Empress of the Endless Sea Books in Order

Empress of the Endless Sea stays on Dematr, but it gives that world a very different feel. Instead of following Mari and Alain, this trilogy goes back to an earlier era and centers on Jules of Landfall, an orphan who rises into the Emperor's fleet and then gets caught in a prophecy that threatens to turn her life into everybody else's political project. That setup lets Hemry trade some of the road-story feel of The Pillars of Reality for something more nautical, more cornered, and more openly swashbuckling.

Jules does not want to be anybody's symbol.

Unfortunately, the world has other ideas. A prophecy says that a daughter of her line will one day overthrow the Great Guilds and free Dematr. That instantly makes Jules useful and dangerous. The Mages want her dead. The Mechanics want to control her. The Emperor wants to exploit her bloodline for his own ends. So Jules does the sensible thing and runs, ending up with pirates and learning very quickly that freedom at sea comes with its own rules and its own costs.

That is where the series really settles in. These books are about ships, ports, storms, raids, uneasy alliances, and the long struggle to carve out space for people who do not want to live under imperial or guild control. Jules grows from a trapped young officer into a pirate captain and, eventually, into a leader whose choices affect whole settlements. Hemry keeps the action moving, but the politics never disappear. The sea is not escape. It is a different battlefield.

The Dematr setting still matters in all the usual ways. The Great Guilds remain looming powers. Technology is controlled. Magic is feared and weaponized. Ordinary people keep getting squeezed between institutions that claim to know what is best for them. What changes is the angle. In these books, the story moves westward, outward, and across the water.

That makes the tone a little lighter on its feet, even when the stakes are serious. Jules is a practical heroine, and the trilogy gets a lot of life out of her refusal to go where everyone says she must.

If you want Dematr with ships instead of starships, this is the place.

Start with Pirate of the Prophecy if you want a fantasy series built around prophecy, escape, sea power, and a heroine who keeps slipping the grip of people determined to own her future.