The first on my list of must-read grimdark fantasy series: the broken empire.
Where to begin?
This is not your run-of-the-mill Hero’s Journey. There is no ‘there and back again’ where the hero gets his very own wise mentor who helps him realize that the power was inside of him all along. Instead, the only real teacher the reader will encounter in this dark story is teacher death, an uncaring mentor whose lessons are as expensive as they are lethal.
Right at the outset of the story, Young Jorg Ancrath, the noble protagonist, finds that out for himself as his very own lesson is scheduled for through an assassination attempt that robs him of his family, his false sense of safety and the belief that power is something that comes from within.
Still, Jorg is a fast learner , Jorg and listens more carefully to teacher death than he did to any of his other mentors, and in so doing, he discards the limiting beliefs of right and wrong and absorbs new ones that are much more likely to keep him alive.
These unspoken tenants read as follows:
Life is a game.
The name of that game is power.
And those without it are pawns.
Pawns get sacrificed.
Armed with this new-found sense of the world on top of his noble tutelage and the scars on his body, Jorg sets out for power while learning everything death has to teach him along the way.
Recommendations
If ever there was an underdog revenge story, then this would be it. If you are into that sort of thing, then by all means, pick up the first book in this series Prince of thorns and it’ll be more than likely that you only ever put it down so you can pick up the second book of this three-part series. It’s what I did.
If there is one thing Mark Lawrence gets, it’s how to get his readers invested. This book, and in fact, the whole series, reads like a life-or-death poker game where the professionals who truly realize the stakes, keep going all-in despite our own better judgment. It’s exhilarating.
My own experience
Aside from the hours upon hours of fully immersive reading pleasure you get from reading any of Lawrence’s books, for me there is another quality to this specific trilogy.
There are novels that read guarantee hours of reading pleasure right off the bat, and there are those rarer few who promise more than that.
Whenever I read the Broken Empire, I can almost feel that promise. The promise that by reading it, I’m being taught something. Some deep dark secret to what life is really like, maybe? A morbid life lesson on how we humans are only stopped from what we can truly achieve by our own limiting beliefs. Other than most heroes that need your typical redemption arch to overcome their flaws, the protagonist in this book needs no such redemption plot and it’s extremely gratifying to see him deal with his enemies. Even though you are fully aware that teacher Lawrence is about to reap the characters he has most carefully sown, he still makes it seem like there’s something more to it. As if, by watching Jorg and his near-constant brush-ins with death, you too are learning.