The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Research dossier

The Broken Empire

#3164.05 in the official ranking · full ranking

Books 6 books Status Complete 2011–2016 Reading commitment Medium Mark Lawrence Last reviewed 2026-08-05

Overview

Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire world comprises two completed trilogies: The Broken Empire (2011-2013, following Jorg Ancrath's violent ascent from road-brigand prince to emperor) and The Red Queen's War (2014-2016, following Prince Jalan Kendeth and the Viking Snorri): set in the same world across the SAME years, depicting overlapping events from opposite points of view. The setting is a far-future post-apocalyptic Earth, roughly a millennium after a nuclear apocalypse ("the Day of a Thousand Suns"): a deliberate mid-story genre reveal, flagged here per the Pern genre-boundary precedent. Traumatized by witnessing his mother and younger brother's murder, Jorg leads a band of outlaws called the Brotherhood while pursuing the Broken Empire's throne by whatever means necessary, largely unfeeling toward the suffering he causes along the way. Emperor of Thorns won the 2014 David Gemmell Legend Award, and Paramount Pictures acquired film rights to the trilogy in 2017.

Grimdark · For Adult

Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking

The Broken Empire Mark Lawrence

WorkYearCanonRating
Cover of Prince of ThornsPrince of Thorns2011core3.82 (126,560 ratings)
Cover of King of ThornsKing of Thorns2012core4.17 (72,026 ratings)
Cover of Emperor of ThornsEmperor of Thorns2013core4.22 (58,885 ratings)

Jorg Ancrath's ascent from road-brigand prince to emperor (2011-2013). No universe-wide internal chronology is recorded: the companion Red Queen's War trilogy runs CONCURRENTLY with this one, depicting overlapping events from a different POV (shared scenes appear in both, e.g. Jorg's duel with Sir Galen), so any single linear ordering across the universe would be false precision, the author himself says the two trilogies 'can be read in either order' (recorded in prose rather than forced into integers).

The Red Queen's War Mark Lawrence

WorkYearCanonRating
Cover of Prince of FoolsPrince of Fools2014core4.05 (35,960 ratings)
Cover of The Liar's KeyThe Liar's Key2015core4.23 (22,225 ratings)
Cover of The Wheel of OsheimThe Wheel of Osheim2016core4.32 (18,488 ratings)

Prince Jalan Kendeth and the Viking Snorri (2014-2016), set in the same world and the same years as The Broken Empire trilogy, a concurrent companion narrative, not a sequel. Author-confirmed same world and either-order readability. Classified Core alongside The Broken Empire per the Riftwar/First Empire precedent for mainline companion sub-series.

Library / Expanded (1 work) context only

Quick answers

Why is it ranked #316?

Ranked #316 in the official ranking.

How the ranking works →

Why explore this universe?

Well rated · 6 books · Complete · 334k ratings · Ranks #316 overall

Good choice if you want a moderate-length grimdark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.

Reading order

Publication order (6 Core Canon books)

  1. Prince of Thorns (2011)
  2. King of Thorns (2012)
  3. Emperor of Thorns (2013)
  4. Prince of Fools (2014)
  5. The Liar's Key (2015)
  6. The Wheel of Osheim (2016)

Awards (verified)

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Suggestions computed from what The Broken Empire and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.

Official resources

Research details

Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.05 across 334,144 ratings on 6 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.

How do we know this?

Admission: The Broken Empire admitted; both concurrent trilogies Core Canon; far-future-Earth genre boundary noted accepted 2026-08-05

Sources: (see source tier definitions)

Related universes: see the Related universes section above.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-06

Rule: Core = all 6 novels across both trilogies, author-confirmed same-world concurrent companion narratives readable in either order: Core together under the Riftwar/First Empire mainline precedent. No internal chronology integers are recorded anywhere in this universe: the trilogies interleave rather than sequence, so a linear ordering would be false precision (recorded in prose instead, the same treatment used elsewhere for disputed or non-linear chronologies). Expanded = Road Brothers (2017, 14-story Harper Voyager edition, superseding the 2015 self-published 10-story precursor).

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