Grave Empire by Richard Swan

With Grave Empire Richard Swan returns to the fantasy world of his Empire of the Wolf series 200 years on to start a new series called The Great Silence. Setting the new book so far removed in time from the original series means that Grave Empire can easily be a jumping off point for readers unfamiliar with Swan’s world. For others, there are plenty of Easter eggs, references and developments to savour. Particularly as Swan has modernised his world to deliver a flintlock fantasy that draws much from the colonial 19th Century for inspiration.

Grave Empire centres its narrative around the Sovan Empire and the three main characters are Sovan, although how they connect only becomes clear very late in the piece. The first is Peter Kleist, a young man who has traded his military career to head to the farthest reaches of the Sovan Empire called in the prologue “The Fort at the End of the World”. Only there is plenty more of the weird world beyond that fort as Peter will discover. In the Sovan capital, Renata Rainier, ambassador to a mysterious undersea people (who she has never actually met in person), is pressed into service when two monks appear, warning of a global calamity approaching which they call the Great Silence. As the Sovan Empire has eschewed most magic, Renata is sent to determine whether the threat is real and if so how to combat it. And then there is Count Lamprecht von Oldenburg, a sociopathic Sovan noble who has the best idea of the existential threat but is determined to weaponise it for his own gain.

Being the first book in a trilogy, there is a lot of set up in Grave Empire. But building on the bones of the earlier trilogy, gives Swan a rich milieu to draw on. The world which these characters inhabit feels real, with defined cultures, religions and a long history. This more modern setting also allows Swan to explore a world driven by colonial ambition, prejudice and growing trade. But underneath it all is the magical world established in Empire of the Wolf – the alternative world of the Afterlife and the power that can be drawn from it.

By the end of Grave Empire, the threat has been identified, the pieces are in place and clearly things are on the cusp of becoming much, much worse. It is a fascinating set up for what is promising to be another great, action-packed modern fantasy series.

Grave Empire by Richard Swan

8

8.0/10