Grave Empire
core novel 2025 Empire of the Wolf
Record
| First published | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.06 (3,644 ratings, collected 2026-10-25) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780356523866 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Blood once turned the wheels of empire; now it is money. Two hundred years after the events of the Empire of the Wolf trilogy, the Sovan Empire stands on the verge of an industrial revolution, where sorcery and arcane practices are outlawed, and where an ancient prophecy threatens the coming end of days. Renata Rainer is secretary to Sova's ambassador to the underwater Stygion empire, an unimportant bureaucrat to an unimportant nation, while the noble Von Oldenburg plays outside the laws of Sova to return magic to the empire and, finding signs of the Great Silence, sees an opportunity for victory and profit. With the road south beset by war and the Empire on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, terrifying beings return from the burned and hidden pages of history. The first book of The Great Silence, a dark flintlock fantasy of creeping dread.
Where it sits
- Universe: Empire of the Wolf
- Series: The Great Silence core; position 1 of 1 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Richard Swan
Notes
- ISBN recorded is the Orbit UK first edition (February 2025); the Orbit US trade paperback is 9780316577007.
- From the series record (The Great Silence): Richard Swan's flintlock dark-fantasy trilogy set two hundred years after Empire of the Wolf.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Internal chronology, within Empire of the Wolf: position 2 of 4: previous The Justice of Kings (2022) · next The Tyranny of Faith (2023)
Sources
- Wikipedia (Grave Empire)
- Publishers Weekly (review with edition details)
- Fantasy Hive (author interview)
- Orbit (publisher description and edition record, via Foyles)
- Orbit (publisher description, via Bookclubs)
- Grimdark Magazine (review)
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