Veiled Empire

Sundered World #1

by Nathan Garrison

The Empire is Shrouded, not only by the barrier that covers the land, but by the lies and oppression of the mierothi regime. Magic is the privilege of the elite, and the people of this shadowed country have forgotten what it means to hope under their rule.

But there are some who would resist, with plans put into motion millennia before. For returned to the Empire is a valynkar, servant of the god of light, and with him come the strength and cunning that could tip the scales to end the Emperor's reign. He has gathered a group of heroes ready to ignite the flame of rebellion and fight against the dark power that has ruled for nearly two thousand years. A power that has champions of its own.

Nathan Garrison's Veiled Empire throws a mythical land into chaos, with races long thought forgotten, and magics only just discovered. Steel and sorcery clash as brave souls vie for freedom and control in this astonishing debut novel.

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Star Trek Voyager, Adult

560 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 26, 2015

About the author

I have two great boys and an awesome wife who is way more supportive of my writing efforts than I deserve. I love playing guitar (the louder the better), cooking (the more bacon-y the better), playing board/video/card games with friends and family, and reveling in unadulterated geekery.

Born in 1983, I've been writing stories since my dad bought our first family computer. I grew up on tales of the fantastic. From Narnia and Middle-Earth to a galaxy far, far away, I've always harbored a love for things only imagination can conjure up. I count it among the greatest joys of my life to be able to share the stories within me.

Reviews

[Bookwraiths]

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths.

My rating is 3.5 stars.

Veiled Empire is an ambitious story filled with complex characters, twisting plots, and more than enough action to keep every fantasy fan satisfied. In short, this is a book which aims for the moon, and even though it misses slightly it still lands among the stars.

From page one, Nathan Garrison drops readers into the middle of a quickly escalating rebellion. The mierothi hegemony over the world has stood unchallenged for millennia, protected by the Shroud above and by their iron grip on all magic, but now a serious challenge to their control has arisen, led by a mysterious leader whose motives seem pure and whose cunning seems beyond compare. The revolt which he unleashes well planned, far reaching and quick to gain more and more momentum.

Sent out to help crush the rebellion in its supposed infancy is the savage, brutal, and efficient Mevon, a magically augmented and highly trained killer of magic users. He and his hand chosen soldiers closing in on a group of mages in a search and destroy type mission. However, soon, Mevon’s unshakable confidence in his invulnerability and purpose in life are rocked to their very core!

Meanwhile, the leaders of the revolution begin to come into focus. They are mysterious, powerful, and determined to destroy the tyranny of the mierothi. But behind the noblest of purposes lie less altruistic motives, waiting to slowly bubble to the surface and affect everyone they lead.

Within the heart of the mierothi empire, there lie two friends from different worlds: Voren the valynkar, and his unlikely friend Draevenus, a mierothi assassin. The two drawn apart by their parts in the swirling events of the revolution. Voren’s life as a prisoner in a gilded cage quickly turning into a turning point in his life; his desire to survive warring with his guilt at his past betrayals. Draevenus also is torn, setting out on a shadowy mission to right age old wrongs and perhaps find a path to redemption for his part in his races enslavement of a world.

While all that sounds damn good, I have to admit completely overlooking Veiled Empire when it was released. My assumption being that this book/series was yet another generic fantasy/sword and sorcery hybrid which would travel along familiar trope lines and offer nothing new. Little did I know that Nathan Garrison had something more in store, determined to push the envelope, mixing and matching magic and combat, intrigue and characterization, world building and stunning twists until he had created a new flavor of fantasy. And I have to say I liked it quite a lot.

Like always, it all began with the characters themselves; several of whom I quickly grew to like and empathized with, wanting to know more about their past and their motives. Definitely, a few seemed a bit overpowered at times, or their sudden change of personality seemed a bit dubious, but overall, I felt Nathan Garrison did an outstanding job of creating realistic people whose differences were noticeable and did affect their choices and behavior throughout.

I also immensely enjoyed the world building. The mierothi empire was filled with a rich history, which — while only hinted at in broad ways — was still was very tantalizing, especially the ancient past before the Shroud sprang into existence; unique races populated the landscape; and the magic which permeates this place was realistic, powerful, and used in some cool ways. Now, I’m not suggesting the magic system itself is in the same category as Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn or anything, but, at least, the author built in enough quirks and surprises to keep it interesting throughout, which I can’t always say for some fantasy offerings.

Above and beyond all these great things though is the twisting, turning plot which Nathan Garrison weaves, especially regarding a few characters. This trio and their choices keeping a reader guessing throughout the narrative, wondering what they are hiding, what their true motives are, and when another subtle but significant twist is going to happen, causing the tale to speed off in unlooked for direction. Call it Game of Thrones lite or whatever, but I found it all really entertaining.

The only real complaint I have with this book was the characterization of two characters. I won’t go into details for fear of spoiling anything, but I just have to say that their sudden change of heart never felt very compelling or realistic. Yeah, reasons for the changes were provided, but they did not ring true to me.

All in all, Veiled Empire was a pleasant surprise. It was a novel I read without any preconceived expectations of its brilliance, and it turned me into a fan of its exciting fantasy/sword and sorcery style, tantalizing me with brutal combat, vicious intrigue, and more than a few touching moments. Will others enjoy it as much as I did? Can’t say for sure, but I do think more people should give it a try and see what they think of it.

[T. Frohock]

I could have sworn that I rated and reviewed this book shortly after I read it. I remember writing the review and now it's gone ... weird.

It's been a while since I've read it, but I recommend this book to people who enjoy Rothfuss's work. The story has some very neat twists, and it is simply a good solid fantasy.

[T. Frohock]

This was one of the most enjoyable stories I've read this year. The characters and story struck just the right balance between epic and grimdark for me. Garrison also quite cleverly subverted a few tropes along the way.

Beware the blessings! I loved the scene that described the blessings, but I think what I liked best was how Garrison explored the ideology of accepting belief systems without question, and also, the lies we tell ourselves to get by one more day. A solid story with excellent characters. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle.

[Pratik Amin]

I was really surprised by this book, reading the description I didn't really know what to expect and jumping into new world by a new author is always a little daunting. I initially picked it up from the /r/Fantasy Self-Promotion thread to give it a try while waiting for other books to come out but ended up getting engrossed in the plot.

I really enjoyed the story of the book, the characters were well written with a few of them being much more complex than others. For example I felt like Voren and his counterparts character progress throughout the story was much more detailed than Mevon. The pacing was also good and kept my interest throughout, I especially enjoyed the way the book brought together all of the plot points in the last act of the book.

The chapter structure is a bit strange, multiple POV's within the same chapter which may not be everyone's favorite structure. There were minor formatting issues in my ebook version as well (no gaps between changes in POV). Some characters were fairly overpowered and when these characters are put in more dangerous situations near the end of the book it feels like real because up to that point they had just been crushing all their opponents.

Overall I enjoyed this book quite a bit and would definitely recommend it.

[Denise Hallauer]

Review can also be found on my blog.

Seriously one of my favorite fantasy books I have read this year. The world building is complex, the characters are complex, the plot is complex, and everything is just simply amazingly done. As soon as I finished I immediately tweeted Garrison asking if there was going to be more, because I NEED MORE BOOKS IN THIS WORLD, I am hoping Harper Voyager green lights them because seriously this world is amazing. This book is amazing. I finished reading this book at the beginning of May and I’ve held off writing my review in hopes that I’d become less flaily and more insightful but that’s clearly not happening. I don’t want to talk too much about what happens in the book, there is a lot that happens and I always worry about spoiling people. I don’t like to be spoiled, so I don’t like to spoil others. If you like complex and well built high fantasy novels, with AMAZING characters then you definitely should check this one out, Garrison has a wonderful debut novel and I definitely will be checking out more of his work.

I received an ARC of this book from Harper Voyager on Edelweiss. This in no way affected my review.

[Snowleesi]

This book can be summed up this: incredible world-building and weak characterization. Unfortunately, engrossing characters is what makes me care about a story and in this case, I found none that would meet the requirement. In fact, I found a lot of the characters' actions inexplicable and unsupported by way of internal voice. The world building is impressive, but in a way only used to provide lengthy descriptions of military action, extended discussions of strategy and tactics. That's the kind of narrative that puts me to sleep, so - DNF. But i made it to 299 pages which is past the half-way point before I gave up - that's a testament to a lot of good stuff in this novel, just not enough great.

[Melanie]

(Read this review in the voice of Stefon from SNL.)

Fantasy's hottest new title is Veiled Empire. This book has EVERYTHING: bloodlust, romance, vengeance, magic, gods, tyrants, secret plots, surprise twists, you name it!

This book slams your eyeballs into the back of your head on page one and it doesn't stop till it's over. The characters are solid, the world is richly (but not overwhelmingly) detailed, and the plot lines are complicated enough to keep you on your toes, but not enough to confuse you. There are enough pauses for strategizing and poignant relationship moments to prevent the reader from getting actioned-out... but then, MOAR ACTION!

If you want a face-paced, in-your-face fantasy read, this is the book for you!

[Dan Koboldt]

An engrossing fantasy read! The empire in question lies beneath a "shroud" In two ways: first, the oppressive regime of the mierothi, a powerful race of mages. And second, a physical barrier that helps them keep and consolidate their power. But there's a resistance gaining momentum, and chinks appear in the emperor's iron grip on the land.
Pros: Immersive world building and lovely prose
Cons: Not for the faint of heart. The body count starts on page one.
If you enjoy grim dark fantasy in the vein of Malazan Book of the Fallen and The Grisha Trilogy, this book is for you.

[David Pomerico]

I edited this book, so super-biased, but I truly think it's one of the best fantasy novels to cross my desk in a long, long time. Do yourself a favor and try it out. It stands alone, has a great mix of darkness and more traditional sword-and-sorcery elements, and is an incredibly well-written debut.

[Mark Wilson]

I turned in a shorter review of this book to my library for a chance to win a prize from them even though I wanted to get reading again, but I'll go more in-depth here.

The book started out promising. The premise was a nice hook and right away I got a glimpse of how awe-inspiring the world they live in is. I could definitely tell there is a lot of lore that went behind this book, so on that front I do commend that Nathan Garrison did his research. Actually, what was said about The Cataclysm, The Shroud, The Shelf, and many other aspects about the actual Veiled Empire gave it life, so I really wanted to enjoy this book. Build an imaginative world and you can draw your reader in, and the same can be said for interesting premises.

However, I do have to warn you, as I read through this book, I liked it less and less and even as I was getting near the end I was on the edge of whether or not I'd want to recommend this book. Yet once I finished the last page of the epilogue, my thoughts and verdicts were clear: I ended up not caring for this book at all and wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone at all. See, although the world-building was great, the character development was subpar and there are a few more bones I have to pick with this book. When the book began, I had high hopes that the characters we were given would develop into something memorable and that I'd have a reason to root for these characters. That being said, many of these characters felt like they were either filler or wooden, maybe even both. This is not the entirety of the reason, but it's a good part as to why I just ended up having a hard time caring about the fates of anyone in the book. I never shed a tear for anyone or anything, none of the relationships meshed well with me, and no one was really memorable.

There was a scene in Chapter 4 when the nurse has Voren and Rekaj bless a baby with their blood I wanna say? Regardless, the only thing I took away from it is that when it was Rekaj's turn to bless the baby, all I could imagine was Bagheera from The Jungle Book snorting crack cocaine. No matter how you see the scene, it was sickening and didn't really add anything to the characters although it did give an insight as to how the mierothi can continue to last as an empire.

It wasn't all bad even as I read on because there are other aspects of the novel to enjoy. Although not perfect, the set-up for some parts of the novel such as the final battle are well-done at times and honestly, the chapter before the final battle, I did feel like I was reading on the eve of a storm as all pre-climatic battle chapters should. I also happened to learn after reading that this book does symbolize what Russia and Uzbekistan might have been like during Soviet times. If that is truly the case, then kudos to you Garrison for making that symbolism subtle!

But even with the good aspects of the build-up in this story, there were other aspects in the story that come so far out of left base that if it were the pitcher plate in a baseball game, what would be a home run would instead be a foul ball to the right. The end of Chapter 6 was the first of several examples of this, and much of Jasside's story arc is another example. Oh, and Mevon has some annoyingly irrational changes of character throughout that just makes his character into a complete and utter mess. At least Gilshamed's character is fairly understandable throughout the entire book, but saying that about Gilshamed would be like saying a movie is the best in its series of movies even though it was only an alright movie on its own.

Now, although I did not care who lived and who died, there were some scenes in the book that makes The Walking Dead jealous. There are multiple fake-out deaths throughout the book (I won't give out spoilers for those), and I happened to be impressed with a grand total of none of them. They were either ridiculous or made me wonder why certain characters were ever put in danger to begin with. It might not be the only thing that made this book implausible, but it was one of my biggest reasons as to why I felt this was not a believable book. Actually, after I learned that this is a trilogy and read the synopsis for both sequels, it actually made me wonder whether or not there was actually a point o this book at all because it seems to me like there wasn't.

These last two reasons tied together to form another negative about this book: WTF was UP with the decision-making on some of these characters!? Did the author completely forget about his own writing later on in the book? There is nothing in how some of these characters are introduced that would lead me to believe they'd make a decision that they do later on in the same book. This happens on multiple occasions mind you, and it further makes me question what the point was to some of these characters (Gilshamed might actually be the only exception to this rule). If you need an example, look no further than Mevon's entire story arc. Mevon's entire existence is all just one decision that sends him to meandering direction upon meandering direction. Oh, and if that weren't enough, I felt like the entire epilogue was entirely unnecessary and should have been cut when this book was getting ready to be published. I would have much rather had seen the epilogue at least wait until the second book to come out so that the end of the first book could have at least been open-ended in case more novels didn't get published (it eventually became a trilogy, but I had no hint of that while I was reading this book).

Lastly from a character standpoint, there were some characters whose very existences I despised from their first page. Vashodia comes to mind as a perfect example of this. The way she talks makes think of a witch whose sole purpose is to annoy the ever-living shit out of me. Same goes with Pael or whatever that kid's name is. Oh, and listening to Voren's point of view became a chore after a while because although I get why he's so sullen, the way he thinks bugged me for quite a bit of the 543-page novel.

Now, here comes the part when I talk about the length. The main story in of itself is 543 pages. If Garrison's task was to daunt the reader, I'm not easily tricked despite his effort. Yes, I does take 40 pages to get through Chapter 1, and there is one chapter that spans for 79 pages, but the copy of this book I checked out was pretty small in size despite its length. See, I've compared word counts in the past and found an average paperback copy might contain somewhere close to 350 words per page. I counted the number of words for a page of this book and came up with 267 words on one of its wordier pages (another wordy page had even fewer at 258). This leads me to believe that this shouldn't be over 500 pages at all. If this book had 350 words in a page like an average book might, we'd be seeing a book whose page counts come a lot closer to 400. Still by all means a novel, but not anywhere near the might it would have you believe it to be. Basically if you can read a 400-page novel, you can read this but don't think that just because you can read this that you can read another 500+-page novel.


At the end of the day, it isn't a terrible book, but it should definitely be approached with caution. Don't set your expectations too high, don't be daunted by it, and by no means bother trying to connect with most of these characters. Just take it for what it is with a grain of salt and you might be satisfied.

[Ingrid Seymour]

This was an absorbing fantasy with a satisfying end that should appeal to readers of the genre who seek a moving, ticking plot. From the beginning you are thrown into Garrison’s rich world and the lives and machinations of his diverse characters. Introspection and background relevant to the story are dealt to the reader when they become relevant, so no long info-dumps that can be the death of fantasy novels.

The story is told from 6 different POV’s (I think I’m counting correctly) which makes for an intricate read of interlacing motivations and schemes. Although the twists and turns might be somewhat confusing in the beginning given the number of POV’s and the richness of the world and shared pasts of several of the characters, the novel slowly grows and delights you with its complexity. Be warned, you might weep for some of your favorite characters as Garrison plays with them like a cat with a mouse. You might also end up highlighting many of the beautifully written sentences. Highly recommended!

[Normalene]

I liked it but it seemed very derivative as there were bits from Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Mark T. Barnes (one of my faves), Jenna Rhodes (another fave) and several others, however what he did with those bits was cool. I finished it and I'll read the next one but I can't say I loved it so much that I would recommend it to everyone. It was a good epic fantasy with good world building and some funny characters but it irritates me when characters go off thinking they know what happened when they are wrong and if the whole plot hangs on that then it can go wrong so many different ways.

[Lulu248]

Nice stand alone epic fantasy. Interesting set up, a bit weak on character building, though.

[Brian Palmer]

Epic, action filled fantasy dealing with a rebellion of slaves against a tyrannical race of dark sorcerors. Thousands of years ago, the Mierothi, a race that had been granted incredible powers by a dark god raised a veil almost completely cutting off their empire from the outside world. Left with none under the veil able to stand up to them, they have engineered an incredible society, assisted by the half-breed caste daeloth and magic-immune warriors.

But for every race of immortal dark sorcerers, surely there is a race of immortal light sorcerers; moreover, it's possible some of the empire's loyal subjects aren't as loyal as all that. Millennia of planning has gone into building a revolution, just needing a spark to set it off. And perhaps the years of peace have blunted the edge of the meirothi ...

This was readable and smooth reading, that put a lot of effort into the physical fighting with hints about a very elaborate backstory. However, there were no *amazing* scenes in it; the very first battle was the most exciting, but most of the others felt like more of the same. Certainly not as good at dynamic action as some other series, but the politics felt slightly more realized here. If there had to be a trade-off, it was decently made.

I certainly enjoy this sort of epic fantasy, so on the basis of this I've already picked up the rest of the trilogy.

[Emily Fields]

This was a solid 3.8 for me.

It took me a good hundred pages to get the different people and races straight. It's an extensive world build that is sometimes hard to follow.

Having said that, the story is wonderfully fun, the characters are multi-faceted and interesting, and I'll gladly pick up the sequel.

[Dean Marquis]

Im started reading this book and im having trouble finding what its about. There an Empire and Revolutionary's fine ;however, the sentence structure is great and the use of adjectives and adverbs makes up for any Morality problems that are usually associated with Fantasy Novels. I kept of reading and am looking forward to reading the
2nd Novel.

[David]

I really hate writing scathing reviews. I know the authors work hard on their books. And they've actually successfully published them, which alone deserves a hat tip - it's a tough industry.

That being said, this book drove me crazy. There were seeds of some good ideas, an interesting world, and some pretty good fight sequences.

So why only two stars? The main character acts...shall we say erratically? It's actually impossible to explain my problem without spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Okay, so Mevon in the opening pages is this nasty sick twisted assassin who enjoys slaughtering people. He enjoys the spray of blood, savagely and brutally slaughtering his way through people right up until he's captured. I actually initially really liked his character. Then all of a sudden, there's an I'm your father moment and suddenly he's sort of a nice guy who's also an awesome fighter. I got whiplash. I actually went back and re-read the section. I really thought I had missed something. It gets worse, suddenly he starts having feelings for the sorceress that happens and I feel like I'm reading an extremely violent young adult novel. But she clearly hates him. But wait, she doesn't, 'cause suddenly she is jealous of the GUY WHO SLAUGHTERED HER BROTHER A FEW DAYS AGO hanging out with another girl (okay fine, so technically some amount of time passes while they wander through some caves...it still just doesn't feel right). I just...it doesn't make sense. None of it does. He doesn't. She doesn't.

I just think I'm going to have to give up on this book. I haven't actually finished it. On the positive side, the world is interesting and the multiple factions who seem to have their own agendas are somewhat intriguing, but the ridiculousness of the characters' behavior (see the spoilers) just keep distracting me and breaking the immersion. I'm a little sad actually, it had potential.

[Robert Mullin]

Nathan Garrison’s debut novel is a tale of large-scale war and magic, told largely from the perspective of beings with godlike powers and lifespans. The challenge of this premise is what one might expect, and that is the risk of losing sight of the “common man” element. In this, Garrison both fails and succeeds. Fails, because most of the common people of this story tend to be on the periphery, the mass victims or benefactors of the events. Succeeds, because even the characters we would consider immortals are human to the core, with understandable motivations and sympathetic emotions.

Garrison’s tale is largely what-you-see-is-what-you-get, devoid of deeper themes or powerful spiritual resonance. Despite this and one of the least credible romances I have ever read, I look forward to reading the next book. With his no-frills prose and action packed scenes, Garrison manages to do what many authors of epic fantasy fail to do: make the reader turn the pages quickly, and continue to do so until the end of the book.

[Rachelle]

An epic fantasy about the line between justice and revenge, questioning authority, courage in the face of probable failure, family loyalty, the lure of power, and redemption. I skimmed the book, feeling as if I jumped into a series in mid-story. There is complex world-building and character development, with a huge cast of characters and strong weight of history. So many characters are not who they appear, or change during the course of the story.

[Miguel]

No lo terminé, en unas pocas páginas me di cuenta que vendieron una idea que no era lo que presenta el libro.
No le puedo dar más estrellas, por que si bien las sorpresas existen, esta no me enganchó. Y si alguien piensa que es malo, yo no lo sé, ni quise averiguarlo.