Acquisition Announcement: GRAVE EMPIRE by Richard Swan

We’re thrilled to have acquired a new epic fantasy series from Sunday Times bestselling author Richard Swan! Grave Empire, the action-packed first novel in the Great Silence trilogy, will be published in February 2025.

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…

In the meantime, if you’ve not read Richard’s brilliant Empire of the Wolf trilogy, now is the perfect time to dive in.

Richard Swan was born in North Yorkshire and spent most of his early life on Royal Air Force bases. After studying law at the University of Manchester, Richard was Called to the Bar in 2011. When he is not working, Richard can be found in Sydney with his wonderful wife Sophie, where they attempt to raise, with mixed results, their two very loud sons.