Novellas like The Fireborn Blade by Charlotte Bond are exactly the reason I love shorter form fiction. Engaging, fast-paced, inventive, and just a damned-fun few hours to spend engrossed in a story, The Fireborn Blade could have been the intro or extro story for an anthology, but is certainly strong enough to stand on its own two feet.


In The Fireborn Blade Maddileh is one of the very few women to become a knight, and she’s had it all wrenched away from her by reacting to the cruelty of a man. As a favoured knight of the king due to her gallantry, she has been given one chance to re-attain her station and honour. The what of it is up to her, but it needs to be epic. Taking on the White Lady dragon deep in its lair to claim back the fabled fireborn blade for her king is about as epic and dangerous as it gets. However, the recurring nightmare where she burns does not bode well for the success of her mission.

The story is full of betrayals and bait-and-switches, long-games, shady characters, and magic. And the magic I think is one of the coolest things about the book–and I think the last time I said that was when I read Beyond Redemption. Dragons influence the world around them while they sleep and dream, with everything from magic bubbles which burst into the tunnel of their lairs to make questing knights and treasure seekers forget the reason they are there, to the ghosts of the dragon-slain who haunt the tunnels of the dragon’s demesnes and, should they touch you, torture you with nightmares for years to come, to dead dragons expelling a magic burst of leeches which devour the knight who killed them. Mages study the dragons and all they do, and the snippets from the books which detail the mages scientific approach to documenting the dragons people (usually knights) encounter and survive (usually just, if at all) are one of my favourite parts of this story. I love, love, love the way these help set the scene and signpost a few things to come, document the wildly varied nature of the dragons and the danger they and their lairs presented, almost as much as I love the fun of the interview-record-style way the chapters delve into some of the less honourable knights and their retellings of their exploits.

The story also delves into male-dominated industries and the hardships women face gaining success there, which is smoothly done for the reader through the use of a European-style medieval setting. While this theme is a foundational part of the novel throughout, the main focus is on Maddileh getting some form of revenge by regaining her station through a heroic act–the loss of which she realises is on her for not having the restraint to not deck her former lover (right in front of the king) for his emotional cruelty to her. From a grimdark fan perspective, there is a lot to love when reading the records of the knights who fought dragons, and the explorations into the secondary characters’ reasons for being, but the main character is generally a slightly flawed, but over-archingly good character trying to regain her good standing by doing something very dangerous.

The Fireborn Blade by Charlotte Bond is a brilliant novella that I absolutely loved reading. Make sure you grab yourself a copy, pour yourself a glass of something, and lose yourself in one of the best dragon dark fantasies I’ve read in ages.

Loved it! Clever, well-written, with engaging characters and plenty of twists and turns. An excellent take on the classic human vs. dragon story.

A short but nice fantasy read, more of a novella than a full length book. I would’ve loved a little more backstory, but I don’t think that was the point of the book :D

I already ordered a copy for my shelf :)

I had no clue a story so short could make for such a fun ride!! This was such a compelling journey from start to finish. The pacing was excellent, the world building gave just enough to pull you in, and the characters leapt off the page. I hope this sets the trend for similar fantasies, books that are short and sweet and filled end-to-end with non-stop action and excitement.

Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF"ed 20% of the way through.

There was too much happening jammed into each chapter. I had no emotional connection to anything that was going on, the characters were extremely flat and uninteresting.

The only reason I finished this book was that it was so short, and I hoped it would make sense in the end. It didn't. The story jumps around in time, and I could never get the exact timeline straight. I liked that the knight was female, and that the good guys won in the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

A twist on a classic knights tale with dragons. This novella follows a female knight on a quest to get a blade back from a dragon and reclaim her honor. This was good overall. I enjoyed the dual timelines, the dragon lore, the mystery and twists and a kickass woman.

DNFd at 20%. It was just… boring. Might be the right book for someone, it just wasn’t me.

I found Maddileh to be stubborn but with no interiority worth interrogating, and the magic system dry. How do you make dragons boring? I don't understand.

Dragons, knights and wizards always pique my interest. The Fireborne Blade relies on general knowledge of knights, wizards and dragons as the world building is lacking in some ways. This does not take away from the story. Bond's writing is very strong and has woven together a quick entertaining story. The story does jump around a bit in time with sections of dragon and knight history sprinkled in between. These additions do bring more depth to the story; however, they did make it more difficult for me to connect to the characters and overall plot. I think this is because once I was immersed in what was happening, a history story section would pop up and pull me away. I did like the twist at the end. I think this is a nice read for those who are being introduced to the fantasy genre. It's not overcomplicated in it's story, magic, or world building. There is a limited amount of characters that makes it easy to track especially in a novella. Despite only being just over 170 pages, the story felt full and complete.

This book did not hold my attention and I was not able to finish it. I do think this book would be great for other people but it was not for me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it!

I received a copy from Netgalley / tor publishing group in exchange for an honest review.

This was short, descriptive, with just enough world building to keep me wanting more without feeling lost. I love a lady knight story. Theres not a whole ton I can say without major spoilers, but an easy read that almost makes you think. If you enjoyed Gideon the 9th, this is a lovely story you might enjoy as well.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

I quite enjoyed this story. It has an interesting story about women making their places in a world that feels live in.

Rating: 4/5

This was a very quick and entertaining read/listen. There isn't anything too complicated here but the characters are easy to like and the story is well thought out and fun. I look forward to reading more from Bond.

I’m not septain if this book was the first in a series: it reads as though it isn’t. The build up is long for the eventual pay off, twisty and difficult high fantasy with less interaction between female characters than I hoped. I generally dislike stories that run backwards and forwards in the timeline as this does. The saving grace is the way the story concludes, which leads me to hope that the next book in the series (hoping there is one) will deliver on the investment required by this book. I want to know what happens next between the two primary characters as they are at the end of the book.

An intriguing twist on classic dragon fantasy that ultimately - and surprisingly - suffers from lacking world-building and being too short.

The bones of The Fireborne Blade are incredibly intriguing even if they're nothing new to the genre. A female knight sets out on an epic quest to retrieve a mythical sword from a legendary dragon to redeem herself. There's a bunch of classic medieval fantasy and dragon lore, and an interesting but rushed twist at the end.

I ended up soft DNF-ing the digital ARC I received because I couldn't stay engaged or keep up with what was happening. The first half of the novella (just under 200 pages) switches between Knight Maddileh's present quest, her past, and archival accounts of other's experiences with dragons. But even with all that context in a relatively short book, I still couldn't fully process the characters and what they were experiencing until the last quarter or so of the audiobook I got from Libby.

Still, I'm obsessed with the concept, the cover, and the tiny bit of world-building presented in The Fireborne Blade. So, I will continue this series.

This was an interesting novella. I thought the way this story was told was intriguing, but it also made it all flow less easily. Basically we jump between written transcripts of knights and dragon encounters, Maddileh’s journey from months ago, and Maddileh’s journey now.

It takes most of the novella for the pieces to truly fall into place, and I didn’t even see it coming until it was revealed to Maddileh, although obviously, I am not going to speak to specifics because I try to avoid discussing spoilers in my reviews.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed that this was only a novella, because I did want to know more, but considering the split story and timelines, I don’t know that this story would have worked as well if it had been longer.

We met some interesting characters in this story, and some I liked, some I thought were fun and fascinating, and some I definitely disliked, so I always appreciate when the characters make me feel something. That is especially true in a novella where there’s only a couple hundred pages to really get a reader invested in the characters and the plot.

I read this pretty quickly, and I think it was a good introduction to this world and the magic and the dragons, as well as some of the deceptions and betrayals. I will say that I already put the next installment on my anticipated releases list, and I’m looking forward to reading it in October. I want to know what will happen next for Maddileh and Saralene.

This one was just not for me. I just struggled to get into it and found it very confusing.

Thank you for giving me the chance to read and review The Fireborn Blade.

The Fireborne Blade is a fantasy novella following Maddileh, a Knight who is going to attempt to kill the dragon White Lady, in order to steal back the Fireborne Blade. Getting the Fireborne Blade is Maddileh's chance to reclaim her honor after an incident that tarnished her reputation, which is already on the rocks because she is a woman.

The Fireborne Blade is a magical story about knighthood and deception. I really enjoyed the world and the characters Maddlieh encounters as she works to get to White Lady.

The story does jump around a bit in terms of time. Accounts of past dragon encounters throughout history gives readers examples of the dangerous journey Maddileh finds herself on. I really like the budding relationship between Maddileh and Saralene.

This was a great start to a fantasy novella series and I'm looking forward to reading more!

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This was fun! For a rather short novella, the pacing didn't feel rushed nor did it feel like anything was left out plot-wise. While the way the magic worked wasn't fully explained, I thought it's usage was fairly original. Blood magic is always interesting to read about. I also did not see that final twist coming. I'll definitely continue on with this series.

A queer knight who's also a dragonslayer but there's a whole host of intrigue happening?

I really liked how this was laid out, with a slow burn story that was aided in worldbuilding by archival segments. The plot twist didn't quite work out for me, but I'm intrigued to see where the second novella is going to go, and how the whole dragon thing is going to be handled, because I need more dragon.

The way the dragon slaying knight genre was tweaked and examined was fascinating, but the novella length wasn't long enough to go into much detail.

I received an ARC from NetGalley