Charlotte Bond's dark fantasy novella, The Fireborne Blade, is a beautifully straightforward dungeon crawler until it isn't.
Protagonist Sir Maddileh is a rarity as a knighted woman and she's in dire need of a truly spectacular feat to reclaim her honor and restore her standing at court. Enter her current foolhardy quest to retrieve the Fireborne Blade. The only problem is, no one has ever been successful in retrieving the blade from the lair of the dreaded White Lady, a dragon to end all dragons.
Down in the haunted depths of the White Lady's tunnels, Sir Maddileh's surly squire Petros is more hindrance than help, and floating pockets of dragon magic keep them both disoriented. I can't say much more past this point, but I got thoroughly got, and it thrilled me. You'll just have to read and find out.
Bond's prose sings. It is perfectly spare and economical-illuminating, rather than creating, the enthralling and fully realized fantasy setting. With The Fireborne Blade, Bond brings a fresh perspective to time-worn staples of the fantasy genre: dragons, mages, and knights. One of the ways that she makes it new is through fascinating historical excerpts from The Demise and Desmesne of Dragons, a fictional set of volumes chronicling encounters with dragonkind. I loved these passages and they anchored the book for me.
Weaving together epic highs and lows in half the number of expected pages, Bond deftly leads the reader through narrative shifts between immersive glimpses of dragon hunting history, the disgraced knight Sir Maddileh's current journey through a dragon's lair, and the months leading up to her hunt for the titular Fireborne Blade. It's short and effective. Brutal, even.
There are a few moments of sapphic longing here and there, the barest hint of a love interest, and yes, even a blush or two, but these are only comforting guideposts along the unfolding adventure. Don't expect spicy content or some grand love story. This is the tale of Sir Maddileh's quest, and you're in for a wild ride.
Throughout the novella, Sir Maddileh stays gruff, tough, unapologetic, and incredibly stubborn. I can't stop / won't stop rooting for her. Growing up, we all deserved a canonically queer hero like her. Representation matters. Seeing a brave, strong, indomitable woman confidently stride forth in all her queer glory-what a gift that would have been in the 1990s. As the saying I just made up goes: Tamora Pierce and Robin McKinley walked so Charlotte Bond could run. Or something like that. If you're a fan of their work, you're likely the right audience for The Fireborne Blade, and you're likely to enjoy it as a sleek descendant of The Song of the Lioness series or The Blue Sword.
Coming in at just under 170 pages, The Fireborne Blade is easy-and enthralling-enough to read in one sitting, and it's well worth re-reading. Trust me, you'll have a different perspective the second go around. I was transfixed throughout. Simply put, it was a delight, and I am slavering for The Fireborne Blade's sequel, The Bloodless Princes.
Content warning: the patriarchy.
Susanne Salehi (she/they) is a queer Iranian writer residing in the American South with their partner and two cats. She's a Taurus, sticker collector, and puzzle fiend that's happiest when reading, cross stitching, gardening, or acquiring silly tattoos. They are also a part time MFA student at Emerson College, busy writing the epic sapphic heroes they've always wanted to see. More @susannesalehi or susannesalehi.com.
