Thoughts on the Broken Empire Trilogy? (Spoilers!)

[YossarianLives]

A few days ago I finished the third book of Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire Trilogy. I'm still very much in the process of digesting the series, but I'm curious to see if anyone here has read it, and what their opinions of it are.

What I liked:

First off: it was nice to read a fantasy series by an author that actually has half-decent prose and doesn't get bogged down in endless details. As much as I enjoy reading novels in the vein of A Song of Ice and Fire and The Wheel of Time, Broken Empire had the scale of a true fantasy epic, without taking half a dozen tomes to actually reach the climax. When the Dead King rose to power and his armies started to conquer the Hundred at an alarming rate, it came as a genuine surprise. All too many fantasy series' would have had an entire book devoted to foreshadowing, preliminary attacks, and PoV chapters from insignificant characters who end up as zombie-chow.

I loved the world building. Not being a scientist, I imagine quite a lot went over my head, but it was fun to spot the butchered names of real-life locations and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) references to pop culture. Rather than exposition being done entirely at the author's behest, it felt like I could, using my real world knowledge, extrapolate from the scant information given by the world map.

From a technical standpoint, I thought the writing was really solid. Good pacing and character development, compelling story, believable characters, a consistent atmosphere. Twists that genuinely caught me by surprise. Prose that went further than merely conveying the story. Jorg's road brothers were mostly a bunch of murderous *******s, but by the end I loved each and every one. Even the minor characters got a satisfying character arc!

What I liked less:

Compared to the other two books, I thought Prince of Thorns was rather weak. To me the bits of ancient technology we did see (the nuke and A.I. in Gelleth) felt out of place, perhaps because the world hadn't been sufficiently developed yet. It didn't help that Jorg was thoroughly unlikable - it definitely didn't help that the book opens with him raping and brutally murdering an entire village. At the age of thirteen. I came very close to dropping the series before the second chapter was over. To me, Jorg felt like an arrogant and temperamental child for nearly all of book one. Which is technically accurate, I suppose.

This might be a somewhat controversial statement, but I didn't much like the series' treatment of women. It was worst in Prince of Thorns, in which literally every female character serves as the target of rape, murder, or excessive lust. Usually at the hands of the protagonist. I understand that it's trying to be grimdark and historically accurate, but at times it got pretty ridiculous. It definitely got better as the series went on, but far from perfect. Of the three major female characters (Katherine, Chella, and Miana) they're still all objects of lust for Jorgy.

Jorg's characterization in the last book, Emperor of Thorns, felt inconsistent. Sometimes it felt like he was becoming a better person, growing to genuinely love his family and friends. Growing beyond petty selfishness. Then he would go on a random murder spree for little to no reason. I did like the moment where he found out his father had died of natural causes, effectively completing the cycle of revenge without him.



Excuse my amateur literary analysis. I just liked the series and wanted to share my thoughts, while hearing what others have to say.

[Rynjin]

I read Prince of Thorns, thought it was an unremarkable hodgepodge of half baked ideas that were thrown out without any thought as to how they might be made interesting, with a thoroughly unlikeable cast participating in an utterly uninteresting plot while committing wholly reprehensible deeds that seem to only be there to show off how edgy the author was.

As a result, I never even bothered to check if there were sequels, much less read them, and wouldn't care if the author dropped off the face of the writing scene and never wrote another word.

[Sapphire Guard]

Well written enough, but not as special as the author appears to think it is.

My big sticking point was that Jorg Ancrath has only one trick,

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breaking his word on a technicality, which he keeps using over and over again but no matter how often or how publically he does it, nobody ever seems to be prepared for it.

[YossarianLives]

I read Prince of Thorns, thought it was an unremarkable hodgepodge of half baked ideas that were thrown out without any thought as to how they might be made interesting, with a thoroughly unlikeable cast participating in an utterly uninteresting plot while committing wholly reprehensible deeds that seem to only be there to show off how edgy the author was.

As a result, I never even bothered to check if there were sequels, much less read them, and wouldn't care if the author dropped off the face of the writing scene and never wrote another word.

Ha, fair enough. It's definitely not for everyone, and the first book is much weaker than the other two.

Well written enough, but not as special as the author appears to think it is.

My big sticking point was that Jorg Ancrath has only one trick,

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breaking his word on a technicality, which he keeps using over and over again but no matter how often or how publically he does it, nobody ever seems to be prepared for it.

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Yeah, that's a very good point. Though I would argue that Jorg doesn't really feel the need to stick to his word - he just does it on a technicality for extra pwnage. Which, while initially amusing, certainly does get tired.

[Sapphire Guard]

It's not a characterisation issue, it's a worldbuilding issue.

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Sooner or later, people will realise that Jorg's word is worthless and stop trying to talk to him. The fact that he's the only person in the world the author allows to 'cheat' makes him feel like someone who is winning only because the writer doesn't allow any other character to get wise to his one trick.

[YossarianLives]

It's not a characterisation issue, it's a worldbuilding issue.

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Sooner or later, people will realise that Jorg's word is worthless and stop trying to talk to him. The fact that he's the only person in the world the author allows to 'cheat' makes him feel like someone who is winning only because the writer doesn't allow any other character to get wise to his one trick.

Yeah, I get what you mean. For all the supposed Grimdarkness, the protagonist is able to get away with a lot.

[Yora]

The series has an interesting premise, but I don't think I really want to read three books about a psychopathic boy burning an pillaging.

[YossarianLives]

The series has an interesting premise, but I don't think I really want to read three books about a psychopathic boy burning an pillaging.

It definitely gets better as the series goes on. The protagonist is pretty much completely unsympathetic for the first book, and becomes increasingly likable and pragmatic, less sadistic.