Monday 22 December 2014

Review: Emperor of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence

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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