This was disappointing. I won't say it was explicitly bad, but it felt like most of the book was just treading water, and the end was kind of hurried and random. Much worse than the previous two books, I think. I do appreciate that he ended the series here though - I certainly respect his willingness to let a story reach its natural conclusion and look forward to reading his next books, hoping that they prove to be slightly more polished and build on the impressive stylistic elements of the first two books in this series.

Meru ( )

REREAD 1/12/2017: Still in awe of how good this was.

8/6/2013: I don't even have words for how good this was. I am tempted to go find the author and shake another series out of him. Failing that, this trilogy will be on my to-read over and over list.

VERY nice work Mr. Lawrence. ( )

It's rare that the final book of a series is my favorite, but this one was that, and then some. The ending makes up for any shortcomings I found in the previous books. It was a furiously-paced, deeply personal and enjoyable read. And you can't ask for a more unsatisfactory perfect conclusion for a series like this!

Read it. ( )

(Light spoilers) An interesting end to the trilogy. Threw in a nice twist that I didnt see coming. But I didnt like that Jorg was given the heroic moment at the end. This series was a great exercise in separating yourself from a protagonist anti-hero who is all about freedom but expects everyone else to bend to his own will. Jorg is not a good guy. He's a murderer, rapist and tyrant. Well I enjoyed the exercise I found the book a bit dull at times. I found Jorgs wanderings a bit too random and hard to follow. ( )

After going through the whole series it is very hard to write a review of just one book so I decided to make one for all three - Prince, King and Emperor of Thorns (The Broken Empire)

What Mark Lawrence has done in this series is just amazing. I started reading “Prince of Thorns" half- hearted with only one review given by my wife :) She told me I should definitely give this book a chance as it was something I had never read before. After finishing it (within a week) I have to say she was right! The story itself is great, well written and thought out and Jorg is an exceptional character! I’m 100% sure you will hate that guy at the beginning… then you will start understanding him. And exactly at the time when you start to like him BOOM Mark comes up with an idea which makes you hate him again :) It not just Jorg of course. The rest of characters in this book are also great and memorable. They really complete Jorg’s story and make the read even more interesting. And the way Mark goes with the story… Really, really good book!

I cannot spot big differences between “Prince” and following it “King” and “Emperor”. I read some reviews of these two books but just out of curiosity. When you finish book one, especially such a great one like “Prince”, you do not really need any review to convince you to grab another one. Yes, it is truth that you can never be sure if next book is as good as previous one and if the story is not going to become boring, predictable or just stupid… Well it is certainly NOT what happened here. All books in this series are just great and each one complete the other. I have to admit I had no clue what was going to happen at the end of the story and, unlike some other readers I read the reviews of, I did not guess who the Dead King really was… Maybe if I had had some time to think about that when I was reading I would have guessed, but the truth is that I just devoured these books :) I had great time with all of them and I’m sure I will read that story again :) I own now all of them on my Kindle and printed versions were already ordered :)

Every book lover knows that feeling - when you finish reading an exceptionally good book you feel empty knowing there is nothing more. The ending of “The Broken Empire” brought me such filling… I’m just happy Mark keeps woking hard and there are new books, new characters coming :)

Thank you Mark for these books!!!!

One of countless great quotes from The Broken Empire:

“I think maybe we die every day. Maybe we're born new each dawn, a little changed, a little further on our own road. When enough days stand between you and the person you were, you're strangers. Maybe that's what growing up is. Maybe I have grown up.” ( )