The Revenant of Surolifia
adult fantasy • political intrigue
In the vein of The Traitor Baru Cormorant and The Unbroken, The Revenant of Surolifia is a gripping political fantasy of empire, identity, and impossible choices, where rebellion blazes in the streets, loyalty is a double-edged sword, and the price of peace may be too steep to pay.
Secrets are often liabilities, but sometimes they are power.
Lucas Rhine has seen enough violence. When the Empire of Colours slaughters 17,000 of his silver-eyed kin, Lucas buries his hatred, hides his eyes behind coloured lenses, and vows to become the imperial gendarmerie’s commander. He will liberate his annexed island home through a diplomatic secession.
Usurped prince Faye Phlorik wants his throne back. When violent revolutionaries help him escape from prison, he joins them. They need a silver-eyed champion to rally the people, and he needs their resources to defeat the gendarmerie protecting the usurper.
When Faye’s escape costs Lucas his promotion, Lucas adds revenge to his list of reasons to stop the bloody revolution. While the two hunt each other across the country, the Empire’s warships are landing in two weeks to exterminate everyone with silver eyes. If Lucas and Faye can’t unite their forces against the imperial fleet, there will soon be nothing left of the people they’re both trying to liberate.
Advance Praise
The Revenant of Surolifia spins a stunning, complex tapestry of revolution, loyalty, and the pasts we can never quite leave behind. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, Chien peels back the layers to the heart of each character—their intentions, their hopes, and their mistakes.
— Andrea Stewart, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Drowning Empire and The Hollow Covenant trilogies
Sorcerous chicanery meets high-stakes political scheming; fans of complex gaslamp fantasy need look no further than The Revenant of Surolifa.
— Richard Swan, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Empire of the Wolf and the Great Silence trilogies
Now this is how you do political fantasy—there’s more double crossings, twists, intrigue and scheming here than a series of Traitors. It’s a witty, emotionally explosive rollercoaster and an unapologetically complex look at the different ways to save the world and their brutal cost—with a finale that goes straight for your throat. An audaciously clever, barnstorming debut.
— Ed Crocker, author of The Everlands trilogy
The Revenant of Surolifia brings you a chess match of revolutions played on the field of empire. Deeply human relationships run up against the devastating costs of war, history weighs heavy on the present, and past mistakes echo into the future. Immersive and expansive, this novel weaves threads of politics, secret identity, and magic into a detailed tapestry of intrigue. A whirlwind read. It’s political fantasy at its finest.
— Marina J. Lostetter, author of Activation Degradation and The Five Penalties trilogy
The Revenant of Surolifia is clever and intricate, a complex web of political intrigue driven by strategy, revolution, sacrifice, loyalty and deception. Chien elegantly explores the struggle for change and a better future, the collision of solutions and beliefs, and what it means to be a good leader.
— Ai Jiang, Nebula Award winner and Locus Award finalist author of Linghun, I am AI, and the Natural Engines duology
An enthralling political fantasy featuring one of the most interesting protagonists ever encountered in fiction. The Revenant of Surolifia and Lucas Rhine will pull you into their secrets, machinations, and twists until the very end. An unforgettable adventure.
— Millie Abecassis, author of A Legacy of Blood and Bone and The Color of Time
Chien weaves a clever, intricate political fantasy filled with bloody conflict and tragic betrayal that keeps us turning the pages and rooting for the heartbreakingly flawed characters.
— Jelena Dunato, author of Dark Woods, Deep Water and Love Lethal, Death Divine
With a lush cast of morally-tangled characters and a magic system that spins silver through your mind, it’s the political chessboard that keeps The Revenant of Surolifia’s pages turning. In a world where the war has already been lost, what does rebellion look like when the wounds of would-be allies divide rather than unite? Florence Chien doesn’t pose an answer but rather paints a picture of where each choice may lead to, no matter how noble—or heartbreaking—the consequences.
— Fiona Fenn, author of The Crack at the Heart of Everything and The City that Shattered the World
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