Reviews - Of Darkness and Light

629 reviews for:

Of Darkness and Light

Ryan Cahill

4.35 AVERAGE

labrat_irl's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

sazerye's review against another edition

5.0

This is how you write a sequel. The first entry in Of Blood and Fire was okay and fell vastly short of the expectations I heart from social media and other people I knew. However, through short stories like the Fall and now of Darkness and Light, I'm happy to say I get it. This book is an absolute adrenaline rush that never stops. I would describe this book as The Wheel of Time meets John Gwynne with dragons. The character count goes from 10 key characters or so to over 100+ which took me a while to get adjusted to. However, by the second half of the book, I was completely invested and rooting standing up for many cinematic moments throughout the bigger sequences. I felt like I was watching the battle of Helms Deep for 800 pages, and I couldn't get enough. As I'm writing this review, I want more. I will say, this is far from a perfect book. The escalation of the world and characters felt out of the blue after the first installment is a big adjustment and I think a lot of the abilities and magic system/Gods are not well explained coming straight from Of Blood and Fire (The Fall does help fill out these gaps tremendously but still wanted more). With that said, for people willing to get through the first book, this series has the feel of a 10 book epic anthology that will continuously deliver on the premise of nonstop action and epic battles. I typically do like more sentimental vibes to my top reads and I hope to see more of that in the future now that the groundwork is laid. If any part of this world interests you from the magic system to the dragons to a world of elfcs, orcs, and dwarves, then the Bound and the Broken will definitely satisfy that craving.

william_gwynne's review against another edition

My 100th read of 2022! First time I have ever read 100 books in a year :). A great book to hit that milestone with.

It has been a few months since I last picked up a work by Ryan Cahill. I'm very glad to be back into The Bound and the Broken with Of Darkness and Light. A chunky epic book that acts as an ambassador for self-published fantasy. A great sequel that escalates on what has already been built, with solid, smooth prose and a mix of traditional fantasy elements with modern twists.

Full Review to Come