The Unbroken
core novel 2021 Magic of the Lost
Record
| First published | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.80 (14,670 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780356516790 |
Synopsis
In The Unbroken, the Empire of Balladaire has spent decades occupying the desert land of Qazal, forcibly conscripting Qazali children, including a girl named Touraine, into its colonial military and training them to fight and police the very people they were taken from. Years later, as an adult soldier hardened by that upbringing, Touraine is assigned to protect Princess Luca, an ambitious royal heir, during a fraught diplomatic mission to the Qazali capital, where unrest against Balladairan rule is building toward open rebellion. Caught between the empire that raised her and the people of her birth, who see her as both traitor and potential ally, Touraine must decide where her loyalties truly lie as Luca's mission threatens to ignite the very uprising it was meant to prevent.
Where it sits
- Universe: Magic of the Lost
- Series: Magic of the Lost core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: C. L. Clark
Notes
- From the series record (Magic of the Lost): New author record. A completed grimdark/postcolonial epic fantasy trilogy exploring colonialism, queerness, and empire through a soldier-turned-rebel protagonist. The Unbroken was a finalist for 5 major genre awards -- the 2021 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2022 British Fantasy Award's Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Novel (Adult), the 2022 Locus Award for Best First Novel, and the 2021 Readers' Choice Award for Best Fantasy -- all losses (no wins), verified via Wikipedia's own dedicated The Unbroken article, which is careful to distinguish finalist-only results from wins.
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 Magic of the Lost: position 1 of 3: next The Faithless (2023)
Sources
← Magic of the Lost dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.