Summary from Amazon:
Ten short stories from the lives of Jorg and his Road Brothers. Contains spoilers for the Broken Empire trilogy. Five of the stories have previously been published in anthologies, Contains the short story 'Sleeping Beauty' that is also sold separately. A total of 43,000 words or just over half the length of Prince of Thorns.
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My Review:
The above summary doesn't even begin to encapsulate the command of the English language this author has, that never fails to affect me deeply.
This collection of tales is as stunning as ever, and poignant in their brevity! ROAD BROTHERS
absolutely speaks to a writer's proclivity to knowing his characters
deeper than anything that would fit within a broad narrative; here we
receive those all-important glimpses into characters who perhaps only
had a single role to play in one of the trilogies, but, as Lawrence
quotes John Dunne, "No man is an island..." These characters may have
had one role in Jorg's story... But at the same time, Jorg was merely a
part of their stories. The same visceral, compelling prose that so drew
me to devouring any story with his name attached still shines
beautifully here.
"A Rescue" gives a glimpse into the past of
Brother Makin, one of my favorite characters from the Thorns trilogy,
and arguably the most upright.
"Sleeping Beauty" plays off like a
scientific horror from the perspective of Jorg, in one of those rare
instances when he is actually vulnerable for a bit.
"Bad Seed" turns to
the little-known Red Kent for a brief time, telling the part of his past
that shaped him into the man Jorg found.
"The Nature of the Beast"
explores a mission of Rike, and gives wonderful insight into such a
stoic, ruthless man—as well as giving more "humanity", such as it is, to
another character famous in the trilogy.
"Select Mode" is about the
only one of this collection that I actually read on Wattpad, and it
fascinated me. Just the idea of near-future technology colliding with
what we expect to see in stereotypical "medievalesque" fantasy never
fails to blow my mind.
"Mercy" revisits Makin, in the midst of the event
alluded to in "A Rescue."
"A Good Name" travels far south, to the land
and the mysterious past of the Nuban, and some inspiration for his
devotion to Jorg—plus an unexpected appearance of a character with ties
to the Red Queen's War!
"Choices" focuses on Gorgoth the leucrota, "The
Secret" deals with Brother Sim, and "Know Thyself" is about the only
time (probably) that readers actually get to "see" the Ancrath brothers
alive together, and understand the connection between them... Along with
some delicious foreshadowing of revelations reserved for the last book
in the Thorns trilogy!
Typically, I would take the time to
gush over my favorite story in an anthology; however, I am in quite a
bind, because there are several that I really loved, or little bits and
glimmers in them that just gave me the sort of thrill that is the reason
I enjoy this series and this world so much. An absolute win for any fan
of the Broken Empire.
I give "Road Brothers"
an unreserved *****FIVE STAR***** rating, and add an Upstream Writer
Certified Highly Recommended for fans of deep, intricate sci-fi mixed
with grim dystopia, dark fantasy, and sprinkled liberally with violence and
language—but the prose is absolutely phenomenal, and more than makes up for the cursing and gore.
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