Erin M. Evans’ new novel Empire of Exiles is a story that very much feels at home among polyhedral dice and saving throws, but to call it “just a DnD novel” would be reductive and short-sighted; Evans’ long list of credits working in the world of Dungeons & Dragons means she knows how to tell a damn good story. And let me tell you, Empire of Exiles is a damn good story, through and through. With a deep and rich world of Evans’ own devising, characters that leap off the page in their realness and complexity, and magic that has never made me feel so seen, this is not a novel to miss.
Semilla is the only nation left standing after a devastating and brutal war against a people known as the Changelings. Cut off from the rest of the world by a massive wall of salt, a mineral known to keep away Changelings, Semilla took in refugees from other nations. The ripples of history are long, and a failed coup from twenty-seven years prior is about to have dire ramifications for the world. Witness to an unprecedented murder, holding artifacts that could spell doom for Semilla, and under the wing of magicians with secrets, Quill is about to get more than he bargained for when he first came to the Archives.
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Empire of Exiles
Evans hits the ground running, introducing the readers to several narrative hat tricks. With a frame story set in the past and a present that hops between several intriguing characters, Evans creates a nuanced mystery. While this is a dense and complex world, full of history and magic and lore and relationships, Evans never doles out too much at once. The narrative is easy to follow, even while all the strands of the murder mystery begin to pile up.
Evans is no stranger to balancing a large cast and a unique world, and her writing talent is on full display here. She smartly gives everyone in her cast a chance to bring their own perspective to the story at large: the murder mystery is handled mainly by Inspector Richa, details about the world’s magic falls to the young, nervous ink-mage Yinii, history and lore to Head Archivist Amadea (who has secrets of her own), and Quill embodies a sense of layman wonder and confusion, trying to hang on for dear life as the world moves around him.
Layered through all of this intrigue and character relationships is one of my favorite fantasy worlds in some time. Evans’s original world is packed to the brim with detail and lore, taking ideas that seem disparate and weaving them together to make something unique, intriguing, and beautiful and terrifying in equal measures. You can tell that this sharply written novel is not just smart, but also that Evans was having the time of her life writing it. Using her roots in DnD, you can see certain touchstones in the evocative denizens of this world: the horned, three-eyed beings from Orozhandi or the tentacled, aggressive Ashtabari, like deep-sea centaur folk. Her take on Changelings plucks the best from various fae mythologies across our own world, creating a terrifying people with aversions to iron and salt. And the magic of this world, where those born with affinity can develop and hone their magic centered around natural materials such as ink, wood, glass, bronze, and more, is so intriguing. In the afterword, Evans said she had written this magic around an anxiety disorder; as someone with anxiety myself, I felt very seen by these hyperfocused mages, each powerful in their own right, who lost control and spiraled deeper into their magic the closer they approached the time of year when they were most powerful. I’m very curious to see how Evans continues to develop this already rich world in her next installment.
Empire of Exiles really does have everything going for it. From a satisfying and twisty murder mystery to complicated and complex character relationships, set amidst a really unique and deep secondary world, I’m already excited to dive into the sequel. Quill makes an excellent, youthful protagonist catching up to all of the intricate history and espionage around him, and his companions Yinii, Amadea, and Richa each bring a fantastic perspective to the tangled web that Evans weaves. If you’ve been looking for that novel that sings in the key of DnD but is its own unique and engaging read, this is the one to pick up.
Empire of Exiles is published by Orbit.
Martin Cahill is a writer living in Queens who works as the Marketing and Publicity Manager for Erewhon Books. He has fiction work forthcoming in 2021 at Serial Box, as well as Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Fireside Fiction. Martin has also written book reviews and essays for Book Riot, Strange Horizons, and the Barnes and Noble SF&F Blog. Follow him online at @mcflycahill90 and his new Substack newsletter, Weathervane, for thoughts on books, gaming, and other wonderfully nerdy whatnots.
