I have answered 303 of them so far!
Here are the top 8 ranked by popularity.
Mark Lawrence I'm not sure 'anti-hero' is the right word for Jorg:
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...
Jorg's character was inspired by Alex from Anthony Burgess' 1962 classic, A Clockwork Orange, who does those things. So that's one answer.
The other answer is 'why not'. It's not necessary (for most people) to like a characters in order that they be interested in what happens to them. Additionally is it interesting that we can like a character even when we don't like what that character does.
http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk...
Jorg's character was inspired by Alex from Anthony Burgess' 1962 classic, A Clockwork Orange, who does those things. So that's one answer.
The other answer is 'why not'. It's not necessary (for most people) to like a characters in order that they be interested in what happens to them. Additionally is it interesting that we can like a character even when we don't like what that character does.
Mark Lawrence I pronounce it like it's spelled. Like Bjorn Borg, or The Borg, but with a J. J, for jug, org as in the .org domain.
It was originally Jorge (like George) but Americans pronounce that as Hoor-Hey, so I lost the 'e'.
In the US audio book they say Jorg as I would (because they asked me).
In the UK audio book they say Yorg (they didn't ask me).
It was originally Jorge (like George) but Americans pronounce that as Hoor-Hey, so I lost the 'e'.
In the US audio book they say Jorg as I would (because they asked me).
In the UK audio book they say Yorg (they didn't ask me).
Mark Lawrence Author asked to write story, for free! FOR FREE!
Mark Lawrence Accent. There are 15 fecks in the book and 8 fucks. In a book where a bishop gets nails hammered into his head there's no need to censor swearing.
Mark Lawrence That's the first time I've seen someone call 20 'very old' :)
Mark Lawrence Hmmm. Some time in a juvenile detention centre followed by a bloody rise through the ranks of organised crime that enables him to buy his way into politics. Then through the judicious application of kneecapping and fake news ... the presidency.
Mark Lawrence People sometimes imagine stories as arbitrary things that can do whatever they want.
Those of us who have written ... at least successfully, producing stories that others feel compelled to follow ... know otherwise.
When a person who carves wood speaks about their craft they often talk about the animal that is waiting in a particular piece of timber, not created by them, but waiting to be discovered by the chisel and the knife. They are constrained by the grain of the wood, the knots, the dimensions, and by the way the surfaces they start to follow travel through the medium.
All this to say that the end of any book is where the story leads the author. Stories develop a momentum of their own, characters will do one thing and not another. When you wake from a dream you may not like the ending of it. But try to tell yourself a different one ... and it will never quite stick.
From time to time a reader will take the time to variously rage, tell, or inform me of their distress with the way the Broken Empire ends. Quite often they will contact me again days, months, or even years later and say that they finally realized no other ending would do. Those emails are quite nice to get.
Those of us who have written ... at least successfully, producing stories that others feel compelled to follow ... know otherwise.
When a person who carves wood speaks about their craft they often talk about the animal that is waiting in a particular piece of timber, not created by them, but waiting to be discovered by the chisel and the knife. They are constrained by the grain of the wood, the knots, the dimensions, and by the way the surfaces they start to follow travel through the medium.
All this to say that the end of any book is where the story leads the author. Stories develop a momentum of their own, characters will do one thing and not another. When you wake from a dream you may not like the ending of it. But try to tell yourself a different one ... and it will never quite stick.
From time to time a reader will take the time to variously rage, tell, or inform me of their distress with the way the Broken Empire ends. Quite often they will contact me again days, months, or even years later and say that they finally realized no other ending would do. Those emails are quite nice to get.
Mark Lawrence I wasn't worried, no.
Jorg was inspired by Alex from the 1962 classic A Clockwork Orange who is similarly youthful and prone to violence.
In the Broken Empire his age serves various important ends.
The themes in the trilogy include those revolving around
(i) the nature vs nurture issue,
(ii) the ambiguities in responsibility and purpose that arise from the protagonist's age, and
(iii) the disparity between what Jorg tells the reader about his motives and responsibility and what the reader actually deduces
(iv) the changes wrought in us through experience as opposed to those wrought by simply growing.
I rely on my readers having the imagination to cope with the idea that along with ghosts, dream-witches, and magical mutants, there might be some (or at least one) people who at 14 (as Jorg is for 90% of the first book) might act in many regards as older than their age.
A few readers appear to think protagonists are plucked at random from the population and are overwhelmingly likely to be 'average'. This strikes me as odd. If I write a book about a lottery winner, Olympic champion, or mind-reader will readers cry out that it's hardly believable that this random guy has won the lottery / is better at running fast than 99.999999999% of other young men his age / can read minds...
The books weren't written for a young audience.
Jorg was inspired by Alex from the 1962 classic A Clockwork Orange who is similarly youthful and prone to violence.
In the Broken Empire his age serves various important ends.
The themes in the trilogy include those revolving around
(i) the nature vs nurture issue,
(ii) the ambiguities in responsibility and purpose that arise from the protagonist's age, and
(iii) the disparity between what Jorg tells the reader about his motives and responsibility and what the reader actually deduces
(iv) the changes wrought in us through experience as opposed to those wrought by simply growing.
I rely on my readers having the imagination to cope with the idea that along with ghosts, dream-witches, and magical mutants, there might be some (or at least one) people who at 14 (as Jorg is for 90% of the first book) might act in many regards as older than their age.
A few readers appear to think protagonists are plucked at random from the population and are overwhelmingly likely to be 'average'. This strikes me as odd. If I write a book about a lottery winner, Olympic champion, or mind-reader will readers cry out that it's hardly believable that this random guy has won the lottery / is better at running fast than 99.999999999% of other young men his age / can read minds...
The books weren't written for a young audience.
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