'Road Brothers' – Mark Lawrence (Harper Voyager)

Over the last few years in particular, I've been absolutely awful at reading all the cool books that everyone is talking about, preferring instead to get all cosy with my favourite comfort reads. Better to re-read something than not read anything at all, I guess. Look, it got me through ;o)

The upshot of that is that now I'm in a better state to tackle the new stuff... Well, the new stuff isn't exactly new any more and I'm playing catch-up all of a sudden. It takes the pressure off, to be honest. I can read whatever I like without the pressure to turn around a quick review, just what I'm after.

Which kind of leads me round to Mark Lawrence's 'Road Brothers', an added extra to the 'Broken Empire' series. Here's a series where I've been nibbling at the edges for some time but never got into for one reason or another (nothing to do with the books funnily enough, I loved 'Prince of Thorns' but fate has somehow conspired to keep me away from finishing the other two books... weird, that). So when I saw that Mark Lawrence was offering review copies for 'Road Brothers' over on Facebook, my interest was piqued. Would this collection give me a little boost to finally finish reading the main series? And how accessible would the book be for a chap who last read 'Prince of Thorns' back in 2013...? One promise of a fair and honest review later and... it turned out that I had a few other books to get through first but I got to 'Road Brothers' in the end and when I started reading it, I couldn't put the book down until it was done (and I was a little sad to reach the end)...

This is a collection of fourteen stories of murder, mayhem, pathos, and philosophy, all set in the world of the Broken Empire.

Within these pages, you will find tales of men such as Red Kent, Sir Makin, Rike, Burlow and the Nuban, telling of their origins and the events that forged them. There is Jorg himself, striding the page as a child of six, as a teenage wanderer and as a young king. And then there is a tale about Prince Jalan Kendeth – liar, cheat, womaniser and coward.

To the new reader, welcome to a lawless world where wit and sword are the most useful weapons, and danger lurks as much in candle-lit palaces as in dark alleys and dense woodland. To those who have already journeyed with Jorg, we hope you will enjoy renewing old acquaintances with your favourite characters.

The blurb lays it on the line then, 'Road Brothers' is a book that anyone (whether a long time fan or new to the series) can pick straight up and dive into... or is it...? Well, the answer (as far as I'm concerned anyway) is that of course it is. This collection inevitably has links to the main series but the stories themselves are self contained enough that anyone with only a passing knowledge of 'The Broken Empire' can get stuck in and not have to worry about reading the main trilogy first. Just perfect for a reader like me :o)

The characters are also fleshed out enough that long term readers are clearly going to have fun meeting up with their old favourites and maybe even discovering something new along the way. Basically, everyone's a winner here.

But what about the stories themselves? How do they work out...?

It's a rare collection for me where every story hits the spot and while 'Road Brothers' has a bloody good go at, it doesn't quite get there. Having said that though, thirteen brilliant stories out of fourteen is an amazing return, you can't complain really...

In case you were wondering (you were wondering...), 'Select Mode' is the story that didn't quite work for me. I enjoyed seeing an alternate take on the 'Road Brothers' of Jorg's company but couldn't quite place the 'old tech' being used which made it feel like it was there more to drive Jorg's actions rather than the overall plot (or to say anything about the world that had been left behind). I'm probably being a little unfair here but when the rest of the book did everything so well, it was just a little jarring when this happened here.

But like I said though, the other thirteen stories were absolutely amazing, giving us an insight into characters, that may only merit a mention in the trilogy, as well as a wider look at a very cruel world. In these new 'grimdark' times, it's also really refreshing to see the thought that Lawrence puts into expanding upon his themes, rather than just saying that it's a cruel world and people die unfairly. It is a cruel world (and you will find out a lot more about just why Jorg is the person he is) but Lawrence not only tells you why, he also goes to great lengths to show you what this can mean for our players.

There was once a time when I'd have gone through each story here and said a few words on what I thought of it. Being all middle aged now, I don't have time for that now but what I will say is that each and every story is a compelling read that either sheds a new light on a character or confirms what you probably already thought of them, depends how much of the 'Broken Empire' trilogy you have already read. I think the bottom line is that I've only read 'Prince of Thorns' and I couldn't put 'Road Brothers' down; just imagine how you're going to feel about 'Road Brothers' if you've read and enjoyed the whole trilogy. You've probably read 'Road Brothers' already (I am so late to this party...) but if you haven't, I would do something about that sooner rather than later.