My Five Word TL:DR Review: I Loved This So Much

I loved this book.  Richard Swan is quickly turning into a favourite author.  Grave Empire is perfection to read.  It’s not particularly a short story at around 530 pages but it doesn’t feel long.  There’s no excess here.  Literally, never a dull moment.  The world building is excellent, the world is truly satisfying.  There are three different POVs and they’re all good and can hold their own.  I don’t know what else I can say – read it.

So, what else wowed me about Grave Empire.

Firstly, the writing.  I love the way Swan writes.  It just works for me, I should think it would work for everyone to be perfectly honest.  He is eloquent.  I love reading his books and he manages to create such an atmosphere.  It goes from all manner of intrigue to actually quite terrifying, screams in the night, eyes that watch from the thick of the woods – it’s scary stuff (although I’m clearly a bit of a wuss).  I will mention that this is dark and doesn’t hold back the punches.  But, neither is it gratuitous.  This is a world at war (seemingly on all fronts).  An empire on the verge of collapse and so there is plenty of action.

The world building is phenomenal.  This is a fascinating, if scary, place.  The Sovan empire has outlawed the use of magic – but that’s not to say that magic isn’t practiced in secret.  Religion and politics all feed into the story and the characters we follow enable us to travel far and wide encountering the most wonderful aspects imaginable.  There are wolfmen, mermen – cat people.  It’s crazy, exciting and frightening.

The story is told from three povs and they’re all absolutely compelling.  We follow Renata who is an ambassador (or deputy?) to the Stygion Mermen.  This is a strange role – most Sovans don’t even believe in the existence of mermen and so Renata and her colleague have to put up with ridicule quite regularly.  At least until a couple of monks come to visit the Empire with news of a prophecy that foretells the end of the world as they know it and sparks a mission.  I loved Renata, she’s such a real character and has a great support network surrounding her.  This particular storyline is absolutely fascinating and the encounters with the mer folk were excellent.  I can’t get enough of this strange world.  Then we have Peter – I confess this is my favourite storyline (although it’s very close run thing to be honest).  Lt Peter has been posted to the end of the world (or so it seems).  Fort Ingomar.  This is a creepy place.  The soldiers can barely sleep at night for the strange and piercing screams that surround the fort.  People go out foraging and die in quite brutal ways.  Peter quite regularly writes correspondence to his father where we become familiar with his fears and doubts, he fears he’s made a terrible mistake and desperately wishes he could return home but the thought of the shame this would inflict on the family keeps him in place.  I was genuinely scared for Peter.  This aspect of the story definitely veers into horror and makes for compelling reading.  There is a third viewpoint which is also dark and gruesome. I don’t want to elaborate too much on this aspect but leave it for readers to discover for themselves.

I could write so much more.  The storyline is great, it feels like serious fantasy, there are questions and there are answers and the ending leaves us realising just how much more is yet to come.  I can’t wait for the second but I’m going to end this review here before I turn into a gushing maniac.  I cannot fault this book.  I loved it.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 5 of 5 glowing stars