Jorg of Ancrath is now king of seven nations and plans to become an emperor, although he only holds 7 of the 51 votes he needs to be elected. This last book alternates between the "now Jorg" on his way to Vyenne trying to outrun the Dead King, and the "15-year old Jorg" discovering the world and forging alliances to help him get elected 5 years from then.

This trilogy took me a long time to finish and I had to force myself to continue reading. The story is compelling and Jorg's plans to meet certain ends are superb, but the writing can also be tiring. There are many passages that I am not sure I read every paragraph, let alone every word. And for some reason, the small plot twists between the past and future were brilliant, but the end just felt clumsy. It is like it was meant to be replaced by a more suitable one, but the author did not find a better replacement. The identity of the Dead King was quite clear, and the very end got me thinking of "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" (the Ghibli movie), which I also felt rushed and somehow disconnected from the rest of the story. It is not like I wanted a happy ending for Jorg - he would not know what to do with it - but I wanted something more substantial and palpable.

The world Lawrence created is amazing. The whole idea of returning to the medieval times after the modern civilization almost destroyed the Earth, and fill it with ruins and marvels from the "builders" is brilliant. The going back and forth in time with the characters works remarkably well, and they evolve so much that we feel their years passing by. But in my opinion the books deserved a different ending and less words. It is still a very good trilogy and I must commend the author for sticking to his story in three books, it remained equally strong through all the instalments.