Series: The Great Silence #1
Release date: February 4th 2025
Publisher: Orbit Books
Pages: 529
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: I received an E-ARC via Netgalley
Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis

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…

Review

The first in a new series set 200 years after the events of The Empire of the Wolf trilogy, the story follows ambassador Renata Renier as she embarks on a diplomatic mission to a mysterious race of mermen, desperate to find out about an event known as ‘the great silence.’ What Renata uncovers is an arcane horror that could destroy everything she holds dear, but with the Empire on the verge of war, will there be anybody left to save?

Richard Swan’s Empire of the Wolf trilogy is one of my favourite series of all time so Grave Empire was one of my two most anticipated releases for 2025. I was excited to see where Swan would take this story with it being set so much later than the events in The Justice of Kings. I ended up absolutely devouring this dark and gripping tale and while it was my first read of 2025, it will without a doubt be one of my top reads for the year. Swan has created a fascinating world and I loved seeing how things had changed 200 years later. The story was well paced and I definitely found myself thinking about this book when I wasn’t reading it. This is a completely new story so you can read it without reading the first series, but there are lots of little references towards the Empire of the Wolf. The story kept me guessing, there were plenty of twists and turns and lots of fast paced action scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Swan does an incredible job creating these fascinating characters and each POV had such a strong voice. I thought Renata was a fantastic protagonist but I similarly also really liked Peter. There are some incredibly dark and creepy moments in this story that are guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine. I loved that the characters were complex, often working to their own agendas and made mistakes. They felt so real I cannot wait to see where Swan takes them in book two.

If you’re looking for a unique and engaging fantasy story full of action, adventure, magic and some mermen with armoured sharks, this is absolutely a must read. I highly recommend this enthralling tale and I am counting down the days until the next installment.