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Empires of Dust #3
The House of Sacrifice
Marith's power is growing. His empire stretches across half the world, and allies are flocking to his banner to share the spoils of war. With Thalia ruling at his side they are unstoppable.
But Marith is become increasingly mentally unstable and their victories cannot continue forever.
But Marith is become increasingly mentally unstable and their victories cannot continue forever.
480 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2019
42 people are currently reading
1379 people want to read
About the author
Anna Smith Spark
28 books925 followers'Game of Literary Thrones ... the next generation hit fantasy fiction' The Sunday Times
Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.
Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
May 6, 2020
Anna Smith Spark concludes her trilogy in a truly spectacular fashion; it is fast, violent and ferocious.
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF GRIMDARK!
The House of sacrifice gets the ending it deserves. Marith gets the ending he deserves. I must admit, I was a little worried going into this because more often than not writers don’t end their books in the best way. They don’t take risks. They give them nice fluffy endings. They wrap it up and tie a nice pretty bow on it. This couldn’t ever happen here. I’m glad Anna Smith Spark had the stones to end this properly. It’s one of the darkest trilogies in fantasy and it needed an ending just as dark.
At the heart of the story is a tragic romance between two psychopaths that found solace in their shared sense of vileness and sadistic impulses. They are both evil. And they were made for each other. They think about killing each other everyday and even get close on several occasions. They love each other. They hate each other. And they are stuck with each other because nobody else in the world understands what it is to be that far gone, that dark and that twisted. They are both monsters. And this dynamic really took the story to a whole new level because it was about more than murder. I would like to say that they were redeemed by their love, that it made them better people, but it didn’t.
Marith is a great character study. He is more deprived than Jorg Ancrath but also more human; he doesn’t want this darkness, but he must accept that it’s a part of him that he will never be able to give up. It’s who he is, for better or worse. And he does feel regret for his actions. He murders children and then weeps about it the next day. He commands his dragons to burn his own camp followers and then mourns for those he has killed. He knows remorse. This probably makes him an even worse person because he knows his actions are terrible, but he follows through with the anyway. I almost feel sorry for him. He cannot change his destiny. He was made for death and ruin only: he knows nothing else. And through the series he slowly descended into death driven madness and despair. What’s left to kill when you have killed everything? What’s left to conquer when you own the entire world? Nothing.
A story like this could only end in one way. And it was delivered with the master strokes of a poet who is completely comfortable in her craft. Anna Smith Spark has grown as a writer across this series and I’m excited to see what she may come up with next. I shall be certainly watching out for future works because she has proven that she can keep pace with the best writers of the genre. Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch and Mark Lawrence make way because the Queen of grimdark is ready to lead the charge in a new wave of dark fantasy fiction.
_________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF GRIMDARK!
The House of sacrifice gets the ending it deserves. Marith gets the ending he deserves. I must admit, I was a little worried going into this because more often than not writers don’t end their books in the best way. They don’t take risks. They give them nice fluffy endings. They wrap it up and tie a nice pretty bow on it. This couldn’t ever happen here. I’m glad Anna Smith Spark had the stones to end this properly. It’s one of the darkest trilogies in fantasy and it needed an ending just as dark.
At the heart of the story is a tragic romance between two psychopaths that found solace in their shared sense of vileness and sadistic impulses. They are both evil. And they were made for each other. They think about killing each other everyday and even get close on several occasions. They love each other. They hate each other. And they are stuck with each other because nobody else in the world understands what it is to be that far gone, that dark and that twisted. They are both monsters. And this dynamic really took the story to a whole new level because it was about more than murder. I would like to say that they were redeemed by their love, that it made them better people, but it didn’t.
Marith is a great character study. He is more deprived than Jorg Ancrath but also more human; he doesn’t want this darkness, but he must accept that it’s a part of him that he will never be able to give up. It’s who he is, for better or worse. And he does feel regret for his actions. He murders children and then weeps about it the next day. He commands his dragons to burn his own camp followers and then mourns for those he has killed. He knows remorse. This probably makes him an even worse person because he knows his actions are terrible, but he follows through with the anyway. I almost feel sorry for him. He cannot change his destiny. He was made for death and ruin only: he knows nothing else. And through the series he slowly descended into death driven madness and despair. What’s left to kill when you have killed everything? What’s left to conquer when you own the entire world? Nothing.
A story like this could only end in one way. And it was delivered with the master strokes of a poet who is completely comfortable in her craft. Anna Smith Spark has grown as a writer across this series and I’m excited to see what she may come up with next. I shall be certainly watching out for future works because she has proven that she can keep pace with the best writers of the genre. Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch and Mark Lawrence make way because the Queen of grimdark is ready to lead the charge in a new wave of dark fantasy fiction.
_________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree.
__________________________________
July 26, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★+
Synopsis
A powerhouse grimdark fantasy of bloodshed, ambition, and fate, The House of Sacrifice is the thunderous conclusion to Anna Smith Spark’s Empires of Dust trilogy, which began with The Court of Broken Knives.
Marith Altrersyr has won. He cut a path of blood and vengeance and needless violence around the world and now he rules. It is time for Marith to put down his sword, to send home his armies, to grow a beard and become fat. It is time to look to his own house, and to produce an heir. The King of Death must now learn to live.But some things cannot be learnt.
The spoils of war turn to ash in the mouths of the Amrath Army and soon they are on the move again. But Marith, lord of lies, dragon-killer, father-killer, has begun to falter and his mind decays. How long can a warlord rotting from within continue to win?
As the Army marches on to Sorlost, Thalia’s thoughts turn to home and to the future: a life grows inside her and it is a precious thing – but it grows weak.
Why must the sins of the father curse the child?
Review
Thanks to the publisher and author for an advanced reading copy of The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust #3) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.
Spark’s Empires of Dust has been one of THE most enjoyable series I’ve read since I began reviewing. Alongside RJ Barker’s The Wounded Kingdom and Mark Lawrence’s Book of the Ancestor, among a few others, every time I see someone looking for a new book to read or a series to begin, it is one that I immediately jump to recommend.
“Knives. Knives everywhere. Coming down like rain. Down to close work like that, men wrestling in the mud, jabbing at each other, too tired to care any more. Just die and get it over with. Half of them fighting with their guts hanging out of their stomachs, stinking of shit, oozing pink and red and white. Half-dead men lying in the filth. Screaming. A whole lot of things screaming.”
This is how The Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust #1) begins. It is unlike anything I have ever read. Brutal, poetic, and utterly satisfying to those with the grimdarkest of hearts pumping in their chests. It sold me on picking up the first book, let alone the rest of the series, and it has been a marriage full of blood and grit and piss and gore and knives and f**k ever since.
Spark truly is the Queen of Grimdark, there is no disputing that. This is one of the darkest series I have ever laid eyes upon. Loads of characters that are beyond redemption, fire and decapitation and death lying in wait for all, and some of the most elegant world-building you will come across. Not only that, but the author’s writing is simply exquisite. Each page is a picture painted with quick strokes of poetic prose, only to be doused in blood and thrown into the grinder. From the smallest pieces of world-building like streets or doorways, to the extravagances of castles, courts, and battlefields, not a detail is left out and pictures are clearly presented to the reader.
Like most characters in the grimdark genre, redeeming qualities are hard to come by with the likes of Marith, Thalia, and the gang. When your thoughts are only of death, destruction, and a new world order, it is difficult to find people who actually like you, let alone want you to continue breathing. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed hating the characters for what they represented, but I loved the characters themselves.
The House of Sacrifice is exactly what I look for in a series finale and was a stunning conclusion to Marith’s arc. I only wish I could continue living in this world and with these characters for a bit longer. I know Spark has more up her sleeve and she will continue being one of my go-to authors for the darkest of fantasy novels. My only hope is that she won’t take her foot off the pedal, which I know she won’t.
Recommended for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Michael Fletcher, Mark Lawrence, Ed McDonald, Peter McLean and Peter Newman. Honestly, just pick it up and give it a shot, unless tons of blood, sh*t, fighting, death, and dragons aren’t your cuppa.
Synopsis
A powerhouse grimdark fantasy of bloodshed, ambition, and fate, The House of Sacrifice is the thunderous conclusion to Anna Smith Spark’s Empires of Dust trilogy, which began with The Court of Broken Knives.
Marith Altrersyr has won. He cut a path of blood and vengeance and needless violence around the world and now he rules. It is time for Marith to put down his sword, to send home his armies, to grow a beard and become fat. It is time to look to his own house, and to produce an heir. The King of Death must now learn to live.But some things cannot be learnt.
The spoils of war turn to ash in the mouths of the Amrath Army and soon they are on the move again. But Marith, lord of lies, dragon-killer, father-killer, has begun to falter and his mind decays. How long can a warlord rotting from within continue to win?
As the Army marches on to Sorlost, Thalia’s thoughts turn to home and to the future: a life grows inside her and it is a precious thing – but it grows weak.
Why must the sins of the father curse the child?
Review
Thanks to the publisher and author for an advanced reading copy of The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust #3) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.
Spark’s Empires of Dust has been one of THE most enjoyable series I’ve read since I began reviewing. Alongside RJ Barker’s The Wounded Kingdom and Mark Lawrence’s Book of the Ancestor, among a few others, every time I see someone looking for a new book to read or a series to begin, it is one that I immediately jump to recommend.
“Knives. Knives everywhere. Coming down like rain. Down to close work like that, men wrestling in the mud, jabbing at each other, too tired to care any more. Just die and get it over with. Half of them fighting with their guts hanging out of their stomachs, stinking of shit, oozing pink and red and white. Half-dead men lying in the filth. Screaming. A whole lot of things screaming.”
This is how The Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust #1) begins. It is unlike anything I have ever read. Brutal, poetic, and utterly satisfying to those with the grimdarkest of hearts pumping in their chests. It sold me on picking up the first book, let alone the rest of the series, and it has been a marriage full of blood and grit and piss and gore and knives and f**k ever since.
Spark truly is the Queen of Grimdark, there is no disputing that. This is one of the darkest series I have ever laid eyes upon. Loads of characters that are beyond redemption, fire and decapitation and death lying in wait for all, and some of the most elegant world-building you will come across. Not only that, but the author’s writing is simply exquisite. Each page is a picture painted with quick strokes of poetic prose, only to be doused in blood and thrown into the grinder. From the smallest pieces of world-building like streets or doorways, to the extravagances of castles, courts, and battlefields, not a detail is left out and pictures are clearly presented to the reader.
Like most characters in the grimdark genre, redeeming qualities are hard to come by with the likes of Marith, Thalia, and the gang. When your thoughts are only of death, destruction, and a new world order, it is difficult to find people who actually like you, let alone want you to continue breathing. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed hating the characters for what they represented, but I loved the characters themselves.
The House of Sacrifice is exactly what I look for in a series finale and was a stunning conclusion to Marith’s arc. I only wish I could continue living in this world and with these characters for a bit longer. I know Spark has more up her sleeve and she will continue being one of my go-to authors for the darkest of fantasy novels. My only hope is that she won’t take her foot off the pedal, which I know she won’t.
Recommended for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Michael Fletcher, Mark Lawrence, Ed McDonald, Peter McLean and Peter Newman. Honestly, just pick it up and give it a shot, unless tons of blood, sh*t, fighting, death, and dragons aren’t your cuppa.
February 26, 2024
My complete review is published at Before We Go Blog.
“Oh Sorlost. Oh my city. Beauty and wonder and old sorrow. The dream memory of golden childhood, the desire for a lost beloved never truly known.”
Anna Smith Spark’s Empires of Dust trilogy comes to its inevitable Shakespearean conclusion with The House of Sacrifice, a finale that reaffirms Marith as one of the greatest protagonists in grimdark fantasy. Following events in the first two books of the trilogy, The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying, Marith proves himself to be a ruinous king with a god complex, overrunning the continent with a seemingly undefeatable army:
“We march onwards, an army like a storm, like the clouds rushing over the sun. The world trembles. The men in their bronze armour sing the paean, hold their heads high, smile as they march. The world bows before us.”
Marith sets his sights on the unconquerable city of Sorlost, the decaying capital of what had once been the greatest empire in the world, a conquest that had eluded even Marith’s notorious ancestor. At the same time, the greatest threat to Marith may come from within, as his unprecedented power is accompanied by a steady descent into madness.
The House of Sacrifice pivots on the tumultuous relationship between Marith and his wife, Thalia, the former high priestess and holiest woman from Sorlost. Their relationship alternates between affection and a potentially murderous hatred, with intermittent flames of passion eclipsed by their more steadfast lust for power and glory.
Throughout The House of Sacrifice, Marith and Thalia leave a trail of death and destruction in their wake. As always, Anna Smith Spark is unflinching in her descriptions of gore and suffering. While Marith strives to maintain sanity, Thalia seeks to justify her choices that have led to so much slaughter:
“I will not be blamed for living my life.”
Altogether, the Empires of Dust trilogy is a towering literary achievement and one of the finest works of grimdark fantasy. Anna Smith Spark is acclaimed as the Queen of Grimdark for a very good reason: her inimitable prose elevates the genre to soaring new artistic heights. The House of Sacrifice is an uncompromising grimdark experience and literature of the highest caliber.
“Oh Sorlost. Oh my city. Beauty and wonder and old sorrow. The dream memory of golden childhood, the desire for a lost beloved never truly known.”
Anna Smith Spark’s Empires of Dust trilogy comes to its inevitable Shakespearean conclusion with The House of Sacrifice, a finale that reaffirms Marith as one of the greatest protagonists in grimdark fantasy. Following events in the first two books of the trilogy, The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying, Marith proves himself to be a ruinous king with a god complex, overrunning the continent with a seemingly undefeatable army:
“We march onwards, an army like a storm, like the clouds rushing over the sun. The world trembles. The men in their bronze armour sing the paean, hold their heads high, smile as they march. The world bows before us.”
Marith sets his sights on the unconquerable city of Sorlost, the decaying capital of what had once been the greatest empire in the world, a conquest that had eluded even Marith’s notorious ancestor. At the same time, the greatest threat to Marith may come from within, as his unprecedented power is accompanied by a steady descent into madness.
The House of Sacrifice pivots on the tumultuous relationship between Marith and his wife, Thalia, the former high priestess and holiest woman from Sorlost. Their relationship alternates between affection and a potentially murderous hatred, with intermittent flames of passion eclipsed by their more steadfast lust for power and glory.
Throughout The House of Sacrifice, Marith and Thalia leave a trail of death and destruction in their wake. As always, Anna Smith Spark is unflinching in her descriptions of gore and suffering. While Marith strives to maintain sanity, Thalia seeks to justify her choices that have led to so much slaughter:
“I will not be blamed for living my life.”
Altogether, the Empires of Dust trilogy is a towering literary achievement and one of the finest works of grimdark fantasy. Anna Smith Spark is acclaimed as the Queen of Grimdark for a very good reason: her inimitable prose elevates the genre to soaring new artistic heights. The House of Sacrifice is an uncompromising grimdark experience and literature of the highest caliber.
July 8, 2019
"I will not be blamed for living my life."
So says Thalia, Queen of all Irlast, of her refusal to kill her Devil God, Murder Christ husband Marith in his sleep and do the world a favour. Marith, god of war and ruin and grief and hate and vengeance. It is in her gift to end his life, any night she chooses, and thus plunge herself into a life of penance and penury. Why should she?
So opens the third and final act of the glorious, thundering black metal opera that is The Empires of Dust. This is everything I could have hoped for and more. Smith Spark's soaring operatic prose really hits the high notes here, a pitch-perfect paean to death and corruption and ruin.
Anyone who's reading these books quietly to themselves as fantasy novels is missing out, in my opinion. This isn't modern fiction, this is the ancient mythology of a dead world. The Empires of Dust deserves to be read aloud, to be performed even, in the epic poetry tradition of the tales of Achilles and Gilgamesh. There really is honestly nothing else quite like this.
All hail the one true Queen of Grimdark.
Death! Death! Death!
So says Thalia, Queen of all Irlast, of her refusal to kill her Devil God, Murder Christ husband Marith in his sleep and do the world a favour. Marith, god of war and ruin and grief and hate and vengeance. It is in her gift to end his life, any night she chooses, and thus plunge herself into a life of penance and penury. Why should she?
So opens the third and final act of the glorious, thundering black metal opera that is The Empires of Dust. This is everything I could have hoped for and more. Smith Spark's soaring operatic prose really hits the high notes here, a pitch-perfect paean to death and corruption and ruin.
Anyone who's reading these books quietly to themselves as fantasy novels is missing out, in my opinion. This isn't modern fiction, this is the ancient mythology of a dead world. The Empires of Dust deserves to be read aloud, to be performed even, in the epic poetry tradition of the tales of Achilles and Gilgamesh. There really is honestly nothing else quite like this.
All hail the one true Queen of Grimdark.
Death! Death! Death!
September 15, 2019
4 to 4.5 stars but rounding up because why not. Now time to ramble
If I hadn't been hulk punched out of the book right in the middle of it, and then having to to struggle to get back in to it, this would likely be a solid 5 star. I just finished it and I feel empty. I'm not in pain as I thought I would be, but the ending. Fuck. Me.
Advice. You'll want to binge read the last 130-some pages in one go.
I was a bit worried how everything would fit into this book and even far into it the ending still felt far away. One reason I want to rate this 4 stars and not 5 is because somewhere close to mid-point we reach a climax where I didn't feel the impact as I should? But it was just at that point life and university so rudely hulk punched me out of the book. Like is that even allowed???? We use books to hulk punch us away from life, not the other way around. Then the ending actually came and happened all so fast. Or maybe I just feel it happens fast because getting out of the book for a short while. Almost everything that happened was expected, though lots still hurt.
Also while reading this book I started imagining Timothée Chalamet in the role as Marith. I mean he could do it. Both are in their 20's. Marith is described as pretty and beautiful, is pale and dark hair. Timothée is a very beautiful human being, pale skin and dark hair.
Don't have a specific actor in mind for the other characters though.
Also also, Panic! at the disco's "emperor's new clothes" is kinda a mood song for these books(Marith).
If I hadn't been hulk punched out of the book right in the middle of it, and then having to to struggle to get back in to it, this would likely be a solid 5 star. I just finished it and I feel empty. I'm not in pain as I thought I would be, but the ending. Fuck. Me.
Advice. You'll want to binge read the last 130-some pages in one go.
I was a bit worried how everything would fit into this book and even far into it the ending still felt far away. One reason I want to rate this 4 stars and not 5 is because somewhere close to mid-point we reach a climax where I didn't feel the impact as I should? But it was just at that point life and university so rudely hulk punched me out of the book. Like is that even allowed???? We use books to hulk punch us away from life, not the other way around. Then the ending actually came and happened all so fast. Or maybe I just feel it happens fast because getting out of the book for a short while. Almost everything that happened was expected, though lots still hurt.
Also while reading this book I started imagining Timothée Chalamet in the role as Marith. I mean he could do it. Both are in their 20's. Marith is described as pretty and beautiful, is pale and dark hair. Timothée is a very beautiful human being, pale skin and dark hair.
Don't have a specific actor in mind for the other characters though.
Also also, Panic! at the disco's "emperor's new clothes" is kinda a mood song for these books(Marith).
December 18, 2020
Fascinatingly unique fantasy tale. Looking forward to seeing what Anna writes next.
September 21, 2019
Dark. Nasty. Horrifying. Atmospheric. Tragic. Beautiful. 4.5-stars rounded up to 5.
The descriptive passages may not be to my taste but you cannot deny the beauty and talent of Anna Smith-Spark's unique style of delivery. She suffers from three disorders that would render many people helpless and hopeless, but she has somehow achieved this personal triumph of a trilogy and a job! You have to admire someone who has the strength of character to do that.
I spoke to the author briefly via Facebook and she said that there was more humour (dark humour) in this book than there was in The Tower of Living and Dying. An example follows:
"Marith, Marith, Marith. My life for yours, Marith." Less romantically, perhaps, they also said that Aleen Durith and Osen Fiolt had screamed at each other and Aleen Durith had broken Osen Fiolt's nose.
"Mawifff, Mawifff, Mawifff. My vife vor vours, Mawifff."
I also liked these:
The past is like sand, shifting, changing, the wind blows and the sand moves and one cannot remember how it looked before it was changed.
"The great thing about immortality as a drinking boast," said Darath, "is that you're never going to have to go through the embarrassment of admitting you were wrong."
Also this; "He wanted to die. He was so very afraid of death."
There are many contradicting thoughts in this book, though that is the way the human mind works, isn't it?
And a couple of words that I hadn't come across before; Verdigrised and Suzerainty. (I'll let you google those ones).
If you haven't read anything by this author before and you like dark descriptive fantasy with world-building, then look no further!
My congratulations to Anna Smith-Spark for a job well done!
Thanks for reading.
The descriptive passages may not be to my taste but you cannot deny the beauty and talent of Anna Smith-Spark's unique style of delivery. She suffers from three disorders that would render many people helpless and hopeless, but she has somehow achieved this personal triumph of a trilogy and a job! You have to admire someone who has the strength of character to do that.
I spoke to the author briefly via Facebook and she said that there was more humour (dark humour) in this book than there was in The Tower of Living and Dying. An example follows:
"Marith, Marith, Marith. My life for yours, Marith." Less romantically, perhaps, they also said that Aleen Durith and Osen Fiolt had screamed at each other and Aleen Durith had broken Osen Fiolt's nose.
"Mawifff, Mawifff, Mawifff. My vife vor vours, Mawifff."
I also liked these:
The past is like sand, shifting, changing, the wind blows and the sand moves and one cannot remember how it looked before it was changed.
"The great thing about immortality as a drinking boast," said Darath, "is that you're never going to have to go through the embarrassment of admitting you were wrong."
Also this; "He wanted to die. He was so very afraid of death."
There are many contradicting thoughts in this book, though that is the way the human mind works, isn't it?
And a couple of words that I hadn't come across before; Verdigrised and Suzerainty. (I'll let you google those ones).
If you haven't read anything by this author before and you like dark descriptive fantasy with world-building, then look no further!
My congratulations to Anna Smith-Spark for a job well done!
Thanks for reading.
August 22, 2019
As always this review can also be found on my blog The Tattooed Book Geek: https://thetattooedbookgeek.wordpress...
The House of Sacrifice and the Empires of Dust trilogy is brutally beautiful, outstanding and a triumph.
And so we come to the end, the third and final book in the darkly enchanting Empires of Dust trilogy (following on from The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying) and the culmination of the story of Marith Altrersyr, King Ruin, King Death and Amrath Returned. Four years have passed since Marith took the fortress of Ethalden and reclaimed his ancestor, Amrath’s seat of power.
We have followed Marith and his merry dance of conquest, death, destruction and massacre across Irlast. We have seen him descend into madness, seen him kill, destroy, raze cities to the ground and we have seen him bathe the world in rivers of blood. His empire has been built from the death, the blood, the bones, the corpses, the decaying remains and the rotting flesh of his enemies, from those who stood against him, turned to dust in the ground and most of Irlast is now under his rule.
Sorlost is mired in filth, no amount of powder and paint will bring it back to its former glory, its beauty of yesteryear. It was once golden and it is now a gilded shit, a turd left in the heat, drying and crusting.
Even in its current state Sorlost has a history, it is a city that has never been conquered, never had its walls breached, never fallen to an enemy and it is the city where the original Amrath and his army broke against the walls. It is surrounded by bronze walls, an impregnable ring that encircles the city and offers protection against invaders.
Marith wishes to conquer all. It was fated that he would return to Sorlost, that his quest for dominion would take him full-circle and that he would end up back at Sorlost with his army facing down the unbreachable walls.
Along with Marith marching on, leading his army forwards, forever onwards and Thalia, we also follow Tobias who is now a camp follower of the Army of Amrath. Landra Relast who has nothing and no-one left and who is out for vengeance against Marith for what he did to her and to her family. And, Orhan Emmereth in Sorlost who is dealing with the fallout of the plots, plans and machinations he has wrought over the course of the trilogy along with the looming threat of Marith and the Army of Amrath bearing down upon the city.
Marith is a drug addict (Hatha) and a drunk. A complicated character, conflicted and self-destructive. He is hardly ever at peace, he wants to live, he wants to die, he wants to rule the world and he wants to be nothing. He is full of loathing and self-pity he hates himself and what he does but, at the same time, he likes doing what he does too, it gives him a sense of being, of purpose and like a coin he has two sides, two sides to his nature that war with each other. Along with moments of clarity, of lucidity, he spirals down into the throes of insanity and his fractured mind is a turbulent and churning sea. He has always had a questionable hold on reality, he’s captivating and he’s someone that you love to hate.
There have been chances along the way for certain characters to stop Marith, to kill him and end the torment. But, they have either failed or they didn’t seize the opportunity, allowing Marith to live and continue on with his path of devastation. The past can haunt you, missed opportunities, mistakes you make, the actions that you take, those you don’t, remorse, what has gone before. Everything that has come before has made you into who you now are and it is always there, it’s a part of you and it shapes the present. The House of Sacrifice is a tale that has been doused in darkness, a tale of deepest black, a tale of the darkest deeds and it is populated by characters with hardly any morals or redeeming features and honestly, I enjoyed reading about them all.
Smith Spark paints a vivid canvas and she doesn’t shy away from depicting the brutality of war and the atrocities committed on the battlefield and in the aftermath. The fighting, which is plentiful is confusing and chaotic, violent, vivid and visceral.
The world-building on display by Smith Spark is exceptional. Like arterial splatter, blood blooming, blossoming from a wound the world opens up in The House of Sacrifice with many cinematic settings featured. Whether it is the grandeur and splendour of a palace, the mouldering and rotting corpses of the dead that populate the bloody quagmire of a battlefield or the deserts, the mountains, the rivers and the towns that Marith leads his army through Smith Sparks brings all of the locations to life thanks to her decadently descriptive writing. It is the small details that just add that little extra clarity, that makes the image, the location, the setting and the scene more evocative and more graphic.
Smith Spark is an exceptional talent with a very unique way of writing. Some will love it while others won’t. I’m firmly in the camp of the former and I love it. I can also understand why it is a stumbling block for some, after all, reading is subjective. Along with passages of a more normal style Smith Spark mixes lengthy and lyrical sentences with short and snappy sentences, single-word sentences, sentences formed solely using different words of the same/similar meaning and also repeats parts of the sentences too. The short sentences are akin to barks and guttural growls and combat the lengthy and poetic soft sentences with their harshness. Smith Spark has found something special with her style of writing. Something different, something individual and something, that perhaps shouldn’t work but it does!
In lesser hands, the contrasting mix of styles could falter, could fall and could fail. However, Smith Spark owns her style and you can see from the first book that her writing has greatly improved. It is more accessible and she seems more comfortable with her writing and the story that she is telling.
There is a beauty and a cadence to be found in Smith Spark’s lilting and lyrical writing. Her writing flows smoothly like waves lapping on the shore and like leaves rustling on a gentle breeze. The mixture of sentences that are used to bludgeon, to beat you and then, those sentences that gently caress you, like a lovers hands, their soft touch, their warm embrace. Like chewing on barb wire, rusted nails and thorns and then, soothing your mouth with the sweetest honey, quenching your thirst with a glass of ice-cold water and that act as a contrast and a counterpoint.
The House of Sacrifice is a tapestry comprised of betrayal, blood, brutality, butchery, conquest, corpses, death, delusion, desires, destruction, killing, love, mania, pain, regrets, plots, politics, suffering, tragedy and violence that are all stitched together with sinews of rotting flesh and the fetid threads of life.
I can’t fault The House of Sacrifice, the characters, the pacing, the story, the writing and the ending (which is always a concern when you come to the last book in a trilogy) are all stellar and I loved it all. For the ending, it is not all neatly tied up and while some threads are cut off, are ended, others are left frayed for a possible future return to Irlast. I am completely fine with that as I would love to revisit the world that Smith Spark has created somewhere down the road.
The House of Sacrifice and the Empires of Dust trilogy is brutally beautiful, outstanding and a triumph.
And so we come to the end, the third and final book in the darkly enchanting Empires of Dust trilogy (following on from The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying) and the culmination of the story of Marith Altrersyr, King Ruin, King Death and Amrath Returned. Four years have passed since Marith took the fortress of Ethalden and reclaimed his ancestor, Amrath’s seat of power.
We have followed Marith and his merry dance of conquest, death, destruction and massacre across Irlast. We have seen him descend into madness, seen him kill, destroy, raze cities to the ground and we have seen him bathe the world in rivers of blood. His empire has been built from the death, the blood, the bones, the corpses, the decaying remains and the rotting flesh of his enemies, from those who stood against him, turned to dust in the ground and most of Irlast is now under his rule.
Sorlost is mired in filth, no amount of powder and paint will bring it back to its former glory, its beauty of yesteryear. It was once golden and it is now a gilded shit, a turd left in the heat, drying and crusting.
Even in its current state Sorlost has a history, it is a city that has never been conquered, never had its walls breached, never fallen to an enemy and it is the city where the original Amrath and his army broke against the walls. It is surrounded by bronze walls, an impregnable ring that encircles the city and offers protection against invaders.
Marith wishes to conquer all. It was fated that he would return to Sorlost, that his quest for dominion would take him full-circle and that he would end up back at Sorlost with his army facing down the unbreachable walls.
Along with Marith marching on, leading his army forwards, forever onwards and Thalia, we also follow Tobias who is now a camp follower of the Army of Amrath. Landra Relast who has nothing and no-one left and who is out for vengeance against Marith for what he did to her and to her family. And, Orhan Emmereth in Sorlost who is dealing with the fallout of the plots, plans and machinations he has wrought over the course of the trilogy along with the looming threat of Marith and the Army of Amrath bearing down upon the city.
Marith is a drug addict (Hatha) and a drunk. A complicated character, conflicted and self-destructive. He is hardly ever at peace, he wants to live, he wants to die, he wants to rule the world and he wants to be nothing. He is full of loathing and self-pity he hates himself and what he does but, at the same time, he likes doing what he does too, it gives him a sense of being, of purpose and like a coin he has two sides, two sides to his nature that war with each other. Along with moments of clarity, of lucidity, he spirals down into the throes of insanity and his fractured mind is a turbulent and churning sea. He has always had a questionable hold on reality, he’s captivating and he’s someone that you love to hate.
There have been chances along the way for certain characters to stop Marith, to kill him and end the torment. But, they have either failed or they didn’t seize the opportunity, allowing Marith to live and continue on with his path of devastation. The past can haunt you, missed opportunities, mistakes you make, the actions that you take, those you don’t, remorse, what has gone before. Everything that has come before has made you into who you now are and it is always there, it’s a part of you and it shapes the present. The House of Sacrifice is a tale that has been doused in darkness, a tale of deepest black, a tale of the darkest deeds and it is populated by characters with hardly any morals or redeeming features and honestly, I enjoyed reading about them all.
Smith Spark paints a vivid canvas and she doesn’t shy away from depicting the brutality of war and the atrocities committed on the battlefield and in the aftermath. The fighting, which is plentiful is confusing and chaotic, violent, vivid and visceral.
The world-building on display by Smith Spark is exceptional. Like arterial splatter, blood blooming, blossoming from a wound the world opens up in The House of Sacrifice with many cinematic settings featured. Whether it is the grandeur and splendour of a palace, the mouldering and rotting corpses of the dead that populate the bloody quagmire of a battlefield or the deserts, the mountains, the rivers and the towns that Marith leads his army through Smith Sparks brings all of the locations to life thanks to her decadently descriptive writing. It is the small details that just add that little extra clarity, that makes the image, the location, the setting and the scene more evocative and more graphic.
Smith Spark is an exceptional talent with a very unique way of writing. Some will love it while others won’t. I’m firmly in the camp of the former and I love it. I can also understand why it is a stumbling block for some, after all, reading is subjective. Along with passages of a more normal style Smith Spark mixes lengthy and lyrical sentences with short and snappy sentences, single-word sentences, sentences formed solely using different words of the same/similar meaning and also repeats parts of the sentences too. The short sentences are akin to barks and guttural growls and combat the lengthy and poetic soft sentences with their harshness. Smith Spark has found something special with her style of writing. Something different, something individual and something, that perhaps shouldn’t work but it does!
In lesser hands, the contrasting mix of styles could falter, could fall and could fail. However, Smith Spark owns her style and you can see from the first book that her writing has greatly improved. It is more accessible and she seems more comfortable with her writing and the story that she is telling.
There is a beauty and a cadence to be found in Smith Spark’s lilting and lyrical writing. Her writing flows smoothly like waves lapping on the shore and like leaves rustling on a gentle breeze. The mixture of sentences that are used to bludgeon, to beat you and then, those sentences that gently caress you, like a lovers hands, their soft touch, their warm embrace. Like chewing on barb wire, rusted nails and thorns and then, soothing your mouth with the sweetest honey, quenching your thirst with a glass of ice-cold water and that act as a contrast and a counterpoint.
The House of Sacrifice is a tapestry comprised of betrayal, blood, brutality, butchery, conquest, corpses, death, delusion, desires, destruction, killing, love, mania, pain, regrets, plots, politics, suffering, tragedy and violence that are all stitched together with sinews of rotting flesh and the fetid threads of life.
I can’t fault The House of Sacrifice, the characters, the pacing, the story, the writing and the ending (which is always a concern when you come to the last book in a trilogy) are all stellar and I loved it all. For the ending, it is not all neatly tied up and while some threads are cut off, are ended, others are left frayed for a possible future return to Irlast. I am completely fine with that as I would love to revisit the world that Smith Spark has created somewhere down the road.
August 2, 2022
What the hell even was that? Might be the worst conclusion to a trilogy I have read. Not a single compelling storyline in the entire book. No plot or overall point. Things that seemed like they were being worked towards in book 2 just went nowhere. Not even a hint of a satisfying conclusion. No character development. Repetitive writing that really got very old 3 books in. Do not recommended.
May 15, 2024
4.5 stars (rounded up)
The House of Sacrifice is an absolute mad feverdream of a finale, which firmly cements the Empires of Dust amongst the top of my all-time favourite fantasy series.
A little over four years have passed since we first met these broken and tormented characters in The Court of Broken Knives, and oh boy... what a journey it has been. With each instalment, the stakes just got higher, the characters more complex, the relationships more complicated, the battles more bloody, and the madness only continued to increase.
On its surface, this might look like any other grimdark military fantasy full of action and bloodshed, but at its heart, it's truly just a beautifully twisted and toxic look into the darkest aspects of humanity and the fallibility of the human mind. Especially in this finale, the terrifyingly intimate exploration of war atrocities, grief, insanity, motherhood, revenge, addiction, corruption, greed, ambition, self-hate, regret, madness, and the toxic power of love went deeper than ever before, which truly dragged me across the entire spectrum of emotions.
Over the course of the series, I have switched back and forth on my feelings about these characters so many times; one moment I was tentatively rooting for them, and the next I wanted to throw them into the deepest pits of hell for their deplorable actions. Especially Marith (my sad boi with a god-complex) is just a certified Hot Mess, and I adored the even deeper look into his and Thalia's fucked up relationship. My own sanity and sense of morality were tested and stretched more times than I felt comfortable with, but that is exactly what makes this story so unforgettable to me.
There were a couple of moments in this finale where I almost got desensitized to all the brutality and depravity, and where I felt like I was reading on out of pure morbid curiosity and inescapable compulsion, not unlike picking a scab or watching a trainwreck that you can't look away from. But through her razor-sharp and tragically poetic prose, Smith Spark managed to make every single scene hit me like a punch in the gut; and dammit, it all just hurt so good.
Smith Spark is honestly a master at her craft, and I have nothing but respect for the bold execution of this marvellous finale. Plot armour? Deus ex machina? Happily ever after? We don't know those terms around here. The House of Sacrifice is a terribly realistic and painfully fitting ending to this utter tragedy of a series, and I loved that it kept me in a chokehold from start to finish.
If you are not afraid of a story that is unconventional in every sense of the word, and which will morally, emotionally, and mentally challenge you in all the most unexpected ways, then I would highly recommend giving the Empires of Dust series a shot. It's dark, it's brutal, it's devastating, but it is also tragically beautiful and tenderly bittersweet in a way, and I already can't wait to experience the entire monstrous rollercoaster all over again one day.
The House of Sacrifice is an absolute mad feverdream of a finale, which firmly cements the Empires of Dust amongst the top of my all-time favourite fantasy series.
A little over four years have passed since we first met these broken and tormented characters in The Court of Broken Knives, and oh boy... what a journey it has been. With each instalment, the stakes just got higher, the characters more complex, the relationships more complicated, the battles more bloody, and the madness only continued to increase.
On its surface, this might look like any other grimdark military fantasy full of action and bloodshed, but at its heart, it's truly just a beautifully twisted and toxic look into the darkest aspects of humanity and the fallibility of the human mind. Especially in this finale, the terrifyingly intimate exploration of war atrocities, grief, insanity, motherhood, revenge, addiction, corruption, greed, ambition, self-hate, regret, madness, and the toxic power of love went deeper than ever before, which truly dragged me across the entire spectrum of emotions.
Over the course of the series, I have switched back and forth on my feelings about these characters so many times; one moment I was tentatively rooting for them, and the next I wanted to throw them into the deepest pits of hell for their deplorable actions. Especially Marith (my sad boi with a god-complex) is just a certified Hot Mess, and I adored the even deeper look into his and Thalia's fucked up relationship. My own sanity and sense of morality were tested and stretched more times than I felt comfortable with, but that is exactly what makes this story so unforgettable to me.
There were a couple of moments in this finale where I almost got desensitized to all the brutality and depravity, and where I felt like I was reading on out of pure morbid curiosity and inescapable compulsion, not unlike picking a scab or watching a trainwreck that you can't look away from. But through her razor-sharp and tragically poetic prose, Smith Spark managed to make every single scene hit me like a punch in the gut; and dammit, it all just hurt so good.
Smith Spark is honestly a master at her craft, and I have nothing but respect for the bold execution of this marvellous finale. Plot armour? Deus ex machina? Happily ever after? We don't know those terms around here. The House of Sacrifice is a terribly realistic and painfully fitting ending to this utter tragedy of a series, and I loved that it kept me in a chokehold from start to finish.
If you are not afraid of a story that is unconventional in every sense of the word, and which will morally, emotionally, and mentally challenge you in all the most unexpected ways, then I would highly recommend giving the Empires of Dust series a shot. It's dark, it's brutal, it's devastating, but it is also tragically beautiful and tenderly bittersweet in a way, and I already can't wait to experience the entire monstrous rollercoaster all over again one day.
August 4, 2019
Full review is here, on my blog!~
Book fam, let me tell you about Marith Altresyr, King of all of Everything Ever if you’re not familiar.
My dude is crazy AF, first of all. He wants to die, but is moreso terrified of it, and there is… actually a bit of question as to whether he actually can. As he and his army cross the world conquering everything in between, Marith becomes more and more mentally unstable as things don’t always go his way, and tends to drown his woes in drink and drugs.
Thalia, Queen of all of the things, and former Priestess of slightly less of the things, watches him suffer and drink his way to obliviousness as things don’t always go his way, or her way, or… anyone’s way, come to think on it.
Tobias, camp follower and former mercenary, follows the Army of Amrath as it conquers the world, and watches as men and women follow Marith into literally any situation he decides to put them in. Even situations in which they don’t have much of a chance of winning. But he is Marith, and Marith does not lose.
Landra Relast, former noblewoman, follows Marith with her eyes on revenge for what he did to her family.
Finally, Orhan Emmereth, former Nithque to the Emperor and former plotter of things sits in his house in the great city of Sorlost, being hated by the general public, lamenting how he totally and completely messed things up with his boyfriend, hanging out with his wife and son, and… definitely not plotting again. No sir, never with the plotting. I love Orhan so much. He’s such a great character.
Anna Smith Spark has one of the most unique writing styles I’ve ever read, and it is an absolute pleasure to read. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it is certainly for me, and I can’t even really put my finger on why. I often have a hard time loving very heavy or wordy prose, as it just isn’t always my jam, but I could (and have, and will continue to) read her work for hours and hours at a time, and just fall right into her story. Sometimes a sentence is simply one word long, because that is all it needs to be. Each chapter is crafted in a way that tells exactly as much as it needs to tell, even if all it needs to tell is ‘Flames. Flames. Flames.’
As you can imagine, as she is not known as the Queen of Grimdark for no reason, the Empires of Dust can be pretty goddamn dark. Like… really dark sometimes, especially in the last third. It gets gory at times, and is just generally pretty grim… and dark… yeah okay you see where I’m going with this. That said, it was never so dark that I needed a break from it. I have a tendency to need to take a breather from books that are very violent or bleak, but I didn’t have to here (though I will admit that in the last 100 pages or so, there was very nearly a need. There was… a lot going on there. Wow). There was usually a perfectly timed POV change or bit of lightness in places where it was getting really heavy. But just a warning to anyone in need of one, this one features some pretty harrowing stuff, like children (and everyone else) getting murdered and a fair bit of implied rape, on top of entire cities being sacked and burned.
So, all told, I thought that it was pretty fantastic, really. Dark, and really brutal at times, but written in a way that I just could not stop reading it. It’s paced well, it’s plotted well, I loved to love some characters, and loved to hate others. I thought the ending wrapped it up nicely. This was a fantastic conclusion to the series, and I hope to read so much more of Anna Smith Spark’s work in the future.
This review is based on a review copy.
Book fam, let me tell you about Marith Altresyr, King of all of Everything Ever if you’re not familiar.
My dude is crazy AF, first of all. He wants to die, but is moreso terrified of it, and there is… actually a bit of question as to whether he actually can. As he and his army cross the world conquering everything in between, Marith becomes more and more mentally unstable as things don’t always go his way, and tends to drown his woes in drink and drugs.
Thalia, Queen of all of the things, and former Priestess of slightly less of the things, watches him suffer and drink his way to obliviousness as things don’t always go his way, or her way, or… anyone’s way, come to think on it.
Tobias, camp follower and former mercenary, follows the Army of Amrath as it conquers the world, and watches as men and women follow Marith into literally any situation he decides to put them in. Even situations in which they don’t have much of a chance of winning. But he is Marith, and Marith does not lose.
Landra Relast, former noblewoman, follows Marith with her eyes on revenge for what he did to her family.
Finally, Orhan Emmereth, former Nithque to the Emperor and former plotter of things sits in his house in the great city of Sorlost, being hated by the general public, lamenting how he totally and completely messed things up with his boyfriend, hanging out with his wife and son, and… definitely not plotting again. No sir, never with the plotting. I love Orhan so much. He’s such a great character.
Anna Smith Spark has one of the most unique writing styles I’ve ever read, and it is an absolute pleasure to read. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it is certainly for me, and I can’t even really put my finger on why. I often have a hard time loving very heavy or wordy prose, as it just isn’t always my jam, but I could (and have, and will continue to) read her work for hours and hours at a time, and just fall right into her story. Sometimes a sentence is simply one word long, because that is all it needs to be. Each chapter is crafted in a way that tells exactly as much as it needs to tell, even if all it needs to tell is ‘Flames. Flames. Flames.’
As you can imagine, as she is not known as the Queen of Grimdark for no reason, the Empires of Dust can be pretty goddamn dark. Like… really dark sometimes, especially in the last third. It gets gory at times, and is just generally pretty grim… and dark… yeah okay you see where I’m going with this. That said, it was never so dark that I needed a break from it. I have a tendency to need to take a breather from books that are very violent or bleak, but I didn’t have to here (though I will admit that in the last 100 pages or so, there was very nearly a need. There was… a lot going on there. Wow). There was usually a perfectly timed POV change or bit of lightness in places where it was getting really heavy. But just a warning to anyone in need of one, this one features some pretty harrowing stuff, like children (and everyone else) getting murdered and a fair bit of implied rape, on top of entire cities being sacked and burned.
So, all told, I thought that it was pretty fantastic, really. Dark, and really brutal at times, but written in a way that I just could not stop reading it. It’s paced well, it’s plotted well, I loved to love some characters, and loved to hate others. I thought the ending wrapped it up nicely. This was a fantastic conclusion to the series, and I hope to read so much more of Anna Smith Spark’s work in the future.
This review is based on a review copy.
April 17, 2024
I am usually disappointed in the last book of a series, I rarely feel satisfied that the author rounds out and nails the landing how I hoped
This one absolutely does not fall into this issue for me.
THIS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU CLOSE OUT A SERIES 👏 👏
This final book took the story to new heights, its more gritty, it's more dark and miserable, and I hate everyone more than ever
The author swings for the fences and holds nothing back.
The series really is an exploration of the darkest parts of human behaviour. It dives into those deepest fears, people's greed, and those inner demons. It's not a journey of reflection but a detailed analysis of what happens if the darkest moments take over
I found the prose and delivery to pack a punch at every moment, and this won't be a series I forget about. 5/5
This one absolutely does not fall into this issue for me.
THIS IS EXACTLY HOW YOU CLOSE OUT A SERIES 👏 👏
This final book took the story to new heights, its more gritty, it's more dark and miserable, and I hate everyone more than ever
The author swings for the fences and holds nothing back.
The series really is an exploration of the darkest parts of human behaviour. It dives into those deepest fears, people's greed, and those inner demons. It's not a journey of reflection but a detailed analysis of what happens if the darkest moments take over
I found the prose and delivery to pack a punch at every moment, and this won't be a series I forget about. 5/5
August 30, 2019
Proper review to follow. But this was... dark. Dark and brutal.
Leonard Coen produced a mood-perfect soundtrack:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3jeTB3...
Leonard Coen produced a mood-perfect soundtrack:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3jeTB3...
September 30, 2019
Wow. The last forty percent of this book is just... wow. A fitting and appropriate and emotionally soaring finale concluding an above average trilogy. At first, I thought the beginning was sort of repetitive and lost a little of its focus, but by the ending I saw that it all had meaning and was setting up that horrifying ending. This is the most graphic and unrelenting book of the bunch and some shit goes down that made me go: DAMN! Once I was used to the way she writes, which took a minute with book one, it was easy to get lost in the flow and it was like sitting in a dirt floored bar with ply wood on barrels as tables, listening to someone tell this tale. I said in my review for book one that her writing is very conversational but now that I've read three of her books I think it is more than that, it is more like an old-time gifted orator, onstage, captivating the audience with their one person show in that seedy back alley speakeasy. I bought this trilogy with my hard earned cash and will now buy Anna Smith Spark's grocery lists if she releases them.
August 3, 2022
This totally shit the bed. I really liked the second book and this drops the ball completely, unfortunately. I'm unclear why this series was written and didn't seem to be planned out well and it just sort of ends without any satisfying conclusions or character development. No thematic climax and some really odd choices about where the plot goes and the world building ends up being thin.
The writing style was overdone and actively worked against telling a good story, whereas the other books were much better.
The writing style was overdone and actively worked against telling a good story, whereas the other books were much better.
July 22, 2019
Copy received from Netgalley all opinions are my own
Let’s start with the cover, because I am shallow like that. It is stunning. I love the pops of red against the grey background. So beautiful.
The thing I like most about Anna Smith Spark is her writing. It is just as beautiful as the cover. She’s a writer who can make the violence of war seem beautiful with her words and she uses them effectively to create a vivid world marred by constant and very bloody violence. That’s a remarkable skill.
As for the plot, The House of Sacrifice is a solid book but it just didn’t blow me away enough for it to rise above books one and two and become a five star read for me. It is just as beautifully written as the first two books and it is just as violent and dark, both of those things I absolutely loved but there was no “OH MY GOD” moment to push it further than just liking it. I did like where the story went and how it almost came full circle from the beginning of book one. I also like that there was a very high body count because it’s war and people die in war. Lots and lots of people die.
The House of Sacrifice is absolutely brutal.
Marith continues to be a wonderfully written character with a nice dose of self pity to add to the tyranny. He’s fascinated me from the beginning and The House of Sacrifice is no exception. I hated and loved him in equal measure throughout the story.
The House of Sacrifice is a good book but it just doesn’t quite hit great book status. I liked reading the characters, the plot is solid and ends the series off and the writing is stunningly beautiful. It just needed a little something extra to make it excellent.
Let’s start with the cover, because I am shallow like that. It is stunning. I love the pops of red against the grey background. So beautiful.
The thing I like most about Anna Smith Spark is her writing. It is just as beautiful as the cover. She’s a writer who can make the violence of war seem beautiful with her words and she uses them effectively to create a vivid world marred by constant and very bloody violence. That’s a remarkable skill.
As for the plot, The House of Sacrifice is a solid book but it just didn’t blow me away enough for it to rise above books one and two and become a five star read for me. It is just as beautifully written as the first two books and it is just as violent and dark, both of those things I absolutely loved but there was no “OH MY GOD” moment to push it further than just liking it. I did like where the story went and how it almost came full circle from the beginning of book one. I also like that there was a very high body count because it’s war and people die in war. Lots and lots of people die.
The House of Sacrifice is absolutely brutal.
Marith continues to be a wonderfully written character with a nice dose of self pity to add to the tyranny. He’s fascinated me from the beginning and The House of Sacrifice is no exception. I hated and loved him in equal measure throughout the story.
The House of Sacrifice is a good book but it just doesn’t quite hit great book status. I liked reading the characters, the plot is solid and ends the series off and the writing is stunningly beautiful. It just needed a little something extra to make it excellent.
August 12, 2019
A fast-paced, bloody, fitting ending to this trilogy. I look forward to what more Anna Smith Spark has to offer us readers.
August 10, 2022
The House of Sacrifice is an extremely solid conclusion to the trilogy, marking Empires of Dust as one of the most uniquely compelling stories I’ve read. The writing style is a major factor in this — the visceral, unhinged, free-flowing prose that lifts events and emotions off the page, a stark look at the internal dialogue and mental states of the various characters it follows.
The way the story and characters are presented reminds me strongly of sweeping mythological tales and Homeric poems, but deeply twisted in nature. Reading an interview where Spark said she was inspired by the Iliad and Odyssey, it makes a lot of sense and that influence is clearly visible here, especially in this third book. The mystery of how magic behaves, how power fluctuates and the ambiguity of the origins and mechanics of the abilities of gods and demons and such creatures, Marith’s abilities are warped in a mysticism reminiscent of old legendary tales. It is how he is perceived that matters, rather than how it all works — it can be taken literally or metaphorically. The battle at Turain is one my favourite parts in the series because it emphasizes those aspects of the story: the armies of Amrath Reborn King Ruin King Death against the Queen of Turain with her legions of sorcerers and mages and giant men riding horses with snakes for manes and gods from the Mountains of Pain.
Instead of the traditional archetype of the heroic main character, it follows a self-destructive, dysfunctional, unpredictable maniac barely hanging onto his sanity, loved and reviled and terrified of by everyone, while the other perspectives in his wake attempt to make sense of this madness and wade through life in one piece. Marith revels in bloodshed but is racked with pain and guilt for doing so, which he then justifies to himself, saying that they deserved it, didn’t they? When he loses, he says he lost because he had decided to, and he hadn’t died after all, wasn’t that the way of things? Was he not a god demon thing, maggots crawling under his skin, rot and filth, that he cannot be hurt but he can but he cannot?
I’ve come to enjoy Thalia’s perspectives a lot, from them being my least favourite chapters in book one to finding them some of the most intriguing. Her short segments in first person and occasionally second person (as she seems to address both herself and the reader) are filled with justifications for why she does not condemn the horrible things she enables and is party to. Asking why anyone else in her position would act differently, to ensure their lives are out of danger and in a position of power, why she is being judged so while others commit crimes she cannot directly help, all while having the power to possibly end such things. The conclusion to her arc was very satisfying, the slow build up of her increasingly fragile but convincing justifications paying off when she finally decides to act, one way or another.
Tobias functions as the common sense perspective and the levity amidst the army’s fevered madness while also playing into the central themes of the story. His chapters have much more stream-of-consciousness writing, with sentences running on through his barely punctuated thoughts and snarky internal monologue with regular swears and very casual narration. Tobias is good at killing, and he feels guilty about it, grappling with his complicit nature in the army’s bloodshed while telling himself he’s not responsible for those horrors since he stays away from the fighting. The themes of desire and disgust are prominent — enjoying and being good at such things drives them to sink into denial about their nature which is complicated by the basic need for survival and the faint hope of living quietly. The characters see themselves for who they are, beneath the moralizing and justifying, although they remain people just trying to make do in desperate situations.
Landra Relast has a smaller but still significant role in this book compared to the previous one. I enjoyed the way her story of vengeance against the Altrersyrs wrapped up, her many attempts to topple the empire and to justify her acts of violence and revenge resulting in innocent deaths as being for their own good. Meanwhile, Orhan’s life in Sorlost continues to fall apart — learning the truth of the situation with the Immish, his long crushed dreams of building a better empire, to help its subjects as the man behind the throne, and trying to cobble together a defense against the approaching army. One of my favourite aspects of his story is the complicated but somehow functioning relationship with and between his lover Darath and his wife Bilale, a sense of safety and support that is very well-realized. There is a deep irony to his situation that Orhan recognizes and bitterly laughs at.
The inevitable storming of the undefeated, unconquerable desert city of Sorlost by the Altrersyr army, something that the army had been moving towards and the story building up to, finally ties these two threads together. There is a certain cyclicality to these events, which the characters themselves comment upon. Beginning and ending in Sorlost and its Great Temple to the Lord of Living and Dying. The characters get what they wanted, what they desired the most, for better or worse — the conclusions to all their stories feel mostly fitting for who they are as well as in a thematic sense. If I had to make a comparison, it felt very much like how the First Law Trilogy ended for the characters, although that isn’t a direct correlation.
The only semi-significant issue I had was feeling like some of the parts were a couple chapters too long. The chapters in these books are usually very short, so that isn’t a major concern, but it could feel a tad dragged on and the writing overly self-indulgent in places. Overall, however, this was a very solid and engaging conclusion to the trilogy. Fascinating characters, compelling and unique writing, and solidly woven themes over the story of an army led by a broken, villainous figure dedicated to reducing the world to ashes, city by city.
The way the story and characters are presented reminds me strongly of sweeping mythological tales and Homeric poems, but deeply twisted in nature. Reading an interview where Spark said she was inspired by the Iliad and Odyssey, it makes a lot of sense and that influence is clearly visible here, especially in this third book. The mystery of how magic behaves, how power fluctuates and the ambiguity of the origins and mechanics of the abilities of gods and demons and such creatures, Marith’s abilities are warped in a mysticism reminiscent of old legendary tales. It is how he is perceived that matters, rather than how it all works — it can be taken literally or metaphorically. The battle at Turain is one my favourite parts in the series because it emphasizes those aspects of the story: the armies of Amrath Reborn King Ruin King Death against the Queen of Turain with her legions of sorcerers and mages and giant men riding horses with snakes for manes and gods from the Mountains of Pain.
Instead of the traditional archetype of the heroic main character, it follows a self-destructive, dysfunctional, unpredictable maniac barely hanging onto his sanity, loved and reviled and terrified of by everyone, while the other perspectives in his wake attempt to make sense of this madness and wade through life in one piece. Marith revels in bloodshed but is racked with pain and guilt for doing so, which he then justifies to himself, saying that they deserved it, didn’t they? When he loses, he says he lost because he had decided to, and he hadn’t died after all, wasn’t that the way of things? Was he not a god demon thing, maggots crawling under his skin, rot and filth, that he cannot be hurt but he can but he cannot?
I’ve come to enjoy Thalia’s perspectives a lot, from them being my least favourite chapters in book one to finding them some of the most intriguing. Her short segments in first person and occasionally second person (as she seems to address both herself and the reader) are filled with justifications for why she does not condemn the horrible things she enables and is party to. Asking why anyone else in her position would act differently, to ensure their lives are out of danger and in a position of power, why she is being judged so while others commit crimes she cannot directly help, all while having the power to possibly end such things. The conclusion to her arc was very satisfying, the slow build up of her increasingly fragile but convincing justifications paying off when she finally decides to act, one way or another.
Tobias functions as the common sense perspective and the levity amidst the army’s fevered madness while also playing into the central themes of the story. His chapters have much more stream-of-consciousness writing, with sentences running on through his barely punctuated thoughts and snarky internal monologue with regular swears and very casual narration. Tobias is good at killing, and he feels guilty about it, grappling with his complicit nature in the army’s bloodshed while telling himself he’s not responsible for those horrors since he stays away from the fighting. The themes of desire and disgust are prominent — enjoying and being good at such things drives them to sink into denial about their nature which is complicated by the basic need for survival and the faint hope of living quietly. The characters see themselves for who they are, beneath the moralizing and justifying, although they remain people just trying to make do in desperate situations.
Landra Relast has a smaller but still significant role in this book compared to the previous one. I enjoyed the way her story of vengeance against the Altrersyrs wrapped up, her many attempts to topple the empire and to justify her acts of violence and revenge resulting in innocent deaths as being for their own good. Meanwhile, Orhan’s life in Sorlost continues to fall apart — learning the truth of the situation with the Immish, his long crushed dreams of building a better empire, to help its subjects as the man behind the throne, and trying to cobble together a defense against the approaching army. One of my favourite aspects of his story is the complicated but somehow functioning relationship with and between his lover Darath and his wife Bilale, a sense of safety and support that is very well-realized. There is a deep irony to his situation that Orhan recognizes and bitterly laughs at.
The inevitable storming of the undefeated, unconquerable desert city of Sorlost by the Altrersyr army, something that the army had been moving towards and the story building up to, finally ties these two threads together. There is a certain cyclicality to these events, which the characters themselves comment upon. Beginning and ending in Sorlost and its Great Temple to the Lord of Living and Dying. The characters get what they wanted, what they desired the most, for better or worse — the conclusions to all their stories feel mostly fitting for who they are as well as in a thematic sense. If I had to make a comparison, it felt very much like how the First Law Trilogy ended for the characters, although that isn’t a direct correlation.
The only semi-significant issue I had was feeling like some of the parts were a couple chapters too long. The chapters in these books are usually very short, so that isn’t a major concern, but it could feel a tad dragged on and the writing overly self-indulgent in places. Overall, however, this was a very solid and engaging conclusion to the trilogy. Fascinating characters, compelling and unique writing, and solidly woven themes over the story of an army led by a broken, villainous figure dedicated to reducing the world to ashes, city by city.
August 5, 2019
So. I have eight full sized book shelves. All of the shelves are full. Some double stacked and bowing. I also have one ‘special shelf’ where I place the books that I fucking adore. It holds maybe 25 books. This novel has earned a home on that particular shelf with its siblings. That is all.
May 8, 2024
5/5 Stars
The Empires of Dust trilogy comes to an end with The House of Sacrifice, marking this as the best trilogy I’ve read in years. Anna Smith Spark’s writing continues to impress and her title “Queen of Grimdark” is well earned.
As Marith’s army continues its scourge on the world of Irlast; political tensions, relationships and mankind’s sanity are tested through extreme circumstances.
Not only did each book in the trilogy continue to improve but her ability to explore the worst in humanity while capturing a twisted beauty in such miserable characters was utterly captivating. I found myself completely invested in these terrible people and cruel world with morbid fascination.
With characters I loved to hate and hated to love, they’re character work was thoughtful and brilliantly executed. Despite how horrible many of these characters are and how dark this series delves, there was some good found in a few POVs. Now, that’s not to say they’re good people but rather the lesser of evils, if you will.
I can’t forget to mention Anna Smith Spark’s use of perspective to carefully emphasize scenes, making seemingly simple moments, powerful. A great example of this was Thalia’s POV where she expresses herself through soliloquy. Those moments never failed to send chills down my spine, not just because of her messages but how accurately she managed to call me out as the reader looking into her story.
There’s also plenty of action and madness throughout this finale, as Marith sweeps through the land of Irlast with his army. His progressing madness and his aspirations of conquest don’t shy away from the atrocities of war and the effects on those in power. This was both refreshing for its sense of realism in war times but showcased plenty of dark scenes that were hard to stomach. Whenever I thought “she won’t go that far” I was continually proven wrong.
Finally, I was impressed by how well themes were used in the overall story and characters arcs. Some included grief, mob mentality, toxic relationships, insanity, brutality, revenge, addiction, and depravity. There were even moments of philosophic reflection that kept me thinking about human morality and ethics.
Simply put, this is how you write and end a trilogy. With each book better than the last and an ending that leaves readers satisfied yet longing to read it again for the first time.
While I highly recommend this trilogy, it’s also not for everyone. So, I encourage you to try for yourself and decide.
The Empires of Dust trilogy comes to an end with The House of Sacrifice, marking this as the best trilogy I’ve read in years. Anna Smith Spark’s writing continues to impress and her title “Queen of Grimdark” is well earned.
As Marith’s army continues its scourge on the world of Irlast; political tensions, relationships and mankind’s sanity are tested through extreme circumstances.
Not only did each book in the trilogy continue to improve but her ability to explore the worst in humanity while capturing a twisted beauty in such miserable characters was utterly captivating. I found myself completely invested in these terrible people and cruel world with morbid fascination.
With characters I loved to hate and hated to love, they’re character work was thoughtful and brilliantly executed. Despite how horrible many of these characters are and how dark this series delves, there was some good found in a few POVs. Now, that’s not to say they’re good people but rather the lesser of evils, if you will.
I can’t forget to mention Anna Smith Spark’s use of perspective to carefully emphasize scenes, making seemingly simple moments, powerful. A great example of this was Thalia’s POV where she expresses herself through soliloquy. Those moments never failed to send chills down my spine, not just because of her messages but how accurately she managed to call me out as the reader looking into her story.
There’s also plenty of action and madness throughout this finale, as Marith sweeps through the land of Irlast with his army. His progressing madness and his aspirations of conquest don’t shy away from the atrocities of war and the effects on those in power. This was both refreshing for its sense of realism in war times but showcased plenty of dark scenes that were hard to stomach. Whenever I thought “she won’t go that far” I was continually proven wrong.
Finally, I was impressed by how well themes were used in the overall story and characters arcs. Some included grief, mob mentality, toxic relationships, insanity, brutality, revenge, addiction, and depravity. There were even moments of philosophic reflection that kept me thinking about human morality and ethics.
Simply put, this is how you write and end a trilogy. With each book better than the last and an ending that leaves readers satisfied yet longing to read it again for the first time.
While I highly recommend this trilogy, it’s also not for everyone. So, I encourage you to try for yourself and decide.
August 8, 2019
I will never get tired of Anna Smith Spark's prose. I can't believe this trilogy is over, but I can't wait to see what she writes next!
Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!
Now this was a satisfying ending to a truly remarkable trilogy that has left me speechless on more than one occasion.
The poetic and literature nature of Spark's writing has done nothing but flourish throughout this trilogy, and it remains as vibrant and immersive as ever in The House of Sacrifice. Spark's prose is, as I've said before, more of an experience than it is anything else. It's really not for everyone and I totally understand that, but I'm so glad that I love it as much as I do and find it absolutely beautiful. This is going to be one of those reviews where I can't get too specific on plot or other details because I don't want to give anything away, but I'll still share all of my non-spoiler thoughts to the best of my abilities.
This installment had a marked shift in the events of the story from the other books. In this story, Marith has essentially taken over almost everything he wants to, Thalia is still by his side, it looks as though there is no end in sight for the victories of his army, and Marith is beginning to lose his marbles a bit. Well, okay, a bit more. Despite some gory moments and occasional sieges, the first half of the book had a sort of lack of urgency that I really enjoyed,. It's not that nothing was happening or there were no stakes, but it just had this sense of normalcy from Marith and his army in how they continually sacked cities that translated really well through Spark's writing and allowed me to really understand that sense of glorified monotony. Soon enough, however, things heated up once again and the stakes were cranked up into something that had me continuously turning the pages.
The story is split into three parts and within those parts we follow many of the same compelling perspectives as before: Marith, Thalia, Tobias, Orhan, and Landra. I love getting into the heads of Martih and Thalia in particular, two of the most flawed characters who make up the most dysfunctional couple I've ever seen--and yet, somehow, it all works. Orhan is another POV that I always enjoy following. He has this hopeless sense of humor that is full of dread, yet he maintains a very distinct personality that shines through in his chapters.
The world-building has long been established by this final installment and previous books have included plenty of travel that explores it, but I still enjoyed how much of the world was explored in this book as well. Marith's army travels around to new places during their quest to take over everything, all of it eventually coming a head in the golden city of Sorlost. This is a harsh world that feels entirely unpredictable most of the time (especially thanks to the help of some pretty intense dragons) and always manages to keep things unpredictable. Something about the world that might seem sort of minor that I love is how Spark manages to include a glimpse into what the 'regular' people of this world are doing. It's not anything that takes up much space or time in the novel, but the occasional mention in the narrative or dialogue remark from a character that notes how civilians are reacting to these events, how it takes so long for news to travel to them, etc. just really stood out to me and added a certain level of credence to the story that I appreciated.
If you were worried that this book was any less intense than the previous two, then I'm here to allay your fears: there's plenty of gore and violence, all done in a style that is both poetic and blunt at the same time. Spark just has this way of using language to effortlessly both convey and evoke a wide variety of emotions in her readers and to build a strong atmosphere. Even though the plot itself didn't feel as intense--at least in the first half--as I mentioned before, the brutality of this world and those within it was not lessened at all. The ending was bittersweet, both tragic and beautiful in its own right and I couldn't have asked for anything else. Every character arc left me feeling wholly satisfied with their fate, though I am sorry to see the end of their--and my--journey in this world. I have no idea what Spark plans to do next, but I have high hopes for anything she writes and will be first in line to check it out.
Overall, I've given The House of Sacrifice five stars! If you've enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, then I have no doubts that you will always love this one.
Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!
Now this was a satisfying ending to a truly remarkable trilogy that has left me speechless on more than one occasion.
The poetic and literature nature of Spark's writing has done nothing but flourish throughout this trilogy, and it remains as vibrant and immersive as ever in The House of Sacrifice. Spark's prose is, as I've said before, more of an experience than it is anything else. It's really not for everyone and I totally understand that, but I'm so glad that I love it as much as I do and find it absolutely beautiful. This is going to be one of those reviews where I can't get too specific on plot or other details because I don't want to give anything away, but I'll still share all of my non-spoiler thoughts to the best of my abilities.
This installment had a marked shift in the events of the story from the other books. In this story, Marith has essentially taken over almost everything he wants to, Thalia is still by his side, it looks as though there is no end in sight for the victories of his army, and Marith is beginning to lose his marbles a bit. Well, okay, a bit more. Despite some gory moments and occasional sieges, the first half of the book had a sort of lack of urgency that I really enjoyed,. It's not that nothing was happening or there were no stakes, but it just had this sense of normalcy from Marith and his army in how they continually sacked cities that translated really well through Spark's writing and allowed me to really understand that sense of glorified monotony. Soon enough, however, things heated up once again and the stakes were cranked up into something that had me continuously turning the pages.
The story is split into three parts and within those parts we follow many of the same compelling perspectives as before: Marith, Thalia, Tobias, Orhan, and Landra. I love getting into the heads of Martih and Thalia in particular, two of the most flawed characters who make up the most dysfunctional couple I've ever seen--and yet, somehow, it all works. Orhan is another POV that I always enjoy following. He has this hopeless sense of humor that is full of dread, yet he maintains a very distinct personality that shines through in his chapters.
The world-building has long been established by this final installment and previous books have included plenty of travel that explores it, but I still enjoyed how much of the world was explored in this book as well. Marith's army travels around to new places during their quest to take over everything, all of it eventually coming a head in the golden city of Sorlost. This is a harsh world that feels entirely unpredictable most of the time (especially thanks to the help of some pretty intense dragons) and always manages to keep things unpredictable. Something about the world that might seem sort of minor that I love is how Spark manages to include a glimpse into what the 'regular' people of this world are doing. It's not anything that takes up much space or time in the novel, but the occasional mention in the narrative or dialogue remark from a character that notes how civilians are reacting to these events, how it takes so long for news to travel to them, etc. just really stood out to me and added a certain level of credence to the story that I appreciated.
If you were worried that this book was any less intense than the previous two, then I'm here to allay your fears: there's plenty of gore and violence, all done in a style that is both poetic and blunt at the same time. Spark just has this way of using language to effortlessly both convey and evoke a wide variety of emotions in her readers and to build a strong atmosphere. Even though the plot itself didn't feel as intense--at least in the first half--as I mentioned before, the brutality of this world and those within it was not lessened at all. The ending was bittersweet, both tragic and beautiful in its own right and I couldn't have asked for anything else. Every character arc left me feeling wholly satisfied with their fate, though I am sorry to see the end of their--and my--journey in this world. I have no idea what Spark plans to do next, but I have high hopes for anything she writes and will be first in line to check it out.
Overall, I've given The House of Sacrifice five stars! If you've enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, then I have no doubts that you will always love this one.
August 12, 2019
A fitting end to a great trilogy. If most fantasy is like Iron Maiden – camp, absurd, deluded as to how dangerous and cool they are – this is Emperor – over the top, slightly insane, not to be messed with, might burn your church down in a fit of drunken pique. There are a lot of things here that I would probably object to in other stories. The characters had slightly inhuman motives, normally this is a big no, but it worked in its opulent excessiveness, and it came full circle by the end in a satisfying way, fighting forever cannot have no consequences. The writing is deliberately awkward: pronouns and articles frequently and deliberately skipped; heavy use of sentence fragments, sentences without verbs; repetition, with slight paraphrasing. But the style really works once you get into it, though it can make reading certain sections very slow. All in all, it’s a great series, it’s ambitious and well executed, my only criticism is that at times the awkwardness of the writing is a little too disruptive and meant I had to work for my entertainment rather than be absorbed by it.
August 6, 2019
SPOILER WARNING – This review may contain spoilers for all three books in the Empires of Dust trilogy.
The House of Sacrifice is the final book in Anna Smith Spark’s remarkable Empires of Dust trilogy and I have to say it’s definitely a glorious end to one of the best fantasy trilogies I’ve read in a long, long time. Before I get into the review proper I should warn you that there’s a good chance there will be spoilers for the first two books in the trilogy, so if you haven’t already read The Court of Broken Knives or The Tower of Living and Dying you might want to go do that first.
Okay, if you’re still here then I’m going to assume you’ve already read the first two books in the trilogy. Marith Altrersyr has conquered or subjugated everything in his path and is finally ready to settle down to a happy life as the King of all Irlast but fate has other things in store for Amrath reborn. With his wife, Thalia, at his side, and a blood-crazed army at his back, Marith sets off on the road to conquest once again, this time with glorious Sorlost, heart of the Sekemleth Empire set in his sights. Can King Ruin achieve the one thing his infamous ancestor was incapable of and sack the Golden City?
To say that Anna Smith Spark has a unique and unusual way with words would be like suggesting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is a pretty painting; it’s an understatement of the highest order. Amongst her influences she lists M. John Harrison, and that influence clearly comes through in the way she writes. As with both previous books in the trilogy the prose here is at times both lyrical and brutal, harsh fragments of ugliness and horror coupled with some of the most beautiful descriptions I’ve ever read. This is a book that needs to be read out loud, needs to be shared as oral tradition, and I’ll never get tired of reading Anna’s work.
The character development from the previous books continues here. Marith’s descent into madness and nihilism becomes even more pronounced, coupled with a rapidly growing hubris as he begins to truly believe he can’t be killed. Then there’s Thalia’s growing sense of guilt over her decision to not kill him when she had the chance, shown in her focus chapters where she questions whether their growing misfortune is deserved. These are characters that both mirror and contrast each other, each feeding the worst parts in the other while convincing themselves they do what is necessary. But as Marith begins to wonder if there should be an end to the death and destruction, Thalia still refuses to apologise for what they have done.
Hidden amongst the camp followers of Marith’s army, Tobias has all but given up on reclaiming any of his former glory. Disheartened by his own failure to stop Marith in book two he has found a peace of sorts, though he still seems to be driven by the desire to put right the things he thinks he did wrong. He gets a chance to redeem himself briefly in the middle section of the book but ultimately chooses to chase the past, once more returning to his martial roots, the thing he knows best.
And then there’s Orhan, once shining light of Sorlost, cast down by his own failures in the plot against the Sekemleth Emperor. Brought before the Immish governor of Sorlost, he is given the chance to reclaim former glories and is shown a path to redemption, only to have it pulled away from him when the King of Death comes knocking at the gates of the city.
There’s an interesting mix of character arcs in this trilogy. Marith and Thalia most definitely have a clear start, middle and end to their development. Marith’s arc in particular is damn-near note perfect in its adherence to the classical tragic heroes arc. Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t help but feel pity for Marith when his end comes, as it surely must.
For Tobias and Orhan, and for so many of the secondary characters, their arcs are almost cyclical. Tobias’ story ends as it began, with him leading a squadron of mercenaries, while Orhan achieves his goal of ripping down and rebuilding the Sekemleth Empire and finally reclaims the power and prestige he had at the start of the trilogy.
Taken as a whole, the Empires of Dust trilogy is a masterwork of fantasy literature, and in my mind definitely secures the author’s right to claim the title of Queen of Grimdark. This isn’t a particularly pleasant story, and at times highlights the worst aspects of human nature in gloriously sickening detail, yet there’s something beguiling about it, something that makes it impossible to look away as even the supposedly decent characters perform the most heinous acts of horror and depravity. This is high literature with a distinctly grimdark flavour, and it truly sets a high bar for others to aim for. Definitely worth every single one of the five stars I’m giving it, and then some.
The House of Sacrifice is the final book in Anna Smith Spark’s remarkable Empires of Dust trilogy and I have to say it’s definitely a glorious end to one of the best fantasy trilogies I’ve read in a long, long time. Before I get into the review proper I should warn you that there’s a good chance there will be spoilers for the first two books in the trilogy, so if you haven’t already read The Court of Broken Knives or The Tower of Living and Dying you might want to go do that first.
Okay, if you’re still here then I’m going to assume you’ve already read the first two books in the trilogy. Marith Altrersyr has conquered or subjugated everything in his path and is finally ready to settle down to a happy life as the King of all Irlast but fate has other things in store for Amrath reborn. With his wife, Thalia, at his side, and a blood-crazed army at his back, Marith sets off on the road to conquest once again, this time with glorious Sorlost, heart of the Sekemleth Empire set in his sights. Can King Ruin achieve the one thing his infamous ancestor was incapable of and sack the Golden City?
To say that Anna Smith Spark has a unique and unusual way with words would be like suggesting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is a pretty painting; it’s an understatement of the highest order. Amongst her influences she lists M. John Harrison, and that influence clearly comes through in the way she writes. As with both previous books in the trilogy the prose here is at times both lyrical and brutal, harsh fragments of ugliness and horror coupled with some of the most beautiful descriptions I’ve ever read. This is a book that needs to be read out loud, needs to be shared as oral tradition, and I’ll never get tired of reading Anna’s work.
The character development from the previous books continues here. Marith’s descent into madness and nihilism becomes even more pronounced, coupled with a rapidly growing hubris as he begins to truly believe he can’t be killed. Then there’s Thalia’s growing sense of guilt over her decision to not kill him when she had the chance, shown in her focus chapters where she questions whether their growing misfortune is deserved. These are characters that both mirror and contrast each other, each feeding the worst parts in the other while convincing themselves they do what is necessary. But as Marith begins to wonder if there should be an end to the death and destruction, Thalia still refuses to apologise for what they have done.
Hidden amongst the camp followers of Marith’s army, Tobias has all but given up on reclaiming any of his former glory. Disheartened by his own failure to stop Marith in book two he has found a peace of sorts, though he still seems to be driven by the desire to put right the things he thinks he did wrong. He gets a chance to redeem himself briefly in the middle section of the book but ultimately chooses to chase the past, once more returning to his martial roots, the thing he knows best.
And then there’s Orhan, once shining light of Sorlost, cast down by his own failures in the plot against the Sekemleth Emperor. Brought before the Immish governor of Sorlost, he is given the chance to reclaim former glories and is shown a path to redemption, only to have it pulled away from him when the King of Death comes knocking at the gates of the city.
There’s an interesting mix of character arcs in this trilogy. Marith and Thalia most definitely have a clear start, middle and end to their development. Marith’s arc in particular is damn-near note perfect in its adherence to the classical tragic heroes arc. Whether you love him or hate him, you can’t help but feel pity for Marith when his end comes, as it surely must.
For Tobias and Orhan, and for so many of the secondary characters, their arcs are almost cyclical. Tobias’ story ends as it began, with him leading a squadron of mercenaries, while Orhan achieves his goal of ripping down and rebuilding the Sekemleth Empire and finally reclaims the power and prestige he had at the start of the trilogy.
Taken as a whole, the Empires of Dust trilogy is a masterwork of fantasy literature, and in my mind definitely secures the author’s right to claim the title of Queen of Grimdark. This isn’t a particularly pleasant story, and at times highlights the worst aspects of human nature in gloriously sickening detail, yet there’s something beguiling about it, something that makes it impossible to look away as even the supposedly decent characters perform the most heinous acts of horror and depravity. This is high literature with a distinctly grimdark flavour, and it truly sets a high bar for others to aim for. Definitely worth every single one of the five stars I’m giving it, and then some.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2023
The House of Sacrifice was absolutely brilliant – unsettling, brutal and tragic. A masterpiece of intrigue and Anna Smith Spark has crazy talent.
The House of Sacrifice concludes the Empires of Dust trilogy and can I say what a wild ride it was. I enjoyed every minute of it and can’t believe it took me this long to pick it up. I deserve a slap across the wrists for that misdemeanour. The prose is outstanding…seriously beautiful in its brutal sense of realism. At no point did I struggle to get lost in the story, I was there in that moment, living the consequences of those characters. Spark has a way with words and I can’t wait to see what she pulls out of her bag next. I don’t doubt that its going to be just as powerful and just as memorable as The Empires of Dust Trilogy. This author has a lifelong fan.
Do you want a trilogy that leaves you breathless in its sublime conclusion? Then this is the story for you. Its almost impossible to please everyone but Spark does a stellar job for making the ending satisfying.
One thing I think that Spark has done especially well is displaying Marith’s decent into chaos in terms of his mental health. It’s a well contested topic and is extremely difficult to get right. Author’s have been known to get it wrong, unintentionally, and using stereotypes further conflicts the readers ability to appreciate where the author is coming from. Spark hasn’t fallen into that trap and investigates just what Marith’s actions would do to a person. He’s accomplished everything he set out to do and more. There is no one to stand up to him, no one to inflict consequence upon his terrifying reign. He’s killed people that he loved, people that have the label, family. Seeing the light go out on those you have loved and cared for must eat away at you. Their lives have ended at your hands, I think those images would haunt both my waking and sleeping moments. Thalia is still at his side, gone is the woman who served as the High Priestess, that woman has been buried, in its place is now Thalia, Queen of the White Isles and Marith’s wife. Those two make up some of the most screwed up, dysfunctional couples I’ve ever read about. It was wrong but somehow it seemed so right.
The first half of the story was of a quieter, slower pace. It wasn’t boring not for a minute, but it had a sense of caution, it gave a real idea of what happens in between sieges and battles. The chat between soldiers, the worry, the pain and I think the story certainly benefited from those powerful scenes. Although not a lot happened, reading them went quickly and before you knew it, you were in the midst of another siege and the story careened onwards with the force of a battering ram. This is a story that I won’t quickly forget, it was memorable in its morally grey characters and world building that was second to none.
The House of Sacrifice concludes the Empires of Dust trilogy and can I say what a wild ride it was. I enjoyed every minute of it and can’t believe it took me this long to pick it up. I deserve a slap across the wrists for that misdemeanour. The prose is outstanding…seriously beautiful in its brutal sense of realism. At no point did I struggle to get lost in the story, I was there in that moment, living the consequences of those characters. Spark has a way with words and I can’t wait to see what she pulls out of her bag next. I don’t doubt that its going to be just as powerful and just as memorable as The Empires of Dust Trilogy. This author has a lifelong fan.
Do you want a trilogy that leaves you breathless in its sublime conclusion? Then this is the story for you. Its almost impossible to please everyone but Spark does a stellar job for making the ending satisfying.
One thing I think that Spark has done especially well is displaying Marith’s decent into chaos in terms of his mental health. It’s a well contested topic and is extremely difficult to get right. Author’s have been known to get it wrong, unintentionally, and using stereotypes further conflicts the readers ability to appreciate where the author is coming from. Spark hasn’t fallen into that trap and investigates just what Marith’s actions would do to a person. He’s accomplished everything he set out to do and more. There is no one to stand up to him, no one to inflict consequence upon his terrifying reign. He’s killed people that he loved, people that have the label, family. Seeing the light go out on those you have loved and cared for must eat away at you. Their lives have ended at your hands, I think those images would haunt both my waking and sleeping moments. Thalia is still at his side, gone is the woman who served as the High Priestess, that woman has been buried, in its place is now Thalia, Queen of the White Isles and Marith’s wife. Those two make up some of the most screwed up, dysfunctional couples I’ve ever read about. It was wrong but somehow it seemed so right.
The first half of the story was of a quieter, slower pace. It wasn’t boring not for a minute, but it had a sense of caution, it gave a real idea of what happens in between sieges and battles. The chat between soldiers, the worry, the pain and I think the story certainly benefited from those powerful scenes. Although not a lot happened, reading them went quickly and before you knew it, you were in the midst of another siege and the story careened onwards with the force of a battering ram. This is a story that I won’t quickly forget, it was memorable in its morally grey characters and world building that was second to none.
November 15, 2025
This book was one of 5 finalists for my top trad pub SFF books I read in 2025!
For the full list, please see the link below:
https://beforewegoblog.com/p-ls-top-i...
Hear my full thoughts about the series, including Books 2 & 3/Overview of EMPIRES OF DUST series in my review on my YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufUXt...
This is the kind of book trigger warnings were created for. It is not that terrors are consistently written in graphic detail. Predominantly, they aren’t.
It is more about the TYPE of terrors explored and the depth of the debased behaviour, WHO commits the atrocities, and the QUANTITY and quality of the disturbing themes. Human sacrifice – including of children, sexual violence, murder, genocide, torture, mutilation, unhealthy obsessions, mania, revenge, oppression, drug and alcohol addiction, mental disorders, depression, betrayal…you see where I am going here.
The themes are extremely bleak, just as stark as our characters.
Here, in the gobsmacking finale, Marith seems unstoppable as he razes cities to the ground, marauding across the continent, while Orhan and the Sekemleth Empire appear to be doomed.
Beautifully written, in a uniquely poetic style, and some of the darkest fantasy you will ever read.
For the full list, please see the link below:
https://beforewegoblog.com/p-ls-top-i...
Hear my full thoughts about the series, including Books 2 & 3/Overview of EMPIRES OF DUST series in my review on my YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufUXt...
This is the kind of book trigger warnings were created for. It is not that terrors are consistently written in graphic detail. Predominantly, they aren’t.
It is more about the TYPE of terrors explored and the depth of the debased behaviour, WHO commits the atrocities, and the QUANTITY and quality of the disturbing themes. Human sacrifice – including of children, sexual violence, murder, genocide, torture, mutilation, unhealthy obsessions, mania, revenge, oppression, drug and alcohol addiction, mental disorders, depression, betrayal…you see where I am going here.
The themes are extremely bleak, just as stark as our characters.
Here, in the gobsmacking finale, Marith seems unstoppable as he razes cities to the ground, marauding across the continent, while Orhan and the Sekemleth Empire appear to be doomed.
Beautifully written, in a uniquely poetic style, and some of the darkest fantasy you will ever read.
Want to read
February 17, 2019Check out the UK Edition cover of The House of Sacrifice by Anna Smith Spark.
'The House of Sacrifice' by Anna Smith Spark will be released on July 25, 2019.
'The House of Sacrifice' by Anna Smith Spark will be released on July 25, 2019.
October 7, 2019
It was the greatest show on Earth.
In this trilogy Anna Smith Spark has set the scales against Grimdark fantasy and found it wanting. Marith Altresyr has toured the world and left it burning in his wake. He reigns in splendour, with Thalia by his side. His life is perfect. But...
It isn't.
Looking back, I noted at the end of part one of this book that "this is savage. Absolutely savage". I haven't changed my opinion. Smith Spark's characters talk intimately with the reader, giving more of themselves than is comfortable, demanding answers to questions we would rather not have asked. But we can't stop reading on to find out.
Thalia is the lynchpin around which the book turns. Not Marith, and not Tobias, and not Orhan Emmereth. Thalia happens to each of them in turn. It's her desire for a life beyond slaughter that brings events to a head, and if Tobias is surfing the tidal wave of chaos at the end of it he still knows that somewhere along the way the wave will engulf him too.
Five stars is the least I can give to House of Sacrifice.
In this trilogy Anna Smith Spark has set the scales against Grimdark fantasy and found it wanting. Marith Altresyr has toured the world and left it burning in his wake. He reigns in splendour, with Thalia by his side. His life is perfect. But...
It isn't.
Looking back, I noted at the end of part one of this book that "this is savage. Absolutely savage". I haven't changed my opinion. Smith Spark's characters talk intimately with the reader, giving more of themselves than is comfortable, demanding answers to questions we would rather not have asked. But we can't stop reading on to find out.
Thalia is the lynchpin around which the book turns. Not Marith, and not Tobias, and not Orhan Emmereth. Thalia happens to each of them in turn. It's her desire for a life beyond slaughter that brings events to a head, and if Tobias is surfing the tidal wave of chaos at the end of it he still knows that somewhere along the way the wave will engulf him too.
Five stars is the least I can give to House of Sacrifice.
July 12, 2025
This Shakespearean inspired twisted love story wrapped up really well.
This series is as grim as they come.
So many deaths. So many atrocities. Two maniacs that at least I had no compassion for.
Like most great tragedies things spiral downward for them and in this case a joy to follow their descent. >:)
This series is as grim as they come.
So many deaths. So many atrocities. Two maniacs that at least I had no compassion for.
Like most great tragedies things spiral downward for them and in this case a joy to follow their descent. >:)
August 14, 2019
* I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *
Anna Smith Spark broke onto the scene with The Court of Broken Knives (which always annoyed me because the place in the book is named the Court of the Broken Knife), a truly dark and gritty fantasy tale mixing magic, ambition, political intrigue and good old fashion hacking limbs off with blunted swords. Her narrative tone made her debut stand out, being much more lyrical and poetic than the rest of the genre. While this took time to get used to, it added to the immersion of the story and made the reader feel like they were experiencing the conflict themselves. The lyrical prose added to the underlying story. This continued into the second book, where Marith's journey to taking over/destroying the world continued, as did the turmoil in the heart of the empire.
Here, however, the story seems to have been put on the back-burner in favour of more literary prose. A whole lot of not a lot happens. While a large chunk of this is in favour of some character development, it is laboured and a real slog. I hated the first quarter of the book, and while I could see that what little was happening would be important in telling Marith's story, it really did take forever and was so utterly rammed home that I found it frustrating. So much so that I had to put the book aside so that my mood didn't ruin my family holiday.
The book serves as something of a conclusion to the trilogy with a lot of wrongs righted and paths ended. However, so much of it is simply gratuitous war for the sake of war (which I get as part of Marith's character but I grasped that after the first couple of unnecessary towns were razed).
However, with less of import happening, the reader starts to focus on the world-building, and I certainly started to realise how little of the "magic" in the world was explained or even described. So many instances of "shadowbeasts" just appearing and I cannot remember them being introduced in any detail at all. I really couldn't remember what was so special about Marith after all.
And the ending was so much of a damp squib I just had to laugh. After everything Marith had been through, for that to be the ending was ludicrous. While I appreciated the circularity of it, I didn't like it.
A disappointing case of style over substance in this dragged out ending to a series that could easily have squeezed into two books.
Anna Smith Spark broke onto the scene with The Court of Broken Knives (which always annoyed me because the place in the book is named the Court of the Broken Knife), a truly dark and gritty fantasy tale mixing magic, ambition, political intrigue and good old fashion hacking limbs off with blunted swords. Her narrative tone made her debut stand out, being much more lyrical and poetic than the rest of the genre. While this took time to get used to, it added to the immersion of the story and made the reader feel like they were experiencing the conflict themselves. The lyrical prose added to the underlying story. This continued into the second book, where Marith's journey to taking over/destroying the world continued, as did the turmoil in the heart of the empire.
Here, however, the story seems to have been put on the back-burner in favour of more literary prose. A whole lot of not a lot happens. While a large chunk of this is in favour of some character development, it is laboured and a real slog. I hated the first quarter of the book, and while I could see that what little was happening would be important in telling Marith's story, it really did take forever and was so utterly rammed home that I found it frustrating. So much so that I had to put the book aside so that my mood didn't ruin my family holiday.
The book serves as something of a conclusion to the trilogy with a lot of wrongs righted and paths ended. However, so much of it is simply gratuitous war for the sake of war (which I get as part of Marith's character but I grasped that after the first couple of unnecessary towns were razed).
However, with less of import happening, the reader starts to focus on the world-building, and I certainly started to realise how little of the "magic" in the world was explained or even described. So many instances of "shadowbeasts" just appearing and I cannot remember them being introduced in any detail at all. I really couldn't remember what was so special about Marith after all.
And the ending was so much of a damp squib I just had to laugh. After everything Marith had been through, for that to be the ending was ludicrous. While I appreciated the circularity of it, I didn't like it.
A disappointing case of style over substance in this dragged out ending to a series that could easily have squeezed into two books.
September 4, 2021
After the brilliant Tower of Living and Dying, this was for the most part a bloated, confusing mess. Even Marith himself (ugh) realised at the end how boring and repetitive their "kill kill kill" had become, and for once he was spot on right.
So very disappointing, I was sure I would love this series.
Quick character thoughts:
- Thalia: I loved her arc throughout the series but it fizzled out in the 2nd half of the final book;
- Landra: her chapters felt pointless here;
- Tobias - again, pointless;
- Marith: ugh, he dragged the series down for me since book 1 and continued to do so here;
- Orhan: I was so disappointed by the end of his storyline that the rating fully dropped from 3 to 2 stars right after that thing happened
The last 80 pages I just skimmed, the book was too long. But most unforgivable? The siege it was all building up to was disappointing and anticlimatic. As a siege lover I was most upset by this.
UPDATE: It's been a long while since I read this book/series and it has stayed with me, in a way few things do. I think the more time passes the more I get the feeling the tediousness and exhaustion caused by the violence was the point. All0encompassing violence like this is infections even without magica influence, and it leads to nothing but a sense of despair and hopelessness. There's nothing after this. Eventually, if you end up razing everything to the ground, there's just nothing left to do anymore and there's no glory in it.
As far as Thalia's arc goes, I think I do appreciate it more as well. She remains one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read.
So very disappointing, I was sure I would love this series.
Quick character thoughts:
- Thalia: I loved her arc throughout the series but it fizzled out in the 2nd half of the final book;
- Landra: her chapters felt pointless here;
- Tobias - again, pointless;
- Marith: ugh, he dragged the series down for me since book 1 and continued to do so here;
- Orhan: I was so disappointed by the end of his storyline that the rating fully dropped from 3 to 2 stars right after that thing happened
The last 80 pages I just skimmed, the book was too long. But most unforgivable? The siege it was all building up to was disappointing and anticlimatic. As a siege lover I was most upset by this.
UPDATE: It's been a long while since I read this book/series and it has stayed with me, in a way few things do. I think the more time passes the more I get the feeling the tediousness and exhaustion caused by the violence was the point. All0encompassing violence like this is infections even without magica influence, and it leads to nothing but a sense of despair and hopelessness. There's nothing after this. Eventually, if you end up razing everything to the ground, there's just nothing left to do anymore and there's no glory in it.
As far as Thalia's arc goes, I think I do appreciate it more as well. She remains one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read.
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