The Wheel of Osheim, by Mark Lawrence, concludes the Red Queen’s War series in spectacular fashion. This epic fantasy follows a spoiled prince and a heroic Viking as they try to rescue the Viking’s family and turn the tide of an ancient war, on which hinges the fate of existence itself. NBD.

The structure of the Wheel of Osheim picks up with Prince Jalan as he pops out of an abyssal fissure back into the “real” world. The narrative toggles back and forth between Jalan’s current tale and flashbacks to his time spent in hell. The cuts back and forth are deftly executed, building curiosity and tension as the story progresses.

The whole story is well paced, hooking you immediately with the question: what happened to Snorri? And never letting go.  Everything hinges on the dynamic between the two main characters; Prince Jalan Kendeth, and Snorri ver Snagason.

Prince Jalan, the trilogy’s narrator, is a loveable rascal. While Snorri is a do-gooder badass on a mission. Their buddy cop banter gives the entire trilogy a unique feel amongst epic fantasy reads. Jalan, in particular, is a strong selling point for the series. He’s just such a lazy, cowardly, selfish, cad that in theory he is the kind of character you should despise. And yet, there is an ember of real goodness inside him that flares up from time to time. Naturally he explains his unselfishness and bravery away, as really being quite selfish and self-preserving, if viewed from a particular point-of-view. By now, Snorri is in hell, intent on rescuing his family. His singlemindedness is an essential counterpoint to drive Jalan to the ends of the earth and beyond in this mad quest.

Nothing is perfect, of course. The whole sub-plot with the Unborn, and Jalan’s murdered sister takes up a lot of real estate without delivering. The series stacked potential endbosses to the sky and it sort of felt like their resolutions were checked off. The Sister, the Unborn Prince, the Lady Blue, the Dead King, Edris Dean. All of this was a high-level structural issue, the individual scenes and chapters still flowed well, it just seems like there were some aspects that took up space but didn’t really contribute and should have been shorn off earlier in the series.

Similarly the lore between the unborn and the lich-kings(I may be misremembering the name of this baddy archetype) are kind of muddy and unnecessary. Just the Unborn would have sufficed.

Edris Dean made a pretty good villain, and despite the crowded bad guy cast, he did stand out as the one whose conflict with Jalan was personal. However, his motivations still felt a little flat to me. He essentially had no more depth than agreeing perfectly with the Lady Blue’s apocalyptic endgame, and given a three book arc, it would have been nice to get some more tangible personality and goals.

The worldbuilding on the other hand is a high note. The broken empire is really Europe in the far-flung future after a technological disaster and nuclear war have plunged the planet into a dark age in which magic is unleashed. As the mystery of the Wheel is unraveled, Lawrence skillfully intertwines magic and technology, building a believable setting that is none-the-less full of wonder. Writing the after life in a convincing fashion is a tall order, particularly given the constraints Lawrence set up for himself concerning the Wheel and the beginning of magic and supernatural forces, but the underworld setting is really compelling. It captures the x-factor a story set in hell really gambles on.

The Red Queen’s War is funny. But funny in a way that doesn’t undermine the high stakes and dark moments. Jalan is a little shit. His ruthless wit and devil-may-care quips kept me chuckling throughout. In the end, it was Jalan more than anything, that made this series, and its ending, so enjoyable.

I loved the writing. I loved the setting. I loved the characters. 4.5/5 stars.

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