Grave Empire lives up to its name by being brutal, bloody and unforgiving. there’s three main povs: Peter, von Oldenburg and Renata. we get to see different sides of this world through these characters as the south is being torn apart by a plague and the north is on the brink of total collapse. i loved the setting of this book— it’s like a mix of steam punk and arcane arts that’s shifting from magic to industrialization.

the characters all had strong and distinct personalities, von Oldenburg especially was an interesting piece of work.. one of those characters that you love to hate, there was a section where it felt like he was embodying Dr. Frankenstein, it was insane. there’s bits of the story that are bordering on horror in it’s imagery, with every kind of creature you can think of: mermen, sharks, vampires, zombies (kind of), etc. Peter’s pov was the one that had the most instances of creepy occurrences, especially in the beginning. Renata is a spitfire, she’s an ambassador of a race of mermen which people don’t think exists and has a set way of approaching things. there’s also a big focus on life after death as the story kicks off when two monks claim to have lost their connection to the afterlife, bringing forth the end of days. i thought this was so unique and a great start to this new series, already looking forward to book 2!

*Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book jumps right into the world, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Swan sets up a dramatic world set in his previous series that continues in this one. The characters are interesting and the plot exciting. I was hooked from the very beginning and cannot wait for the rest of the series. The POV's that Swan has in the book are all equally interesting and engaging. I'm ready for book two!

A flintlock epic fantasy with elements of magic and horror draped in the intrigue of politics and fantastical world building, Grave Empire, is an absolute masterpiece. If I could give this book a thousand stars, I would.

Following multiple characters perspectives as they converge upon each other in a battle to save their world from unknown forces, the storyline could have taken a turn into being confusing and disjointed, but each character's voice was unique enough to differentiate keeping the story grounded in each's distinctive narrative.

While I haven't read the prequels, the Empire of Wolf series, set 200 years before the events of Grave Empire - I felt that I could jump into this book easily (though I do now plan to read the sequel series because I loved the world so much). There was of course a heavy amount of world building - a magic system, map, multiple races and religions to understand but it didn't feel like I would have HAD to read the prior series to understand everything.

All in all, Grave Empire was a masterpiece of fiction and I can't wait for my preordered edition from The Broken Binding to arrive later this year.

He’s a really good writer if you’re looking for grimmer fantasy. I really enjoyed The Empire of the Wolf trilogy though it was darker than my usual preferences. He does a particularly good job making his characters fully fledged people and his world building is excellent too. The tech level in this series is later than the usual for fantasy with early guns, at least in the hands of the empire trying to conquer the world. If you want darker fantasy he’s one of the best I e read in the last few years! And in general he’s one of the best fantasy authors I’ve read in the last few years so he’s well worth trying unless you’re not in the mood for a darker story.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Orbit for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

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💎I can go on forever about how excellent a writer i think Richard Swan is, and happily after reading his latest with my super babe ✨Esta✨, who makes every Buddy Read a magnificent adventure, that opinion has not changed in the slightest! Grave Empire was a wild ride from beginning to end, and it being a 5⭐ fantasy read that i knocked off in January was a fortuitous way to celebrate the anniversary of my first discovering the epic awesomeness that is Empire of the Wolf! So YAY!🥳

⭐Grave Empire was yet another example of Swan's brilliant and compelling writing style that i love to read! His eloquent, accessible narrative flowed seamlessly through his brilliant way of worldbuilding, animated by impressive characterization and a toothy bit of creepy plot that gave me the shivers. His epigraphs were life...especially Sir Konrad Vonvalt’s! I miss that man! And I LOVE TITLED CHAPTERS...even if my brain is a sieve and I kept on forgetting them. And OFC I LOVE that the colonel had a husband!!!! LGBTQ rep in the first three chapters is a winner for me!⭐

Sova came alive for me in this book, especially the fish market scene and kaffeehaus/oyster house/university environs etc. Swan's way of layering the scenes, revisiting areas, people, places and political opportunity made the worldbuilding very natural and organic.

I liked Renata, but I LOVED Peter!!! Both perspectives were really rich contrasts in experiences and environments, but i was terrified for Peter. Renata had such a deep reservoir of support, a generous mentor and years of a skillset, even if it was in theory only. But Peter's POV was breathtakingly lonesome and he made my heart ache. There was a moment right before an enemy charge when Peter was frozen in place by fear, but the outside perspective saw him as standing his ground! It was this sort of dual energy he embodied that I found fascinating! Public perception vs his interiority of vulnerable truth. He just gave off that sweet boy energy who's about to grow up really fast in the face of killer horrors...and my intuition was spot on. Very "Heart of Darkness" and i could not have been more invested.

The Great Cataclysm yielded fusion races of humans and beasts, and we got to explore more of them in this book; not just the Kasar wolfmen who were first introduced in the Empire of The Wolf series. The Stygion Mer-men were ΑΜΑΖΙNG to read about, and i loved how action-packed Renata's POV was because of their contentious relationship to Sovan violence and oppression. There was magic and mayhem and fighting, and i'm excited to see the kind of Ambassador she will become by the end of this series.

Here are some other things i loved :

💥"A man with two masters makes an enemy of the whole world." SOVAN PROVERB All the epigraphs were gold but some gave me chills. There was also a news suppression piece that really hit for obvious, relevant reasons.

💣The way Guillot challenged Renata and Didi! Loved his pushback against Sova and the empire's violent conquest of so many people. The snark in him saying that it wasn't the priesthood who brought the guns and turned north and south against each other! Shots fired, little brother!!!

🩸Von Oldenburg and his sinister ambitions. Ghost screams. Blood rituals. And the magical races -human and fusion- capable of performing them.

Grave Empire was entirely arresting and exhilarating to read. The pacing was great, the whole of it was bold and compelling and I cannot wait for the adventures still to come! 5⭐

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when a blurb reads better than 99.9% of the books currently out in the world
45 likes

I wanted to love this epic fantasy after enjoying this authors last series but this fantasy novel fell a little flat for me. In this book you follow 3 POVs but the problem was the stories for 90 percent of this book felt disjointed and like I was reading three different stories. Each POV was fine but felt very slow but the characters never really won me over. I did enjoy the last 10 percent of this book as the characters were finally in the same kingdom and it started coming together. With that said I will probably read the next book in the series while the ending wasn’t much of a cliffhanger I am still curious as to what happens and I hope this second book sees the different POVs come together more. This world is vast and intriguing and I could see me really growing to enjoy this series.I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

Admittedly, I wasn’t aware until after skimming other reviews that Grave Empire returns to an existing world of Swan’s, albeit a couple of centuries in the future. Yet my reading experience was unencumbered by my ignorance.

For first-time readers like me, Swan introduces a multilayered world on the verge of political—and magical—catastrophe. The Sova Empire has prohibited all magic practices, instead using arms to war ceaselessly with some neighbors and maintain fragile peace with others. But magic creeps in from the edges until it is inseparable from every member of Swan’s great host of characters.

Three points of view constitute this story. Renata is an ambassador to mermen, a position that demands little but ridicule until suddenly, she may be Sova’s most important liaison. Peter is a young soldier sent to the outskirts of the Empire, where he finds an entirely different threat than he anticipated. And the last narrator, Count von Oldenburg…well, let’s just say he’s an ambitious and wealthy man, which makes for a dangerous combination. What is masterful is that each narrator is brave and clumsy in their own way; none lacks misgivings, but they all persevere to achieve what they believe is for the greater good.

I found the beginning a bit slow, but the payoff was worth it. Besides the mermen, did I mention wolfmen, thaumaturges, reanimated corpses, and all manner of cosmic and horrific things pepper this novel? I can’t say that I expected to shudder so much—wow, are some scenes visceral—but I also can’t say that such descriptions made me any less eager to finish the novel.

Grave Empire scratched a genre itch I didn’t know I had and offers ample nightmare fuel—along with a healthy helping of hauntings, colonialism, diplomacy, and military logistics.

Grave Empire by Richard Swan is a sprawling, dark fantasy epic set in the Empire of the Wolf, now undergoing an industrial revolution while grappling with the looming threat of an ancient prophecy known as the Great Silence. Though set 200 years after The Justice of Kings, this novel stands alone, making it accessible to new readers while offering subtle nods to Swan’s previous work. I only found this out after I'd read a chunk of the book and was invested in the characters...Phew
The story is told through three interwoven plotlines:
Renata Rainer’s Diplomatic Mission – A low-ranking ambassador, Renata is sent to negotiate with the enigmatic and dangerous merpeople in search of answers about the impending catastrophe. Her storyline blends political intrigue with a quest narrative, including a minor romance and fascinating encounters with supernatural forces.
Peter’s Horror Survival Story – A soldier sent to the northern frontier, Peter quickly finds himself in a desperate fight for survival as a deadly plague ravages the pagan kingdoms. His perspective leans heavily into horror, with eerie, grotesque moments that make his arc one of the most intense in the book.
Van Oldenberg’s Descent into Darkness – A wealthy senator obsessed with arcane artefacts, Van Oldenberg stumbles into a series of events that tempt him deeper into corruption. A selfish yet compelling antihero, his storyline is filled with moral ambiguity, humour, and dark magic.
Spanning the 3 POVs showed masterful world-building, capturing a society in transition from medieval traditions to early industrialization, complete with muskets, supernatural creatures, and political turmoil. The writing is sharp and well-paced, balancing deep character moments with action-packed battle sequences.
Van Oldenberg emerges as the one to love and hate. Unlikable yet irresistibly fascinating. His self-serving nature and complex relationships, add layers of intrigue to the story. Meanwhile, Renata and Peter’s arcs provide gripping narratives of diplomacy and survival. This character gave me the same vibes as some of Joe Abercrombie's love/hate POVs.
Despite its grim themes, Grave Empire isn’t devoid of humour, with well-placed comedic moments that lighten the tone. The novel is dark, gory, and visceral but never leans into gratuitous body horror.....But it's very dark!
Overall, Grave Empire is a must-read for fans of dark fantasy, offering a gripping mix of political intrigue, supernatural horror, and morally complex characters. Whether you’re drawn in by the rich world-building or the unpredictable character arcs, this book is an exciting start to what promises to be a phenomenal series.

This was my first Swan book but definitely not my last. This book is such a perfect blend of horror/fantasy/politics that I had trouble putting it down. It's so well paced and with the creepy cult horror vibes I think it's the perfect blend of the 2 genres! I was not expecting to read my best book of 2025 in Janurary but that may be what has happened. I am absolutely blown away by the skill and talent of Mr. Swan

Grave Empire is the first in a new fantasy trilogy, but is set in the same world as Swan’s first trilogy, Empire of the Wolf, just two centuries later. The world has changed, but some things have remained the same. After the events of the first trilogy, magic is banned, as well as connecting with the afterlife. But the Sovan Empire, for as much as it lost two centuries ago, is still intent on expanding, this time to the east. Without the confines of the justice system, Grave Empire has incredible flexibility in what it can do with the story, and it takes advantage by adding in diplomacy, colonization, and dabbles in the illegal while also keeping the afterlife the first trilogy loved so much and religious ideals.

Peter is a young soldier sent to the highly disputed wilds to the east on a commission his noble father purchased, but he’d much rather be at home even if his mother has little love for him. What he had hoped would be an easy post ends up being a harrowing one as he’s sent to discover what the cries that disturb everyone’s sleep is, only to discover an unknown race and secrets he’d rather not have known. Renata is the secretary to the ambassador to the Stygion, a rather unfriendly race of mermaid-like people. Because the Stygion are known for their magic, Colonel Glaser sends Renata and the ambassador to the Stygion in order to gain more information, because two brothers from a religious sect that deals, illegally, with the afterlife have brought news that the afterlife has gone silent. Meanwhile, the northern pagan territories are gripped in the holds of a virus, but news of it has been suppressed. Count von Oldenburg, though, dabbles in magic with his pagan companion Yelena. Their journey to the north, though, reveals something terrifying. Worse, von Oldenburg thinks he can utilize it for his own gain, much to Yelena’s horror.

Empire of the Wolf had a strong start, but it eventually devolved into something that just wanted to be akin to a horrific nightmare. It also felt a little constrained by the bounds of the law as Sir Vonvalt was a Justice. Grave Empire is set long after these events, so it was fantastic to see what has ensued since that horrific battle to see what Sova has become, this time with little more than imagination to bound it. This one feels like it has more promise to be all-encompassing, to really delve into the world, and to paint a deeper, probably darker, picture. The scope feels so much wider, especially since now there are three perspectives to follow, and they have very little to do with each other for most of the book.

I really enjoyed getting back into this world, and found the time jump to be a nice surprise. I did find myself continually searching for references to Vonvalt and Helena, but they are few and far between. It was fantastic, though, to see how far the world has come, making strides while also remaining highly territorial and expansionist, especially the Sovan Empire, which had shrunk two centuries before. I loved how the Germanic-inspired world felt familiar, so it was easy to slide back into it, but enough had changed to make it feel almost entirely new. It was great to see the Sovans’ reaching fingers and the things that bite back at them, and I loved getting to know some new animal-human hybrid races. The history of how they came to be is simple, and I liked how they fit in considering the first trilogy introduced the wolfmen.

The focus here, though, are the characters and what their stories lend to the greater story. There’s something going on in the afterlife, something that’s essentially made it into a ghost town. Dealing with the afterlife is now illegal, but, if it weren’t for some groups that defy that, no one would know the world is in danger. I liked how the demons weren’t a huge part of this story; instead, the horrific things were more on the mortal plane. But they’re definitely there at the edges, and even I feel uneasy about the silence in the afterlife, especially knowing what it was like two centuries before.

Renata, Peter, and von Oldenburg are our main characters. They’re each given distinctive personalities, which lent them well to their individual stories, with some being more palatable than the others. Renata is a bit of a tempered firecracker who loves her half-sister to death. She holds herself tightly to her duty and isn’t afraid of putting people in their places, but I liked how she wasn’t always able to keep things together, instead cracking and needing someone to fill in the gaps, so, fortunately, she and the ambassador travel with an entourage of soldiers. I liked Peter. He has zero interest in being placed out in the wilds, feeling absolutely certain he’s going to die at every turn. I loved the letters he wrote to his father, and I loved his camaraderie with Captain Furlan. His journey was easily the most harrowing, though I did feel like his adventuring kind of felt overstuffed. It made the entire middle drag longer than it should have as it was just one dangerous journey after another. I liked him, though, and I always felt terrified for him. Von Oldenburg was probably the most interesting and most terrifying character to follow, as well as the least likable. He has no compunctions about doing whatever he wants. His selfishness was sometimes hard to read, and his brutality was stomach churning at times. He felt almost wild and maniacal, and I’m a little afraid of where his story’s going.

The first and last thirds of Grave Empire were fantastic. I loved getting back into this world and seeing how it had changed. I loved meeting the new characters and getting into their stories and journeys. My interest was steadily held, and I had high hopes that this would be much better than the whole of Empire of the Wolf. Unfortunately, the entire middle sagged. It was bloated with too much adventuring, too much traveling, and danger after danger that eventually felt a little exhausting. I loved getting to meet new characters and watching the world unfold, but I grew weary on the characters’ behalfs and sometimes just wanted it to end.

Grave Empire feels like a step above Empire of the Wolf. It has excellent characters I found myself both agreeing and disagreeing with, and I loved their commitment to what they were charged with, whether by themselves or by others. There’s horror around the edges, and some graphic scenes I really didn’t enjoy, but getting to see this wider world was kind of amazing. There’s diplomacy at play through Renata meeting with the Stygion, colonization attempts as Sova tries to expand into the east while Casimir, and their Sanque allies, tries to stop them, and dabbles in the illicit through von Oldenburg and his terrifying discoveries and experiments. There’s a lot going on in this novel, but I never once found it difficult to follow as the story definitely takes its time. This promises to be a layered and complex story, and I look forward to watching it unfold.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Richard Swan has done it again. Expertly picking up where THE TRIALS OF EMPIRE left off we are treated to a new cast of characters years after the first trilogy's conclusion. We see that the world has changed, industry has taken root and as ever, there are dark forces at work that only a handful of unlikely heroes are equipped to grapple with. The prose is wonderful, the suspense and storytelling are pitch perfect, and Swan treats us to an ever deeper dive into his world. A must-read for fans of THE EMPIRE OF THE WOLF trilogy.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for letting me read this book early! All my thoughts are my own.

This starts off as any typical high fantasy novel; magic, intrigue, lots of world building. But, unfortunately even with all that I had to DNF this at 20%. It wasn’t the slow world building, or even the multitude of random places that can cause confusion, but rather one scene in particular. I just…can’t continue after this scene (and unfortunately don’t want to spoil the book for others). It felt very stereotypical of an 80s high fantasy scene, but in this day and age was just so misogynistic and unnecessary. Perhaps it had some context from the first series? But as a new reader to the series it just gave me the ick and I couldn’t read further. 2⭐️

Grave Empire by Richard Swan

**My thanks to Orbit Books for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy via NetGalley**

4 stars

A highly enjoyable start to a new fantasy series, which I will definitely be continuing when the next title publishes. I have not read Empire of the Wolf, the author’s previous series, but if this is his usual caliber I intend to pick it up.

Grave Empire is a story with continental scale, in which the citizens of an empirical and rationalist society find themselves confronted with evidence of a profound disruption in the afterlife with world-ending consequences.

Renata, our protagonist (though the series follows a few different point-of-views), is an ambassador to the Stygians, a race of mer-people with no interest in an ambassadorial relationship with the human empire polluting and brutalizing their waters. From her cramped and unimportant government office, she is suddenly thrust into a desperate mission of great importance when the empire finds itself in great need of the Stygians’ outsized knowledge of magic and the occult. As a protagonist, Renata is okay; I never disliked her, but she didn’t grab me and make me love her, especially in the first half of the book. I really enjoyed the chapters written from the soldier’s perspective, and I hope we get a lot more from him in the next book now that his story has intersected with Renata’s. I also wished we had spent more time with the Stygian, who were greatly built up but had a very small amount of page time.

One thing I really enjoyed about the setup was the way in which religion and the afterlife featured in the characters’ lives. Deities and the afterlife are both a certainty (proven to exist) and yet remote, with religious wars ongoing over differences in the details of doctrine and dogma. There is a nice horror element to the existential threat, in which a world that knows for certain their souls live on after death are confronted with the possibility of those souls being extinguished forever.

I would highly recommend this title to fans of flintlock fantasy and large-scale epic fantasy.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Richard Swan returns with the first book of a new high fantasy series, Grave Empire. Swan revisits world of his Empire of the Wolf Trilogy, but casts his sights 200 years after in the time of The Great Silence. Readers follow multiple characters as they investigate magickal practitioners cut off from the afterlife in the manifestation of a prophecy come to fruition. Ambassador Renata Rainer must reach out to the Stygion mer-men in the hopes that their arcane knowledge can prevent the end of the world.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is my first book by Swan and so I likely missed a lot of the easter eggs laid from the connecting stories. However, I can say with confidence that Grave Empire is understandable without that background knowledge, though I certainly intend to go back and find out more.

Renata (our Ambassador), Peter (a military lieutenant), and Lamprecht (a count corrupted by his pursuit of illicit arcane knowledge) are our main perspective characters. Lamprecht is readily set up as a bit of a mustache-twirling villain, which made him less compelling to me than either of the other two perspectives. That being said, each character is in a different geographic area at story start, which gives us insight into the progression of our main mystery plot on multiple battle fronts. Swan cleverly manages to weave the three nearly together without losing plot threads in the process.

This is absolutely a plot-driven story. Which is something that I have found common to high/epic fantasy, but is somewhat a detriment to my enjoyment. The world is interesting. The magic system is mysterious so far. The threat is real. The different races are compelling. My intrigue is high. My emotional investment is somewhat limited due to the comparative lack of focus on character development. My preferences on who I like to follow can shift based on what action is in progress rather than finding that I specifically am attached to or like one character more than another. Swan nevertheless handles this introductory novel with skill and I am interested to read more. I am also interested in exploring his backlist.

If this type of novel already appeals to you, you will be in good hands with Swan. If this is your attempt to begin a dip into high fantasy, perhaps a gentler introduction is necessary.

I am grateful for the opportunity to read Grave Empire early and look forward to what Swan releases next.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I can’t even wrap my head around how brilliant this book was. Absolutely compelling and it was impossible to put down.

It reminded me a bit of The Tainted Cup; the tone is very different, but you get that mystery-novel-in-a-fantasy-world feeling. Or at least, I did, and I loved it. But this book is much, MUCH more grimdark and skirts horror than Tainted Cup did, so if you’re a Joe Abercrombie fan, you’ll feel right at home here.

Note – I did discover this is a sequel trilogy, but as someone who never read the first three (which absolutely will change) I can assure you that if you haven’t either, you won’t feel confused or left out. This works very well without any prior knowledge of the series or world.

There’s several POV characters and Swan handles the switch between characters/POV chapters perfectly, and we get to see a diplomat trying to save the world, a soldier trying to save himself, supernatural horrors, prophecy and plague, bloody battles, politics... and mermen. Yes, mermen.

Grave Empire is very moody with darkness surrounding the characters from all sides, with what feels like overwhelming odds and a teeeeeny tiny chance of survival.

I can’t wait for the sequel, and now I have to add all of the prequel series to my TBR.

Grave Empire is out on Feb 4, and thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit books for the advance copy for my honest review! What a great way to start out my reading year.

Set two centuries after The Empire of the Wolf trilogy, Richard Swan returns us to a familiar world torn apart by human greed and the unraveling of the spirit realm. In this new tale of religious horror, the land is on the brink of collapse.

The central mystery revolves around a strange occurrence known as The Great Silence. Individuals attuned to magic have noticed that the realm of spirits, demons, and angels—once separated by a thin veil—has gone eerily quiet. The once-thriving entities are now missing, and this silence is believed to signal the End of Days. From the moment this unsettling event is introduced, the mystery draws you in, leaving a sense of palpable dread.

The story unfolds through several gripping perspectives. First, there’s Peter, a young commander stationed on the fringes of the known world. He must battle enemy forces while uncovering the truth behind the grotesque creatures killing his soldiers and leaving only organs in their wake. Then there’s Renata, a scholar sent by the Empress on a perilous journey to the legendary mermen—creatures said to dwell at the heart of the world’s magic—to seek their aid in averting the looming disaster. Finally, von Oldenburg, with his sinister motivations, ventures into foreign lands to study a mysterious pox that turns its victims into mindless thralls.

Richard Swan masterfully combines vivid religious horror with excellent fantasy in this stellar story. It’s a captivating read that has left me haunted. Without a doubt, it will be one of my favorite reads of the year.

i found the idea generally very good but at points i was a bit confused by worldbuilding that wasn't actually given to us and found sometimes a little flat. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I greatly enjoyed Swan’s Empire of the Wolf trilogy and this book, first in his new Great Silence trilogy, takes us back to his world of the Sovan Empire two hundred years after the events in the previous trilogy. The world (and the underworld) are both experiencing some upheaval and we follow three character points of view that will help to determine what is happening.

Swan writes wonderful prose and sets up some fascinating and wonderful story lines involving a fantasy world where magic is used as a source for engineering and development but also for communing with the afterlife. The geo-political intrigue and the character interactions put the reader directly in the world he has built, allowing us to imagine the ongoing strifes and turmoils of the people and states of the world. He then brings to his stories horror elements that add significantly to the tale and offer a few ‘jump scares’ as surprises happen.

A wonderful read that I highly recommend! I enjoyed this ARC so much that I have already ordered a physical copy for myself and I cannot wait to continue this trilogy!

I adored the original trilogy and wasn't sure where it would go with such a big jump in time. Luckily it went big. The original started as such a small story and went big that it would be strange to start back with a small story. It does open with some small stories about small people but quickly escalates into an world saving quest. Lots of great lore and development on things only touched on in the first books as well as some really messed up shit as you would expect from Richard Swan. Very excited for the next book but do be aware it is very much book 1. Plenty happens but there is plenty more to come.