The Broken Blades
#7933.90 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2024–2025 Reading commitment Medium Mai Corland Last reviewed 2026-11-06
Overview
The Broken Blades is a fantasy trilogy by Mai Corland, published by Entangled's Red Tower Books imprint. It follows five assassins and spies, among them a pickpocket, a poison assassin, a count's son, a royal spymaster and an exiled prince, who form an uneasy alliance to kill King Joon of Yusan, a ruler who claims to be a god. The books are Five Broken Blades (7 May 2024), Four Ruined Realms (7 January 2025) and Three Shattered Souls (15 July 2025). The first book was described by its publisher as a series opener, and the third is the final volume of the trilogy.
Epic fantasy, Romantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Broken Blades Mai Corland
| Cover | Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Five Broken Blades; Red Tower, 7 May 2024. | 2024 | 1 | core | 3.81 (48,727 ratings) |
| Four Ruined Realms; Red Tower, 7 January 2025. | 2025 | 2 | core | 4.03 (19,234 ratings) | |
| Three Shattered Souls; Red Tower, 15 July 2025. | 2025 | 3 | core | 4.06 (11,708 ratings) |
Five assassins and spies ally to kill the god-king of Yusan.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Broken Blades? The Broken Blades's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for The Broken Blades? Publication order, starting with Five Broken Blades. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Broken Blades finished? Complete (2024–2025).
- How much reading does The Broken Blades take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is The Broken Blades ranked? #793 in this site's official ranking, based on 79,669 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #793?
Ranked #793 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.90 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (79,669 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #792, Binti (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 80k ratings · Ranks #793 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Five Broken Blades (2024)
- Four Ruined Realms (2025)
- Three Shattered Souls (2025)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.90 across 79,669 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon Extension: 13 universes from the candidate register (El libro de Nobac to The Broken Blades); 6 candidates ruled out accepted 2026-11-06
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Kirkus Reviews Tier 2
- NetGalley: Three Shattered Souls Tier 2
- Perlego: Four Ruined Realms Tier 2
- SSPL author page Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-11-06
Rule: Core Canon = Five Broken Blades (2024), Four Ruined Realms (2025), Three Shattered Souls (2025).