Grave Empire cover art

Grave Empire

the Sunday Times bestelling epic fantasy of gunpowder, arcane powers and dark prophecy (Book One of The Great Silence)

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About this listen

 ***THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER***

'Dazzling and immersive epic fantasy' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'An absolute treat . . . crammed with imagination, horror, epic scale, and characters I simply could not put down' Grimdark Magazine

'A truly remarkable page-turning, flintlock fantasy horror' Fantasy Hive

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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 . . .

Grave Empire is the first novel in an unmissable new series from Sunday Times bestselling author Richard Swan - a dark flintlock fantasy filled with epic adventure, arcane powers and creeping dread

Praise for Richard Swan

'A stunning piece of modern fantasy writing' RJ Barker

'Utterly compelling, thoroughly engrossing and written with skilful assurance' Nicholas Eames

'Richard Swan's sophisticated take on the fantasy genre will leave readers hungry for more' Sebastien de Castell

'Great characters, compelling and wonderfully written. A brilliant debut and fantastic start to the series' James Islington

Books by Richard Swan

Empire of the Wolf
The Justice of Kings
The Tyranny of Faith
The Trials of Empire

The Great Silence
Grave Empire©2025 Richard Swan Epic Fantasy Royalty

Critic reviews

Dazzling and immersive epic fantasy
A truly remarkable page-turning, flintlock fantasy horror
All stars
Most relevant
I found the geography of this world a little difficult to understand: perhaps the physical book has a map included. There was also a handful of mispronounced words which always irks me: why doesn't the Amazon production team pick up on that and redo the sentence?

Two criticisms of a very well written book, full of well developed characters in an engaging tale.

A well thought out yarn

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Again, another cracker from the author, and another brilliant reading by the voice actors. can't wait to see where this series takes us.

Richard's on a roll

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A nice continuation in The Empire of the Wolf universe. I enjoyed discovering more of the fantastic races and I look forward to the next books in the series! I loved the references to Helena and Vonvalt too.

Story was good but the female narrator was irritating at times, making too many sudden stops and disrupting the flow of the story because of it. If it wasn't for the other narrator I might haven given up on the audiobook and read the physical book instead.

Good story, narration wasn't great at times

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Set in the same world as the Empire of the Wolf Trilogy but 200 years on the plot follows three protagonists all with different motives and stories. All three characters experience the threat from different perspectives but become more interconnected as the story progresses. The writing is excellent, gradually revealing the threat while keeping the listener guessing, all the time providing three separate plots that keep pace and interest. The narrators embody the characters and expertly manage a large variety of accents and emotions.

World ending horror/adventure

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Loved it I didn’t want it to finish. I can’t wait for book 2 😆

Just pick it up !!

Wow

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