such matters, but for the sake of completeness I felt I should toss a couple of them out there.

Below are both the rape scenes in the book. Technically they constitute very minor spoilers, so take advantage of the spoiler space if you need to or if you feel they might be too harrowing.


















1)   I saw what they did to Mother, and how long it took.

2)   The fat girl had a lot to say, just like her father. Screeched like a barn owl: hurt my ears with it. I liked the older one better. She was quiet enough. So quiet you'd give a twist here or there just to check she hadn't died of fright.








Little things

Settle down, settle down, it's just a couple of links:

i) Prince of Thorns has been shortlisted on Goodreads for Best Fantasy of 2011. An incredible honour given the company it's keeping there:

The selection was based on rating from the site's 6 million members and the 'Best of' polls have take a quarter million votes in 2 weeks!

http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/2011#56037-Best-Fantasy

ii) My silliness continues & my 'It's time to fucking eat' poem is now a photo epic! Feel free to retweet & link the hell out of it until Samuel L Jackson agrees to narrate and it follows 'Go the fuck to sleep' to the top of the New York Times best seller list  :)

http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/2011#56037-Best-Fantasy