The Broken Empire Trilogy By Mark Lawrence: Books

Next month sees the release of The Wheel of Osheim, the final book in the Red Queen’s War trilogy by Mark Lawrence. To celebrate this, I’m taking a look back at Lawrence’s original trilogy: The Broken Empire.

The Broken Empire is a story told from the perspective of Jorg Ancrath, a sadistic young man with a dark sense of humour, and from the first pages I was enraptured. Like the snake that whispered to Eve, Jorg is an evil piece of work, but his words are so inviting you can’t rip your eyes from the page. Through the novels he takes us with him on his self-serving quest of vengeance and ambition and maybe along the way it’ll coincide with saving the world.

Now a forewarning; if any of you have heard of Lawrence’s trilogy, you’ve likely heard all the complaints. The Broken Empire is a dark fantasy series, with emphasis on the dark. This means murder, rape, animal-cruelty, heroin-addict knights and the occasional necromancer. If you’d rather read a book without all of these, there are plenty of other series out there for you.

The first novel in this Dark Fantasy trilogy: Prince of Thorns, is the shortest book of the trio. We are introduced to Jorg, a runaway prince who leads a band of outlaws that he refers to as his “brothers”. In our first meeting with Jorg he strolls about a small village that he and his brothers have recently pillaged. The Mayor lies in a heap of his own guts, Jorg’s brothers clip fingers from hands and our protagonist muses about how annoying dying people are. In the very next chapter Jorg kills an underling for getting on his nerves. From the very beginning Jorg is polarising, and you’ll know whether or not you’re ready to take this journey with him.

The story is a personal one, as Jorg marauds the land with his cutthroats, sacking villages, ambushing knights and assaulting castles. As the novel is written in first person, we’re constantly privy to Jorg’s thoughts, even though sometimes we wish we weren’t. Being bedfellows with Jorg isn’t always a pleasant experience, but it is never a boring one, as he always has some quotable or witty observation on the horrors he commits. Add in a motley crew of mercenaries and sinners, some serious daddy issues, mutants, zombies and a side of cold revenge and you’ve got a book that seriously entertains.

King of Thorns has some of the best moments in the series, but also is probably my least favourite book overall. Divided in two stories, one four years after and one immediately proceeding Prince, King sets out to deepen Jorg as a character and succeeds in making him far more sympathetic. One particular event in Jorg’s backstory is one of the most horrific things I’ve ever read in a book. I don’t think I’ve ever had to close a novel to regain my composure during a scene, but King of Thorns forced me to. Lawrence certainly didn’t need to add depth to Jorg, as he was interesting and wild enough to hold my attention, but his growth as an author is apparent in the new facets to Jorg as a person.

Where King missteps is in its split story. The tale set 4 years is one of Jorg using his guile to overcome incredible odds with a terrific finale. The story immediately after Prince is a travelogue that begins to slog towards the middle. They work in tandem and while there are definitely good chapters in flashback story, the majority of them are simply less interesting than what is occurring in the book’s present. King has a fantastic opening and ending, but is a just a little bit rough in the centre.

Emperor of Thorns continues the stories from King, but succeeds in making both of them engrossing. It builds upon the past story in King and gives us an exciting adventure into parts unknown. The further into the series we go the more difficult it is to speak without spoilers but just know that the stakes are raised immeasurably in Emperor and I finished the book in one sitting without stopping.

The Broken Empire is a great trilogy anchored by its protagonist. Filled with ruthless twists of the dagger in the expectations of the reader, where it’s okay that the bad guy wins, as long as he’s our bad guy.

If you’re looking for a dark yarn that you can take some sick pleasure in then join Jorg and his brothers on the trail, but be sure to pack your sword.  There’s strange happenings in the Drowned Isles.