Grave Empire
an explosive epic fantasy of gunpowder, arcane powers and dark prophecy (Book One of The Great Silence)
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4.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
***THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER***
'Dazzling and immersive epic fantasy' Publishers Weekly (starred review)
'An absolute treat . . . crammed with imagination, horror, epic scale, and characters I simply could not put down' Grimdark Magazine
'A truly remarkable page-turning, flintlock fantasy horror' Fantasy Hive
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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 may not be a world left to save . . .
Grave Empire is the first novel in an unmissable new series from Sunday Times bestselling author Richard Swan - a dark flintlock fantasy filled with epic adventure, arcane powers and creeping dread
Praise for Richard Swan
'A stunning piece of modern fantasy writing' RJ Barker
'Utterly compelling, thoroughly engrossing and written with skilful assurance' Nicholas Eames
'Richard Swan's sophisticated take on the fantasy genre will leave readers hungry for more' Sebastien de Castell
'Great characters, compelling and wonderfully written. A brilliant debut and fantastic start to the series' James Islington
Books by Richard Swan
Empire of the Wolf
The Justice of Kings
The Tyranny of Faith
The Trials of Empire
The Great Silence
Grave Empire
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Swan launches the Great Silence trilogy, set 200 years after the Empire of the Wolf series, with this dazzling and immersive epic fantasy. After Peter Kleist's father buys him a Sovan Army commission, the callow officer confronts more than he bargained for at the so-called "fort at the end of the world," located near the Sovan Empire's front with its enemies, Casimir and Sanque. In addition to those adversaries, the Sovans stationed there are at risk from some possibly supernatural creatures, responsible for the grisly massacre of several soldiers. As Kleist struggles to survive, Sovan diplomat Renata Rainer joins an expedition investigating an unsettling claim made by two monks from a sect that regularly converses with the dead. They claim that the spirits have gone quiet, which may herald the Great Silence, a prophesied apocalyptic event. The pages fly as Swan alternates between the two plotlines, building the stakes of each sky-high. The worldbuilding is lush, enhanced by Swan's rich descriptive prose, and the characters are complex. Readers won't need to be familiar with the earlier series to be drawn in—and this promising start will leave them eager for more.
