I enjoyed A Sword of Bronze and Ashes by Anna Smith Spark, so I was happy to see A Sword of Gold and Ruin and was eager to dive back into the vibrant world that Spark had created in the first novel. I had found the first novel to be captivating although I felt the storytelling did not quite live up to the writing talent. I was hoping to discover a step forward for this upcoming writer and dove in expecting to be enthralled by the story.

Ikandera Thegythen was trying to make amends for the destruction she has wrought on her land. The once fierce and merciless warrior did not want her old life back. She wanted to help heal the land. She had become simply Kanda. She seeks a simple life and a peace that does not seem possible after the atrocities she committed. It is a simple dream but one that seems impossible as she travels across the land with her family.

The past does not give up so easily, however, and Kanda finds herself at odds with the world and some of the very forces she one fought for. While she desires to do good, she is worried that she is destined for evil. The struggle is real even within her family. Kanda's daughter, Callian, is impetuous and quick to anger. Kanda fears that too much of her old self has passed on to her daughter and worries for her future. She is on a quest to save the world, but will she be able to save her family first?

A Sword of Gold and Ruin does a good job of drawing the reader back into the world Spark has created and reintroduces the characters. The characters and the world shine as they did in the first novel and this remains a strength throughout the second installment. As for the narrative, the story moves along a little quicker than the first novel although there are times in which it lags. This is not a book that one can pick up and read in a leisurely manner. It takes a lot of work to get through and it does seem to stall at times. It is an entertaining read and the world-building and character development are amazing.

Much like in the first novel, the main drawback of A Sword of Gold and Ruin lies in the heavy-handed method of storytelling that Spark employs. There are time when I found my mind wandering as it seemed as if she had already lead us through this part of the story. There is a lot of repetition here and the details come almost nonstop. This often leads to the build up to the action in the novel seeming even more important than the action itself and can often make the seminal sequences of the story seem like an afterthought. I found the narrative to be smoother in this novel than in the first, but it still took more work that I would like to make it through the story and I did feel a bit let down at times. Overall, though, this is an interesting and entertaining read overall. I would like to have seen it more streamlined and think that 50 pages could be cut out of the novel. I still think that Spark is a major talent and have high hopes for her future works. This novel is recommended for those who revel in dark fantasy and superb character and world building.

I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for this review copy. A Sword of Gold and Ruin is scheduled to be released on September 23, 2025.

The Queen of GrimDark is back, tearing heads and hearts in the quietest, folkiest way possible with her latest offering, A Sword of Gold and Ruin. A heart-wrenching tale of the perils of guilt, power, pride, and regret, everything that is being a mother, in this grim and dark world. Along with A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, and A Woman of the Sword, Anna Smith Spark may have fused polar opposite genres - grimdark and cozy fantasy. If cozydark ever became a thing, let Anna Smith Spark be named its creator.


A Sword of Gold and Ruin is the sequel to Spark’s A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, and continues the trials and tribulations of Lady Kanda, the infamous Ikandera Thegythen, most powerful of the Six Swords of Rowen. Ridden with guilt of her monstrous past, Kanda endeavors to make amends for the ruin she has wrought upon the lands of Rowen. She wishes now to be merely Kanda, loving mother and dutiful wife.

But this is Anna Smith Spark, and the Queen of Grimdark is not so lightly named.

Kanda’s journeys from the village she inhabits with her family at the end of Bronze and Ashes to the renowned Hall of Rowen. Kanda’s wish to rebuild what she destroyed in her previous life forms the central plot of these novels. Although this is merely an overarching direction to orient readers to move forward. The real gut of this story is Kanda’s internal and external struggle while managing her very uniquely dysfunctional family.

Her all-too-normal farmhand husband Dellet is the anchor around which Kanda wishes to lead her new life of normalcy and rural bliss (or as close as she can achieve it after all she has done). He serves as the grounding every-man of the group, anchoring the family to the harsh practicalities of their journey, while the rest careen off their mental cliffs. In contrast, her daughter, Callian is wistful, restless, fiery, and all too competent with a sharp blade and a sharper tongue. In Callian, Kanda sees her younger self, and the dangers that face her daughter if she continues on the warrior’s path that Kanda herself is so bent on leaving behind. Her older daughter Sal, is far older now, an old lady, far older than Kanda herself, owing to her being trapped in the darkness following events of the first book. In stark contrast to Callian, Sal is a healer, slow to react, full of dutiful regret, yet eager to bolster her mother, Kanda’s efforts to rebuild what was lost. Sal hopes to bring some joy back to her life after years spent in the dark, and forms the cornerstone of regret in Kanda’s entourage. In addition, the heavy weight of losing their youngest, Morna weighs heavily on everyone; most of all to her mother, Kanda.

Anna Smith Spark brings her classic brand of poetic misery and miserable poetry with her unique prose. Her prose relies heavily on repetition, repetition, and repetition to give her work a lyrical quality that is unique to the dark fantasy genre. This approach will be an acquired taste to most, while it shines in some portions of the story, making a scene more evocative and intense, while in others, it feels like a stretched-out burden. Spark’s writing also relies on streams of consciousness from her characters, with internal monologues, narration, and dialogue melding together into a mush of prosaic psychedelia. A Sword of Gold and Ruin also features many flashbacks to Kanda’s previous life as the famous Ikandera, told in the style of mythical stories. The juxtaposition of these mythical stories of violence, bravery, and magic, showing the greatness of Ikandera and her fellow Swords with the more mundane familial trials, serves to make both elements more jarring and persuasive to the readers.

A Sword of Gold and Ruin, and the previous entry, A Sword of Bronze and Ashes hammer down to the core of motherhood. Spark takes a deep and dark look at what it means to be a parent , in particular, a mother to unique children. In Kanda’s trials, she inspects the burden of guilt, regret, pride, grief, joy, and frustration in raising children. Our very real fears of raising our children to be better versions of us, to not repeat the mistakes we made in our lives, protecting them from the harms and evils of the world, while also giving them space to become their own people, form a moral thread that weaves through this tale. While this reviewer is neither married nor has children, at the time of reading this tale, the messaging is clear.

Although some may argue that Spark veers on the side of being overly heavy-handed with her messaging, further exacerbated with her style of jarring prose, A Sword of Gold and Ruin may become a bit of a chore to those who wish for something more linear, mainstream, that is, usual dark fantasy fare. Admittedly, her prose style was far more grating in her Empires of Sand trilogy, the style there primarily aimed at increasing the visceral nature of that grimdark trilogy.

A Sword of Gold and Ruin offers a raw, poetic, subtle, and hard-hitting examination of its characters, with an ethereal backdrop filled with the quiet joy of a folk tale with the quiet suffering of grimdark fantasy. A poignant tale, simultaneously loud and violent, and soft and graceful; a story of the joys and sorrows, light and darkness — a dark inspection of what it is to be a mother.

The sequel to the masterpiece folk horror high fantasy A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, a lyrical blend of epic myth and daily life.

Kanda and her family are on a quest to rebuild the glory that was Roven. Mother and daughters stand together as a light against the darkness. But mother and daughters both have hands that are stained red with blood. They walk a path that is stranger and more beautiful than even Kanda dared imagine, bright with joy, bitter with grief. Ghosts and monsters dog their footsteps - but the greatest monsters lie in their hearts.

This was a great story that had lots of classic fantasy tropes that were done with a unique and modern voice. Definitely a step up from book one. Really enjoying this series and i cant wait for it to continue:)