King of Thorns

Now 18 year old Jorg Ancrath sits uneasily on his throne in one of the 99 kingdom's of the empire. Determined to become elected the first emperor of all the kingdoms in an age, Jorg must battle the Prince of Arrows, necromancers and his own past and guilt.

King of Thorns bounces between Jorg's wedding day, in which the Prince of Arrows is also laying seige to his highland castle, to events that occurred four years earlier.

What I find most interesting about this series is that the main character, Jorg, is not a "good guy". In fact it can easily be argued that he is a villain. Jorg is only slightly less murderously impulsive then he was in the first book. However because he is the main point of view character it is easier to feel a show more certain amount of sympathy for him. Interestingly his nemesis, the Prince of Arrows is presented as being the archetypical hero, which much purer motivations for wanting the kingdoms reunited. It will be interesting to see if the third installment continues along this line. show less

I think the writing in this series is fantastic, but the brutality is really wearing. It took me a long time to finish this book. It didn't hold my interest like the first. And I found the flashbacks both distracting and confusing at times. It was mostly Jorg running around and killing people. I did enjoy getting to know Katherine a little better, and Miana looks like she's going to be interesting. But the continuous violence just bored me after awhile. And many episodes where I was just asking, why are we having to sit through this? But I am still intrigued by the world and will eventually read the third installment. Just not soon.

In this second book of The Broken Empire series, Jorg Ancrath is now the king of Renar, the small highland kingdom once ruled by his uncle, the man who murdered Jorg's mother and brother. Like the first book, it switches between the present and four years previous. It also switches between Jorg's narrative and Katherine's journal. In the present, it is Jorg's wedding day to a woman he has never met. It is also the day he is to meet the Prince of Arrow on the battlefield. In the past, we learn what led to this day and hints at secrets so horrible, Jorg has had to have his mind stripped of memories or go mad with them.

Now that Jorg has rid his head of outside influences (literally), he is developing a conscience, albeit a rudimentary one. show more Even he believes that the Prince would make a better, more compassionate Emperor. Still, he's Jorg and he wants what he wants and will fight for it with his new army and his remaining road brothers. Despite the fact that he is outnumbered, he has more than a few tricks up his sleeve and surrender is not an option.

Jorg has to be the most likeable unlikeable anti-hero in all of fantasy. You know that Jorg is a rapist, a cold-blooded killer and you know that the Prince of Arrow is the better man. Yet, it is hard not to root for Jorg. This says a lot about author Mark Lawrence's talents as a writer. Often, the middle book in a series is really just a setup for the end. Not so here. This story is so fast-paced, so full of twists, turns, and false trails that it will make you dizzy. Some reviewers have called Lawrence one of the best writers of fantasy fiction around and, after reading this book, it is easy to see why. show less

Still a nasty piece of grimdark, but I have to be honest: there are a FEW more redeeming features to our young little psychopath in this book than there were in one that came before.

I probably sound like that's a bad thing... right? Well... yeah. I was USED to loving to hate the little murderous sociopathic little punk. I don't want him humanized. I want him to plow over all his enemies and random bystanders who might have been within spitting distance of him. I want him to burn the world.

Or rather, since he ate the heart of a necromancer on a freaking whim and now he has a lich inside of him as well as a warring freaking incarnation of fire, I fully expected him to raise armies of the dead and have all the bones run around on fire, show more destroying all the warring kingdoms and his subjects and laugh uproariously about it.

Seriously. I'm not even joking.

But NOOOOOO he's sinned against almost as much as he sins and that little memory trick is really kicking my conception of him around like nobody's business.

Suffice to say, I still love the book. Maybe I'm not quite as thrilled with the sheer, utter darkness of it, but it is definitely full of some really great moments.

Grimdark for the win! show less

It was amazing, throwing me in all different directions, making me think about things in myself I'd probably rather not address. This one didn't have the shock factor that Prince had ('shock' as in surprise and amazement and discovery), but I feel I loved it even more. The humanity within the violence and the 'not caring' makes it closer to my life, in a way...

I love the way Mark creates art with words - he's now part of a very restricted club (less than an handful) about whom I feel this whenever I read them.

I never understood the "middle book syndrome" that usually people mention, and most of the time my favourite book of a trilogy is number 2, since I can dive right into the story, there's no learning factor as in 1, it develops the show more story, and there's not the rush to the end as in 3. In this case, the ending was perfect, in a way it doesn't need a 3rd book to complete it. I loved King, but I wonder if Mark will be the exception to my rule, with Emperor... show less

Same thoughts as I had in book one. But less violence toward women and a whole lot of really beautiful prose. Heavy on the philosophy and existential crisis, but no lack of action! I also love the time weave in this one... it's hard to get that right, but Lawrence did it beautifully here. It'll be interesting to see where Jorg ends up, so I'm on to the final installment!

This book is, in almost every way, better than the first. The world-building and how magic can exist when these books take place in a post-apocalyptic future is more thoroughly explained. Jorg's personality and decisions are called into question. Were they really his own? Or was he guided by others for most of his life? Is he really the reprehensible man we all know because of who he is, or because he was molded that way? Ultimately we don't know. It's up to the reader to believe how much of Jorg is "nature vs. nurture" if you will.

The writing was beautiful, the small glimpses into the history of the world are great, and Jorg is as always an entertaining badass who takes no shit from anyone, only now he actually has grown up a bit. show more Enough to know regret, and enough to understand loss and remorse. Even if they're only small doses compared to a well-adjusted human being, they are definitely a sign of growth and change.

Katherine appears in the story mostly through first-person diary entries, which are actually quite good. I found myself liking her character quite a lot.

Other than that, don't know what to say. Read my review of the first book. It's mostly more of the same, while adding to Jorg and Katherine's respective depth as characters.

And I said it when I read the first book and I'll say it again. These remind me so much of The Book of the New Sun tetralogy but far more entertaining and accessible. If you tried reading those and like them in theory but have had trouble getting into them, I would highly recommend this series. show less