Wheel of Oshiem

The Wheel of Osheim
By Mark Lawrence
Penguin Publishing Group, 2016. 432 Pages. Science Fiction

The conclusion to Mark Lawrence's second trilogy set in the world of Jorg Ancrath, Wheel of Oshiem brings back the erstwhile Prince Jalan and resolves his quest to save his sister from the clutches of the Dead King. With more responsibility than ever before thrust upon him, Prince Jalan defends his city from the undead horde, saves a caravan from the detonation of a "Builder's Sun", and saves a childhood friend from slavers. The story is interspersed with flashbacks telling of Jalan's journey through the underworld and the revelations he finds there.

Prince Jalan, despite spending the previous two books an avowed and practiced coward, receives a great deal of character development. In previous installments he mainly serves as a foil to his Norse friend Snorri as Snorri journeys through the stages of grief, but now Jalan is forced to deal with the grief in his own past and finds there is courage buried in his heart. The Wheel of Osheim's conclusion will not surprise readers of the Broken Empire series, but it will fill in some details of the story. The main draw is the growth of Jalan into something greater than he was.

JMS