Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy is a stunning saga. It’s slowly revealed world – a neo-medieval Europe and North Africa built amidst the thousand years old ruins left after the Builders’ War of a Thousand Suns – plays out like the bastard offspring of Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, China Mieville’s Bas Lag novels and George R R Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice.
The saga charts the rise of the early charismatic, damaged and utterly amoral Jorg Ancrath, from exiled-noble bandit, to blood-drenched Emperor. Haunted by the assassination of his brother and mother, then thrown out by his father when he remarried , the teenage Jorg falls in with a most scurrilous band of road brothers and begins his brutal climb to the empire throne and a reunion with ghosts – his own and and those belonging to the Builders
A ferocious pace, a brilliantly evoked and unique world, unforgettable characters and fabulously raw dialogue (not quite as ripe Joe Abercrombie’s but not far off) make this an outstanding fantasy read. Highly recommended.
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