Following events in The Tyranny of Faith, Konrad Vonvalt is now a disgraced and powerless ex-Justice. With the Imperialist Magistratum disbanded, and by the order of the Emperor, Vonvalt and his band – Helena Sedanka, Vonvalt’s protegee and the narrator of our tale, female knight von Osterlen, and Sir Radomir, the former Sheriff of Galen’s Vale in The Justice of Kings – are still determined to make the Emperor see the impact radical Bartholomew Claver could have upon the Sovan Empire. Despite being under threat of death, they secretly travel north to Seaguard to hopefully find the Emperor’s missing son, Prince Gordan Ksosic, and the 16th Legion. Rumours of their total destruction were given in the last book.
At Seaguard, Vonvalt finds nothing but an eerily empty city, as a result of Claver’s use of the Draedist arcana. Vonvalt realises that the Empire needs more allies, and so travels south, to the Southern Plains beyond the Empire, where he meets the Kasar – basically a race of wolf-like humans – to persuade them to help Vonvalt against the global threat that Batholomew Claver has become. Further aid is sought from other places, previously enemies to the Sovan Empire, such as the Kova Confederation to the east. This is not easy, as the Empire, the Confederation and the Kasari have been at loggerheads with the Sovans for years, but Claver’s determination to usurp the Emperor and destroy the Empire means that he is a threat not just to the Empire, but to the other states and even other worlds as well.
Although much of this otherworldly element, and in particular Helena’s connection to it, has been visited before in The Tyranny of Faith, in Trials of Empire, its importance here is ramped up. The group find themselves not only embroiled with Claver on the mortal plane but fighting him and his demon overlord in the afterlife, from where horrific creatures wish to escape and subjugate the world of the living. At times, the opposing numbers seem unstoppable, and major mistakes are made by all along the way, which makes the outcome uncertain.
Helena is in particular affected by such things. As a young woman in her twenties, experiencing the horror of battle would be bad enough, but she also has to deal with the graphic nightmares sent to her by demons from the Other Realm. It nearly breaks her, and part of the novel that most convinces is the physical and emotional toll things have upon Helena as she recounts the story.
To complicate things further, Helena’s emotional relationship between her and Vonvalt is still unresolved and unclear. Both have feelings for each other as shown in the last book, but are wary of taking it further. As dream-like journeys in the afterlife become more and more frequent, both Helena and Vonvalt are affected.
In the mortal realm Vonvalt returns to Sova in secret to find the emperor besieged. With Claver’s army due imminently, Vonvalt has to take control of the city, using soldiers once seen as his enemies before facing the approaching Claver and his zombie army powered by the secret magic of the Draedist arcana. The city becomes the mortal world’s setting for a final battle between Claver and Vonvalt’s smaller army, with further challenges in the spirit world of the afterlife.
“The world is changing. The Magistratum is disbanded. Even if we are successful in our mission, I do not think it will be reincorporated. I do not think there is a place for Justices any more. People do not trust us. The power we wield. It is too much for one person.”
With such a title as The Trials of Empire and foreshadowing throughout the books so far, clearly this is a time of challenge in the Empire. Vonvalt is an advocate of the principles of the Empire, even if he doesn’t always agree with its methods. The idea that the Empire might fall is not new – the fall of the Empire was foreshadowed at the beginning of The Justice of Kings. But it is alarming to see how such small events can lead to such catastrophic global changes.
Such events are not entirely achieved through political diplomacy. Along the way desperate methods are used to get information – people are set alight, given as sacrifices, eviscerated, tortured and skinned alive in order to get what each side needs. When the opposing armies meet in Sova, Swan does not spare us the gruesome details of battle. There’s limbs hacked, throats torn out, eyeball squishing and bodies crunched upon as they are stepped on. Such violence may seem gruesome and extreme, but it has a point, to show us the desperation on both sides and the extreme measures each are willing to take in order to win. But it must be said – this is not a book for those faint of heart – it is one of the most grimmest Grimdark books I’ve read in recent years.
Some may find the beginning of the book slower than expected, and even occasionally nothing more than irrelevant detail. I must say that the beginning was a little slower than expected, but it does in the end serve a purpose. I’m pleased how it is all been thought out from the beginning. Although the end is expected and known, it is how we get there that is the fascination. There is resolution after enormous discord and after facing near-impossible challenges, without resorting to creating a convenient ending seemingly out of nothing makes the conclusion a strength.
The journey that the characters make in these books is both effective and life-changing, and as readers we accept the changes. The books throughout have shown a broadening of scale, with each novel building in detail and complexity on the earlier books. The Justice of Kings was relatively local in Galen’s Vale, The Tyranny of Faith showed life in the city of Sova and introduced us to the complex politics of the Sovan Empire, this third novel shows us global impacts. Unlike The Tyranny of Faith, this one works best if you have read what has gone before.
The sign of a good series for me is that you want to go and read it again, to pick up the clues that have been carefully laid out throughout the series. This is how I felt about this trilogy. Although it is perhaps too intense a read to do so straight away, I suspect it is a series that will repay a rereading.
As Epic Fantasy goes, The Trials of Empire and indeed The Empire of the Wolf series, ticks all of the things I would hope for in an Epic Fantasy. Although you may think you know where The Trials of Empire is going, it keeps you guessing to the end. It manages to combine deep philosophical and moral questions with multi-faceted characters that evolve over the length of the series, and it is not afraid to show us, through Helena, the potential horrors that could happen in such a world to such characters. In short, The Trials of Empire is the effective culmination of one of the best Fantasy series I’ve read in recent years.
Recommended.
THE TRIALS OF EMPIRE by Richard Swan
Empire of the Wolf Book 3
Published by Orbit, February 2024
ISBN: 978 031 636 1989
544 pages
Review by Mark Yon
