ACE Emperor of Thorns

A bloody awesome book. Fitting finish to Jorg's story. Also awesome packing by amazon, no scratches or dog eared pages. A brand new book.......

Excelente precio, originalmente sólo iba a comprar uno pero al ver el precio me alcanzó para los 3, vale la pena, menos de lo que se gasta en librerías fresas como Gonvill o Ghandi.

I loved reading The Emperor of Thorns, and it is absolutely the perfect ending for The Broken Empire Trilogy. I'm sure anyone that enjoyed the first two novels of this series will also love this one. It is laid out essentially exactly the same as King of Thorns, with the progression mutli-layered timelines. Mark Lawrence's writing strategy in these books is amazingly crafted, and it really isn't like anything I've read from other authors. The story in the present is Jorg and his posse heading to Congression where a new Emperor could potentially be elected, though if it's going to be Jorg he may have to kill the 99 of the 100 votes. This travelogue is threatened by the advancement of the Dead King's forces and a few other speed bumps I won't mention. Related to the this, Jorg's multiple timelines also share the spotlight with the Necromancer Chella, and while I enjoyed this short chapters, they really don't make sense with how the story is being told. They kind of take the place of Katherine's journals from King of Thorns, but those pages could have been found by Jorg after the battle, while the Chella chapters are told completely from her perspective. It didn't bring me out of the story at all, but it still slightly bothered me at times (even after the end of the book nothing is explained about how her perspective is in the book). This present day timeline is a little slow at first, but later on it is awesome, I won't mention any of the moments specifically, but there are multiple scenes that are really well written, extremely hard hitting, and really enjoyable. These moments are just so visual and visceral, they're some of the craziest scenes I've ever read, and a lot of times I had to go back and read them more than once to appreciate how awesome they were. I will say that while I wish the story could have ended slightly differently here, what does happen makes a lot of sense and provided excellent closure to a fantastic story. The other main timeline is a continuation of the one featured in King of Thorns, where he's kind of out finding himself after the events in Prince of Thorns. Here he leaves his Grandfather's castle and follows Fexler Brew's (I probably have that name wrong) red dot seen through his view-ring (hologram satellite projector?) to an abandoned quarantine zone. Afterwards, he journeys to the deserts of northern Africa (Middle-East) after another red dot and for his own reasons, including his search for the Mathmagician that had been planning to kill his whole extended family and put the blame on Jorg himself. I also really enjoyed this section, but it was odd at times where you still have to rationalize in your mind that everything that happened in the present story line of King of Thorns hasn't happened yet. Also, this explains something that I was confused about in the last book, which is where/how/when the AI version of Fexler gave him the gun he used in the climax of King of Thorns. It almost makes me wonder if the first part of this timeline would have been better if it was in the second book instead of the third. Also I have a love/hate relationship with how the author introduces these really original and interesting side characters, just to kill them off the first chance he gets. I mean they definitely serve a purpose, and it can be a really unexpected reading experience, but it can also be frustrating. Also, I'm not sure while he didn't finish his vengeance at one point, I guess that his family might have been safer with him not finishing it, but I felt like he could have still killed the one guy and had the same things happen (I'm keeping it as vague as possible to avoid spoilers). Overall this section was an excellent coming of age tale, where the reader gets to see more of how Jorg became the man he is in the present day storyline in KoT and EoT. The final storyline is another short look at young Jorg, and what made him into the crazy psychopath he was in Prince of Thorns. The framing device here is that Katherine has been plaguing Jorg's dreams, and he has been accepting as punishment for his multiple crimes (both accidental and purposeful). However, at a certain point he has had enough, and decides to draw Katherine's blade deeper into his chest, showing her one of his most horrible and buried experiences. Basically, this is very soon after Jorg fled his father's castle with the group of prisoners, and the Brothers want to raid a Monastery. As an alternative, Jorg volunteers to enter the place as an orphan and see how many guards they have and if there's anything worth stealing. However, things go badly when a Bishop arrives, and I'll just leave it at that to again avoid spoilers. I once again loved the world building in Emperor of Thorns, I've loved Mark Lawrence's slow burn style of showing what Jorg's world is like and it continues here. We learn a lot more about what happened to the builders and how this world's new magic works, so much so that I almost wonder if this story could be better classified as Science-Fiction instead of Fantasy. This scientifically explained magic, where the barriers between mind and matter have been breached has a lot of interesting effects, leading to the climax of this novel. Again, I'll avoid spoilers, but I loved the idea of what would happen if millions/billions of people believed in Heaven and Hell when only one person with enough will can enact a physical change on the world. What then would happen if most of those people were killed in a Nuclear Winter? There's so much here that I loved, and just found extremely interesting. There is also some imagery used in the final scenes that could possibly hint at how the Builders changed how the world worked, but it could also just be what it was. So in the end, I highly recommend this book to anyone that read the first two, and if you haven't had the pleasure of reading Mark Lawrence's work, I'd definitely recommend to get to it and read Prince of Thorns. If you've read the first book and didn't love it, I will say that PoT is probably the weakest of the three, and King/Emperor of Thorns are equally amazing books. I'm not sure if I could choose a favorite of the two, but they're both great. So I'd give books two and three a shot. Overall, I just absolutely loved this book, and can't wait to see what else the author can create.

I would give this five stars, if not for the ending. I just finished the book, and I might come to think of the ending differently, but for now it really irks me. Begin Spoilers! And it isn't because Jorg dies. It has more to do with the Dead King. All through the book, (and I realised a few hundred pages ago that he's William), we get the sense that he's really pissed with Jorg. For letting the thorns hold him back. And yet, when they meet up wherever it is after Jorg's death, there is no hint of that hostility. It could be explained by the previous scenes of Jorg burning with Justice and breaking out of the thorns, but I still don't like it. And I find it weird that by the application of the same will/magic/altered reality that is about to somehow destroy everything, Jorg and William are able to "turn back the wheel". Because the whole issue stems from the fact that using too much of this will-magic is thinning the divide between mind and matter. End Spoilers. These gripes aside, I really did enjoy the book. Jorg's travels to Iberico and Afrique were the best parts of the "x years ago" chapters. The bit with the Vicioso bandits was just awesome. And of course, Mark Lawrence's writing and Jorg's voice remain entertaining as ever. As with King of Thorns, I liked the "present" timeline a little less. It is essentially one long ride to Vyenne - though there are moments when Jorg's brazenness and lethality really shines through, the height of which came at the Congress of the kings. And this time around we have some chapters from Chella's viewpoint. Which felt really strange after spending the last two books in Jorg's head. I liked them, though the dreadfulness of the Dead King was too much tell and little show. Yes, he scares the pants off of hardened necromancers, but I just didn't feel it. As for the other characters, they continue to be hugely overshadowed by Jorg. But with over three books' worth of character building behind them, they finally feel like real people. I still wish we had seen more of the world though. Something more than vague hints by the ghosts of those long dead. The series has continually improved though - I gave Prince four stars grudgingly, King deserved it's four stars, and I wish I could've rated this five. So if you have read the first two, you owe yourself to get to the "finis" line. And if you haven't, get on it!

So, it's my first review here in amazon. I really liked the book. It has a proper ending to a selfish protagonist, that achieves his dream but throws it away. (Kinda Spoiler) Just read it.