Emperor of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #3)

by Mark Lawrence

Mark Lawrence brings to a thrilling close his epic trilogy of a boy who would be king, a king who would desire an empire and an empire on the edge of destruction
King Jorg Ancrath is twenty now and king of seven nations.
His goal revenge against his father has not yet been realized, and the demons that haunt him have only grown stronger. Yet no matter how tortured his path, he intends to take the next step in his upward climb.
For there is only one power worth wielding absolute power.
Jorg would be emperor. It is a position not to be gained by the sword but rather by vote. And never in living memory has anyone secured a majority of the vote, leaving the Broken Empire long without a leader. Jorg has plans to change that one way or the other. He s uncovered even more of the lost technology of the land, and he won t hesitate to use it.
But he soon finds an adversary standing in his way, a necromancer unlike any he has ever faced a figure hated and feared even more than himself: the Dead King.
The boy who would rule all may have finally met his match..."

• ISBN10: 0425256855
• ISBN13: 9780425256855
• Publish Date: 6 August 2013 (first published 1 August 2013)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 434
• Language: English

Reviews

[moraa]

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

We can’t be trapped by fear. Lives lived within such walls are just slower deaths.

Be careful what you wish for.

I wanted Jorg on the throne and I saw him on the throne. For all of five minutes. I would have loved to see him live, love his son but I don't think I would have liked that story much. I would have read it because I liked him and nothing more.

All the same, adieu to my sleepless nights and shower ruminations until I find one like this again. It's been an utter pleasure.

[HekArtemis]

I don't have much more to add to what I have written for the first two books. I really enjoyed it and I think it was a good ending to the trilogy. But in the end I liked King the most out of the trilogy.
Which is odd I guess, most of the time second books suffer from, well, second book syndrome lol.

This one sadly did not explain how Jorg never learned of his half-brothers death and/or why he never heard of or suspected the cause of the babys death.

The chapter that looked at Jorgs experience with the Bishop was interesting, except one infuriating little piece where he mansplains to Katherine what it was like to experience such a thing, like SHE DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW YOU STUPID IDIOTIC MAN. This was the first and only time in these books where I was actually upset with the author for including something in the book. Every other horrible thing that happened made me feel things about and/or for the characters, but this one pulled me out of the story and I felt like it was coming directly from Mark and not from Jorg. It was not pleasant.

I also struggled a little with Chellas scenes in this book. Coming from King where we go from Jorg to Katherine, and now we have Jorg to Chella, eh, I like Katherine way more. I was also a little miffed with the role of Miana in this one, she has almost no role but the role of Jorgs pregnant little wife. She was amazing in King, despite having little page time, but in this one she was far more in the background when she was on page. It was sad.

Hmmm I guess I had a little more issues with this book than the other two, but it was still a good book and I did enjoy it over all. There were several laugh out loud moments (this is why I like Prince the least, it had very little humour in comparison to King and Emperor). Many times I had to be impressed by Jorgs manipulation of the people around him, while still technically playing by the rules. And again we see him making friends, he is not just a killer, he can play nice when it's needed. And best of all, more world building. In this one we get to see a lot more of the old world which is super interesting.

I have no idea how Red Queens War will compare to this trilogy, but I plan to read that some time this year.

[KitsuneBae]

Ah well, I couldn't think of any other ending that our villain protagonist deserves other than this. My favorite is still book 1.