In this blistering science fiction epic, international bestselling author Richard Swan presents a thrilling tale of survival and an eviscerating examination of totalitarianism.

THE INFINITE STATE
begins at a flashpoint in the lives of a widowed party member, a disgraced investigator, and a hypersled pilot―entangled in a plot to escape the suffocating authority of a fascist state.

WHO GIVES YOU LIFE?
PATER AETERNUS.

Katherine Fuller’s husband is dead. As an esteemed member of Pater Aeternus―governing party of the fascist, galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire―he has left behind an estate of immeasurable wealth. And Katherine is going to inherit it.

WHO GIVES YOU PURPOSE?
PATER AETERNUS.

Life under the Eternal Father is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled―each new day to be endured, not lived. But with Katherine’s newfound fortune, she is presented with a rare and dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world, and create a better, fairer society.

WHO GIVES YOU JOY?
PATER AETERNUS.

But the Empire cannot allow its wayward daughter to succeed. And as Katherine works in secret, recruiting allies she's not even sure she can trust, she will discover exactly how far Pater Aeternus is willing to go to stop her. Because Katherine is going to create something nobody has seen for many years.

A democracy.

Published
August 4, 2026
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Author

Richard Swan

Before turning to fiction, Richard Swan spent years navigating the intricacies of the British legal system as a commercial barrister. That legal precision—meticulous, methodical, and relentless—now pulses through his dark, politically charged fantasy epics. Readers often come to his Empire of the Wolf trilogy expecting swordfights and magic; they stay for the crumbling empires, courtroom intrigue, and the slow-burn unravelling of truth in a world where justice is as fragile as memory. Born in North Yorkshire, Swan grew up surrounded by the stark beauty of the English countryside—an early lesson in the contrast between stillness and storm…