The Broken Empire
#2754.05 of 664 ranked universes · 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.
Grimdark · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking
The Broken Empire Mark Lawrence
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Prince of Thorns | 2011 | core | 3.82 (125,561 ratings) |
 | King of Thorns | 2012 | core | 4.17 (71,802 ratings) |
 | Emperor of Thorns | 2013 | core | 4.22 (58,705 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
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Prince of Fools | 2014 | core | 4.05 (35,870 ratings) |
 | The Liar's Key | 2015 | core | 4.23 (22,153 ratings) |
 | The Wheel of Osheim | 2016 | core | 4.32 (18,429 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)
Road Brothers (2017) ; 14-story collection of Broken Empire-world short fiction (Harper Voyager UK, November 2017, with author footnotes), superseding a 10-story self-published Kindle edition of December 2015. Several stories first appeared in anthologies/magazines (Grimdark Magazine #1, Blackguards). Spoiler-dependent character-background material, Expanded.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Broken Empire? The Broken Empire's Core Canon is 6 books, plus 1 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for The Broken Empire? Publication order, starting with Prince of Thorns. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Broken Empire finished? Complete (2011–2016).
- How much reading does The Broken Empire take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 6 Core Canon books · ~2,747 pages).
- How is The Broken Empire ranked? #275 of 664 ranked universes on this site, based on 332,520 reader ratings across 6 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #275?
Ranked #275 of 664 ranked universes.
- Average reader rating of 4.05 across 6 core books.
- Backed by 333k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.82 to 4.32.
- Less than 0.01 behind #274, The Watch Series (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 6 books · Complete · 333k ratings · Ranks #275 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)
- Prince of Thorns (2011)
- King of Thorns (2012)
- Emperor of Thorns (2013)
- Prince of Fools (2014)
- The Liar's Key (2015)
- The Wheel of Osheim (2016)
Awards (verified)
- David Gemmell Legend Award, 2014: won: Emperor of Thorns
- David Gemmell Legend Award, 2016: won: The Liar's Key
- David Gemmell Morningstar Award (Best Fantasy Newcomer), 2012: nominated: Prince of Thorns
- David Gemmell Legend Award, 2013: nominated: King of Thorns
- David Gemmell Legend Award, 2015: nominated: Prince of Fools
- David Gemmell Legend Award, 2017: nominated: The Wheel of Osheim
- Readers' Choice Awards (Fantasy), 2011: nominated: Prince of Thorns; Reader-vote finalist round; did not win.
- Readers' Choice Awards (Fantasy), 2012: nominated: King of Thorns; Reader-vote finalist round; did not win.
- Readers' Choice Awards (Fantasy), 2013: nominated: Emperor of Thorns; Reader-vote finalist round; did not win.
- Readers' Choice Awards (Fantasy), 2014: nominated: Prince of Fools; Reader-vote nomination round, confirmed via the author's own announcement; did not win.
Related universes
- Same author Book of the Ancestor: Both by Mark Lawrence, set in the same broad multiverse he has described in interviews, but Book of the Ancestor takes place on Abeth, a different world from Broken Empire's post-apocalyptic Earth, with no shared characters or plot -- explicitly scoped as a separate continuity at Broken Empire's own admission.
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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.
- The Draconis Memoria Epic fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.11
- The Lot Lands Sword & sorcery / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.11
- Empire of the Wolf Grimdark / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.08
- The Song of the Shattered Sands Epic fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.07
Official resources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broken_Empire_Trilogy
- Mark Lawrence: A Guide to Lawrence
- sfadb: Mark Lawrence
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.05 across 332,520 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).