The Fireborne Blade

December 1, 2023

Bond's The Watcher in the Woods won the British Fantasy Society's award for best story collection. In this novella, she introduces the knight Maddileh, who must redeem her honor by retrieving a fabled fireborne blade from its keeper, a legendary dragon. With a 100K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2024

Disgraced knight Maddileh is journeying through the vast tunnels surrounding the heart of the dragon White Lady's lair in order to retrieve the legendary Fireborne Blade and hopefully redeem her honor by presenting the blade to the lord she once served. Alternating with the tale of Maddileh and her squire battling their way through the dangerous tunnels are scholarly chapters detailing all the many dangers of fighting any dragon, let alone one as old and powerful as the White Lady. Maddileh reaches her aim, surprisingly intact, to discover that her real goal is actually farther away and that her supposed squire is there to steal her prize--unless she can steal his first. Bond (The Watcher in the Woods) takes the classic knight vs. dragon tale, gender-bends it a la Nicola Griffith's Spear, gives it a bit of a sapphic twist, and then turns it into a ghost story with betrayals and body-swapping until the winners become the losers and the righteous win the day. VERDICT Recommended for readers who love to see a familiar tale turned on its head so hard that the entire story becomes different and even more fascinating.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 25, 2024
Bond (The Watcher in the Woods) gets her new fantasy series off to a rocky start with this murky adventure. The knight Maddileh sets out on a mission to prove herself by recovering the Fireborne Blade, a mythical sword forged by dragons, lost by humans, and rumored to now be in the possession of the infamous dragon known as the White Lady. Maddileh’s squire, Petros, has his own goal for the mission: to rescue his sister, Saralene, who was abducted by the dragon. Together, Maddileh and Petros brave the White Lady’s lair, where they encounter the murderous ghosts of knights killed by the dragon in the past. The duo’s relationship, including how they came to be working together, feels somewhat muddled for much of the book, but their odd dynamic is explained in an explosive final twist that recasts much of what came before. It’s an impressive trick, but it can’t make up for the half-baked magic system and rushed plotting. This is a strong concept that falters in the execution.

March 8, 2024
The disgraced knight, Maddileh, is on a quest to rebuild her reputation as a battle-hardened warrior. To do so, she must set forth on an impossibly dangerous quest to steal the Fireborne Blade. The last time the blade was seen, it was in the talons of a legendary dragon. Now it lives deep in the bowels of the world inside the demesne of a dragon called the White Lady. The White Lady has powerful magic that causes anyone who approaches the estate to become confused, forgetful, and, if they dare to close their eyes to sleep, plagued by nightmares. Despite the challenges, Maddileh and her squire must continue forward, deeper and deeper, Maddileh to regain her honor and to show her mettle as a female knight--one who has endured sneering and contempt from her male counterparts--and her squire to fulfill his own secret goals. Bond's debut novel is an exciting new fantasy adventure that brings surprises until the last page. The Fireborne Blade tells a compelling story of killer dragons, knights with nothing to lose, and scheming squires.

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