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The Infinite State
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In this blistering science fiction epic, international bestselling author Richard Swan presents a thrilling tale of survival and an eviscerating examination of totalitarianism.
THE INFINITE STATE begins at a flashpoint in the lives of a widowed party member, a disgraced investigator, and a hypersled pilot—entangled in a plot to escape the suffocating authority of a fascist state.
WHO GIVES YOU LIFE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Katherine Fuller’s husband is dead. As an esteemed member of Pater Aeternus—governing party of the fascist, galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire—he has left behind an estate of immeasurable wealth. And Katherine is going to inherit it.
WHO GIVES YOU PURPOSE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Life under the Eternal Father is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled—each new day to be endured, not lived. But with Katherine’s newfound fortune, she is presented with a rare and dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world, and create a better, fairer society.
WHO GIVES YOU JOY?
PATER AETERNUS.
But the Empire cannot allow its wayward daughter to succeed. And as Katherine works in secret, recruiting allies she's not even sure she can trust, she will discover exactly how far Pater Aeternus is willing to go to stop her. Because Katherine is going to create something nobody has seen for many years.
A democracy.
THE INFINITE STATE begins at a flashpoint in the lives of a widowed party member, a disgraced investigator, and a hypersled pilot—entangled in a plot to escape the suffocating authority of a fascist state.
WHO GIVES YOU LIFE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Katherine Fuller’s husband is dead. As an esteemed member of Pater Aeternus—governing party of the fascist, galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire—he has left behind an estate of immeasurable wealth. And Katherine is going to inherit it.
WHO GIVES YOU PURPOSE?
PATER AETERNUS.
Life under the Eternal Father is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled—each new day to be endured, not lived. But with Katherine’s newfound fortune, she is presented with a rare and dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world, and create a better, fairer society.
WHO GIVES YOU JOY?
PATER AETERNUS.
But the Empire cannot allow its wayward daughter to succeed. And as Katherine works in secret, recruiting allies she's not even sure she can trust, she will discover exactly how far Pater Aeternus is willing to go to stop her. Because Katherine is going to create something nobody has seen for many years.
A democracy.
416 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication August 4, 2026
About the author
Richard Swan
22 books1,949 followersRichard Swan is a critically acclaimed British genre writer. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Empire of the Wolf and Great Silence trilogies, the Decurion Saga, and fiction for Black Library and Grimdark Magazine. His work has been translated into ten languages.
Richard is a qualified lawyer, and before writing full time spent ten years litigating multimillion pound commercial disputes in London. He currently lives in Sydney with his wife and three young sons.
For updates follow him at stonetemplelibrary.com.
Richard is a qualified lawyer, and before writing full time spent ten years litigating multimillion pound commercial disputes in London. He currently lives in Sydney with his wife and three young sons.
For updates follow him at stonetemplelibrary.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Want to Read
April 18, 2026beyond excited to have received a physical arc! i love any book that has comps to red rising🙂↕️ so i'm eager to dive in!
May 12, 2026
4.5 stars.
This is a story of a sprawling sci-fi totalitarian empire, rife with politicking, scheming, backstabbing and manipulative control over the expendable masses; told through Richard Swan’s signature expansive, detail-rich world-building and densely layered, yet always pleasing to read prose.
The journey begins in Leonis, the crown jewel of Pater Aeternus’ and his rather Orwellian Decurion Empire. Here every citizen is born pre-stripped of autonomy, living a marionette existence, conditioned to conform to a prescribed way of life. Various ‘unproductive’ behaviours relegate individuals to second class citizens and women in general are seen as glorified broodmares.
Infinite State follows three very different protagonists, all dulled to sheer hopelessness, and complacency, whilst trapped under the cruel hand of Pater Aeternus. Katherine, a grieving upper-class Party woman, Cyprian, a drunk, jaded second-class Inspektor and Julian, a foreign hypersled prodigy. Each unknowingly finding themselves amidst the rabid scheming of ministry fractions; setting the core plot to motion.
The protagonists feel compellingly human and complex; each perspective engaging in its own way. I enjoyed the parallels between Katherine and Cyprian and how grief becomes the catalyst to acknowledging their oppression and thus desire to seek change. By contrast, Julian’s perspective is uncomfortably invasive, yet a morbidly fascinating experience of identity erosion, as someone from freedom, unused to fanatical obedience and subjugation is conditioned through fear.
Swan explores human psychology; cognitive dissonance, dehumanisation, indoctrination and conformity, which I found thought-provoking and relevant. This ability to disregard basic morality and freedoms for the pageantry of comfort, status and group belonging. There’s interesting social commentary imbedded in the narrative and an eerie parallel with extreme sentiments found in reality. Yet the story is also the search for hope, seeking selfhood and ultimately, happiness.
There’s much to unpack in this novel it’s difficult to do it justice with this review. The plot is world-hopping and vast. Swan takes unlikely protagonists and fluidly manipulates all the threads to convincingly bring them together and weave a dynamic, riveting narrative. Overall, this leads to a suitably tense and action-packed novel with a satisfying conclusion that sets up potential for further exploration of the Empire and Free Nations.
Looking forward to reading more! Thanks Netgalley and Orion Publishing for the eARC, this was an amazing read!
This is a story of a sprawling sci-fi totalitarian empire, rife with politicking, scheming, backstabbing and manipulative control over the expendable masses; told through Richard Swan’s signature expansive, detail-rich world-building and densely layered, yet always pleasing to read prose.
The journey begins in Leonis, the crown jewel of Pater Aeternus’ and his rather Orwellian Decurion Empire. Here every citizen is born pre-stripped of autonomy, living a marionette existence, conditioned to conform to a prescribed way of life. Various ‘unproductive’ behaviours relegate individuals to second class citizens and women in general are seen as glorified broodmares.
Infinite State follows three very different protagonists, all dulled to sheer hopelessness, and complacency, whilst trapped under the cruel hand of Pater Aeternus. Katherine, a grieving upper-class Party woman, Cyprian, a drunk, jaded second-class Inspektor and Julian, a foreign hypersled prodigy. Each unknowingly finding themselves amidst the rabid scheming of ministry fractions; setting the core plot to motion.
The protagonists feel compellingly human and complex; each perspective engaging in its own way. I enjoyed the parallels between Katherine and Cyprian and how grief becomes the catalyst to acknowledging their oppression and thus desire to seek change. By contrast, Julian’s perspective is uncomfortably invasive, yet a morbidly fascinating experience of identity erosion, as someone from freedom, unused to fanatical obedience and subjugation is conditioned through fear.
Swan explores human psychology; cognitive dissonance, dehumanisation, indoctrination and conformity, which I found thought-provoking and relevant. This ability to disregard basic morality and freedoms for the pageantry of comfort, status and group belonging. There’s interesting social commentary imbedded in the narrative and an eerie parallel with extreme sentiments found in reality. Yet the story is also the search for hope, seeking selfhood and ultimately, happiness.
There’s much to unpack in this novel it’s difficult to do it justice with this review. The plot is world-hopping and vast. Swan takes unlikely protagonists and fluidly manipulates all the threads to convincingly bring them together and weave a dynamic, riveting narrative. Overall, this leads to a suitably tense and action-packed novel with a satisfying conclusion that sets up potential for further exploration of the Empire and Free Nations.
Looking forward to reading more! Thanks Netgalley and Orion Publishing for the eARC, this was an amazing read!
Want to Read
October 29, 2025Richard Swan writing dystopian novel with Roman/Kier Eagan vibes? And I hear there are killer gorillas?
Want.
Want.
May 12, 2026
Initially, this book gave me major Silo vibes, which really pulled me in because I love that show. Swan does a great job of capturing the hopelessness, and constant fear of living under a totalitarian regime. While the characters weren’t really “lovable”, they never felt one-dimensional either. Even though I couldn’t relate to their exact situations, Swan’s writing style perfectly depicts their harrowing experiences. The twists got me too! And they never felt forced or thrown in just for shock value. Toward the end, some parts of the writing were a bit harder to follow because of the more specific jargon and terminology being used and I had to slow down and reread a few sections to fully keep up. Nonetheless, this book does a great job of showing how thin the line between freedom and control can become without the people even noticing. This is one dystopian novel that people will certainly talk about for years to come.
Want to Read
April 21, 2026HELLO YES I AM SEATED!!!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Reading Richard Swan’s The Infinite State really did eerily feel like thumbing through a diagnosis of the present delivered through the lens of space opera.
It is a profoundly angry novel, but also a deeply humane one, concerned not just with authoritarianism as spectacle, but with the quieter, more corrosive machinery that allows people to accommodate it, rationalise it, and eventually depend upon it. Swan has always been interested in systems of power, law, faith, strata, and institutional decay, (and if you’ve read Empire of the Wolf this ia immediately clear) but here he pivots fully into science fiction and discovers an even larger canvas for those obsessions. The result is his most intellectually ambitious work yet.
The novel refuses to flatten ideology into caricature. The Decurion Empire is monstrous, yes, but Swan understands that functioning totalitarian states are rarely sustained by cartoon villains. They often survive because ordinary people find ways to live inside them. The Infinite State understands this with chilling clarity. Its characters resist oppression; but many negotiate with it, benefit from it, mourn within it, and try to preserve fragments of dignity while trapped in systems designed to erode individuality. That emotional and moral nuance gives the novel its weight.
Swan’s prose, as ever, remains one of his greatest strengths. There’s a precision to it that recalls the best tradition of politically minded science fiction, which is to say it’s clean without being sterile. He writes action extremely well, but more importantly, he writes tension well: ideological tension, interpersonal tension, the unbearable tension of knowing a civilisation has mistaken obedience for stability. Entire conversations hum with suppressed fear and social calculation.
Multiple POV narratives could easily have reduced the story’s momentum, but instead they create a widening sense of systemic collapse. Each perspective reveals a different face of the empire: privilege, bureaucracy, survival, propaganda, complicity. Rather than simply telling us the Decurion Empire is oppressive, Swan shows how oppression becomes ambient, how it permeates language, ritual, aspiration, and in its saddest display - even grief itself.
However, what makes The Infinite State feel genuinely unsettling, is how little of it reads as implausible extrapolation. The Decurion Empire may wear the aesthetics of far-flung, far-future science fiction, but its underlying mechanisms are painfully contemporary. You can see echoes of modern Russia in the weaponisation of nationalism and historical myth-making; shades of North Korea in the near-spiritual deification of the state and the suffocating collapse of individuality into ideology; and, perhaps most uncomfortably, reflections of the contemporary United States (don’t come for me) in the erosion of shared reality itself, depicting quite viscerally the way political identity becomes tribal, performative, and increasingly untethered from objective truth. Swan understands that authoritarianism in the modern age rarely arrives marching under a single banner. It emerges through exhaustion, polarisation, information warfare, institutional distrust, and the gradual normalisation of cruelty. So it may very well be that the novel’s greatest achievement, and one that shall stand the test of time and future re-reads, is it never allowing the reader the comforting illusion that “this could never happen here.”
It’s not all dark, disillusion and despair. Beyond the “grim but impressive” science fiction, The Infinite State never loses sight of hope. Not naive hope, nor the easy triumphalism that often weakens dystopian fiction. Instead we’re given something smaller and more convincing: the stubborn persistence of human conscience. Beneath all the machinery of fascism and surveillance, The Infinite State remains intensely interested in whether people can still choose decency when systems reward cruelty. That question gives the novel its emotional core.
There are echoes here of Tchaikovsky, of Ann Leckie, and others, even shades of the cold institutional horror of Warhammer 40K filtered through literary sci-fi sensibilities, but the voice is unmistakably Swan’s. Readers coming from the Empire of the Wolf books expecting simply “Richard Swan in space” will be surprised. This isn’t gothic fantasy transplanted into science fiction; it’s a genuine evolution of his thematic interests. It feels like an author stretching himself creatively and succeeding.
Most dystopian novels ask whether freedom can survive authoritarianism. Those are usually the stakes. The Infinite State asks something more uncomfortably nuanced: what parts of ourselves are we willingly to surrender to achieve a greater good?
A remarkable book, and one of the sharpest pieces of politically charged science fiction I’ve ever read.
It is a profoundly angry novel, but also a deeply humane one, concerned not just with authoritarianism as spectacle, but with the quieter, more corrosive machinery that allows people to accommodate it, rationalise it, and eventually depend upon it. Swan has always been interested in systems of power, law, faith, strata, and institutional decay, (and if you’ve read Empire of the Wolf this ia immediately clear) but here he pivots fully into science fiction and discovers an even larger canvas for those obsessions. The result is his most intellectually ambitious work yet.
The novel refuses to flatten ideology into caricature. The Decurion Empire is monstrous, yes, but Swan understands that functioning totalitarian states are rarely sustained by cartoon villains. They often survive because ordinary people find ways to live inside them. The Infinite State understands this with chilling clarity. Its characters resist oppression; but many negotiate with it, benefit from it, mourn within it, and try to preserve fragments of dignity while trapped in systems designed to erode individuality. That emotional and moral nuance gives the novel its weight.
Swan’s prose, as ever, remains one of his greatest strengths. There’s a precision to it that recalls the best tradition of politically minded science fiction, which is to say it’s clean without being sterile. He writes action extremely well, but more importantly, he writes tension well: ideological tension, interpersonal tension, the unbearable tension of knowing a civilisation has mistaken obedience for stability. Entire conversations hum with suppressed fear and social calculation.
Multiple POV narratives could easily have reduced the story’s momentum, but instead they create a widening sense of systemic collapse. Each perspective reveals a different face of the empire: privilege, bureaucracy, survival, propaganda, complicity. Rather than simply telling us the Decurion Empire is oppressive, Swan shows how oppression becomes ambient, how it permeates language, ritual, aspiration, and in its saddest display - even grief itself.
However, what makes The Infinite State feel genuinely unsettling, is how little of it reads as implausible extrapolation. The Decurion Empire may wear the aesthetics of far-flung, far-future science fiction, but its underlying mechanisms are painfully contemporary. You can see echoes of modern Russia in the weaponisation of nationalism and historical myth-making; shades of North Korea in the near-spiritual deification of the state and the suffocating collapse of individuality into ideology; and, perhaps most uncomfortably, reflections of the contemporary United States (don’t come for me) in the erosion of shared reality itself, depicting quite viscerally the way political identity becomes tribal, performative, and increasingly untethered from objective truth. Swan understands that authoritarianism in the modern age rarely arrives marching under a single banner. It emerges through exhaustion, polarisation, information warfare, institutional distrust, and the gradual normalisation of cruelty. So it may very well be that the novel’s greatest achievement, and one that shall stand the test of time and future re-reads, is it never allowing the reader the comforting illusion that “this could never happen here.”
It’s not all dark, disillusion and despair. Beyond the “grim but impressive” science fiction, The Infinite State never loses sight of hope. Not naive hope, nor the easy triumphalism that often weakens dystopian fiction. Instead we’re given something smaller and more convincing: the stubborn persistence of human conscience. Beneath all the machinery of fascism and surveillance, The Infinite State remains intensely interested in whether people can still choose decency when systems reward cruelty. That question gives the novel its emotional core.
There are echoes here of Tchaikovsky, of Ann Leckie, and others, even shades of the cold institutional horror of Warhammer 40K filtered through literary sci-fi sensibilities, but the voice is unmistakably Swan’s. Readers coming from the Empire of the Wolf books expecting simply “Richard Swan in space” will be surprised. This isn’t gothic fantasy transplanted into science fiction; it’s a genuine evolution of his thematic interests. It feels like an author stretching himself creatively and succeeding.
Most dystopian novels ask whether freedom can survive authoritarianism. Those are usually the stakes. The Infinite State asks something more uncomfortably nuanced: what parts of ourselves are we willingly to surrender to achieve a greater good?
A remarkable book, and one of the sharpest pieces of politically charged science fiction I’ve ever read.
Review of advance copy received from Author
TL;DR Review: Instantly familiar yet utterly unique sci-fi. Riveting, compelling, and entirely unputdownable.
Full Review:
Whoooo boy, what a wild ride this one was!
From the beginning, the Decurion Empire instantly evokes the hostility, suspicion, and total control of both Nazi Germany and Cold War Russia. From Empire-wide propaganda to mysterious men in black coats showing up uninvited in your bedroom at midnight, from conversation topics that can get you disappeared forever to the Handmaid’s Tale-esque emphasis on producing offspring to feed to the Imperial war machine, this place is exactly as dark and twisted as you’d imagine from an Empire that refers to itself in third person as “the Fatherland”.
We’re introduced to fascinatingly disparate cast of characters:
- The wealthy wife of a prominent “Party” member who is desperate to find meaning in the wake of her husband’s mysterious accident (which I’m still not 100% sure isn’t going to turn out to be some kind of murder). What’s she to do with the vast fortune she’s inherited when she has no one to share it with? A chance encounter at a library sets her down the path to establishing her own sovereign nation in a world she will own and rule. The question is: can she actually survive long enough to make her newly discovered dream a reality.
- The hypersled racing prodigy who is harboring a secret that would bring down everything he’s worked hard for, and which has the potential to get him and everyone around him killed—or, worse, reprogrammed. Unwilling pawn as he may be in the beginning, his is one of the most fascinating of the journeys—and filled with some of the best scenes in the book. Think Formula One racing meets the pod races from Star Wars by way of your favorite Mario Kart tracks, and you’ve got an inkling of just how exhilarating (and potentially murderous) it is.
- The disgraced, alcoholic inspektor who wants nothing more than to remain wholly unnoticed. Alas, a simple murder case quickly spirals out of control and leads to him being unwittingly caught up in a tug-of-war between the Empire’s two most powerful secret forces (a horrifying and fascinating blend of the SS, CIA, and the KBG, with the only thing separating the two entities a nominal distinction in their job descriptions). His is the most “classic” story, and easily the most relatable. And it does a spectacular job of showing the seedy underbelly of the Empire and its ruthless practices.
Their three stories could not be more different, yet fate and circumstance (and very likely, men in black leather coats and gloves) conspire to bring them together in surprising ways in the effort to found a new democratic world.
And this is yet another place where The Infinite State truly shines. Like in Empire of the Wolf, the author finds a way to take something potentially dry and make it fascinating. At no point was I bored when Katherine and co. discussed the intricacies of colonizing and terraforming a new planet, building a city, establishing a system of governance, and all the other ought-to-be-tedious-but-made-interesting minutia that is required to create this fledgling nation.
I compare it to Safehold by David Weber (one of my all-time favorite sci-fi series), which did something similar (advancing through technological eras where this one broke down the basics of government and nation-building). I didn’t go into reading this book expecting to learn, yet here I sit, far more educated while also immensely entertained.
The Infinite State demands and commands attention. It’s riveting and entirely unputdownable. Get ready for a colorful cast of complex, well-conceived, and immensely interesting characters (particularly one, who is revealed way later into the book, and really dials up the “Damn, this is messed up!” of it all), a world that is instantly familiar yet so much darker than you’d expect, and a plot that is forever unpredictable and utterly enthralling.
Get ready for a sci-fi story unlike anything I’ve read, and brace yourself, because in true Richard Swan fashion, things are going to get DARK.
Full Review:
Whoooo boy, what a wild ride this one was!
From the beginning, the Decurion Empire instantly evokes the hostility, suspicion, and total control of both Nazi Germany and Cold War Russia. From Empire-wide propaganda to mysterious men in black coats showing up uninvited in your bedroom at midnight, from conversation topics that can get you disappeared forever to the Handmaid’s Tale-esque emphasis on producing offspring to feed to the Imperial war machine, this place is exactly as dark and twisted as you’d imagine from an Empire that refers to itself in third person as “the Fatherland”.
We’re introduced to fascinatingly disparate cast of characters:
- The wealthy wife of a prominent “Party” member who is desperate to find meaning in the wake of her husband’s mysterious accident (which I’m still not 100% sure isn’t going to turn out to be some kind of murder). What’s she to do with the vast fortune she’s inherited when she has no one to share it with? A chance encounter at a library sets her down the path to establishing her own sovereign nation in a world she will own and rule. The question is: can she actually survive long enough to make her newly discovered dream a reality.
- The hypersled racing prodigy who is harboring a secret that would bring down everything he’s worked hard for, and which has the potential to get him and everyone around him killed—or, worse, reprogrammed. Unwilling pawn as he may be in the beginning, his is one of the most fascinating of the journeys—and filled with some of the best scenes in the book. Think Formula One racing meets the pod races from Star Wars by way of your favorite Mario Kart tracks, and you’ve got an inkling of just how exhilarating (and potentially murderous) it is.
- The disgraced, alcoholic inspektor who wants nothing more than to remain wholly unnoticed. Alas, a simple murder case quickly spirals out of control and leads to him being unwittingly caught up in a tug-of-war between the Empire’s two most powerful secret forces (a horrifying and fascinating blend of the SS, CIA, and the KBG, with the only thing separating the two entities a nominal distinction in their job descriptions). His is the most “classic” story, and easily the most relatable. And it does a spectacular job of showing the seedy underbelly of the Empire and its ruthless practices.
Their three stories could not be more different, yet fate and circumstance (and very likely, men in black leather coats and gloves) conspire to bring them together in surprising ways in the effort to found a new democratic world.
And this is yet another place where The Infinite State truly shines. Like in Empire of the Wolf, the author finds a way to take something potentially dry and make it fascinating. At no point was I bored when Katherine and co. discussed the intricacies of colonizing and terraforming a new planet, building a city, establishing a system of governance, and all the other ought-to-be-tedious-but-made-interesting minutia that is required to create this fledgling nation.
I compare it to Safehold by David Weber (one of my all-time favorite sci-fi series), which did something similar (advancing through technological eras where this one broke down the basics of government and nation-building). I didn’t go into reading this book expecting to learn, yet here I sit, far more educated while also immensely entertained.
The Infinite State demands and commands attention. It’s riveting and entirely unputdownable. Get ready for a colorful cast of complex, well-conceived, and immensely interesting characters (particularly one, who is revealed way later into the book, and really dials up the “Damn, this is messed up!” of it all), a world that is instantly familiar yet so much darker than you’d expect, and a plot that is forever unpredictable and utterly enthralling.
Get ready for a sci-fi story unlike anything I’ve read, and brace yourself, because in true Richard Swan fashion, things are going to get DARK.
May 2, 2026
Thank you to Net Galley for the eARC of this book! :)
As a big fan of Richard Swan’s Empire of the Wolf and Great Silence trilogies, I was very excited to read this novel, which marks a departure from the world of the Sovan Empire and a step into the genre of science fiction. Swan’s style of writing, character development, and the themes explored in his fantasy novels really work for me, so I was hoping for more of the same on those fronts. I would say that this hope was met, while still feeling like a clear tonal shift from his previous work.
In the city of Kada Gamar, on the planet Leonis, within the interplanetary Decurion Empire, forty-something political housewife Katherine suffers the loss of her unborn child and then her husband, the latter under strange circumstances. Inheriting a fortune from her deceased husband, she is inspired by an illicit anti-establishment pamphlet, along with her own jaded feelings about the Empire and its ruling party, Pater Aeternus. Motivated by this, she sets out to found a new world based on the radical concept of “democracy.” But walking away from the structured life she has led, and the people who control it, isn’t going to be as easy as she’d hoped.
The world of this book feels very 1984-ish, albeit set on a distant planet in the future where space travel and technology are far in advance of where we are today. Perhaps if Orwell had decided to write a space opera, it might have looked something like this. The suffocating oppression of the ruling party, the sense that individuals are under constant surveillance, no one saying what they really mean, and never knowing who might betray you if you speak your mind all combine to feel sharply prescient. Everybody has a highly defined role, and there is a high value placed on mothers being able to bear many children, something which Katherine and her husband have failed to do.
Katherine is one of three main POV characters through whose eyes we see the story unfold. Then we have Julian, a hypersled racer (essentially a very skilled, high-speed, anti-gravity racing sport, which I’m picturing in my head as like the pod racing in Star Wars) who is from a planet outside of the Decurion Empire but has been brought in as a publicity stunt. Julian has to adapt, with limited success, to living under the strange conditions of Pater Aeternus rule. Finally, there is Cyprian, who is essentially an experienced, grizzled old police officer. He sees the system for what it is, but goes along with it for reasons that are later revealed.
The POVs converge as the plot progresses, with the characters’ pasts and futures shown to be inextricably entwined, even as each fights to maintain their own sense of agency over events.
As Katherine attempts to found a new city on an uncolonised planet, one she purchases with her inheritance, she must navigate the unfamiliar world of planetary defence, intelligence, and city planning, all guided by an oddly well-informed university student.
She is forced to grapple with her own ingrained biases, a product of the totalitarian regime of which she has long been a part, and to accept the reality of a democratic system, where, as founding president, she may one day have to relinquish control of her fledgling nation as a result of the very process she is committed to. Rather like a parent letting a mature child leave home, something she hasn’t been able to do. In this sense, she is Gabriel’s founding “mother”, with the planet being named for her dead baby.
The pacing is relatively slow for the first two-thirds or so. If you come to this from action-packed sci-fi epics such as Red Rising hoping for something similar, you’ll probably be disappointed and may give up. That said, it remains gripping and, I have to say, extremely entertaining. I absolutely adore the dialogue between the characters, and while there are some hard-hitting and confronting moments, there are just as many that made me laugh out loud.
The climax of the book arrives in the closing stages, with Gabriel having to scramble to defend itself from outside attacks and influence from the Empire itself. Whether or not it is successful, I will not reveal here in order to keep this review spoiler-free, but an epic starfighter battle and warrior ape clones do feature.
Overall, I found this novel to be an unexpectedly philosophical and thought-provoking read. It asks some hard questions about the meaning of freedom, the reality of breaking out of a system, and explores whether it is even possible to have a government that is entirely ethical and free from corruption. The answer may be less straightforward than we might hope, as with Swan’s previous novels, this presents reality in its true tones of grey.
As a big fan of Richard Swan’s Empire of the Wolf and Great Silence trilogies, I was very excited to read this novel, which marks a departure from the world of the Sovan Empire and a step into the genre of science fiction. Swan’s style of writing, character development, and the themes explored in his fantasy novels really work for me, so I was hoping for more of the same on those fronts. I would say that this hope was met, while still feeling like a clear tonal shift from his previous work.
In the city of Kada Gamar, on the planet Leonis, within the interplanetary Decurion Empire, forty-something political housewife Katherine suffers the loss of her unborn child and then her husband, the latter under strange circumstances. Inheriting a fortune from her deceased husband, she is inspired by an illicit anti-establishment pamphlet, along with her own jaded feelings about the Empire and its ruling party, Pater Aeternus. Motivated by this, she sets out to found a new world based on the radical concept of “democracy.” But walking away from the structured life she has led, and the people who control it, isn’t going to be as easy as she’d hoped.
The world of this book feels very 1984-ish, albeit set on a distant planet in the future where space travel and technology are far in advance of where we are today. Perhaps if Orwell had decided to write a space opera, it might have looked something like this. The suffocating oppression of the ruling party, the sense that individuals are under constant surveillance, no one saying what they really mean, and never knowing who might betray you if you speak your mind all combine to feel sharply prescient. Everybody has a highly defined role, and there is a high value placed on mothers being able to bear many children, something which Katherine and her husband have failed to do.
Katherine is one of three main POV characters through whose eyes we see the story unfold. Then we have Julian, a hypersled racer (essentially a very skilled, high-speed, anti-gravity racing sport, which I’m picturing in my head as like the pod racing in Star Wars) who is from a planet outside of the Decurion Empire but has been brought in as a publicity stunt. Julian has to adapt, with limited success, to living under the strange conditions of Pater Aeternus rule. Finally, there is Cyprian, who is essentially an experienced, grizzled old police officer. He sees the system for what it is, but goes along with it for reasons that are later revealed.
The POVs converge as the plot progresses, with the characters’ pasts and futures shown to be inextricably entwined, even as each fights to maintain their own sense of agency over events.
As Katherine attempts to found a new city on an uncolonised planet, one she purchases with her inheritance, she must navigate the unfamiliar world of planetary defence, intelligence, and city planning, all guided by an oddly well-informed university student.
She is forced to grapple with her own ingrained biases, a product of the totalitarian regime of which she has long been a part, and to accept the reality of a democratic system, where, as founding president, she may one day have to relinquish control of her fledgling nation as a result of the very process she is committed to. Rather like a parent letting a mature child leave home, something she hasn’t been able to do. In this sense, she is Gabriel’s founding “mother”, with the planet being named for her dead baby.
The pacing is relatively slow for the first two-thirds or so. If you come to this from action-packed sci-fi epics such as Red Rising hoping for something similar, you’ll probably be disappointed and may give up. That said, it remains gripping and, I have to say, extremely entertaining. I absolutely adore the dialogue between the characters, and while there are some hard-hitting and confronting moments, there are just as many that made me laugh out loud.
The climax of the book arrives in the closing stages, with Gabriel having to scramble to defend itself from outside attacks and influence from the Empire itself. Whether or not it is successful, I will not reveal here in order to keep this review spoiler-free, but an epic starfighter battle and warrior ape clones do feature.
Overall, I found this novel to be an unexpectedly philosophical and thought-provoking read. It asks some hard questions about the meaning of freedom, the reality of breaking out of a system, and explores whether it is even possible to have a government that is entirely ethical and free from corruption. The answer may be less straightforward than we might hope, as with Swan’s previous novels, this presents reality in its true tones of grey.
October 24, 2025
I read Justice of Kings as a netgalley arc back in the day, excited by the buzz and premise, and of course adored it. And pressured my friends to read it. It is once again my privilege to read one of his ARCs, because I loved the premise and knew that Richard would handle the topic of founding democracy with intelligenct and nuance.
It is not controversial to say that we live in turbulent times. The far-right is on the rise, and most people--apart from the far right themselves--seem able to recognise that. Like ancient evil in a fantasy book, authoritarianism never dies, only slumbers for awhile. Currently, it is waking up all over the world.
What, then, does this mean for authors--folks whose livelihood is the creation of fiction?
Personally, I think we have a duty to write stories which not only dissect and critique the world around us, but which offer a vision for how we can build better futures. Everything we create, from art to philosophy to politics to science and beyond, starts with an idea or a vision. A sense of how something could be, might exist, may emerge. This, then, is what fiction can offer us, and why I truly believe science fiction is the genre of human potential: within it, we have the capacity to imagine the futures we wish to see, as well as the future we fear to see, and how to achieve one while avoiding the other.
INFINITE STATE is such a book. Swan shows us a world that is darker than our own, but not unimaginably so. We are familiar wtih these kinds of empires from dystopia and classic SF, after all, as well as actual authoritarian states IRL.
But where INFINITE STATE shines, and where it sets itself apart, is *how* it constructs a different for an alternate future. There is no glorious revolution with a chosen one and special powers, or a grand uprising of youthful voices. (That's not a criticism of those books, by any means--I enjoy them too! But I'm clarifying how this book differs from other fight-the-fascist novels). Instead, INFINITE STATE focuses on a handful of humans who are terribly flawed in different ways, yet still trying to create something new and bold within the awful strictures which press down on them.
INFINITE STATE is concerend with the nitty gritty of what setting up democracy entails. This is not a book about making grand speeches and invoking vast uprest, though perhaps that will come later in the series. It's about honest discussions of human society: what is fair? What is free? How do we choose laws which respects boundaries but keep people safe? And most importantly of all, how far will you go to fight for a better future? Because the characters must fight; they must make terrible choices, ones that directly go against all of their ideals and goals, in the pursuit of something better.
There is no pat solution or easy answers in INFINITE STATE. Only continued discussion, continued striving, the sticky struggle of imperfect people trying to improve a terrible world, and finding endless obstacles and heartbreak in their path.
This is science fiction at its finest, doing what scifi does best: showing us how to build a better tomorrow. We need stories like this to remind us of what is possible and what is good.
READ THIS FOR: nuanced discussions on the nature of government, society, and freedom; adult characters (incld a middle aged female MC) with baggage and complicated lives; morally grey decisions and difficult choices
It is not controversial to say that we live in turbulent times. The far-right is on the rise, and most people--apart from the far right themselves--seem able to recognise that. Like ancient evil in a fantasy book, authoritarianism never dies, only slumbers for awhile. Currently, it is waking up all over the world.
What, then, does this mean for authors--folks whose livelihood is the creation of fiction?
Personally, I think we have a duty to write stories which not only dissect and critique the world around us, but which offer a vision for how we can build better futures. Everything we create, from art to philosophy to politics to science and beyond, starts with an idea or a vision. A sense of how something could be, might exist, may emerge. This, then, is what fiction can offer us, and why I truly believe science fiction is the genre of human potential: within it, we have the capacity to imagine the futures we wish to see, as well as the future we fear to see, and how to achieve one while avoiding the other.
INFINITE STATE is such a book. Swan shows us a world that is darker than our own, but not unimaginably so. We are familiar wtih these kinds of empires from dystopia and classic SF, after all, as well as actual authoritarian states IRL.
But where INFINITE STATE shines, and where it sets itself apart, is *how* it constructs a different for an alternate future. There is no glorious revolution with a chosen one and special powers, or a grand uprising of youthful voices. (That's not a criticism of those books, by any means--I enjoy them too! But I'm clarifying how this book differs from other fight-the-fascist novels). Instead, INFINITE STATE focuses on a handful of humans who are terribly flawed in different ways, yet still trying to create something new and bold within the awful strictures which press down on them.
INFINITE STATE is concerend with the nitty gritty of what setting up democracy entails. This is not a book about making grand speeches and invoking vast uprest, though perhaps that will come later in the series. It's about honest discussions of human society: what is fair? What is free? How do we choose laws which respects boundaries but keep people safe? And most importantly of all, how far will you go to fight for a better future? Because the characters must fight; they must make terrible choices, ones that directly go against all of their ideals and goals, in the pursuit of something better.
There is no pat solution or easy answers in INFINITE STATE. Only continued discussion, continued striving, the sticky struggle of imperfect people trying to improve a terrible world, and finding endless obstacles and heartbreak in their path.
This is science fiction at its finest, doing what scifi does best: showing us how to build a better tomorrow. We need stories like this to remind us of what is possible and what is good.
READ THIS FOR: nuanced discussions on the nature of government, society, and freedom; adult characters (incld a middle aged female MC) with baggage and complicated lives; morally grey decisions and difficult choices
Review of advance copy received from Author
I received an ARC of this book from the author via an Instagram promotion – thank you for the early copy!
Set in a futuristic, autocratic dictatorship (a touch of 1984 in deep space) the story follows several ordinary people who find themselves ground under the thumb of authoritarianism. Life in the Decurion Empire is lived in service to the ideals of Pater Aeternus, while those who fail to do so are labelled “unproductive”, at best second-class citizens. The book asks what if things could be different – what if through hard work, difficult choices, or sometimes no other choice at all, there could be another way of life, free from the grip of the Empire?
Swan writes phenomenally, as always. The POV characters – Katherine, Julian and Cyprian – are each distinctive, flawed but ultimately likeable, handled with emotional depth and care that makes them feel well fleshed out. Even if the names on the page were hidden it’s easy to tell whose perspective you’re reading from just from the feel of it, and switching between each kept things feeling fresh. IMO it’s so important to understand what drives characters to act and to make the decisions they do, and I always felt I understood exactly what the motivations were behind each action (even those that made me want to take the character by the shoulders and shake them!)
The pacing at the outset is a little slow, but there is a lot of ground to cover across multiple well-realised character POVs, a pervasive sense of paranoia that had me second-guessing every motive, and plenty of gripping mysteries to unravel to keep the pages turning. The intensity does ramp up continually over the course of the book, and by the last few explosive chapters I struggled to put it down at all.
Ultimately I really enjoyed this, it feels like a fresh and realistic take on the actual detailed mechanisms of breaking away from an oppressive state and forging a rebel path to freedom, free of the usual frills of fanciful heroism. The characters and their choices feel realistic, with well-earned highs and inevitable-feeling lows. And, as a bonus, I hadn’t expected instances of what is essentially F1 in space – what a fun surprise!
Additionally, living in a country which has recently had a concerning uptick in invasive surveillance, among other things I’ll gloss over to avoid a tangential rant, certainly feels like this novel is timely, especially with themes of personal freedoms and political expression, and it often mirrored my personal sentiments, just set against a much more fantastical backdrop. I also truly like that in many cases the narrative presents no one right answer, but promotes the right of individual choice. It is unflinching, thoughtful, intelligent, and still deeply entertaining.
I am much more a fantasy reader than sci-fi, and though I loved the Empire of the Wolf series I wasn’t sure whether I would enjoy this. As it turns out I needn’t have worried, and I’m already eagerly awaiting the next instalment.
Set in a futuristic, autocratic dictatorship (a touch of 1984 in deep space) the story follows several ordinary people who find themselves ground under the thumb of authoritarianism. Life in the Decurion Empire is lived in service to the ideals of Pater Aeternus, while those who fail to do so are labelled “unproductive”, at best second-class citizens. The book asks what if things could be different – what if through hard work, difficult choices, or sometimes no other choice at all, there could be another way of life, free from the grip of the Empire?
Swan writes phenomenally, as always. The POV characters – Katherine, Julian and Cyprian – are each distinctive, flawed but ultimately likeable, handled with emotional depth and care that makes them feel well fleshed out. Even if the names on the page were hidden it’s easy to tell whose perspective you’re reading from just from the feel of it, and switching between each kept things feeling fresh. IMO it’s so important to understand what drives characters to act and to make the decisions they do, and I always felt I understood exactly what the motivations were behind each action (even those that made me want to take the character by the shoulders and shake them!)
The pacing at the outset is a little slow, but there is a lot of ground to cover across multiple well-realised character POVs, a pervasive sense of paranoia that had me second-guessing every motive, and plenty of gripping mysteries to unravel to keep the pages turning. The intensity does ramp up continually over the course of the book, and by the last few explosive chapters I struggled to put it down at all.
Ultimately I really enjoyed this, it feels like a fresh and realistic take on the actual detailed mechanisms of breaking away from an oppressive state and forging a rebel path to freedom, free of the usual frills of fanciful heroism. The characters and their choices feel realistic, with well-earned highs and inevitable-feeling lows. And, as a bonus, I hadn’t expected instances of what is essentially F1 in space – what a fun surprise!
Additionally, living in a country which has recently had a concerning uptick in invasive surveillance, among other things I’ll gloss over to avoid a tangential rant, certainly feels like this novel is timely, especially with themes of personal freedoms and political expression, and it often mirrored my personal sentiments, just set against a much more fantastical backdrop. I also truly like that in many cases the narrative presents no one right answer, but promotes the right of individual choice. It is unflinching, thoughtful, intelligent, and still deeply entertaining.
I am much more a fantasy reader than sci-fi, and though I loved the Empire of the Wolf series I wasn’t sure whether I would enjoy this. As it turns out I needn’t have worried, and I’m already eagerly awaiting the next instalment.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What a great read this book is. It’s about the deadening effect of a malicious fascist state that allows no freedom of movement or of thought unless it benefits the Pater Aeternus, the ruler of a vast empire. Very reminiscent of 1984, the citizens on Leonis, the home planet of the empire have to affirm WHO GIVES YOU JOY? PATER AETERNUS and so on. The stratified layers of society dictate how citizens live. Women are considered only as child bearing units. If you can’t be ”productive” in any way beneficial to the Empire you are condemned to lifelong misery and struggle. The state manufactures enemies and starts and prolongs wars to scare the population into submission and so the children are sent off to foreign planets to die futile deaths. Or they are used as bargaining chips to coerce parents into compliance.
Against this background we find Katherine, newly widowed when her esteemed party member husband is killed in an accident. She is about to inherit vast unimaginable wealth. There’s a disgraced and demoted Inspektor, Cyprian and there’s Julian. An off worlder hypersled prodigy, brought onto Leonis to win competitions for the Empire for PR purposes. All three protagonists, even eventually Julian who is from a free planet, are overwhelmed and beaten by the constant surveillance, emotional blackmail and having to watch what they say out loud, unable to trust anyone.
So the story unfolds through the eyes and experiences of each of these brilliantly portrayed characters and along the way we meet a variety of government enablers, evil and amoral who manipulate and murder with impunity.
After another unbearable tragedy Katherine is shaken out of complacency, of turning a blind eye, and resolves to put her inherited fortune to good use. She decides to buy a planet and to establish what she has no experience of…a democratic society. Easier said than done especially when the Empire will see it as an affront, although what she proposes is not illegal. Who can she trust. How can she start a process she has no experience of.
Despite the vast sweep of the epic tale, the three protagonists are, in their different ways, hugely likeable and they ground the story in a sympathetic and humane way. The author weaves the plot around these three separate engaging stories until he brings them together in a most satisfactory way. However, the nature of the epic is such that not all loose ends can be tied up. There is one enormous twist about 3/4 of the way through. Very unexpected. Brilliant!
I really enjoyed this book and recommend it even to people who aren’t keen on sci-fi as the author includes many strands of ideas relevant to today’s world which, while never preaching, makes the reader think about dehumanisation, compliance and the politics of coercion inter alia.
I will certainly look out for more books by this author.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for kindle in exchange for my honest review.
Against this background we find Katherine, newly widowed when her esteemed party member husband is killed in an accident. She is about to inherit vast unimaginable wealth. There’s a disgraced and demoted Inspektor, Cyprian and there’s Julian. An off worlder hypersled prodigy, brought onto Leonis to win competitions for the Empire for PR purposes. All three protagonists, even eventually Julian who is from a free planet, are overwhelmed and beaten by the constant surveillance, emotional blackmail and having to watch what they say out loud, unable to trust anyone.
So the story unfolds through the eyes and experiences of each of these brilliantly portrayed characters and along the way we meet a variety of government enablers, evil and amoral who manipulate and murder with impunity.
After another unbearable tragedy Katherine is shaken out of complacency, of turning a blind eye, and resolves to put her inherited fortune to good use. She decides to buy a planet and to establish what she has no experience of…a democratic society. Easier said than done especially when the Empire will see it as an affront, although what she proposes is not illegal. Who can she trust. How can she start a process she has no experience of.
Despite the vast sweep of the epic tale, the three protagonists are, in their different ways, hugely likeable and they ground the story in a sympathetic and humane way. The author weaves the plot around these three separate engaging stories until he brings them together in a most satisfactory way. However, the nature of the epic is such that not all loose ends can be tied up. There is one enormous twist about 3/4 of the way through. Very unexpected. Brilliant!
I really enjoyed this book and recommend it even to people who aren’t keen on sci-fi as the author includes many strands of ideas relevant to today’s world which, while never preaching, makes the reader think about dehumanisation, compliance and the politics of coercion inter alia.
I will certainly look out for more books by this author.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for kindle in exchange for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
WOW. This is going to become a classic. A book that sheds an unflinching light on the current state of our world. I need everyone to read this.
A wealthy widow plots to escape a fascist, galaxy-spanning regime known as the Decurion Empire by creating a free society on an unsettled planet, defying the totalitarian Pater Aeternus. Think North Korea meets Donald Trump meets 1984.
This is heavy-handed. I usually prefer more nuance, but this one slaps you in the face; it dares you to look away at its clear comparisons.
It covers a lot of theory in an approachable manner. As someone who studied Government and Politics, Law, and dystopian Literature; this fed the nerd in me. However, I can understand people bouncing off the lecturer-like nature of this novel.
These matters were not even concealed from view. They were everywhere, for those who cared to look. But a lifetime of subtle manipulation, of logical-sounding explanations issued by impressive men with polished affects in imposing uniforms, of comfortable, conforming groupthink within her privileged and wealthy social circle, had formed some sort of mental shield in which all of these things could be safely ignored.
Think of all of the dystopian classics that are being banned condensed into this sci fi book with a modern voice, reflecting on current politics and societal climate without finger pointing directly.
An empire which prizes fertility, salaries pregnancy, and rewards large clutches of children - where motherhood has stratified into a strict hierarchy.
A galaxy where there exists an Alliance different empires and planets has pledged to which is easily defied and known as being toothless.
“The citizens of the Empire believe that there is some quality to it which makes it better than every other society in the galaxy.”
An Empire where its people are prevented and discouraged from thinking about anything that make them more receptive to anything but Pater Aeternus.
These characters are trapped by helplessness and self-loathing. Surrounded by sadists who happen to be their leaders and ‘tragic accidents’.
This is a wordy book. It is heavy and dark and disturbing. I already want to reread it.
Arc gifted by Orion Publishing.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
A wealthy widow plots to escape a fascist, galaxy-spanning regime known as the Decurion Empire by creating a free society on an unsettled planet, defying the totalitarian Pater Aeternus. Think North Korea meets Donald Trump meets 1984.
This is heavy-handed. I usually prefer more nuance, but this one slaps you in the face; it dares you to look away at its clear comparisons.
It covers a lot of theory in an approachable manner. As someone who studied Government and Politics, Law, and dystopian Literature; this fed the nerd in me. However, I can understand people bouncing off the lecturer-like nature of this novel.
These matters were not even concealed from view. They were everywhere, for those who cared to look. But a lifetime of subtle manipulation, of logical-sounding explanations issued by impressive men with polished affects in imposing uniforms, of comfortable, conforming groupthink within her privileged and wealthy social circle, had formed some sort of mental shield in which all of these things could be safely ignored.
Think of all of the dystopian classics that are being banned condensed into this sci fi book with a modern voice, reflecting on current politics and societal climate without finger pointing directly.
An empire which prizes fertility, salaries pregnancy, and rewards large clutches of children - where motherhood has stratified into a strict hierarchy.
A galaxy where there exists an Alliance different empires and planets has pledged to which is easily defied and known as being toothless.
“The citizens of the Empire believe that there is some quality to it which makes it better than every other society in the galaxy.”
An Empire where its people are prevented and discouraged from thinking about anything that make them more receptive to anything but Pater Aeternus.
These characters are trapped by helplessness and self-loathing. Surrounded by sadists who happen to be their leaders and ‘tragic accidents’.
This is a wordy book. It is heavy and dark and disturbing. I already want to reread it.
Arc gifted by Orion Publishing.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Infinite State by @richardswanauthor
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Thank you @netgalley and @torbooks for my advanced reader copy!
Swan's upcoming scifi is a reimagined world with all the familiar themes of a dystopian, but rebooted in a creative manner that really sets his series to stand out in the genre.
Life is to be endured. Everything is for PATER AETERNUS. Every person serves the nation's purpose and if you don't, you are labeled "unproductive". These tolatarian ideas are unsettling familiar and Swan takes his readers into the depths of a dark bleak intergalactic world.
But imagine you are given the opportunity to create a fair world, a democracy! This is the vision for hoping for a better future.
This is not your typical "chosen one" saving the day by inspiring a revolution. These are ordinary people that want more for themselves under the ironfirst of the Empire. We go through logistics of instilling fair laws and what is considered freedom to politically to set up an independent nation. All the while Swan writes with a tone that depicts the hypervigilant paranoia that exists for any individualistic thought. Surprisingly, The Infinite State is also hilarious. The interactions between characters who are constantly under surveillance is ironically funny. I think it really makes for a great contrasting vibe by allowing humor to incorporate acts of levity to balance out the poignant setting.
That is not to say these characters don't experience such loss and grief. These are flawed characters trying to make a brutal world better but constantly met with severe consequences that will just break your heart. Swan reeeeallllly puts his characters through the ringer in here. And what is scary is that it is realistic and totally believable. There was a chapter in here I had to literally put down because of how disturbed and haunting it left me utterly bereft.
❗️READ THIS❗️for an unconventional scifi dystopia that challenges the idea of what it is to be a hero, for themes on freedom and government, and if you like your stories grim and dark because this one isnt for the faint heart! Also if you like gorillas.
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Thank you @netgalley and @torbooks for my advanced reader copy!
Swan's upcoming scifi is a reimagined world with all the familiar themes of a dystopian, but rebooted in a creative manner that really sets his series to stand out in the genre.
Life is to be endured. Everything is for PATER AETERNUS. Every person serves the nation's purpose and if you don't, you are labeled "unproductive". These tolatarian ideas are unsettling familiar and Swan takes his readers into the depths of a dark bleak intergalactic world.
But imagine you are given the opportunity to create a fair world, a democracy! This is the vision for hoping for a better future.
This is not your typical "chosen one" saving the day by inspiring a revolution. These are ordinary people that want more for themselves under the ironfirst of the Empire. We go through logistics of instilling fair laws and what is considered freedom to politically to set up an independent nation. All the while Swan writes with a tone that depicts the hypervigilant paranoia that exists for any individualistic thought. Surprisingly, The Infinite State is also hilarious. The interactions between characters who are constantly under surveillance is ironically funny. I think it really makes for a great contrasting vibe by allowing humor to incorporate acts of levity to balance out the poignant setting.
That is not to say these characters don't experience such loss and grief. These are flawed characters trying to make a brutal world better but constantly met with severe consequences that will just break your heart. Swan reeeeallllly puts his characters through the ringer in here. And what is scary is that it is realistic and totally believable. There was a chapter in here I had to literally put down because of how disturbed and haunting it left me utterly bereft.
❗️READ THIS❗️for an unconventional scifi dystopia that challenges the idea of what it is to be a hero, for themes on freedom and government, and if you like your stories grim and dark because this one isnt for the faint heart! Also if you like gorillas.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I liked the author’s earlier fantasy novels, though I felt their quality declined as the series progressed. I was apprehensive going into this book, but decided to give the author another chance—some writers transition successfully between genres, though most do not.
What we have here is a distant-future empire with governing structures vaguely reminiscent of the Soviet Union at best, or The Hunger Games at worst. One protagonist is a woman in her forties whose husband, a senior official, mysteriously disappears, prompting her to embark on a journey that gradually reveals the true nature of the society she inhabits. The other protagonist is a professional racer—very much in the mould of Ready Player One—from another world, recruited by the regime to compete on its behalf and reinforce its image of invincibility. As events begin to unravel, he slowly becomes politicised, realising that life cannot be reduced to winning races.
The writing itself is not bad. The author remains a capable storyteller, and the main characters are reasonably well realised and sympathetic.
Where the book fails is in its broader worldbuilding and political imagination. There is something distinctly amateurish in the depiction of the dystopian regime, as though it were assembled from pop-cultural clichés rather than grounded in either historical understanding or the richer traditions of speculative fiction. The result feels oddly juvenile: the regime lacks sophistication or internal coherence, appearing evil simply for the sake of being evil.
I also found the racing subplot unnecessary. Far too much attention is devoted to the mechanics of the races themselves—almost as though the author became overly enamoured with the concept—and its connection to the broader plot feels tenuous at best.
Admittedly, I DNF’d the book at around 20%, but I simply could not bring myself to care enough to continue. It is not bad, exactly, but it is nowhere near compelling enough to justify another several hours of reading.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.
What we have here is a distant-future empire with governing structures vaguely reminiscent of the Soviet Union at best, or The Hunger Games at worst. One protagonist is a woman in her forties whose husband, a senior official, mysteriously disappears, prompting her to embark on a journey that gradually reveals the true nature of the society she inhabits. The other protagonist is a professional racer—very much in the mould of Ready Player One—from another world, recruited by the regime to compete on its behalf and reinforce its image of invincibility. As events begin to unravel, he slowly becomes politicised, realising that life cannot be reduced to winning races.
The writing itself is not bad. The author remains a capable storyteller, and the main characters are reasonably well realised and sympathetic.
Where the book fails is in its broader worldbuilding and political imagination. There is something distinctly amateurish in the depiction of the dystopian regime, as though it were assembled from pop-cultural clichés rather than grounded in either historical understanding or the richer traditions of speculative fiction. The result feels oddly juvenile: the regime lacks sophistication or internal coherence, appearing evil simply for the sake of being evil.
I also found the racing subplot unnecessary. Far too much attention is devoted to the mechanics of the races themselves—almost as though the author became overly enamoured with the concept—and its connection to the broader plot feels tenuous at best.
Admittedly, I DNF’d the book at around 20%, but I simply could not bring myself to care enough to continue. It is not bad, exactly, but it is nowhere near compelling enough to justify another several hours of reading.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC!
Patriarchy at its best, the strongest, the meanest, the cruelest. The worst of the worst lead the Empire, control and oppress their people, spy, manipulate, and induce paranoia in all the citizens.
Imagine a Soviet era-inspired space empire, with unlimited power, military, finance, and the ability to eavesdrop on literally anyone. No one is safe from scrutiny, not even a high-ranking party wife.
Recently widowed Katherine becomes disillusioned with the regime. Her husband’s death leaves her inheriting quite a fortune. A restless and grieving wife decides to spend it unwisely on an independent planet state. The party oligarchy cannot be happy with her choices.
A young, promising sledge driver signs a contract with the horrible Empire without thinking through the consequences. He’s in it for the love of racing, doesn’t even bother to read the contract. In Leonis certain predilections are not allowed, and Julian lets his heart do the thinking for him.
A disgrace detective with an alcohol problem wakes up between a rock of the Ministry of Interior and a hard place of the Ministry of Information. Two formidable opponents trying to discredit and destroy each other, using the homicide detectives as pawns for their own game. Cyprian doesn’t stand a chance, but giving up means permanently losing his two lovely children, sent to a re-education camp.
A terrific journey into the world of tyranny and persecution. Pater Aeternus rewards productivity and kills indiscriminately. The only way to survive is to stay quiet, pull your weight, and hope you won’t get punished by accident. Freedom of thought is nonexistent; having seditious thoughts is enough to get you executed. Stratification limiting everyone but the luckiest and most malelable. Three perspectives on the abusive government. Three fights against the system. Some succeed in getting back up to the surface, some are ground to dust. One man behind the scheme, pulling the right strings, with a surprising goal in mind.
Step into the universe run by madmen, bent on destroying independent thinking, dissecting citizens. rights and freedoms, controlling who they talk to, sleep with, and dream about.
Patriarchy at its best, the strongest, the meanest, the cruelest. The worst of the worst lead the Empire, control and oppress their people, spy, manipulate, and induce paranoia in all the citizens.
Imagine a Soviet era-inspired space empire, with unlimited power, military, finance, and the ability to eavesdrop on literally anyone. No one is safe from scrutiny, not even a high-ranking party wife.
Recently widowed Katherine becomes disillusioned with the regime. Her husband’s death leaves her inheriting quite a fortune. A restless and grieving wife decides to spend it unwisely on an independent planet state. The party oligarchy cannot be happy with her choices.
A young, promising sledge driver signs a contract with the horrible Empire without thinking through the consequences. He’s in it for the love of racing, doesn’t even bother to read the contract. In Leonis certain predilections are not allowed, and Julian lets his heart do the thinking for him.
A disgrace detective with an alcohol problem wakes up between a rock of the Ministry of Interior and a hard place of the Ministry of Information. Two formidable opponents trying to discredit and destroy each other, using the homicide detectives as pawns for their own game. Cyprian doesn’t stand a chance, but giving up means permanently losing his two lovely children, sent to a re-education camp.
A terrific journey into the world of tyranny and persecution. Pater Aeternus rewards productivity and kills indiscriminately. The only way to survive is to stay quiet, pull your weight, and hope you won’t get punished by accident. Freedom of thought is nonexistent; having seditious thoughts is enough to get you executed. Stratification limiting everyone but the luckiest and most malelable. Three perspectives on the abusive government. Three fights against the system. Some succeed in getting back up to the surface, some are ground to dust. One man behind the scheme, pulling the right strings, with a surprising goal in mind.
Step into the universe run by madmen, bent on destroying independent thinking, dissecting citizens. rights and freedoms, controlling who they talk to, sleep with, and dream about.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
4.5/5
“To live these lives of endless malignance, even as one within the inner circle, meant permanent mental exhaustion. The energy required to cultivate this rancour had to have been killing them, flooding their bodies with cortisol, fraying their arteries and their hearts.” p.266
“Paeter Aeternus is a cancer of the galaxy, and the Decurion Empire is its metastasis.” p.332
“In a strange and unsettling way he could see the attraction of it. Where he was now, it marked him out as a member of an elite club: The Party. He might of found the pageantry of Pater Aeternus appealing—might have surrendered to its ostensible charms. That was what they were good at. Making you feel special and included, to the exclusion of the masses. They preyed on that human desire to belong, to have one’s innate feelings of exceptionalism validated.”
“Pater Aeternus seemed to revel in spending human lives like money. Part of this was undoubtedly a nightmarish form of control; the much larger reason was that Pater Aeternus was simply bad at what it did. Despite outward appearances, it was outmoded, wasteful, and inefficient. The intelligent and talented ended up being killed, or sent for re-education, and those responsible for governing the Empire were stupid, selfish, and ambitious to a fault. The whole of the Decurion Empire was like a collective, hallucinogenic self-delusion, a nation which could only exist for as long as everybody believed that no alternative was possible. It was a place ripe for destruction, and when it failed, it would fail both massively and at the speed of light.” p.258
“Pater Aeternus was so busy suppressing its people that its infrastructure was crumbling.”
She laughed, a brittle, hopeless sound. “They can’t make you? Look at you. Look at where you are. Look at who you’re sitting next to. They made us fuck. You were raped—by the state. Pater Aeternus can make us do anything they want. I refuse to believe you are this naive. I know you are not this stupid.”
“To live these lives of endless malignance, even as one within the inner circle, meant permanent mental exhaustion. The energy required to cultivate this rancour had to have been killing them, flooding their bodies with cortisol, fraying their arteries and their hearts.” p.266
“Paeter Aeternus is a cancer of the galaxy, and the Decurion Empire is its metastasis.” p.332
“In a strange and unsettling way he could see the attraction of it. Where he was now, it marked him out as a member of an elite club: The Party. He might of found the pageantry of Pater Aeternus appealing—might have surrendered to its ostensible charms. That was what they were good at. Making you feel special and included, to the exclusion of the masses. They preyed on that human desire to belong, to have one’s innate feelings of exceptionalism validated.”
“Pater Aeternus seemed to revel in spending human lives like money. Part of this was undoubtedly a nightmarish form of control; the much larger reason was that Pater Aeternus was simply bad at what it did. Despite outward appearances, it was outmoded, wasteful, and inefficient. The intelligent and talented ended up being killed, or sent for re-education, and those responsible for governing the Empire were stupid, selfish, and ambitious to a fault. The whole of the Decurion Empire was like a collective, hallucinogenic self-delusion, a nation which could only exist for as long as everybody believed that no alternative was possible. It was a place ripe for destruction, and when it failed, it would fail both massively and at the speed of light.” p.258
“Pater Aeternus was so busy suppressing its people that its infrastructure was crumbling.”
She laughed, a brittle, hopeless sound. “They can’t make you? Look at you. Look at where you are. Look at who you’re sitting next to. They made us fuck. You were raped—by the state. Pater Aeternus can make us do anything they want. I refuse to believe you are this naive. I know you are not this stupid.”
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
An astonishing and intelligent masterpiece of science fiction.
Three lives begin to collide in a tightly controlled galactic empire built on surveillance and absolute authority. As their paths intertwine with each character more and more, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice for freedom, power, and survival.
Swan continues to blow me away with his masterful world building. He finds a way to make the world so much more then just a back drop to build upon. Instead the world becomes the engine that moves the entire story. The civilization he creates feels vast, suffocating, and very eerily plausible. He focuses on so much more then just the battles, he gives us the power structures, the bureaucracy as well as the legal and economic systems designed to reinforce control over its citizens.
Character development is another strong point in this work. The characters seem to evolve under pressure in uncomfortable and morally gray ways so there is no clear hero. What stands out is how these characters choices and decisions affect each other. They seem to collide into one another, reshaping, and complicating one another’s lives. They are never just reacting they are being shaped by it.
This is a very dense and complex novel so be prepared. Swan is not just building a story here he is building a society from scratch. How its governed, and its economics as well as technology and culture. This isn’t a casual read, it will demand attention. It’s the kind of book that rewards patience and if you enjoy thoughtful, idea-driven sci-fi with political and philosophical storytelling, the payoff is 1000% worth the demand.
Overall, Infinite State is a bold, uncompromising, and unforgettable start to what promises to be an extraordinary series. This will not be for everyone but for the right reader, it’s deeply rewarding reading experience.
Three lives begin to collide in a tightly controlled galactic empire built on surveillance and absolute authority. As their paths intertwine with each character more and more, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice for freedom, power, and survival.
Swan continues to blow me away with his masterful world building. He finds a way to make the world so much more then just a back drop to build upon. Instead the world becomes the engine that moves the entire story. The civilization he creates feels vast, suffocating, and very eerily plausible. He focuses on so much more then just the battles, he gives us the power structures, the bureaucracy as well as the legal and economic systems designed to reinforce control over its citizens.
Character development is another strong point in this work. The characters seem to evolve under pressure in uncomfortable and morally gray ways so there is no clear hero. What stands out is how these characters choices and decisions affect each other. They seem to collide into one another, reshaping, and complicating one another’s lives. They are never just reacting they are being shaped by it.
This is a very dense and complex novel so be prepared. Swan is not just building a story here he is building a society from scratch. How its governed, and its economics as well as technology and culture. This isn’t a casual read, it will demand attention. It’s the kind of book that rewards patience and if you enjoy thoughtful, idea-driven sci-fi with political and philosophical storytelling, the payoff is 1000% worth the demand.
Overall, Infinite State is a bold, uncompromising, and unforgettable start to what promises to be an extraordinary series. This will not be for everyone but for the right reader, it’s deeply rewarding reading experience.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
It’s always a good day when Richard Swan comes out with a new book! As I understand it, he has written science fiction before. I’m more familiar with his Empire of the Wolf and Great Silence trilogies, and I was really looking forward to see this side of his writing and world building.
The Infinite State takes place on a planet with a totalitarian government with heavy censorship and strict social classes. While it’s much less gory and grimdark than the other works I’ve read by Swan, the government oppression is more than dark enough to make up the difference. The main characters followed in the story both suffer and benefit from the status quo in different ways, but they all have their own breaking points with the empire. It’s inherently heavy on the politicking, but not overwhelmingly so.
Swan’s character work is still top-notch with every perspective feeling distinct and authentic. There are a lot of moving pieces in this galaxy he’s created, but I never felt overwhelmed with the world building or technologies involved. At this point, Swan is an auto-buy author for me, and I’m happy to say that I like his science fiction just as much as his fantasy work.
The Infinite State takes place on a planet with a totalitarian government with heavy censorship and strict social classes. While it’s much less gory and grimdark than the other works I’ve read by Swan, the government oppression is more than dark enough to make up the difference. The main characters followed in the story both suffer and benefit from the status quo in different ways, but they all have their own breaking points with the empire. It’s inherently heavy on the politicking, but not overwhelmingly so.
Swan’s character work is still top-notch with every perspective feeling distinct and authentic. There are a lot of moving pieces in this galaxy he’s created, but I never felt overwhelmed with the world building or technologies involved. At this point, Swan is an auto-buy author for me, and I’m happy to say that I like his science fiction just as much as his fantasy work.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
As a fan of Richard Swan's work I was excited to pick this one up. This book had everything I've come to love about Swan's writing, a well built world that feels very real, and characters that are both likeable and relatable (some of them anyway). I struggled a little with the subject matter in this book. I love being transported to other worlds when I read, and Swan is able to do this for me every time. I think the problem here was that this story doesn't feel impossible. It feels like the worst case scenario for where our world could be headed, not quite Handmaids Tale, but the beginnings of it perhaps. For this reason, and this reason alone I didn't find this as enjoyable as other works of his. What I really enjoyed, and kept me reading, was watching how some of the most unlikely of people (according to the society in this story) were able to not only see what was wrong with their world, but have the strength and courage to try and make a batter life not just for themselves, but for anyone who wanted it.
Review of advance copy received from Shelf Awareness Pro
This book was fantastic. I've never read anything by this author but I'm an immediate fan and will be buying everything he's written. This book is what I can desribe as like a fantasy/sci-fi/thriller. Red Rising vibeish, but not-it's still very very unique. Action packed from page one and not a single dull moment. The writing itself is also superb- intelligent. Worldbuilding and character building was also perfection. It kept me guessing and I loved that I didn't always know all the characters true motives or loyalties. I'll be watching for the second and third in the series. I think this book would appeal to Fantasy, thrillers, mystery and sci-fi people- Thank you so very much to TOR Publishing and Shelf-Awareness for the Advanced Reader Copy. This was a truly a really fun read.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Interesting premise but very dry uninspiring prose - even the action scenes feel scripted and there is something quite artificial about the whole setup - on the one hand an all knowing dictatorship, on the other almost independent ministries, and the whole super wealthy elite buying planets felt like a contrivance to make the plot possible. The jaded cop, the spoiled racer and the ambiguous minister of information were the bright spots and kept me reading, but while I may check the necessary sequel, I am not convinced I will continue with the series.
Overall interesting premise and potential but very unengaging execution
Overall interesting premise and potential but very unengaging execution
November 14, 2025
Star Wars meets 1928 meets The Expanse meets Brave New World.
This is a terrific dystopian sci-fi novel because the people and government are believably evil. There are reasons behind their that make sense for an authoritarian galactic empire, but also for the nation-states of today. It’s not evil for evils sake, it is cool and calculated evil.
The hero’s are not paragons of justice or holiness either, they are flawed, and again, believable. A fantastic read, I am already looking forward to more books in the series!
This is a terrific dystopian sci-fi novel because the people and government are believably evil. There are reasons behind their that make sense for an authoritarian galactic empire, but also for the nation-states of today. It’s not evil for evils sake, it is cool and calculated evil.
The hero’s are not paragons of justice or holiness either, they are flawed, and again, believable. A fantastic read, I am already looking forward to more books in the series!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This took me a while to get into at first, but the more I read the harder it was to put down. I did have trouble keeping the various evil bureaucrats separated, they all kind of blended together for me and were cartoonishly over the top at times. But I really liked all 3 POVs and enjoyed the twists and turns. I’ll definitely be reading future books in the series as they’re released.
If you liked The Expanse series and/or really enjoyed playing world building strategy games like StarCraft, you should definitely read this… if you didn’t do either of those things, read it anyways, it rocks.
If you liked The Expanse series and/or really enjoyed playing world building strategy games like StarCraft, you should definitely read this… if you didn’t do either of those things, read it anyways, it rocks.
Read
April 13, 2026I enjoyed this more than I expected. The world building is actually really creative, and there are some moments that stick with you long after reading. The way the “infinite state” idea unfolds is clever, even if a few sections drag a bit or get too abstract. I did wish the pacing was a little tighter, especially in the middle, but overall it kept me engaged. Definitely a solid read for fans of thought provoking sci-fi.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC :)
1984 meets Speed Racer meets Blade Runner- I loved it. Not sure if this is Swan's first sci-fi, but it's pretty incredible that an author can so perfectly write Grimdark and science fiction. While it did take a few chapters to really get into, I ended up loving the deep philosophical conversations, action-packed racing scenes, and battles (three things you don't find any most stories). Can't wait to see where this series goes.
1984 meets Speed Racer meets Blade Runner- I loved it. Not sure if this is Swan's first sci-fi, but it's pretty incredible that an author can so perfectly write Grimdark and science fiction. While it did take a few chapters to really get into, I ended up loving the deep philosophical conversations, action-packed racing scenes, and battles (three things you don't find any most stories). Can't wait to see where this series goes.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This is an ARC that I received from NetGalley.
At only 15% in, this book is giving me serious George Orwell's 1984 vibes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. 🤔
I'm not a fan of the Dystopian type of science fiction. But...this book is keeping me wanting to know what will happen to each of the main characters.
You can read my full review here: https://rottiegirl-2.blogspot.com/202...
At only 15% in, this book is giving me serious George Orwell's 1984 vibes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. 🤔
I'm not a fan of the Dystopian type of science fiction. But...this book is keeping me wanting to know what will happen to each of the main characters.
You can read my full review here: https://rottiegirl-2.blogspot.com/202...
April 21, 2026
Good world building, likeable main characters but just didn’t enjoy. Felt quite a drag the majority of the time.
Richard Swan is a great author, just maybe not for me.
Thank you Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review
Richard Swan is a great author, just maybe not for me.
Thank you Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review
January 31, 2026
Epic! I need book 2 right now!
Want to Read
March 20, 2026dnf
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Gorgeously understated writing.
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