King of Thorns

King of Thorns is the sequel to Prince of Thorns and the second book in The Broken Empire trilogy.

Jorg Ancrath, now the king of Renar Highlands, is getting married. He also has a big problem with a vast army nearly at his doorstep, led by the Prince of Arrow who already rules six kingdoms. Something devious must be done, and the answer lies in a small box that Jorg is afraid to open.

The narrative progresses on different temporal levels. The story's main conflict, taking place on Jorg's wedding day, stretches through the entire course of the book, but many more pages are spent on the chapters set in the space after the ending of the first book and the beginning of this one.

Tropes used in King of Thorns include:

• Arranged Marriage: Between Jorg and Miana. It seals an alliance between their countries.
• Fantastic Fragility: The weakness of Fire? Water, as might be guessed. The weakness of Dream? Reality a.k.a. getting hit with a sword.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The entire left side of Jorg's face gets burned, greatly marring his good looks.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Egan kills his brother Orrin because of the love triangle.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Orrin is exactly as virtuous as his reputation has him.
• Indy Ploy: This is how Jorg wins his second duel against the great swordmaster, Egan of Arrow.
• Kill It with Fire: Pyromancy wreaks a number of deaths in this book.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: She even melts Jorg's cold heart and dies at the end of the chapter from an overdose of the powerful painkiller Jorg gave her parents for just that purpose.
• Lost Technology: An ancient snowglobe is considered a great treasure, and Jorg has in his treasury a mechanical clown toy and a wristwatch. Later on Jorg gains an amulet that allows him to look through ancient surveillance satellites and some hidden ground-based cameras. He also finds a Colt.
• Love Triangle
• Memory Gambit: Jorg plays one on himself, using a magical box originally designed to spare him from some particularly painful memories. He does this to avoid dreaming about his secrets in the presence of a dreamwalking mage.
• The Messiah: Orrin of Arrow, who is on his way to unite the hundred kingdoms under his wise and benevolent rule.
• Mutants: Gog and Gorgoth, who both look quite inhuman.
• The Necromancer: Chella, supposed to have died in the previous book, makes a surprise return. Jorg also has minor necromantic powers.
• Our Zombies Are Different
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: The clever and headstrong Miana turns out to be a great match for Jorg... except for her being only twelve. Jorg likes curves, you see.
• Pet the Dog: Jorg mellows somewhat in this book. He acts nice towards Gog, a child, and gives valuable items to help an unimportant little peasant girl who is dying of leukemia.
• Playing with Fire: Gog and all pyromancers can manipulate fire.
• Power Incontinence: Gog has problems with setting everything on fire while sleeping.
• Master Swordsman: Egan of Arrow. There are others too, but Egan stands apart.
• The Wise Prince: Orrin of Arrow, who is perfect to an astonishing degree.