Summary
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.
Review
The Trials of Empire was unfortunately a rather disappointing end to a trilogy that I had very high hopes for after reading the first novel. I don’t consider this a bad book by any means, it was very well written and I think it delivered the story the author wanted to tell. But The Justice of Kings was one of my favorite books modern fantasy novels, and the sequels did not deliver in the same way for me.
I think the story was exceptionally well-written. Helena’s narration continued to drive the story at a good pace and her added commentary made the reading experience very compelling even when I was not particularly enjoying where the story was headed. I will talk about why I didn’t like the direction the book headed but I am not one to try to dictate what an author should have done with their story. Swan wanted to write this story and he should be able to do what he wants with it. And for those who liked the direction, I think this will be a very enjoyable book for you, with a few flaws. It is expertly crafted by an obviously intelligent and eloquent author.
On that note however, I think the structure of the first book played a large part in my love of it, and the plot continued to deteriorate for me as the series went on. I loved the small scope of The Justice of Kings, where Vonvalt could really flex his investigative skills and knowledge of the law. As our characters got more and more involved in the larger conflict and Vonvalt gained more and more power, the books became less and less compelling for me. Maybe this is on me, but the first book set a certain expectation for me of how the series would go. Vonvalt and team would take on small scale investigations crucial to saving the empire while learning more about the other worlds and Vonvalt’s strict adherence to the law would deteriorate as the circumstances became more dire. The increasing involvement of the team with the big stage felt like the author pulled an unintentional bait-and-switch on me, and I just couldn’t ever get back on the track the author was laying down with the rest of the series. Again, the author can do what he likes with his own books, but that doesn’t mean I have to go along for the ride and unfortunately I just never connected with the series again after the first novel.
It pains me to say but the eldritch horror aspects were also a huge let down for me in this book. They were some of my favorite moments in the first book and the absolute shining star of the second. The horror elements were creepy, unsettling, and the author’s ability to invoke a powerful sense of dread in me was second to none. The Tyranny of Faith even inspired me to seek out and play video games that would make me feel the same way because I wanted more of that. Unfortunately, the author commits what I would consider the cardinal sin of eldritch horror and spells out in detail the nature of the creatures and shows them to be actually evil and malevolent. I am a huge fan of extensive worldbuilding and hard magic systems, but eldritch horror might be the ONLY instance where I do not want the author to tell me everything there is to know. The entire draw of eldritch creatures is that they are unknowable, incomprehensible beings that don’t adhere to our standards of good and evil. And the author rips away all of that to expose them instead as your run-of-the-mill evil demons.
It crushed me so much when that happened, in no small part because I feel like it completely ruined any potential for rereading the series. Now that I know the nature of the “eldritch” beings, how will I feel that same sense of dread? I don’t think it’s possible. If the books had been structured how I mentioned previously, that might have saved them enough that I could still enjoy a reread even if I didn’t get that same sense of dread that I loved the first time around, but alas I think this series is destined to stay on my shelves indefinitely.
I will say the ending of the book was absolutely brilliant, I loved the court scene in particular. For the first time I was reminded of what had enamored me with The Justice of Kings. Unfortunately for me it was too little too late and couldn’t save me overall disappointment with one of my most anticipated books of the year. I will still recommend this series to people I know because I think it is exceptionally well written and has such a unique feeling to it. I think plenty of people will love the series and I look forward to reading whatever the author comes out with next.