Emperor
of Thorns is the last instalment in The Broken Empire Trilogy. Here
are my reviews of Prince of Thorns and King of Thorns.
The
approach taken with Emperor is slightly different. Jorg Ancrath
remains the central character and the story covers him in the present
day (two years after the events in King of Thorns) as well as the
past, but there is a third aspect. A certain character who has
featured in both previous books gets small sections, set in the
present, to herself. This does help to develop the antagonist, but
I’m not sure whether it was necessary.
The
secondary cast (the Brothers) seem to have a lesser role, due to both
their numbers being diminished and their total absence from Jorg’s
adventures in the past, which is a bit of a shame. However, we do get
to see some new and interesting corners of the Broken Empire, and
this also helps to flesh out the vote for the emperor near the end of
the book.
The
writing style, as has been the case with both prior books, is very
easy to read. We continue to see the development of Jorg’s
character, as well as the likes of Makin and Miana.
The
story and ending did not progress quite the way I imagined they
would. The premise of the present day plot is that Jorg is travelling
to a planned voting ceremony, held every four years, to see if there
will (finally) be an emperor agreed upon. Obviously I won’t spoil
the ending, but there was less time than I’d imagined spent
negotiating/arguing over the vote.
Emperor
of Thorns is a good final part of a cracking trilogy, set in an
intriguing world that mixes elements of both the past and future.
I’ll probably try out something new in the immediate future, but
I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for other books by Mark
Lawrence.
Thaddeus
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