Empire of Grass
core novel 2019 Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn / Osten Ard
Record
| First published | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.39 (4,210 ratings, collected 2026-08-06) |
| Page count | 1255 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780756410629 |
Synopsis
The second novel of the Last King of Osten Ard picks up directly after The Witchwood Crown, with the royal family and their allies scattered across the realm. King Simon and his counselor Tiamak remain at the Hayholt while Queen Miriamele travels to a wedding in Nabban, and their grandson Prince Morgan is separated from his party after an ambush and left to survive alone in dangerous wilderness. Elsewhere, the exiled counselor Eolair and the Thrithings chieftain Unver struggle amid the grasslands, and the human tracker Jarnulf finds himself thrown together with the half-Norn warrior Nezeru. Behind the growing unrest, the immortal Norn Queen Utuk'ku is pursuing a larger design as her people mobilize for war, while political instability spreads through Nabban and a quiet threat grows within the royal court itself.
Where it sits
- Universe: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn / Osten Ard
- Series: The Last King of Osten Ard core; position 2 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Tad Williams
Notes
- From the series record (The Last King of Osten Ard): Planned as trilogy; concluding volume split (2021) into two, complete at four books (2024).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Last King of Osten Ard: position 2 of 4: previous The Witchwood Crown (2017) · next Into the Narrowdark (2022)
Sources
← Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn / Osten Ard dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.