King of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #2)

by Mark Lawrence

In book two of the Broken Empire trilogy, the boy who would be king has gained the throne—but the crown is a heavy weight to bear...

At age nine, Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath vowed to avenge his slaughtered mother and brother—and to punish his father for not doing so. At fifteen, he began to fulfill that vow. Now, at eighteen, he must fight for what he has taken by torture and treachery.

Haunted by the pain of his past, and plagued by nightmares of the atrocities he has committed, King Jorg is filled with rage. And even as his need for revenge continues to consume him, an overwhelming enemy force marches on his castle.

Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But he has found a long-hidden cache of ancient artifacts. Some might call them magic. Jorg is not certain—all he knows is that their secrets can be put to terrible use in the coming battle...

• ISBN10: 1937007472
• ISBN13: 9781937007478
• Publish Date: 7 August 2012 (first published 1 August 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Ace Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 449
• Language: English

Reviews

[moraa]

***FOR REASONS THAT HAVE RECENTLY COME TO LIGHT, I CANNOT CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THIS AUTHOR***

I've always seen 'no' as a challenge rather than an answer.

I intend to finish this series before I learn how to breathe again. Refreshing, finding surprises tucked away between these pages.

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Review to come!

[HekArtemis]

I enjoyed this more than Prince of Thorns. The addition of Katherines story was a nice touch, I really liked her and so of course it was difficult to read her parts. Miana was amazing, truly, and I was concerned about what was going to happen there - but I was surprised in a good way. I really liked the fact that this book showed us that Jorg is actually capable of making friends, he is not just a killer, he can play politics too. Which is kind of important when it comes to being royalty and all.

In most books that have multiple perspectives or timelines I find myself liking at least one more than others, and hating one more than others too. Meaning I dread certain perspectives or timelines. Mark does a good job of keeping both timelines and Katherines story interesting enough that I was annoyed every time the perspective/time shifted, but then immediately I would be happy with the shift because that's right its got this thing I really want to know about.

That memory box added a nice kind of mystery to the story that keeps you on your toes, wondering, wondering, trying to figure it all out. The only thing is that I don't really get how he didn't know what happened. Yes he took the memory of it, but he surely would have heard about it, from other people, he would have heard the story of it, so he surely would have known at least in part. I don't know, maybe it's explained in the final book, but I can't see how it can be explained.

No matter, I really enjoyed this one and I am looking forward to reading the next one tonight.

[ross91]

I tried. I really did. But this series is not for me.
I’m still interested in reading other books by Lawrence tho, especially Red sister.

[KitsuneBae]

There's plenty of beating around the bush... >, Lots of telling than showing... I just wanted for Jorg to be gorier. Le sigh.