I had an advanced copy of this. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it early!

The first three books in this series is a completed trilogy. Grave Empire takes place a few hundred years after the events of the first three books. This book heavily relies on the reader already being familiar with the world and the magic, rather than reexplaining things for new readers. I do not think you can read this without first having read the original trilogy, which is why I’m referring to this as the fourth book in the series rather than the start of a new series in the same world.

In this book we follow three characters. The first is a soldier who has been sent far off to the east to stay in this fort at the furthest reach of the empire. When he arrives, all the other soldiers and officers warn him that it would probably be best to get ear plugs for at night, but refuse to say why. His first night there, he wakes up to screaming. But after investigating, he finds that no one was hurt. Just random screaming from nowhere. Eventually, he’s given a small company of men to take north of the fort to investigate how/why some of the soldiers have been going missing in the surrounding forest.

Our second main character is the assistant to the ambassador of the merpeople. No one has spoken to the merpeople in anyone’s remembered lifetime, so she assumes she’ll never get to meet them. She spends most of her days sitting in their shared office, practicing the merpeople language she’ll likely never use and running to answer urgent messages that turn out to be pranks. She so desperately wants to meet the merpeople, because it’s what she’s spent her whole life studying.

But then one day she gets a message from the emperor himself (which she assumes is a prank at first), and on her way there, the ambassador is assassinated and she barely manages to get away with her life. Things start heating up from here as she’s actually sent on an important mission to go meet with the merpeople to figure out why all the illegal necromancers who aren’t even supposed to be practicing necromancy anymore can’t communicate with the dead all of a sudden.

Our third main character is one of the main villains, though he certainly doesn’t see himself that way. He’s been studying necromancy in secret, and has a servant/partner who knows at least some basic magic. Their relationship is very weird and uncomfortable. It’s clear that he mostly values her as an asset for her magic, while she’s trying to have a serious romantic relationship with him that he clearly doesn’t want. Rather than actually communicating about it, they just yell at each other and have the creepiest, weirdest, hate sex involving necromancy. Normally, necromancy doesn’t creep me out. But this did. I blame my ace brain for that. There’s just one scene, but honestly even that was too much.

This guy decides to go on a trip south to find some people who might have more necromancy information than he does. He’s completely ran out of books to read about necromancy and is so obsessed that he can’t go another day without more illegal necromancy books. Along the way, he runs across these people he thinks are infected by something necromancy related, and he ends up bringing one of them home with him. From here, he proceeds to experiment on this poor guy (and his butler who he purposely forces to also become infected) in order to figure out how to use this to take over the world.

The main driving factor behind the plot is figuring out what is going on with necromancy with all three plot lines. It’s clear that they’re somehow connected, but you don’t really know how.

I thought that the third book in this series was the creepiest, grossest version of necromancy I’ve ever seen, but this book completely surpassed that just with the bedroom scene alone. And then it just keeps getting creepier and grosser with each new chapter. It’s not that there are tons of scenes full of necromancy. There are really only a couple big necromancy scenes. It’s just that these scenes are so far beyond the level of where things were in book three.

Not even the corpse eating in The Gutter Prayer that I read last summer can come remotely close to how horrified I was while reading this book. So if you’re planning on continuing this series beyond book three, just know that the body horror ramps up to the maximum and either brace yourself or don’t read it if you don’t think you’re ready for something like that. I think as long as I don’t have to see it visually, I’m ok. But if this was a graphic novel I would have immediately put it down.

I am really intrigued by the plot and the mystery of it all. Although some of the questions I had got answered at the end of this, there are still more questions we don’t get answered, as well as some new questions that I have now that I have new information. I’m really glad the author didn’t decide to give us all the answers at the end, and then only advance the other plot stuff in the next couple of books. It takes away the fun of learning new things with each book when authors do that.

I’m going to keep reading this series gradually as it comes out. I’m so fascinated by this world, the magic, and how everything has changed since the events of the first three books. I’m also very curious to know actually how many types of non-human characters exist. So far we’ve got three: the wolf men, the merpeople, and these weird/horrifying cat people who show up part way through this book. I want to know how they all came to be, because in one of the earlier books someone said something about them being created by magic.

If creepy books are your thing, maybe give this series a try. It’s such an interesting blend of fantasy and horror in a way I haven’t seen done before.

I had trouble getting oriented in the world of Grave Empire. While the premise is intriguing and the prose was well-done, the volume of fantasy names, places, and systems presented in the first couple of chapters made the story feel wide and shallow. The stakes were unclear, and I think the narrative might have been easier to follow if certain elements were introduced gradually.

"Grave Empire" kicks off a new trilogy 200 years beyond the events of his Empire of the Wolf trilogy. The industrial revolution is in full swing, and the rules of law and magic vastly differ from the days of Vonvalt and Sedanka. Sorcery is forbidden, there is an encroaching plague to the north, and losing war to the south.

Renata Rainer is a low-ranking ambassador to a people she's never met. Dire circumstances force her on a journey across the empire, where her intelligence, bravery, and negotiation skills blossom amongst the death and misery affecting the furthest reaches of the continent. She's an extremely likeable protagonist and I was able to easily identify with her struggles and victories, and am excited to see how Swan will put her through the ringer over the next two books.

Peter Kleist is a bit of a spoiled brat with family issues who lands himself in soldier duty at the edges of the empire, where mysteries and horrors await. Kleist's story takes the biggest narrative swings and I was excited to read his POV chapters to see where it all led.

Lamprecht von Oldenberg is a nasty piece of work, a sociopath with little regard for the consequences of his power-grabbing actions. He uses the tumultuous state of the empire to his advantage; a vulture in human skin.

There is only tangential crossovers between the POVs thus far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how these plot threads weave together in the coming volumes.

Swan's prose is once again a highlight of this reading experience. Dialogue richly defines each character while his description of the settings brings the empire to life. Sentences are filled with confidence and strength that enriched the reading experience, making it a joy to read and experience.

You don't need to read the Empire of the Wolf trilogy before diving in, but I do recommend it -- there are some fun Easter eggs sprinkled throughout, and careful detail has been paid to the empire's evolution over the centuries.

Swan has made my list of 'Day 1' authors whose books move to the top of my list at the day of their release. "Grave Empire" cements this sentiment.

Grave Empire is a fantastic start to a new series set in the same world as Swan's previous Empire of the Wolf trilogy. Set hundreds of years later, the world has transitioned from its medieval to the dawn of the industrial revolution. The Sovan empire is shattered and engaged in many wars on conquest to expand its borders to their former glory. In Grave Empire we primarily follow two characters, a young deputy ambassador to the Stygian (merfolk) working in an overlooked posting as there are nearly no true diplomatic relations; as well as a young Sovan lieutenant sent to the wild country to garrison a haunted fortress in a haunted land. Then comes a great and dire threat. The spirit world has inexplicably gone silent and the ramifications are vast. A spiritual plague has been spreading, vacating the minds of those afflicting and turning them into malevolent automata. This may be a world-ending event, and in order to combat it, The Empress sends Renata and company to the Spiritstrad and the Stygion to speak with the sages and find a solution to this problem. Meanwhile, Peter Kleist is sent from his safe (though haunted) fortress into the wilds to occupy another fort, and there he runs into a terrifying new threat. Kidnapped and taken on a forced march to the ends of the earth, he becomes profoundly changed by the horrors he witnesses.
Additionally, we follow a third character occasionally. Von Olderburg is a detestable character a la Baron Harkonnen. He is a hobby practitioner of the magical arts despite Sova's shunning of thaumaturgy.. Engaged in many plots, Von Oldenburg learns of this spiritual plague and uses his Machiavellian wiles to harness the plague and bend the afflicted to his will, turning this plague to his advantage in horrifying ways.
This book is a fantastic continuation to the previous trilogy, expanding the world in interesting and novel ways. We learn many new tidbits about how this world has changed, and it's very engaging. I do however miss the concept of Justices, as they were a staple in the previous trilogy.
While I enjoyed this book immensely, it does feel a little bit like one massive book split in two. The ending doesn't necessarily feel sufficiently climactic and doesn't really terminate the book's internal character arcs. The ending feels a little bit like it suffers from middle book syndrome, however, it's not a middle book, which is odd. Not something I often come across. Despite that, I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it to fans of Swans' other work, fans of Django Wexler, Brian McClellan, and general flintlock fantasy fans,

A Haunting Blend of Horror and Fantasy – Grave Empire Exceeds All Expectations.

This was my first time reading this author, and I’m thoroughly impressed. Grave Empire immediately sets off with a chilling atmosphere, wrapping me in a constant sense of dread and foreboding that builds steadily to jaw-dropping revelations. It’s a true slow-burn narrative, but trust me—the journey is well worth the "hike" or perhaps the "dive" (wink, wink).

I'd say Grave Empire leans into a more serious, weighty tone, yet isn’t entirely devoid of humor. In particular, I found myself chuckling at some of Peter’s letters to his father, which added a refreshing contrast to the otherwise tense and eerie story.

I can tell that there's a lot of care that went into the world building. It is rich and in depth, but not bogged down by excessive exposition. Despite not having read the author’s other series, Empire of the Wolf, I never felt lost in the lore. I felt like I had a really good grasp of the empire’s military, religious, and political landscape in a way that feels natural and immersive.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its three distinct POVs, each offering a unique perspective and voice. I genuinely couldn’t pick a favorite, as each character had very interesting motivations that kept me fully engaged. I especially loved that one character who, without giving much away, appears to have gone down the path of no return.

Overall, Grave Empire is a fantastic read for those who enjoy atmospheric and darker fantasy books. It blends horror and fantasy seamlessly and is quite unsettling (in the best ways possible).

I highly recommend it and can’t wait for the next installment!

I was so glad to return to Richard Swan's world that he had created to fantastic effect in his "Empire of the Wolf" series. "Grave Empire" takes place two hundred years later, and the Empire of the Wolf is still around, and now has an Empress at its head. The empire is beginning to industrialize, but because of the events in the previous series, sorcery and other magical practices have been outlawed for many years within the empire.

Things are not going well at the novel's open: the Wolf Empire has been fighting a proxy was in the land of the wolfmen which is nearing its calamitous end, there is a bizarre plague in the north affecting the pagans, and two monks arrive, with a message for the Empress telling of terrible things to come. The monks are part of an order that practices death magics, and know that their lives are forfeit, but are determined to share what they know: the afterlife is empty, totally empty of spirits/souls, and this was prophesized years ago, and known as the Great Silence.

Unsure whether this is legitimate or not, nonetheless the ambassador, Marusksa and his Secretary, Renata, are tasked with speaking with the Mer-men to determine the veracity of the monks' claim. Renata begins having terrible dreams on the journey; she was already in a bad way because of an attack on her that resulted in the grievous wounding of her beloved sister right before their departure. Renata will have to find a strength within her when so much of what she knows and believes is challenged, and she must also find a way to work with the mer-men once it appears that there is a genuine threat to every soul in the afterlife.

At the same time, Peter Kleist, a wealthy young man, is headed to his first posting at Fort Ingomar, located within the pagan lands. Something very strange is happening there, and the naïve young man will have everything in him tested and broken and changed by the time he encounters Renata weeks later.

And then there's Count Lamprecht von Oldenburg, who comes across people in the north suffering from a weird plague, and thinks, hey, I can use this! He begins a series of vile experiments, using his own staff, in a bid to better understand and use the effects of the plague for his own benefit. He is aided in his experiments by his companion of many years, Yelena, a witch.

Swan follows each of these three, and at first it seems that there is no connection (ha! Or course there is!) but before we begin to see the connection, things go from bad to worse to terrible, and the fate of the empire is up for grabs.

I appreciated the three different perspectives taking us through the world, with their different experiences and understanding of a piece of the situation.

As Secretary to the ambassador, Renata is disrespected in her role, but she ends up rising to the political challenges when she meets with the understandably aggressive and dismissive mer-men.

Peter is in a terrible situation, and his letters home to his father show his disintegrating confidence and growing fears for his safety, but also his crumbling mental health. What he encounters in the forests of the north will totally shake his understanding of his place and influence in the world.

And, though occupying less page-time than the other two, von Oldenburg has an outsize influence on the plot, as his self-interest and desire for arcane knowledge leads him to deeply unsettling places. Yelena is a puzzling character, and her relationship with him is complex and difficult to square away with his actions.

I am glad that I read Swan's previous trilogy, as it was fun to see the developments and changes to borders and cultures, but it is not necessary to have read it to enjoy this book, which was tense, shocking, and gripping. I knew I was going to enjoy this book as soon as I met Renata, but as we only see her in third person perspective throughout this novel, we're not intimately aware of all that is in her head, unlike Helena in the previous trilogy, who was our viewpoint into that story's action.

It's a tiny quibble, and I am on board with this new series, and cannot wait to read its next entry.

4.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This is a high fantasy/horror story about a world that may be ending. Set in a renaissance era filled with monsters, ghosts, mermaids and werewolves.

I thought this was a well written fantasy with interesting politics between creatures and dynamics. This book was filled with action and mystery as to what was happening to this world. I completely understand that I am not the expected audience for this book but I can still see the intrigue and complexity of this novel.

Personally I did find certain povs more interesting than others and found certain plot points thrust into the story in strange places.

Overall a good book and would recommend it to people who enjoy high action fantasy.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for the EARC.
*Contains some spoilers*


This was my most anticipated reads of the year! I loved the Empire of the Wolf trilogy to get to come back into the world of Sova and see what the future held was amazing! This book style is a little diffrent as we get more POVs from others as the world is coming to end. I am liking the jumping around and so far I am loving the characters and their stories. We also get introduced to a new race of beings the catmen as well as get to see the infamous mer-men. I am excited to see where this story goes! And am already ready for the next book!

3.5
Set in the same universe as his Empire of the Wolf trilogy, Grave Empire begins 100 years later following Renata, an ambassador, Peter, a soldier, and von Oldenburg, a count. Each of them has their own path in the book, so we follow different points of the story dealing with different problems, Renata is going on a diplomatic mission in order to try to save the world after the warning of a threat in the afterlife, Peter goes to the desolate north where mysterious things are happening, and von Oldenburg is investigating a plague that is starting to appear in the Sovan country. Set in a time when magic is outlawed and the industrial revolution is happening and replacing magic, the readers follow the three.

I really like how the author manages to combine fantasy, horror, and mystery. The world is brutal and unrelenting. The characters are intriguing enough to make me want to follow them and find out what's going to happen. But I felt this book was a big prologue to place the characters in the right position for the story to really begin and to do the world building that is necessary for the reader to follow what's going to happen in the next books. The world building is extensive and the world is really fascinating; the creatures that exist and their cultures are well presented. I still don't feel a connection to the characters but I feel that was due to the fact that I thought this book was just a set up for the story that is about to come.

The book finishes in two really interesting cliffhangers. I'm excited to read the next books.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

Richard Swan broke onto the scene in magnificent fashion with his brilliant fantasy trilogy Empire of the Wolf. That series had it all, action, outstanding characterization, tantalizing dark magic, and a story that kept me wanting the next volume as soon as I was finished the previous. So when I found out that Swan had a brand new series, well I really couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy and dive in head first.

Tis new series is set roughly in the same world as Empire of the Wolf, but with all new characters and a considerable amount of time in the future. So you don't necessarily have to have knowledge of that series, but I would highly recommend you read them anyway because they are so damn good and it will provide a little background that will make this one that much more enjoyable. As with EotW, we have a struggle between those loyal to the church who also practice a form of magic, and those loyal to the Empire that wish to eradicate all traces of sorcery and the like. This makes for a wonderful tension and struggle and the line between who are the good guys and bad guys is often blurred.

One of the main aspects that I love about this book was how deliciously dark it is. I'm a huge fan of dark fantasy and all of Swan's books seem to scratch that itch quite effectively. The darkness is never gratuitous though, it is done to set the backdrop, the worldbuilding, and the entire tone of the circumstances that these characters find themselves in. I've heard Richard Swan compared to Joe Abercrombie and I would say yes to a point but I believe he's more comparable to say a Brian McClellan. Yet at the same time he's his own writer and the stories he weave are entirely original and shouldn't be diminished by any other author comparison.

I loved this book from first page to last and I came away as I always do, being entirely angry (not your fault Mr. Swan) that I don't have the next book to immediately continue with this story. Swan leaves you breathless at the end of every book, this one is no exception. My advice to every fantasy reader is just pick up all of this guy's books and read them. The journey is always worth it and the impact is real and emotional.

Unfortunately, I really struggled with this one. Flat characters, predictable storyline, and overall just felt bored throughout 80% of the novel.

What an amazing world Richard Swan has built in this first installment in a new series! I was immediately pulled in by the atmosphere of this book--a sense of dread and half-waking, and was propelled through the rest of the book by the political machinations and sense of creeping dread, with just the slightest teases of hope along the way. I sped through this book and am eagerly awaiting the next in the series.
Fantasy horror is not my typical favorite genre because I'm easily scared, but the grim dark pieces of this appealed to me so much, and the way that the horror aspects are done in this book just add to the atmosphere more than being individually scary. I can't recommend this enough!

Really really intricately written, with complex and wonderful world building and interesting characters. I loved the premise, the mythology/magic system, the descriptions of the environment, people's etc. I think I am going to dive into more of Swan's work. 4.25/5

I read the first two books in Swan’s Empire of the Wolf and loved them. I have the finale on my TBR but haven’t gotten to it yet. I wasn’t sure if that was going to hinder my enjoyment of this book since it’s set in the same world. It did not. I loved this one almost more than the first trilogy. Can’t wait for the next.

Fantastic start to a new trilogy! I loved the Empire of the Wolf, but I loved the start of The Great Silence even more. I am excited to see what is to come.

This is such an improvement from Swans first trilogy! I had liked his writing but no so much the characters or plot and this book has blown my expectations so much!
This has 3 pov characters, 2 of which are immediately favouite characters of mine (the third is more an antagonist you aren't supposed to like but still a very compelling character and story to follow)
The plot was super mysterious and dark which bled into more of a horror/grimdark novel.
I can't wait for book 2!!

Unfortunately DNF'd at 40%. I just was too confused and nothing was making sense and I wasn't following it at all. My brain may be too small for this one. Just no connection to the book and I promised myself to start DNFing books this year even though I usually hate to do that.

A layered, immersive and well written tale told from 3 points of view that come together in a great ending that made me eager for the next book. There is great character development and the world building tells the story of a complex world of varied societies. The main culture has given up magic as it becomes industrial, but magic is in its history and very much alive in the less modern cultures. I especially loved the strong women characters and the militant and magical undersea culture of mermen riding sharks. The book kept me interested throughout and laid a foundation for the upcoming books, which I suspect will be even better. Thanks to NetGalley for advance copy.

Fantastic book. I love it so much and ijust couldn’t put it down. I ended up going to sleep very late because I couldn’t stop reading .

I highly recommend

Disclaimer: I did not read the original series in this universe.

Long but worth taking the time to get into. The highlight is the worldbuilding and dynamics between the different groups of people.

There are three main characters: Renata, Peter, and von Oldenburg. I found Renata's chapters most interesting as she confronts how narrow of a worldview she's grown up with, but I didn't connect with her personally. Peter was much more relatable, but his POV starts out pretty boring. von Oldenburg is just The Worst, and he was fun to hate. The timing of how their stories intersected was extremely well-done, so I'm interested to see what will happen next.