Publisher: Ace Books
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 449
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bought
The second book in the Broken Empire series, Lawrence takes his young anti-hero one step closer to his grand ambition.
To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake. I’ve walked from pawn to player and I’ll win this game of ours, though the cost of it may drown the world in blood…
The land burns with the fires of a hundred battles as lords and petty kings fight for the Broken Empire. The long road to avenge the slaughter of his mother and brother has shown Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath the hidden hands behind this endless war. He saw the game and vowed to sweep the board. First though he must gather his own pieces, learn the rules of play, and discover how to break them.
A six nation army, twenty thousand strong, marches toward Jorg's gates, led by a champion beloved of the people. Every decent man prays this shining hero will unite the empire and heal its wounds. Every omen says he will. Every good king knows to bend the knee in the face of overwhelming odds, if only to save their people and their lands. But King Jorg is not a good king.
Faced by an enemy many times his strength Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But playing fair was never part of Jorg’s game plan.
Well,
this was intense. I think I have some kind of book hangover, most of you will know
the feeling: you finish a great book and there’s a hole left inside of you. You want more, but
there isn’t anything more to read. You’re staring at that last page, thinking:
“What the hell just happened here”.
That’s
kind of how I feel at the moment. I’ll need some time to process this book, think about it a few days, let
everything settle in my mind.
The book
is split into two storylines: one in the present, 4 years after Jorg took Renar
Castle and one in the past, 4 years earlier, right after Jorg became King. We
also get a little insight in Katherine Ap Scorron’s thoughts as Jorg reads her
diary entries, scattered across the land by the wind due to an event we can
only guess at, but when reading the prologue, you know something big has/is going
to happen.
I always
seem to have a little trouble with split storylines. It’s totally my fault
though, I’m an impatient kind of person. If you dangle bits of information in
front of me, hinting at some kind of mystery that will be solved further on in
the book, I get impatient. That’s why I wanted things to move along a little
bit faster somewhere around the middle of the book. I wanted to know what
happened the day Jorg went to Père Lachaise. That doesn’t mean the book wasn’t fast
paced, it was! I just really wanted to know what was in the box. Bad trait of
mine? I guess.
The fact
that I did want to know so badly kept me reading on without pause though.
Back to
the story. So, Jorg is King now! But he hasn’t had the chance to properly warm
his throne when Prince Charming comes along. Handsome, wavy golden hair,
strong, kind, a knight in shining armour. Needless to say, I didn’t like him. This
Prince of Arrow seems to think he’s the one to take the Emperor’s throne
(destined maybe?), feed the poor and bring peace to the torn and scattered
countries. Nope, if I want an Emperor, it’s going to be Jorg.
Great
right? Though Jorg would definitely make a worse Emperor than the Prince of
Arrows, I still want Jorg to win. That’s how much I’ve grown to like him.
To be
fair though, Jorg seems a bit kinder in this second installment of the Broken
Empire Trilogy. Although he doesn’t want to admit it, he’s changing, he cares.
A big part of him is still consumed with hate and the echoes of the hurt that has
haunted him all these years, and there are dark forces digging its claws into
him, so little bad Jorgy isn’t entirely gone.
There
were a few moments that really touched me: the scene with Janey, the things
that happened under Halradra and Justice, poor Justice, got some sad sighs out
of me.
I really
loved the way the author kept me guessing. “Is this another mindtrick or is
this real?”, “Is this Sageous again, or Chella? Or am I just being paranoid?”
You knever know where the things you read are going to lead you (and Jorg), it’s
an adventure for Jorg aswell as for the
reader.
It’s
great to see how things unravel, or seem to unravel (you never know for sure with
this book). Every moment can get a new, razorsharp edge when you turn the page,
something you didn’t expect and leaves you doubting all the others things that
happened.
The
writing was brilliant, but I didn’t expect anything less after reading Prince
of Thorns. There’s always something more behind the things the author writes,
something intelligent. The style he uses in his books is something I’ve never
encountered before and I like it!
I want more!
Rating:
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