The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan – Review

Published: February 6, 2024

Publisher: Orbit Books

Series: Empire of the Wolf #3

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 541 (Kindle)

My Rating: 5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
The third novel in an epic fantasy trilogy, which follows the tale of Sir Konrad Vonvalt, an Emperor’s Justice – a detective, judge and executioner all in one.

THE TIME OF JUDGEMENT IS AT HAND

The Empire of the Wolf is on its knees, but there’s life in the great beast yet.

To save it, Sir Konrad Vonvalt and Helena must look beyond its borders for allies – to the wolfmen of the southern plains, and the pagan clans in the north. But old grievances run deep, and both factions would benefit from the fall of Sova.

Even these allies might not be enough. Their enemy, the zealot Bartholomew Claver, wields infernal powers bestowed on him by a mysterious demonic patron. If Vonvalt and Helena are to stand against him, they will need friends on both sides of the mortal plane—but such allegiances carry a heavy price.

As the battlelines are drawn in both Sova and the afterlife, the final reckoning draws close. Here, at the beating heart of the Empire, the two-headed wolf will be reborn in a blaze of justice . . . or crushed beneath the shadow of tyranny.

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“The time for high-minded ideals is gone. We have dark deeds ahead of us. If you have not the stomach for it, leave now.”

I am simply put, flabbergasted by how perfectly Richard Swan executed The Trials of Empire. I don’t know that I’ve ever wholeheartedly given a 5 star rating to every installment in a series as I’ve done with the Empire of the Wolf trilogy. It’s fucking brilliant and I can’t believe it’s not getting more love from the wider reading community. Well, actually with the burgeoning popularity of cozy or romantic fantasy I can, but still! This series is perfection!

The beginning of The Trials of Empire sees Konrad Vonvalt, Helena, and Sir Radomir back in the North, where things first began in The Justice of Kings. The Emperor’s son is dead and his legion destroyed but in the pagan north they find a surprising alliance with the Draedists. Desperate times mean desperate measures. Their journey then takes them south, amongst the Kyarai and then finally to Sova, where they begin preparations to stage a final defense against Claver and his dark forces. This overview paints the plot with the broadest of brushstrokes because to get into the meat of this story would both be spoilery and take a significant amount of time. You may as well just read the book because it’s going to be better written than this review. 

The second book, The Tyranny of Faith began to delve deeper into the arcana practiced by both the Justices of the Magisterium, the Draedists, and Bartholomew Claver. We saw everything from demons entering the mortal plane to Helena’s terrifying dives into the various levels of the otherworld and let me tell you, I never knew I needed such an eldritch horror aspect in my fantasy novels. But you know what? It was utterly gripping and added such dark appeal that I couldn’t stop reading. If you loved that aspect in the second book, rest assured, The Trials of Empire takes it to another level. Or should I say, plane? This is like nothing I’ve encountered before and I relished every page, despite how horrible the events and how terrified Helena was of each encounter. I could take some comfort in knowing she obviously survived, because she was the one narrating the tale from the comfort of her old age. 

Speaking of Helena… She, Konrad, Radomir, and the various other characters who get a decent amount of page time really make this story so spectacular. Helena’s narrative voice and the epistolary style give a certain uniqueness to the tale overall, but I have to say, I really like the moments where she’s like “oh, and by the way, things only get worse from this point”. I got a very macabre amusement from those. Sir Radomir is a constant, sensible presence and he saves Helena on multiple occasions and steadies her on many more. I feel like he’s not a particularly deep character, but he’s a simple man with a practical worldview and that alone provides a nice foil to Helena and Vonvalt. Konrad Vonvalt is a complicated man and we’ve seen him go from a staunch arbiter of justice in The Justice of Kings to a man who would do anything, including balling up his morals and tossing them away entirely, to defeat Bartholomew Claver. There are numerous conversations between him and Helena where she points out he’s no longer the man who first saved her in Muldau. She’s probably the only one who can call Vonvalt out whose opinion matters to him. 

The Trials of Empire is an incredible conclusion to what is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliantly executed fantasy series in the last decade. I do not bestow this proclamation lightly but it is deserving of the praise – each installment has well and truly earned its 5 star rating. This is a delicious blend of mystery, medieval fantasy, and magical horror. The action scenes were visceral and made my heart race with dread for the characters, and the scenes where Helena plunges into the otherworld were thoroughly ghastly and mind bending. I simply cannot recommend this series enough.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So, as with the books that really blow me away, I like to do a little blurb at the end where I talk about all the stuff that really made this awesome. it’s spoilery, so proceed at your own risk.

First of all, Heinrich the war shepherd makes his way back to Helena like one of those cheesy 90s Homeward Bound movies. I mean, we don’t get his doggy POV chapters, but I would’ve read them. And I can say with much delight he lives through the book!  Every time he appeared I had an “awwww HEINRICH” moment, even if he was ripping out throats. What a good boy.

I loved all the time Helena spent in the otherworld, especially the descriptions of all the horrific stuff. Like, the City of Sleep had no right to be so creepy because it’s just the dreamworld, but it has towers with giant eyeballs that roll around in the socket and watch you. And Ghessis, a pasty giant with an iron face mask, always chasing interlopers is just so cool. He always comes storming in at the most inopportune moments. Ramayah, Oleni’s guardians, a tree full of corpses… I mean, it’s just so cool. 

I’d also like to seriously just give a shout out to Richard Swan for his awesome character and place names. They just fit and feel so real without feeling like they came out of a fantasy name generator. Love it.

Lastly, the final chapters, where they capture Claver were incredible. Helena insists that he be indicted because “killing him here, away from the eyes of the commonfolk, will not cut out the rot. You will simply martyr him”. Konrad’s indictment of him was such a memorable scene and it takes one of the best villains I’ve read in a while and just shreds him with his deeds.