The Justice of Kings
core novel 2022 Empire of the Wolf
Record
| First published | 2022 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.99 (17,732 ratings, collected 2026-08-29) |
| Page count | 496 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780316361385 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Justice of Kings, first in the Empire of the Wolf trilogy, is set in the Sovan Empire and follows Justice Sir Konrad Vonvalt and his scribe Helena Sedanka as they investigate claims of paganism and heresy in a small village, an inquiry that widens into the murder of a provincial aristocrat and a conspiracy reaching into the highest levels of Imperial society. Vonvalt, one of the empire's traveling Justices, wields near-absolute legal authority backed by both law and a limited form of magic, and Helena, his young apprentice, narrates the unfolding investigation from within his retinue. As their inquiry deepens, the pair find themselves drawn into political and religious currents that threaten to destabilize the empire's fragile order well beyond the original village they set out to examine.
Where it sits
- Universe: Empire of the Wolf
- Series: Empire of the Wolf core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Richard Swan
Notes
- From the series record (Empire of the Wolf): A completed trilogy following an Emperor's Justice -- a travelling magistrate-and-executioner of a sprawling, crumbling empire -- and his clerk, as imperial law collides with rebellion, religious zealotry, and the empire's own internal rot.
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.
- Publication order, within the series Empire of the Wolf: position 1 of 3: next The Tyranny of Faith (2023)
- Internal chronology, within Empire of the Wolf: position 1 of 4: next Grave Empire (2025)
Sources
← Empire of the Wolf dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.