Grave Empire

By Richard Swan

From critically acclaimed author Richard Swan, Grave Empire begins the epic tale of an empire on the verge of industrial revolution, where sorcery and arcane practices are outlawed - and where an ancient prophecy threatens the coming end of days.

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316577006
• ISBN13: 9780316577007
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Empire verusus Great Silence!

Awesome book! Very dark but very well written. Sometimes so well written that I had to put the book down for a minute because I could see the horror so vividly and it scared me, especially as I learned more and more about the "Great Silence" that was coming to pass and affecting the great Sovan Empire! Told from three viewpoints, that of Peter, Renata, and Von Oldenburg, you get three different types of people struggling to survive the chaos and horror being unleashed, some wanting to find the solution to this mess, and some looking for a way to profit off it, not really caring if it will make everything so much worse! Be warned, there is much blood and gore, extreme dark magicks, mind rot zombies, and death galore, both on the mortal plane and the afterlife! Lots of political intrigue and really cool cultures, like the Stygions and the wolfmen, as well the the might of the Sovan Empire though sadly it has fallen into the rut of keeping to on set of thinking, to the exclusion of all else, even if it might spell their doom unless they can open back up to magick and all that it can do. I really hope they can do so before it is too late! This book really sets up the world and story with a bang and while, yes, it is very dark, it still leaves a chance for hope at the end and I can't wait to see if the world and other planes can be saved from the Great Silence!