Of Darkness and Light is the second book in the Bound and Broken fantasy series by Ryan Cahill. It continues our story after a really impressive debut in Of Blood and Fire with Calen, our main protagonist taking on his new as leader. As well as Calen’s story, we look at how the world is also developing through the eyes of his sister Ella and his old friend Rist among others.
Please note that his article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of these products.
When writing a sequel to your debut indie-published fantasy book, what do you need to make sure you get right? You need to make sure you capture the key successes of the first book, in this instance: great characters, a compelling story and a mature, growing fantasy world. And then you need to build on all of that: more characters, a grander story and an expanded world. Does Of Darkness and Light do that?
Keep reading to find out.
Of Darkness and Light plot – 4.5/5
When you’ve come from a book that very much felt like the start of something great, you have to build on that with a sequel that answers all of the questions from the first book and expands on the world in the process, opening up many more interesting things for the reader to explore.
Not only does Of Darkness and Light continue to deliver regular action like the first book (one of its key highlights) but the action is of a grander scale and with higher stakes, making it feel even more intense. When you’ve got intense, regular action like this, it makes for a genuinely unputdownable book.
The addition of multiple POVs adds another layer to the story too giving us other storylines and characters to become follow. It’s an interesting look into other aspects of the wordld you may otherwise not have seen from just one point of view.
Of Darkness and Light characters – 4.25/5
Though weaker than the grandiose plot that Of Darkness and Light has, the characters are definitely a highlight. I sometimes find with fantasy novels that the characters can suffer a bit because they author has spent such a great deal of the book building the world and writing the plot that hey get left behind. However, that isn’t the case here.
You can feel Cahill’s personality coming through in his writing and in the characters too. Yes, the prose is quite formal like a lot of fantasy books, but there’s a lot of personality to the characters and the interactions they have with one another.
Calen, Ella, Rist and a few others are our main characters who carry the book throughout its journey. Calen is arguably our main character and is the focus of a lot of the plot for the other characters too. He’s a very humble protagonist who doesn’t want the attention that his new bond with his dragon has brought him which makes for a nice change. He also seems to be a very good person which is causing him to be a very likeable leader by others.
Of Darkness and Light final rating – 4.5/5
Of Darkness and Light is a success of a sequel in every sense of the word: bigger story, bigger plot, bigger consequences, more characters, wider world and ultimately a grander book. I really enjoyed Of Blood and Fire and Of Darkness and Light is the perfect sequel. It’s kept me interested in the world, I’m still enjoying the characters and am looking forward to wherever Cahill takes us next. If you’re a fantasy fan and were apprehensive about starting Cahill’s The Bound and the Broken series, you can rest assured his first book wasn’t a fluke, this is a genuinely exciting fantasy author we should all be paying attention to.
