Richard Swan's Blog, page 3

Another beautiful piece from the talented Hannah Elizabeth. You can find here on Twitter and Instagram.

Hullo all

This week the Tyranny of Faith was released in paperback (Tuesday in the USA, Thursday in the UK). Here's a roundup of all the excitement - interviews, art, music - as well as a few things to look out for in the coming days and weeks. Are you ready to return to the Empire of the Wolf?

Purchase links

First things first, here's where you can actually buy the damn thing (as usual, support your local indie bookshops!):

USA:

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/richard-swan/the-tyranny-of-faith/9780316361781/

UK:

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/richard-swan/the-tyranny-of-faith/9780356516431/

Interviews

Two Lit Chicks

I had the great pleasure of talking with Ed and Julia about a huge range of things on the Two Lit Chicks podcast in June. Not one, not two, but three bites of the cherry:

FanFiAddict Interview

I also had the great pleasure of catching up with Ed AGAIN on Wednesday; a much more focused written interview about the Tyranny of Faith and upcoming projects. Catch it here:

https://fanfiaddict.com/author-chat-richard-swan-empire-of-the-wolf/

Justice of Kings Plot Summary

For those of you with short memories, here is a detailed summary of the plot of the Justice of Kings ahead of your read of the Tyranny of Faith:

https://www.stonetemplelibrary.com/post/the-justice-of-kings-plot-summary

Justice of Kings Music

For those of you who like a slice of epic music with your reading experience, check out Will Musser's exquisitely cool compositions here:

https://www.stonetemplelibrary.com/empire-of-the-wolf

Tyranny of Faith Artworks

About to dive headfirst into Sova, and the Frontier beyond? Terrible at visualising characters? Hannah Elizabeth has you covered:

Severina von Osterlen, Margrave of Sudenburg

Sir Gerold Bertillo, Sheriff of Sova

Heinrich, one of the Emperor's Sovan War Shepherds (and very good boy)

And let's not forget this eldritch horror. No spoilers, read the book and find out:

Signed copies

I will be adding the option to buy signed copies of the Tyranny of Faith paperback to the shop on my website shortly. There are also limited numbers of hardbacks (extremely limited in the case of the Justice of Kings) available so get them before they're gone.

Shop:

https://www.stonetemplelibrary.com/shop

News

I hope to be able to discuss exciting news about plans following the Empire of the Wolf trilogy in the coming weeks!

That's all for now.

Best

Rich

I am thrilled (THRILLED) to share that Will Musser (http://www.willmusser.com/), an actual composer and fan of the Empire of the Wolf series, has put together 2 tracks for the Justice of Kings. The first of these is an absolutely kickass opening title sequence which is 100% guaranteed to get your blood pumping; the second is a (frankly terrifying) piece from that necromancy scene in book one, which is 100% guaranteed to have you changing your trousers.

You can listen to these tracks on infinite repeat on the Empire of the Wolf homepage. I recommend a thunderous horse ride through the cold, rainy countryside afterwards.

Hi folks. A few bits and pieces to share with you on this extremely rainy April afternoon:

Empire of the Wolf 3 – Progress Update

I received my edit letter back on this a few weeks ago. Orbit are happy with the draft and their comments are relatively scant. I’m about halfway through now, and expect to complete the editorial process in the next 2 to 3 weeks. After that the book will be sent off for copy edits, so we really are on the very final stretch of the process.

Martina is confirmed for the cover art of book 3. We batted a few ideas around for which character should appear on it; we briefly considered having Vonvalt and Helena together, but Martina did a brief compositional sketch for this for book 2 and we all agreed it looked a bit weird. So instead it will be a solitary figure, standing in front of a spooky statue in keeping with the first two. As for the actual figure and statue, it will not be who you expect (it isn't Bressinger or Sir Radomir), but it’s going to be excellent. I’m expecting the first visuals on that next month.

What comes next? Hopefully a stand-alone flintlock fantasy trilogy set two hundred years after the events of the Empire of the Wolf Trilogy. That's a conversation to be had with Orbit in the coming weeks and months. I also have two other non-fantasy projects which I’m hoping to sell this year: a post-apocalyptic novel set in London (‘HE HAS LEFT US’), and a contemporary crime novel set in Sydney (‘UNTITLED SHARK ATTACK BOOK’). More news when I have news.

Interview in Grimdark Magazine

I spoke with Adrian, editor-in-chief of GDM, last week. He recently read, loved and reviewed my old indie military space opera trilogy, and I had the great pleasure of chatting to him about it. This interview will appear in the next issue of GDM; for now, the links to the reviews are here:

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-reclamation-by-richard-swan/

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-ascendancy-war-by-richard-swan/

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-empire-of-the-fallen-by-richard-swan/

Reclamation on Sale

It’s wonderful to see these novels having their moment. I first published them in 2015, and although they were moderately successful for several years, they sold almost nothing between 2018 and 2021. With the publication of The Justice of Kings and The Tyranny of Faith, people have been going through my back catalogue and seeking out these old space operas, and now I am shifting a few hundred a month, which is just fantastic.

To celebrate, Reclamation is on sale this week on Amazon UK and Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00UEKMX06

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UEKMX06

For Sale

I am in the process of having a new bookplate designed which will shortly be ready for sale. Please note this is not the final version, but it is close to the final version:

This is being designed by Hannah Elizabeth, and you can find her on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/HannalahB. These will be available as signed stickers, and will go for AUD 10 + shipping (worldwide. Experience tells me this is surprisingly cheap at around 4 bucks).

As well as and signed, stamped and personalised hardbacks of The Justice of Kings and The Tyranny of Faith hardbacks, I also have hardbacks of the Spanish version available for personalisation and sale (for more information navigate to the shop tab above). So for any Spanish speakers looking for a signed copy, get in touch!

That's all from me for now.

Best

Rich

Final piece in the "minor characters of the Tyranny of Faith" series; and what series would be complete without a fine portrait of the novel's resident Very Good Boy, Heinrich:

Tyranny of Faith is nearly upon us - a week to go!

Pre-order UK: https://fal.cn/3vjx1

Pre-order US: https://fal.cn/3vjx2

Best

Rich

Here's the second (of three) pieces of art I've commissioned for minor characters from The Tyranny of Faith. This is Sir Gerold Bertilo, the Sheriff of Sova:

Beyond the threshold was Sir Gerold, the Sheriff of Sova, as well as a handful of men and women. Each was armed with short swords and clad in plain, dark clothing, and wore shirts of mail. They did not wear the livery of the city watch, though there were clearly a part of it.

“Sir Gerold,” Vonvalt said quietly.

“Sir Konrad,” the sheriff replied. He did not look happy. “I am here, as you asked, though I need not tell you that —”

“You are not pleased to be,” Vonvalt interrupted. “I know.”

Sir Gerold sighed. He held out a hand and one of his men placed a ledger in it. He subsequently passed it to Vonvalt. “There. It is marked on the page.”

Vonvalt moved past the sheriff to where a candle guttered on a table nearby. He opened the ledger to where the tassel had been placed, and ran a finger down the page.

“A barge, down the Kova,” he said. He looked up at the sheriff. “Docked a week ago.”

Sir Gerold nodded. “In light of your instructions, I believe that to be the vessel you are looking for.”

There was a pause, broken by Sir Radomir. “Is anybody here going to tell me what the fuck is going on?” he asked.

Vonvalt wrinkled his nose, his earlier censure of his taskmen forgotten. “As you know, the Emperor has all but forbidden me from spending city resources on the Claver matter. However, if the Claver matter is indeed linked to the abduction of Prince Kamil, then the investigations are one and the same.” No one looked particularly impressed by this contrivance. It was one thing for Vonvalt to flout the orders of the Emperor; it was entirely another for us to do so. Even the fact that we had been directed to do so by Vonvalt would not be a defence. “The man that we chased from the séance, the one who had the look of a Kòvoskan about him; I charged Sir Gerold with reviewing the docking ledgers for ships travelling from the east, flagged to any one of the nations forming the Kova Confederation.”

“And you have found one?” Sir Radomir said.

“Sir Gerold has found one,” Vonvalt said. “And now we are going to have a look on board.”

“If the ship is from the Confederation, how is it allowed to dock at all?” I asked.

“Nothing stops money-making, Miss, not even warfare,” said Sir Gerold wearily.

That's all for now - one more piece to come!

Best

Rich

For those of you who have not seen, I've been busy commissioning a few pieces of character art for some of the more notable minor characters in The Tyranny of Faith. First up, Severina von Osterlen, the Margrave of Sudenburg and the commander of the Templar Order of Saxan Knights:

Severina is first introduced in chapter 19. Here's a little snippet!

“Helena, your dog is eating a hand,” Sir Radomir said.

I whirled around in horror, to see Heinrich chewing on a severed human hand, toying with it as though it were a dried pig’s ear.

“Heinrich!” I shouted, appalled, whilst behind me Bressinger and Sir Radomir laughed.

“’Tis in its nature,” a voice called out from the crater. I turned back, watching as one of the knights, who had spent a great deal of time examining the damage to the foundations of the wall, now climbed out and approached us. Her surcoat was filthy from the freshly-turned red soil, and her face was sooty and blood flecked. She accepted her sword back from another Templar standing at the side of the crater, and buckled it about her waist. “From the Hall of Solitude to Südenburg. Your hound has come a long way.” She nodded to Vonvalt. “Justice.”

She had the look of a Saeka about her, as many Estrans did, and but for an invisible border dividing the southern Empire from the Frontier, she could have been a native herself. It was all the more bizarre that her lordly title, ‘Severina of Osterlen’, marked her out as being a noble of the Hauner city of Osterlen—though as I would discover later, it was ceremonial.

“Margrave,” Vonvalt said. “Have you been forewarned of my arrival?”

She nodded once. “I received a note from a mutual friend. I can spare you some time now, more this evening —”

And then she stopped abruptly as Vonvalt collapsed to the floor.

This piece was done by Hanna Elizabeth and you can find her Twitter profile here: @HannalahB

More to come!

Best

Rich

Hi folks!

2022 will always be a special year for me. I remember writing sci fi novels as a young teen and being desperate to be published. I wanted it so badly it was like this constant urgency within me. Time has gone on and the intensity of those feelings has faded, but being published has still been my life's ambition. In February 2022 that finally happened with The Justice of Kings--and on the Sunday Times bestseller list no less. Not only that, but I got to geek out over the fact that it was Fonda Lee's favourite book of 2022 as well! Fonda is a writer I hugely respect and admire and so that was a wonderful moment.

Anyway. Enough fan.. girling? Boying? Fan-manning? Here's hoping this is all the very beginning of a long and prosperous writing career.

Justice of Kings

JOK continues to be available in all markets and in all formats. As well as Spanish, Polish, Czech, Russian and German, I'm pleased to say there will also be a Turkish edition as well. A nice way to round the year out.

Speaking of foreign language editions, for those of you of the Teutonic persuasion, JoK is getting a BEAUTIFUL crate edition from Chest of Fandoms (the picture is a link):

So be sure to check that out and mash that order button (if you speak German).

Whilst I'm on the subject of special editions, if you missed out on the Goldsboro GSFF edition of JoK, they have some copies going spare here ahead of the release of Tyranny of Faith:

https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/the-justice-of-kings-february-2022-gsff

JoK has also been hitting some end of year favourites lists which is lovely, including

https://outofthisworldrev.blogspot.com/2022/12/my-top-10-reads-of-2022.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BZMphISmls

As well as a bunch of others.

I've done a ton of interviews this year but my most recent was with the lovely guys at Page One podcast. It's a 90 minute deep-cut in which I discuss all manner of things, including my self pubbed "career" before JoK. Check it out here:

https://www.writegear.co.uk/podcast/e141-richard-swan

Pre-Empire of the Wolf Vonvalt / Bressinger Short: "A Reputation for Prudence"

Reminder that I have a short story in issue 31 of Grimdark Magazine which follows a younger Vonvalt and Bressinger as they tackle a gristly case in the small Denner town of Baniskhaven. This short has some ties and easter eggs to book 2 and 3 so the Vonvalt completionists will not want to miss it!

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/grimdark-magazine-issue-31-is-here/

Also the short story was featured on the cover(!):

The Tyranny of Faith

Pre-order it! DO IT.

It's coming Feb 2023 but it is currently available on NetGalley for at least the USA (not sure what's going on in other jurisdictions but one presumes it'll be available there too).

Tyranny of Faith will be getting a sexy Goldsboro exclusive edition which you can pre-order here:

https://www.goldsborobooks.com/product/tyranny-of-faith-limited-edition

The Broken Binding will also be doing signed hardbacks which you can pre-order here:

Not much in the way of early reviews yet except for this belter of a starred review from Kirkus:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/richard-swan/tyranny-faith/

Also cropping up on a lot of Most Anticipated lists which is always lovely to see:

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/the-sff-books-we-cant-wait-to-read-in-2023/ https://fanfiaddict.com/ffas-most-anticipated-titles-of-2023/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5JWDINekVY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1gHosCCroo

Remember that I did a plot summary of the Justice of Kings for those delving back into the Empire of the Wolf, and that can be found here.

Book 3 news

Book 3 is finished in first draft form and I am waiting on my editor to come back to me. This won't happen until February so I'm working on a few other things at the moment, including a short story for Black Library, a short post-apocalyptic novel and a contemporary crime novel set in Sydney. Watch this space for more news!

Justice of Kings TV & Film option

This is still slowly plodding ahead. The latest news was that 2 writers were attached to the project and hopefully we will start to see some treatments / art / pitches coming in the first quarter of 2023. Whatever ultimately happens with the project I think this stuff will be really cool to see!

Art

I recently had a piece of art commissioned for the Tyranny of Faith - just for fun, because I like to put my money into the pockets of real life human artists. Those of you reading advance copies of TTOF will know what this eldritch horror is; for everyone else, that delight awaits in February:

The artist's Twitter account is here: https://twitter.com/moarf13

Richard Swan's Book of the Year Award 2023

I read a lot (well, not a lot, not these days) of books this year and I enjoyed almost all them. But there were two absolute head-and-shoulders-above-the-rest standouts for me and I cannot differentiate between the two by preference. The first is between two fires by Christopher Buehlman, and the second is 36 Streets by TR Napper. Both exquisitely good reads, both exam pass of their respective genres. I urge you to pick up a copy of each. You can see my good read reviews for them here and here.

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Upcoming appearances

I will be attending TBR Con as a panellist on 25 Jan 2023 I am hoping to attend a convention in the USA next year pending on guest status (watch this space) I will be attending WorldCon Glasgow in distant 2024.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who bought The Justice of Kings, or who has pre-ordered Tyranny of Faith, and to all the booktubers and bloggers and reviewers and fans who have made this year so wonderfully special for me. You guys make all of this possible so many thanks indeed for that.

Very best

Rich

This is intended to provide an aide memoire to those who are about to read The Tyranny of Faith (either as an ARC or next February when it is released--or whenever, really) and who have forgotten bits of / all of the plot of The Justice of Kings. It is fairly comprehensive, but necessarily omits a lot of detail and nuance.

OBVIOUSLY MASSIVE SPOILERS. This summary contains everything, including how the book ends. If you have not read The Justice of Kings, and plan to, this post will COMPLETELY RUIN IT FOR YOU.

I can't make it any clearer than that.

Exciting news! I have teamed up with Orbit to offer a free signed and numbered copy of the GB edition of Justice of Kings to one lucky reader anywhere in the world. To enter, simply provide proof of your Tyranny of Faith pre-order (DM on Twitter or Instagram is best)!

Good luck all!