Greetings, friends - much has been happening behind the scenes for GRAVE EMPIRE. We are still on for publication week commencing 3 February 2025. With the book hitting the shelves (hardback in the UK, straight to trade paperback in the USA) in a mere 3 months, it's time for an update.
Netgalley
The novel is currently live on both Netgalley UK and USA, so if you have an account and a book review platform, make sure you request a copy!
(Click the flag - or don't, I'm not the boss of you)
Goodreads
For readers based in the States, Orbit USA are running a Goodreads giveaway. There are 100 ebook copies up for grabs and the competition is open until 2 December.
(You can use this widget to add the book to your Goodreads account)
Reviews
Always the most nerve-shredding part of writing is waiting to see how the book will be received, so it's always a relief to get some early good press from trade reviewers. I'm thrilled to report that Grave Empire has received an early starred review in Publishers Weekly:
Swan launches the Great Silence trilogy, set 200 years after the Empire of the Wolf series, with this dazzling and immersive epic fantasy. After Peter Kleist’s father buys him a Sovan Army commission, the callow officer confronts more than he bargained for at the so-called “fort at the end of the world,” located near the Sovan Empire’s front with its enemies, Casimir and Sanque. In addition to those adversaries, the Sovans stationed there are at risk from some possibly supernatural creatures, responsible for the grisly massacre of several soldiers. As Kleist struggles to survive, Sovan diplomat Renata Rainer joins an expedition investigating an unsettling claim made by two monks from a sect that regularly converses with the dead. They claim that the spirits have gone quiet, which may herald the Great Silence, a prophesied apocalyptic event. The pages fly as Swan alternates between the two plotlines, building the stakes of each sky-high. The worldbuilding is lush, enhanced by Swan’s rich descriptive prose, and the characters are complex. Readers won’t need to be familiar with the earlier series to be drawn in—and this promising start will leave them eager for more. (Feb.)
As well as a glowing write up in Grimdark Magazine:
Absolutely crammed with imagination, horror, epic scale, and characters I simply could not put down. I’m calling it now: Grave Empire is going to be one of the best dark fantasies 2025 has to offer.
Advanced Reader Copies
As well as Netgalley there will be physical ARCs going out in the coming weeks to transatlantic reviewers, so keep an eye on your post boxes.
Special Edition(s)
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Bookplates
I am in the process of having new flintlock-era SOVA heraldic bookplates made for the GREAT SILENCE trilogy. In the meantime, check out the medieval-era bookplates I have for the Empire of the Wolf trilogy.
And finally...
Not a GRAVE EMPIRE update but rather a Sir Konrad Vonvalt update! For fans of the Empire of the Wolf series, some exciting news: I'm partnering with Grimdark Magazine to produce a Vonvalt / Bressinger (and some other familiar faces) novella, in all formats, set 15 years before the Justice of Kings. For the full announcement, click the pic below:
That's probably enough from me for now.
Cheers
Rich