Earlier this year, I vowed to catch up on my reviews for books I finished in 2025. I was making decent progress until May, but I’ve fallen woefully behind since then. I suppose finishing The Sorceress of Avalon and Merlin Reborn had something to do with the delay, as did my trip to Rome and all the world-building I’ve been doing for my next project. But there is no time like the present to tie up a few loose ends.
The second-to-last novel on my overdue review list is The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence, the final book in his Red Queen’s War trilogy. The story is set in the same post-apocalyptic world as his Broken Empire trilogy, where humanity has rebuilt the world into something resembling medieval Europe centuries after a nuclear holocaust known as the Day of a Thousand Suns. I enjoyed both series, and The Wheel of Osheim might just be my favorite of the lot. I’ve tried to avoid major spoilers, but a few plot revelations were necessary to do the book justice
The book’s endearing protagonist is Prince Jalan Kendeth of Red March, an avowed coward, liar, and cheat. I was making decent progress until May, but I’ve fallen woefully behind since then. Jalan wants nothing to do with the quest, but fortunately for him, he’s stolen Loki’s Key, a device that can open any door, even between dimensions. We begin The Wheel of Osheim at the moment of Jalan’s escape.
At first, one might think the story is skipping over everything that happened to Snorri and Jalan in the underworld, but the book makes up for it with a series of flashbacks in classic Mark Lawrence style. Those scenes complete Snorri’s arc in an emotionally satisfying fashion, I might add. But there is so much going on in this novel, I can’t help but focus this review on Jalan.
After escaping Hell and finding himself in a desert kingdom, Jalan embarks on a series of often amusing adventures, including a scene with a sheik’s flirtatious daughters and a near-fatal encounter with one of the Builders’ Suns (an atomic bomb). This part of the story ties directly to the flashback sequences in Lawrence’s excellent novel, Emperor of Thorns, where we learned how Jorg Ancrath—the antihero of the Broken Empire series—detonated the bomb.
This eventually leads to a drunken encounter between Jalan and Jorg, who happen to be visiting the same desert city. It’s a fascinating scene featuring the main characters from both trilogies, and it reminds readers of the internal conflict Jalan has wrestled with throughout the series. Will he return to being the cowardly, lazy lover of wine, women, and gambling he’s always been? Or will he reluctantly become the hero needed to save this broken world?
The story picks up steam when Jalan returns home to Vermillion, where he reunites with his grandmother, the Red Queen, and her shadowy sibling and sorceress, the Silent Sister. When his grandmother sees him, the first thing she says is:
“You’ve changed, Grandson. The boy who set out has not returned. Where did you lose him?”
The Red Queen soon leaves Vermillion to wage war on their family’s sworn enemy, the Lady Blue. The Red Queen’s departure, however, is less than ideal because the forces of the Dead King—the overarching antagonist in both of Lawrence’s trilogies—are threatening Vermillion. Jalan’s great-uncle warns that “Lady Blue steers the Dead King.” And to Jalan’s chagrin, he discovers his grandmother appointed him Marshal of Vermillion, leaving him to lead the city’s defense.
A critical revelation soon follows, setting up the trilogy’s riveting conclusion. The Wheel of Osheim, an ancient particle accelerator that brought ‘magic’ into the world and has continued operating for a thousand years since the nuclear holocaust, is only months away from triggering another apocalypse. Not long after, the Dead King unleashes his ghouls and other undead horrors on Vermillion, sparking one of the series’ most thrilling battles (vaguely reminiscent of Game of Thrones’ “Long Night”) and marking a turning point in Jalan’s transformation from coward to hero.
The rest of the book involves a harrowing quest to take Loki’s Key north and use it to shut off the Wheel before it can destroy the world. It’s a journey that leads to the trilogy’s epic climax, where nearly every loose thread in this fantastic series is finally tied off, including the series’ namesake: the Red Queen’s War. Without giving too much away, the conclusion answers numerous lingering questions about the origins of the Key, Loki’s true identity, and the other men who, a thousand years ago, put the Wheel of Osheim in motion.
Overall, The Wheel of Osheim was a near-perfect end to a terrific fantasy series. As a whole, I enjoyed it more than the Broken Empire trilogy, which was otherwise excellent. Jalan, for all his faults, is easier to root for than Jorg Ancrath, and his adventures answer fundamental questions about how this fictional world came to be.
I’d put both series in my must-read category for grimdark fantasy. As for that genre, Lawrence stands among its best authors alongside Joe Abercrombie and George R.R. Martin, among others. I may have discovered these two series a decade after they were written, but, as they say, better late than never.