Grave Empire

• Author: Richard Swan
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: February 4, 2025
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Great Silence #1

Thank you to Orbit and Oliver Wehner for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

BLOOD ONCE TURNED THE WHEELS OF EMPIRE. NOW IT IS MONEY.

A new age of exploration and innovation has dawned, and the Empire of the Wolf stands to take its place as the foremost power in the known world. Glory and riches await.

But dark days are coming. A mysterious plague has broken out in the pagan kingdoms to the north, while in the south, the Empire’s proxy war in the lands of the wolfmen is weeks away from total collapse.

Worse still is the message brought to the Empress by two heretic monks who claim to have lost contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The monks believe this is the start of an ancient prophecy heralding the end of days—the Great Silence.

It falls to Renata Rainer, a low-ranking ambassador to an enigmatic and vicious race of mermen, to seek answers from those who still practice the arcane arts. But with the road south beset by war and the Empire on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, soon there might not be a world left to save…

Internationally bestselling author Richard Swan returns in this epic, bloodthirsty new fantasy series set in an empire undergoing an industrial revolution, where sorcery and arcane practices are outlawed—and where an ancient prophecy warns of the coming of days.

Reading the Empire of the Wolf trilogy quickly landed Richard Swan on my favorites list. Since I was already familiar with his writing, I knew I was in for a dark, grisly, violent, and complex fantasy. But even knowing what I was getting into, this book surprised me—mostly with Swan’s ability to write captivating characters and storylines.

I’ve been having difficulty reading and focusing on books lately, so I’m reading a lot slower than usual. And since I really wanted to get into this book, I wound up listening to the audiobook version as well as reading along in the print copy. I gathered quickly that it was a spin-off taking place in the future of the setting from Empire of the Wolf, and figured it wouldn’t be too hard to keep up. However, it took me some time to get myself situated in this new version of a world Swan had created. I found myself having to reread certain chapters by reading along with the audio to be able to fully follow.

This is a sprawling tale where all the pieces are laid out through the eyes of different characters and their perspectives. We learn about major areas of the empire that are on the precipice of huge change: Renata is struggling to create an ambassadorial connection with a savage and unfriendly group of merfolk, Peter is trying to establish himself in a new posting and focused on proving himself up to the task, and Count Lamprecht von Oldenburg makes an outstanding villain that I loved to hate. He’s the kind of character where I pray to get to see his comeuppance. (I’ve always wanted to use that word!)

As for the world-building, Swan didn’t rest on his laurels and rely on the world created in Empire of the Wolf—while this world is closely related and often overlaps, it is much expanded. Swan creates political, religious, and cultural systems for groups that we haven’t met yet. He goes inside the wolfmen and mermen’s societies, and introduces us to a new version of the empire that we already know. 

There are no shortage of battles or threats throughout the story, but I loved seeing how our characters navigate the challenges in front of them. Morally gray characters prevailed, but I found myself really gravitating towards Renata and her journey as an emissary. Although the story is a little slow-moving at first, this feels intentional. There is a lot of new info being provided in the early chapters—Swan is fixing the setting and characters before all the pieces start moving around and getting confusing. It did require a more attentive read than a fluffy, low-stakes book, but it is completely worth the investment of your focus. The story ends on a cliffhanger, but I’m absolutely on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book to be released. 

You may like this book if you:

• If you like complex, political, and sprawling stories.
• Love Richard Swan’s writing.
• Enjoy grimdark fantasy.
• Prefer your fantasy novels to not focus on romance subplots.

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