Description
Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim her honour.
It’s that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armor.
Maddileh is a knight. There aren’t many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But she’s a knight, and made of sterner stuff.
A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honor in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade from its keeper, legendary dragon the White Lady, or die trying. If history tells us anything, it’s that “die trying” is where to wager your coin.
Maddileh’s tale contains a rich history of dragons, ill-fated knights, scheming squires, and sapphic love, with deceptions and double-crosses that will keep you guessing right up to its dramatic conclusion. Ultimately, The Fireborne Blade is about the roles we refuse to accept, and of the place we make for ourselves in the world.
My Review
Bond builds a world in very few words, with dragons that possess unique abilities and melt on death. It’s a traditional knights killing dragons story with a few twists and horror elements.
The characters come to life in a few words and the twist is unexpected. The ending is quite dramatic and leads into the next novella. The use of extracts from archives of other dragon slaying and magical adventures flesh out the world with extra details, so that the reader discovers the social structure of the world and Maddileh’s place in it. Through her interactions with mages we understand the internal conflicts of both Maddileh herself and the magical order.
There are hints of a wider world and the future that suggests more novellas will follow and I look forward to reading them.