Emperor of Thorns

Jorg Ancrath has spent his life aiming at one thing, the imperial throne, and the road there runs through the wreckage of the old Empire. The Hundred are gathering for a Congression, a council of rulers who will argue over the Empire's remains. Jorg means to stand before them and make them listen.

He is not the only one moving. While the Hundred talk, the Dead King makes his own play, and the world is already cracked and running out of time. Jorg will take the crown against any rival, living or dead, and if he is to be the last emperor, he intends to make an ending worth remembering.

The narrator is Jorg himself, and he is blunt about what he is. His intentions were never good, and he warns the men who follow him that he will spend them as readily as he saves them. The voice is hard, self-aware and bleak, with a dark, doom-laden mood.

The question the book turns on is what the throne will cost, and who pays it. Jorg tells his brothers to run, pray or stand as they choose, but not to follow him.