Empire of Sand
core novel 2018 Empire of Sand / Realm of Ash
Record
| First published | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.82 (14,179 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 496 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780316449717 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Empire of Sand, a Mughal-India-inspired debut fantasy, follows Mehr, the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother whose face and magic she has visibly inherited, a heritage that marks her as an object of both fascination and danger within her father's household. Raised in relative comfort but always aware of how precarious her position is, Mehr is largely unaware of the true extent of her own inherited power, a rare and coveted gift that lets her manipulate the dreams of the sleeping gods whose will shapes the empire's fate. When that gift draws the dangerous attention of the empire's ruling religious order, the Maha, Mehr is forced into a binding rite that endangers everything she has ever known, setting her on a path that will test both her Amrithi heritage and her own hard-won sense of self.
Where it sits
- Universe: Empire of Sand / Realm of Ash
- Series: The Books of Ambha core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Tasha Suri
Awards (verified)
- British Fantasy Award (Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer), 2019: won
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2019: finalist; 7th place, no-cutoff convention.
- British Fantasy Award (Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock)), 2019: nominated
Notes
- From the series record (The Books of Ambha): Core Canon = both novels of the completed duology (Orbit, 2018-2019). Confirmed a separate, unrelated universe from Suri's The Jasmine Throne / Burning Kingdoms, already in this canon -- different world and characters, confirmed at that admission; both records are cross-referenced as being by the same author.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Books of Ambha: position 1 of 2: next Realm of Ash (2019)
Sources
← Empire of Sand / Realm of Ash dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.