Best Mark Lawrence Audiobooks
Mark Lawrence writes darkness the way other fantasy authors write light — as something essential, not decorative. His Broken Empire trilogy, beginning with Prince of Thorns, announces its intentions immediately: a morally compromised antihero narrating his own brutal rise through a post-apocalyptic medieval world that doesn't flinch from what that actually looks like. Lawrence's prose is lean and menacing, his plotting constructed around revelation — the kind of worldbuilding where the full picture only clicks into focus pages before the end. His Book of the Ancestor series, starting with Red Sister, shows the same razor craft applied to a young woman's journey through a martial convent, with a warmth that surprises readers who came in expecting only grimness. If you want fantasy that takes moral ambiguity seriously, builds to genuine payoffs, and trusts you to keep up, Lawrence is one of the genre's sharpest practitioners.
Where to Start with Mark Lawrence
- Best entry point → Red Sister
- Start the Broken Empire series → Prince of Thorns
- What fans keep coming back to → King of Thorns
- Best narrator for Mark Lawrence → Grey Sister
- Highest rated by listeners → Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor #3)
Best Mark Lawrence Audiobooks
- 1
Grey Sister
Book of the Ancestor • Book 2
Narrated by Heather O'Neill
★ 4.41 BLT Score (42.9K ratings)★ 4.35 Goodreads (38.6K) ★ 4.68 Audible (4.3K) - 2
Holy Sister
Book of the Ancestor • Book 3
Narrated by Heather O'Neill
★ 4.36 BLT Score (35.2K ratings)★ 4.3 Goodreads (31.8K) ★ 4.66 Audible (3.4K) - 3
Emperor of Thorns
Broken Empire • Book 3
Narrated by James Clamp
★ 4.27 BLT Score (61.2K ratings)★ 4.22 Goodreads (58.0K) ★ 4.58 Audible (3.2K) - 4
King of Thorns
Broken Empire • Book 2
Narrated by James Clamp
★ 4.23 BLT Score (74.4K ratings)★ 4.18 Goodreads (71.0K) ★ 4.54 Audible (3.4K) - 5
Red Sister
Book of the Ancestor • Book 1
Narrated by Heather O'Neill
★ 4.19 BLT Score (70.2K ratings)★ 4.16 Goodreads (63.4K) ★ 4.47 Audible (6.8K) - 6
Prince of Fools
The Red Queen's War • Book 1
Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds
★ 4.02 BLT Score (39.8K ratings)★ 4.05 Goodreads (35.5K) ★ 4.35 Audible (4.3K) - 7
Daughter of Crows
The Academy of Kindness • Book 1
Narrated by Olivia Dowd
★ 3.88 BLT Score (301 ratings)★ 4.24 Goodreads (278) ★ 4.83 Audible (23) - 8
Unfettered III: New Tales
The Chathrand Voyage #Thasha's cure for cabin fever • Book 3
by Shawn Speakman, Tad Williams, Naomi Novik, Megan Lindholm, John Gwynne, David Anthony Durham, Callie Bates, Jason Denzel, Carrie Vaughn, Deborah A. Wolf, Anna Stephens, Patrick Swenson, Ramon Terrell, Peter Orullian, Terry Brooks, Lev Grossman, Seanan McGuire, Delilah S. Dawson, Mark Lawrence, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Todd Lockwood, Cat Rambo, Robert V.S. Redick, Ken Scholes, Scott Sigler, Anna Smith Spark, Marc Turner
Narrated by Khristine Hvam, Natasha Soudek, Mark Bramhall, Michael Page, Vikas Adam, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Andrew Wincott, Luke Daniels, Brian Nishii
★ 3.84 BLT Score (779 ratings)★ 3.98 Goodreads (571) ★ 4.37 Audible (208) - 9
Prince of Thorns
Broken Empire • Book 1
Narrated by James Clamp
★ 3.82 BLT Score (129.6K ratings)★ 3.83 Goodreads (124.2K) ★ 4.17 Audible (5.4K)More about this pick
Lawrence's debut is divisive and deliberately brutal — a boy prince narrating his own atrocities with black humor, in a post-apocalyptic fantasy that rewards patient readers.
- 10
Unfettered II: New Tales
Gunnie Rose #0.0 - The Gunnie
by Shawn Speakman, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Michael J. Sullivan, Janny Wurts, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Mark Lawrence, Seanan McGuire, Peter Orullian, Aidan Moher, Erin Lindsey, John A. Pitts, Anthony Ryan, Scott Sigler, Django Wexler, Rachel Caine, Sarah Beth Durst, David Farland, Terry Brooks
Narrated by Sarah Coomes, Michael Kramer, Emily Woo Zeller, Nick Podehl, Erin Mallon, Tim Gerard Reynolds
★ 3.78 BLT Score (1.5K ratings)★ 3.92 Goodreads (1.1K) ★ 4.25 Audible (340) - 11
Unbound
Annwn Cycle #The Dead's Revenant • Book 1
by Shawn Speakman, Terry Brooks, Seanan McGuire, Mark Lawrence, Anthony Ryan, Tim Marquitz, Brian Staveley, Michael J. Sullivan, John Marco, Peter Orullian, Kat Richardson, Sam Sykes, Kristen Britain, Mazarkis Williams, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Harry Connolly, Delilah S. Dawson, David Anthony Durham, Jason M. Hough, Mary Robinette Kowal, Joe Abercrombie
Narrated by Dick Hill, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Nick Podehl, Allyson Johnson, Christian Rodska, Emily Bauer
★ 3.74 BLT Score (1.3K ratings)★ 3.96 Goodreads (1.0K) ★ 4.13 Audible (246)More about this pick
A star-studded anthology where twenty-three fantasy masters tell exactly the stories they want, each perfectly matched to a narrator who elevates the prose—Dick Hill's gravitas, Tim Gerard Reynolds' intensity—making this feel less like a collection and more like a curated experience.