Of Darkness and Light
core novel 2021 The Bound and the Broken
Record
| First published | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.42 (14,572 ratings, collected 2026-08-24) |
| Page count | 828 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781838381851 |
Synopsis
The second book in The Bound and the Broken series opens in the aftermath of the fall of the free city of Belduar to the Empire's army, an event that scatters the group of companions introduced in the first book across Epheria. Calen Bryer must grapple with the fallout of the city's fall and the physical and emotional strain of using his own developing magic, even as he and his companions are separated from one another. With the cast scattered, the story follows each of them individually, allowing new figures such as Dayne to enter the unfolding narrative and giving space to threads that had only been glimpsed in the first book. The separation forces each character to confront the empire's growing reach and their own place in the widening conflict largely on their own.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Bound and the Broken
- Series: The Bound and the Broken core; position 2 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ryan Cahill
Notes
- From the series record (The Bound and the Broken): Self-published epic fantasy main sequence, planned for 5 novels. The fifth and concluding volume, Of Gods and Ashes, is announced for 2028 per the author's own 2025 year-end update and is correctly excluded as unpublished. Several companion novellas (The Fall, The Exile, The Ice, and others) exist in the same continuity but were not catalogued.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Bound and the Broken: position 2 of 4: previous Of Blood and Fire (2021) · next Of War and Ruin (2023)
Sources
← The Bound and the Broken dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.