Empires of Dust
#8133.57 adjusted 3.64 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2017–2019 Reading commitment Medium Anna Smith Spark Last reviewed 2026-08-11
Overview
Empires of Dust is a grimdark secondary-world epic fantasy trilogy by Anna Smith Spark, comprising The Court of Broken Knives (2017), The Tower of Living and Dying (2018), and The House of Sacrifice (2019). It follows the collapse of the ancient city-empire of Sorlost and the rise of Marith Ansikanderakesee, an exiled prince and mercenary swordsman whose bloodline carries a divine madness that both empowers and destroys him. Told in dense, lyrical prose that lingers on violence and grief rather than heroism, the trilogy follows Marith's path from hired killer to conqueror alongside the mercenary captain Tobias and the ambitious priestess Thalia, tracing how war, magic, and inherited trauma corrode everyone drawn into his orbit. The series belongs to a wave of grimdark fantasy that pushed back against the genre's more redemptive traditions, emphasizing moral ruin over moral triumph. Smith Spark's debut volume established Sorlost's decayed splendor as the trilogy's central image of a world eating itself.
Grimdark · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Empires of Dust Anna Smith Spark
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Court of Broken Knives | 2017 | 1 | core | 3.45 (3,442 ratings) |
 | The Tower of Living and Dying | 2018 | 2 | core | 3.87 (967 ratings) |
 | The House of Sacrifice | 2019 | 3 | core | 3.79 (610 ratings) |
Completed trilogy; all 3 published by HarperVoyager (UK).
Quick answers
- How many books are in Empires of Dust? Empires of Dust's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Empires of Dust? Publication order, starting with The Court of Broken Knives. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Empires of Dust finished? Complete (2017–2019).
- How much reading does Empires of Dust take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~1,464 pages).
- How is Empires of Dust ranked? #813 in this site's official ranking, based on 5,019 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #813?
Ranked #813 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.57 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (5,019 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.45 to 3.87.
- Less than 0.01 behind #812, The Night Land (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 3 books · Complete · 5k ratings · Ranks #813 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length grimdark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Court of Broken Knives (2017)
- The Tower of Living and Dying (2018)
- The House of Sacrifice (2019)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- David Gemmell Morningstar Award (Best Fantasy Newcomer), 2018: finalist: The Court of Broken Knives; Finalist; the award was won by Kings of the Wyld (Nicholas Eames).
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Suggestions computed from what Empires of Dust and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Worldbreaker Saga Grimdark / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.63
- Farlander (Heart of the World) Grimdark / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.50
- Empire of the Vampire Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.42
- Ash and Sand Grimdark / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.30
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.57 across 5,019 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Empires of Dust (Anna Smith Spark) admitted accepted 2026-08-11
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Anna Smith Spark - Wikipedia Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-08-11
Rule: Core = all 3 published novels (2017-2019). Completed.