“If you must run, have something to run toward, so it feels
less like cowardice. And if you must run to something, why not make it the
empire throne?”
I almost didn’t read Prince
of Thorns. I initially bought it after seeing the title grace several “best
fantasy books” lists and reading many positive reviews. After reading about 50
pages, I found myself struggling to read any further. Make no mistake, the Broken Empire trilogy is violent. And although
I have read and enjoyed violent, gritty fiction by the likes of Abercrombie,
there was something distinctly disturbing this particular novel: it was written
from the first person perspective of a 13 year old boy who, within the first 5
pages, was casually participating in raping, murdering, and pillaging the
people of a rural community. So, 50 pages in, I set the book aside. I went on
to read another book before coming up against the usual struggle: what book do
I read next? Prince of Thorns was
still sitting in my Kindle queue, mostly unread. Hating to give up on a novel,
I gave Prince of Thorns another try.
I loved it.
The Broken Empire
trilogy is unlike any other. The main character, Jorg Ancrath, is not a typical
protagonist: Jorg is an anti-hero, an unapologetically ruthless young man who
has been shaped by his traumatic past. What makes this series so intriguing is
that it lets the reader cohabitate with Jorg in his dark and twisted headspace.
I will waste little time on what has been said by countless reviewers before
me; those readers who have made it to book three know what kind of man Jorg
Ancrath is, and while Emperor finds
Jorg delving even further into his memories and motivations, Jorg has by no
means lost his edge.
Emperor of Thorns
begins two or three years after the battle at the Haunt. Jorg is now 20 years
old, and is the High King of seven nations after consolidating the Prince of
Arrow’s lands. The throne of the Broken Empire remains uninhabited, and Jorg is
determined to become Emperor by any and all means necessary. But there’s a
problem: to become Emperor, one must be elected by the Hundred, the fractious
rulers of the hundred disparate lands that make up the Empire. Elected? Jorg’s
modus operandi is to take what he wants and to remove the offending body parts
of anyone who stands in his way! Of more concern to Jorg than a bunch of politicking
Kings is the Dead King, a mysterious entity who is emptying out the Empire’s
graves and raising the dead to fight against the Hundred.
Things I liked about this novel:
- So much of this book was a revelation to read. Emperor has many of the flashback sequences characteristic of the first two Thorns novels, each of which relates a memory that gives the reader further insight into the tortured psyche of Jorg. Reading this book was like assembling a jigsaw puzzle; each memory related is a piece of a bigger picture, and as the pieces accumulate, the reader begins to truly understand the factors that cemented Jorg’s slow saunter into wickedness. To be able to insinuate the reader into the mind of a character as complex and, frankly, as despicable as Jorg Ancrath is truly an amazing feat of writing from author Mark Lawrence.
- Emperor has more character development and growth than the previous two novels, and it all feels perfectly timed, like the slow unfolding of a flower’s petals as it blooms. The narrative alternately follows Jorg in the present day as he journeys towards the Vyene Congression, continues the story arc of Jorg’s trip to his grandfather’s castle on the Horse Coast 5 years ago, and additionally delves into the mind of Chella, an agent of the Dead King. One of the greatest accomplishments of this novel is its perfect sense of timing: every bit of information is parceled out at what seems like the exact right time. Jorg, seemingly out of nowhere, achieves what seems like the impossible, and only later is the information regarding how these feats were accomplished revealed. This is a narrative device that I have never encountered before, and each time it was used left me with a feeling of stunned amazement.
- The powers over necromancy and fire that Jorg possessed, before they were burned out of him at the finale of the battle for the Haunt, were only explained briefly in the previous two books and seemed like relatively normal facets of Jorg’s world. Emperor does a much better job of explaining how such magic came to exist in a world based on a post-apocalyptic Earth 1,000 years after a nuclear holocaust almost ended humanity, as well as how the use of magic has contributed to the deteriorating fabric of reality. Likewise, the role that the Builders, and the “data-ghosts” that they left behind, play is further explored in Emperor.
- The ending of Emperor of Thorns, and of the whole Broken Empire trilogy, is beyond compare. At the end of Emperor there are no rough edges, no unresolved questions, no lingering plot lines... just a deep sense of wonder and satisfaction. While I enjoyed the first two novels in the Broken Empire trilogy immensely, I was largely at a loss as to the ultimate direction that the series would take. I had no idea, coming into reading this novel, how the author would conclude the series. I knew that Mr. Lawrence was building up to something great, but the sheer magnitude of the series’ conclusion was beyond my wildest imaginings. Emperor of Thorns is a clever book, concluding a clever trilogy. I think that only a man with a background in rocket science such as Mr. Lawrence has could come up with such a complicated and yet perfectly realized trilogy. I cannot recommend Emperor of Thorns highly enough.
I was especially excited to learn that Mr. Lawrence is writing
another series that will be set in the same world as the Broken Empire trilogy, with cameos by Jorg and his band of
road-brothers. The first book in Lawrence’s new series, The Red King’s War, is called Prince
of Fools, and will likely be published in June of 2014.
I’m absolutely thrilled and grateful to have received an
Advanced Reading Copy of Emperor of
Thorns. I was not paid or compensated in any way for this review.
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