Prince of Thorns

The first in The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. The series is as follows:
 * Prince of Thorns
 * King of Thorns
 * Emperor of Thorns

""You got responsibilities when you're a leader. You got a responsibility not to kill too many of your men. Or who're you going to lead?""
 * Abusive Parents: Jorg father is a cold, cruel, callous, calculating bastard, who uses his own son for his end.
 * After the End
 * And I Must Scream: being hung on the thorns of a briar patch and forced to witness the slaughter of his family counts as one of the most mundane examples for this trope
 * And Man Grew Proud
 * Anyone Can Die
 * The Archer: the Nuban
 * Artifact of Doom:
 * Ax Crazy: Jorg, who says this gem:


 * The Brute: Brother Rike
 * Combat Pragmatist: Jorg
 * Dead Little Sister: William to Jorg
 * Establishing Character Moment: Jorg kills one of his fellow companions out of annoyance
 * Evil Uncle:
 * Fat Bastard: Burlow
 * Homage: Jorg was partially inspired by Alex from Clockwork Orange, however, he is far from being a Captain Ersatz or an Expy.
 * The Lancer: Sir Makin
 * Mind Rape:
 * Psycho for Hire: Jorg's band, especially Jorg himself
 * Rape, Pillage and Burn: Jorg's band's favorite pastime
 * Scary Black Man: played with the Nuban. While he can be intimidating, he is feared and despised out of racism. Otherwise, he also acts as a limited conscience for Jorg, so he is also a very Downplayed Magical Negro.
 * Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: nearly at the start of the novel, a ghost tries to haunt Jorg; in stead of fleeing, Jorg allows the spectre to see into his mind... and the ghost runs away, since our protagonist can offer worse thoughts, than the ghost itself.
 * X Meets Y: Clockwork Orange meets The Black Company