The Liar's Key

By: Mark Lawrence

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Prince of Fools, The Red Queen's War: Book One had all "the hallmarks of [Mark Lawrence's] storytelling and writing style which made The Broken Empire trilogy such an incredibly addictive read" (Bibliosanctum.com). Now The Liar's Key continues the story of the unusual fellowship between a rogue prince and a weary warrior....

After harrowing adventure and near-death, Prince Jalan Kendeth and the Viking Snorri ver Snagason find themselves in possession of Loki's Key, an artefact capable of opening any door and sought by the most dangerous beings in the Broken Empire - including The Dead King. Jal wants only to return home to his wine, women, and song, but Snorri has his own purpose for the key: to find the very door into death, throw it wide, and bring his family back into the land of the living. And as Snorri prepares for his quest to find death's door, Jal's grandmother, the Red Queen, continues to manipulate kings and pawns toward an endgame of her own design....

©2015 Bobalinga Ltd. (P)2015 Recorded Books

Narrator excellence

Love love this book, so much, I look for the same author and narrator in other books!

Great ending

Would you listen to The Liar's Key again? Why?

This book had a good beginning, a better middle, and a great ending. You need to hear the whole story to truly enjoy the book. However Lawrence did a great job of surprising his readers at the end and it was great set up for the next book.

Great Read

Love to see that Jalan is still the bastard that keeps up his interesting antics. His self centered attitude always gets him into more trouble. Perfect ending!

Amazing series. Amazing book

Great writing, loved the story, remarkable characters.
A gripping tale of axe slashing adventure and a great amount of horror ( mostly one sided.) Couldn't get enough before the end of book one.
Editing seemed to not be a thing though. Poor Tim GR, he sounds great but there are a few issues. Still worth a read or listen to for any Fantasy lover young or old.

Witty, irreverent fantasy

I so enjoyed this second book of the series. Reminds me of the 'Princess Bride'. The protagonist, Prince J is a smart mouth, lying, thieving, whoring, cowardly and very funny, anti-hero. Too real....he thinks as many of us would when asked to do a heroic thing..."why me? I could get really hurt". Yet despite his worst efforts, he ends up fighting for his friends even when he wishes they'd just leave him out of their damn quests. Great writing and excellent narrator. On the the next book in the series for me

Suffer Through It... Book Three Redeems It All!

Book 2 in the series is a "Filler", as is stated in many reviews... I came VERY VERY close to NOT buying book three, because I was SICK of the "Coward" NEVER "Finally growing up and BEING something OTHER THAN a Drunken Cowardly Fool" (I "mentioned" this IN DETAIL in my review of Books 1 and 2 while reviewing Book One)...

But Book 3... Book Three is like an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT TYPE OF BOOK! Maybe it was the "Year Wait" between Books Two and Three that the Author Mentions (and apologizes for), that allowed him to refine his skills, soak in the feedback from followers who were also (Politely) saying "ENOUGH WITH THE CONSTANT COWARD Routine!", etc, that makes suffering through THIS book, worth the credit to purchase Book Three, which ABSOLUTELY Redeems all of the teeth gritting "ENOUGH COWARDICE!" you feel 10 minutes into Book Two!

... You'd THINK in book Two, you'd at least SEE SOME SLIGHT inkling that the drunken selfish useless Coward Fool was transforming into something THE SLIGHTEST BIT worth caring about... but if anything, he just gets WORSE!

The "Coward bluffing his way through, and somehow ending up being mistaken for 'Heroic'" routine, is HILARIOUS and VERY WELL DONE by "George MacDonald Fraser" in "The Flashman Papers", BOOK, after BOOK, AFTER BOOK, AFTER BOOK!... But it was just getting VERY OLD, VERY FAST, in THESE books, by the middle of Book One.

But, For Some reason, Book Three makes it ALL worthwhile! No "Slow Transformation into something you can kinda respect"... The "Hero" just suddenly BECOMES a Hero, on his OWN merit, digging himself out of his own troubles, BY HIMSELF, and he's NOT A BIT troubled about cutting a throat, or 10, instead of constantly Running Away...

Of course, having traveled all over the World that this book is set in (OUR world, about a thousand years after a nuclear war that takes place about 50 years from *now*, according to the author at the start of Book Three) and coming Freshly "Out Of HELL" (Literally), DOES tend to change what a coward sees "As Scary" when he gets back to the real world, and back home!!! I mean, Suffering through all of the Horrors encountered while traveling with demons on your tail, AND THEN having to go into Hell and fight your way back out again, DOES make "Everyday bullies and Debt-Troubles" seem a bit... "minor".. by comparison.

So, again... Suffer through Book Two, AND BUY "The Pay-Off Book" (Three) that makes the previous suffering worthwhile! He IS his Grandmother's Grandson, and MORE (FINALLY!)!!! I STRONGLY dislike spending money on MULTIPLE books, just to get to THE ONE Book that makes it all worthwhile, but I'll make an exception in this case ;)

Great series

love the narrator in this series really adds to the story will finish series as audio books
love mark Lawrence

I loved it! Brilliant!

That was an amazing journey. I can't hate the Prince even if he's a sneaky selfish bastard. There is more to this Prince then even he knows about himself. A mystery i can't wait to unfold in the next book. Glad I already have it ready for listening. Now to jump right in!

Always take the money!

It's an excellent sequel and along the journey it teases that there is more to learn in the next book.I also teaches a great lesson: always take the money!

Keeps getting better

The second book continues the story and to my mind is better than the first, which was also quite enjoyable.

It really is two books in one given its size and breadth.