The Bound and the Broken by Ryan Cahill

[Pellert]

Hi, 

long time reader, first time poster. 
 

I regularly drop by here to scan for reading recommendations, and have picked up some good suggestions, but on my own I recently found a fantasy series that really really baffled me. Name and author is as the topics of the thread, and it’s planned for a 5-book series with shorter novellas between, so far 3 books and 3 novellas (so far all novellas are set prior to the main story) have been released, and Ryan Cahill really seems to write at an great speed, around 1 book per year. In addition he seems like a genuinely good guy (based solely and superficially on his webpage/social media/how he tries to interact with his fans on updates etc). I don’t know the industry well, but it seems like he is self-publishing, it least his books are also really cheap.
 

what surprised me was that I could not find a single mention of the books or the author in this forum, so decided to bring to everyone’s attention here. 
 

Without spoiling too much, it starts off as a very classic fantasy with three youngsters from a small village (heard it before?) that’s thrown into a continent-spanning war. Much of the story is centered around dragons, and there is really a fleshed-out and interesting depth to the relationship between dragons and humans connected to them (Draleids) that I at least have not come across. In addition to dragons, it contains other standard fantasy elements like elves, dwarfs, monsters, mages, evil and good Gods etc. But even if it uses many standard elements, it was really refreshing and as the story progress, it becomes less black and white, villages are suddenly not so villainous anymore and the good guys are not so good anymore and the world expands a lot with many different plot lines (I also find the world building very good). And it is for sure not a YA-series, it’s probably the most action packed books I’ve ever read, with enough of gore and violence but not really grimdark.
 

without criticising it to a large extent (I have rated all books 5star on Goodreads) it’s obvious some of the items are heavily inspired by other serious (for example the magic system is very similar to WoT), but at least to me that wasn’t a dealbreaker, I seldom find a fantasy series anymore that doesn’t draw on previous works.. 

to me it really stood out as the best fantasy read for a long time; classic high fantasy with some refreshing and novel twists, and it seems really planned and thought-trough all the way. 
 

hoep some of you check it out immediately, and if anyone have read it, hope you can give your view on the series, I always like to see how far off the mark I am  

PS: even if I enjoy and read a lot, i am not a very advanced “analytical” reader that goes in depth in character development, logical structure/flaws etc; so I can’t really vouch for all of this in the books, and I tend to pick up and read and try to enjoy (but of course I pick up on things that I don’t like on a overall level..). 
 

So check it out! 

 

Edit: the explanation of the plot was really very superficial, so happy to drop more info if someone would like more before trying it out

Edited September 27, 2023 by Pellert

[polishgenius]

I'll be honest, I checked the sample preview and the fact that the first paragraph contains the sentence 'his lip curled with indifference' did not fill me with confidence. 

[Pellert]

18 hours ago, polishgenius said:

I'll be honest, I checked the sample preview and the fact that the first paragraph contains the sentence 'his lip curled with indifference' did not fill me with confidence. 

Sure, and this is kind of an example of what I meant when I said (maybe clumsily) that I am not an “analytical reader”; I don’t easily pick up on these kind of nuances. that’s not to say that I don’t care at all - if it it’s really crap of course I care, but my first priority is normally on the content/story as long as the writing is “passable”. 

 

If it’s any worth, at least the reviews I have read also gives praise that the writing improves a lot in the 2nd and third books (they are not saying the 1st is bad, just that it gets better)
 

anyways, I won’t vouch for it as a literary work of the ages, my recommendation is in terms of story, action, entertainment and scale where I find it the best I have read in quite some time within classic fantasy (with the exceptions of the really big names), a genre where I have struggled to find something that really triggers me in terms of new releases the last years.. 

 

edit: thanks for answering  

Edited September 28, 2023 by Pellert

[Pellert]

Me again  

Just so you know, the author has launched a promotion (he calls it “The day of the dragon”, which is planned to recur every 10th of October). 

anyhow, the promotion is basically that you can pick up any of the books in the series for just 0.99 USD /book (in addition to that the first short story Novella “The Fall” is available for free if you sign up to the email list). 
 

So in case some of you want to try it out, it’s not really a big risk in picking up one of them for basically nothing  

[Garlan the Gallant]

I asked about this book series in the daily thread but didn’t get a response. I personally am wary of books that use very played out tropes like Elves and Dwarves. I also don’t like the ring of it that’s it’s a farm boy black hat and white hat book, even if there are more nuances along the way. Not to say that the series isn’t great, but I’d love a more strong endorsement from this forum before trying it out.

[Pellert]

13 hours ago, Garlan the Gallant said:

I asked about this book series in the daily thread but didn’t get a response. I personally am wary of books that use very played out tropes like Elves and Dwarves. I also don’t like the ring of it that’s it’s a farm boy black hat and white hat book, even if there are more nuances along the way. Not to say that the series isn’t great, but I’d love a more strong endorsement from this forum before trying it out.

Cool! (Didn’t see that, I don’t monitor all threads  ) personally I just accidentally stumbled across them on Goodreads as well, when I started checking out his webpage and so on, I was actually surprised that I could not find much info on it outside there and Goodreads, because it looks really nice from a marketing perspective (which I for now just interpret as a young actor that is really trying to live out his dream of creating a fantasy world)

I believe I was quite honest in my initial review; I am not an “analytical” reader (as I called it..) so I won’t vouch too much on his work in literary terms - but I can repeat what I said; the reviews on Goodreads (by people I assume know more of what they talk about) says it improves for each book (not that it’s bad in the start necessarily). 

for the setting, yeah it’s relatively “standard fantasy” setting, but for me that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is done right.. some examples; 

- Dragons: yes relatively standard, but at least for me the way he is building on and exploring the relationship and bond between dragon/dragonrider was to me new and refreshing. 
- elves: yeah, standard creature in fantasy. I won’t spoil too much, but these elves are not the standard Tolkien elves with immense powers and white-as-light goodness, they are less mystical, humanised and more grey than normal. 
- there are dwarfs, this is not really my favourite part of the series, they are a bit standard, an attempt on some humourish dwarf that border on greediness. 
- farm boys; yup it starts that way, and of course the story focus much around them, so you don’t really get out of it 100%. But there are no prophesies/“chosen one” involved, and even if they have some unique skills/potentials, they have their struggles.. 

- good god vs bad god; yes.. but it’s quite interesting as you get to know characters and motivation of both sides, which makes such a standard conflict greyer than normal I would say. 
 

could probably go on about various troupe, but all I’m trying to say is yes for sure it’s relatively standard fantasy troupes (and I mentioned in my first post that there are some other fantasy series that he draws very much inspiration from, like for example WoT and the magic system, but it’s much less developed/described), but I think he executes those troupes relatively good and on top of that brings some new elements to it. 

and for sure they are extremely action packed and entertaining, it’s very seldom “nothing happens” in the books, and it seems he has used a lot of Time on developing a well-planned plot and story without it spinning out of control. 
 

I can only recommend that you sign up to his email newsletter to get the first Novella and try it out - it’s not long at all, it’s full of action and a good place to start the series, and if it peaks your interest you move to the first book in the main series, if you don’t like it, just drop it.. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Pellert

[Pellert]

6 minutes ago, Madame deVenoge said:

"Piques" the interest, not "peaks".

I'm not going to do a massive quote just to make that remark on the last paragraph. I'm now going to not read something so heavily flogged by one person. I'm depressed, and I would rather read Cormac McCarthy right now.

Sure, I guess you understood where I was going anyways. 
 

And I sense a negative undertone when you are referring to me as “heavily flogging” the series..? 

[Argonath Diver]

Your passion for the series is certain. However you may have come across this forum, you'll see that a ton of posters here are voracious readers, many of whom actively promote unheralded authors they enjoy in threads like the "What are you reading" and "Great deals" you'll see on this first page. Bumping a singular thread with little response comes off as a bit abrasive. 

I'd certainly recommend lurking in this amazing forum as I do, and as you find gems like the one you enjoy, sharing that in threads specifically suited for finding new authors.

Cheers and glad you've enjoyed the series. 

[Pellert]

1 hour ago, Argonath Diver said:

Your passion for the series is certain. However you may have come across this forum, you'll see that a ton of posters here are voracious readers, many of whom actively promote unheralded authors they enjoy in threads like the "What are you reading" and "Great deals" you'll see on this first page. Bumping a singular thread with little response comes off as a bit abrasive. 

I'd certainly recommend lurking in this amazing forum as I do, and as you find gems like the one you enjoy, sharing that in threads specifically suited for finding new authors.

Cheers and glad you've enjoyed the series. 

thanks for a nice post  
Yup, I definitely can see that - my only defence is that “balanced passion” is, well… difficult to balance?

But yes, I definitely scan this forum as well and know the level many readers are on, but also a certain passion for fantasy.. I also dropped the mention in the casual “what are you reading thread” but same as was mentioned by Garlan, things easily drown in these threads. (and in my defence, I at least tried to tone it down a bit with trying being a bit limited on praising them to much and more angle it to a personal liking of the series  ) 
 

Seeing also that many other book series have their own threads (most more recognised series sure) I was only thinking it could be little harm. After all I just really liked the books and the way the actor tried  to interact with his fans, so I just decided to try to give him a small courtesy of mentioning his work in a place where someone may pick them up  

 

edit: bumping was actually just a coincidence as I just came across that promotion of discounted price on the books  

Edited October 12, 2023 by Pellert

[A wilding]

16 hours ago, Pellert said:

And I sense a negative undertone when you are referring to me as “heavily flogging” the series..? 

Unless you are very naive you will know that the internet contains a large amount of deceptive advertising and promotion of all sorts of products. Sadly it is a jungle and everyone needs to be careful.

Bluntly, nobody here knows anything about you other then that you have just joined this forum, and that every single post you have made on it is promoting this relatively obscure series. That is enough to set off the bullshit detectors of most people and make them heavily discount what you are saying.

Edit:

Also you "regularly drop by here to scan for reading recommendations, and have picked up some good suggestions", but nothing in your posts demonstrates much knowledge or interest in fantasy beyond this series.

However, if you want a laugh on this subject, try googling the chequered career of fantasy author Robert Stanek.

Edited October 12, 2023 by A wilding

[Pellert]

1 hour ago, A wilding said:

Unless you are very naive you will know that the internet contains a large amount of deceptive advertising and promotion of all sorts of products. Sadly it is a jungle and everyone needs to be careful.

Bluntly, nobody here knows anything about you other then that you have just joined this forum, and that every single post you have made on it is promoting this relatively obscure series. That is enough to set off the bullshit detectors of most people and make them heavily discount what you are saying.

Edit:

Also you "regularly drop by here to scan for reading recommendations, and have picked up some good suggestions", but nothing in your posts demonstrates much knowledge or interest in fantasy beyond this series.

However, if you want a laugh on this subject, try googling the chequered career of fantasy author Robert Stanek.

Sure I get the point / see where you are coming from, I just struggle to see how I’ve supposed to do something different, to be honest. I’ve been quite open about the fact that “yes I write this to bring attention to the books” and “yes I haven’t been active apart from reading here” and “no I cant vouch for everything in them I just liked them and wanted to check out if anyone else in a likeminded place had seen them or could be interested in them” and so on.

Like what should I have done? Been posting stuff here for a few months on many other subjects just to create an illusion of credibility before recommending something? Should I write a list of all the fantasy books I have read in the opening post as a CV? Because that I can definitely do  

And to be fair; 1) I creating the thread with the opening post, 2) I made a suggestion once in a separate thread (as people suggested may be a better approach..) and 3) I made a repost in this thread because of a random promotion that just happened.. so that’s a total of three posts, the other posts are just replies to other users that posted in the thread..

Anyhow, to summarise: Your point is taken and understand it, of course there would always be smarter/smoother on posting stuff on a forum without triggering bullshit detectors, no problem acknowledging that. I’m also absolutely 100% OK with people not answering, not checking out the series, or not liking the series if they do decide to check it out - but I don’t understand the need for a reply with a negative undertone, after all everything I did was recommending a fantasy series on a forum (yes perhaps it was a naive approach, but still..), can’t people just decide to respond/not respond and/or check it out/not check it out without a negative bite on the reply and leave it as simple as that? 
 

Btw: yes creating a user on this forum I had definitely planned on posting on other subjects as there are many subjects here that interest me. I just decided to prioritise what pushed me over the brink to actually create a user here..

[A wilding]

Its a sad world. There are users and exploiters out there, and so people generally ignore phone calls from unknown numbers, brush past people accosting them in cities, and yes, also ignore random people on the internet praising some product. And people sometimes get tired of such approaches and get sarcastic or rude. And occasionally this leads to honest genuine people getting rebuffed, but most of them understand the world that we live in and understand.

So my answer is that you probably do indeed need to "post stuff here for a few months on many other subjects just to create an illusion of credibility before recommending something". Because that is something that an influencer would not be willing to make the effort to do and so weeds them out. Though I would tend to give doing so a more positive spin and call it building up social capital. This site is after all a community where members tend to know a fair bit about each other, not least whether their tastes in literature are likely to align.

If doing that does not seem worth while to you, then you might do better just posting your opinions on a site such as Goodreads.

[polishgenius]

Honestly, it's not even that it's a sad cynical world where lots of people are hustlers that's making people think you're Ryan Cahill- it's that your posts are very much coming off like it's a benefit to you for people to get into the series. 

Like even this:

2 hours ago, Pellert said:

Like what should I have done? Been posting stuff here for a few months on many other subjects just to create an illusion of credibility before recommending something? Should I write a list of all the fantasy books I have read in the opening post as a CV? Because that I can definitely do  

 

 

it's basically a demand for what would make your recommendation more successful. Why? I get that you're enthused but what 'should' you have done? Just posted it in the regular recommendations topic like everyone else. Heck, making the topic alone isn't that odd- there's a few dedicated threads. Though they're usually either from established authors or by established posters who want to share something they already suspect the forum might like from years of interaction. But not only did you do that as a fresh user with an unknown series, you expressed it as weird that we didn't already know what it is. What is it about your favourite in particular that's so important? Why, apart from a slight disappointment that your favourite doesn't take off, does it matter if no-one takes it up?

And I say this as one of the original Malazan superfans. Not on here back then, but those who were around on the internet will know of what I speak. 

[Pellert]

Ok guys, honestly thanks for answering. I continue to reply because I find this constructive and don’t mind to discuss further. 
 

To be clear, I understand that my approach obviously was not the right one, and in hindsight, I would of course have done it differently. That does not necessarily mean that I agree that it was _that bad_, but I fully acknowledge that I am the rookie and broken some unspoken rules here / been a bit to aggressive for a new user / overstepped some limits / touched some sensitive stuff (call it what you want), and I’m the one that needs to adapt. 
 

So I will repeat; I am just a casual reader that likes fantasy and found a series that I liked, and wanted to mention it is here. Obviously I made a wrong/stupid/overenthused/too much approach of it - but for all I’m concerned, it was just a rookie mistake, it’s nothing more to it than that.

I am perfectly fine with being “called out” in a constructive way like it’s been done by polishgenious, a wilding and argonath plus all other ones that have replied, with one exception. I have no issue that you tell me the approach was wrong for a newcomer, the only thing I reacted to was when I am quoted on spelling errors and that I am flogging a seires without even an attempt on anything constructive. that I actually find to be a bit rude, and way more “bad” than making a rookie mistake on how to write as a new user..

You may or may not believe me, but I actually did try to tone it down and have some disclaimers when I wrote the recommendation because I tried to be conscious about being a new reader (yes still wrong approach, I obviously failed and all that). Feel free to charge me with not being able to write/communicate properly, but it’s not really more to it than that.. same actually (at least I genuinely tried) for the replies I’ve made. 

Some other things I would like to address (something polishgenius mentioned). 
- it was never my intention to make my recommendation more important than anything else or downgrad others, i simply wanted to give it a bit more boost than to risk it drown in the common threads. 
- when I said it was weird it wasn’t mentioned here, I meant it. But the intention was only that I was curious why not, it wasn’t to be arrogant or anything. Simply is it mentioned because it’s regarded as bad literature and I don’t manage to see this, is it because it’s too generic and the market is basically flooded in these types of stories, is it regarded as too much of a rip-off, or is it simply that it is actually a good series but hasn’t received attention yet? There wasn’t more too it than that 

- it doesn’t matter to me if anyone picks it up or not, have I said so? (I’m not being snark, it’s genuine, because it’s never been my intention, I think I’ve said several times it’s nothing more too it than that I felt like I wanted to mention it, both to get feedback from the forum if anyone know about it and what their thoughts are, because I don’t have many in my social circle that I can discuss fantasy with, but also because just wanted to mention a what I felt was a good series here and maybe give a small courtesy to a author I liked.

 

also, have I really done anything else that writing three posts by my self, plus answering in a constructive way (or at least tried to) to the replies to said posts?
 

Lastly, there seems to be a lot of history around “fake promotions” / fake profiles promoting their own or similar in the fantasy world, that I am completely unaware of, but please stop thinking I am or have anything to do with Ryan Cahill. There is absolutely nothing more to it than that I have read his books and liked them. If it bugs anyone to a large extent or still don’t believe me, I honestly don’t know how to convince people more or prove it, but I would be more than happy to verify it to the moderators here if there is a way to do that and someone really cares about it that much.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Pellert

[dog-days]

The boards are quite a tough place, especially down this end. I've had an account since 2007; I've had this account since 2011 and I'm still a newbie and more of a tourist than a full member. 

Since you sound quite stressed, I guess you are real, so I apologise for letting my cynicism determine my words at the start in a post that now seems to have been vanished by a mod. Mea culpa.

Edited October 12, 2023 by dog-days

[Pellert]

21 minutes ago, dog-days said:

The boards are quite a tough place, especially down this end. I've had an account since 2007; I've had this account since 2011 and I'm still a newbie and more of a tourist than a full member. 

Since you sound quite stressed, I guess you are real, so I apologise for letting my cynicism determine my words at the start in a post that now seems to have been vanished by a mod. Mea culpa.

Thanks  No problem, and since I can’t find the post, I don’t remember what you wrote, but honestly it’s only been one post that made “my hackles rise” so it couldn’t have been particularly bad or anything - but anyways that doesn’t matter, it’s all good and I have very little hard feelings on this. 
 

Frustrated is more the right word than stressed I would say - like I have said, it’s really not a big deal to me, but it’s frustrating that something that was just intended as a innocent reading recommendation derailed into something like this.

 

I feel it now creates a negative effect of “now I’m definitely not going to read the books” kind of thing, which was the opposite of what I was going for. I’ll move one without a scratch, but it’s a pity if someone that may have actually tried out those books independently and liked them now decides to stay clear just because of this topic.

[Macklunkey]

I've read two of the novels and one novella so far. And I'm really enjoying the story so far.

[Pellert]

8 hours ago, Macklunkey said:

I've read two of the novels and one novella so far. And I'm really enjoying the story so far.

Cool !

I would definitely say that for the main series, the best is still in store. “Of War and Ruin” is to BatB kind of like “A Storm of Swords” is to aSoIaF (obviously adjusted for scale between the two series) - it by far the longest book yet, driving the plot forward and works really well as a “mid part series ending”. 
 

I assume that the novella you read is The Fall, which was personally my favourite, but both the Exile and the Ice are also really cool and ads depth to both world, story and characters. 
 

Enjoy further reading and if you don’t mind I would really like to hear a bit more “analysis” on the books from another reading to compare with me perception  

[A wilding]

2 hours ago, Pellert said:

I would definitely say that for the main series, the best is still in store. “Of War and Ruin” is to BatB kind of like “A Storm of Swords” is to aSoIaF (obviously adjusted for scale between the two series) - it by far the longest book yet, driving the plot forward and works really well as a “mid part series ending”. 

Well to engage with the substance of this:

ASoS is widely considered the best ASoIaF book. However if you look "north of the wall" in the ASoIaF threads then you might see that there is a theory that it threw ASoIaF of track, and that the series has never recovered from it. (As you will know, the later books have come out at increasing intervals and are considered weaker by many people.) Basically the idea is that rearranging the plot to create a strong mid series ending in ASoS messed the story up. This relates to the "five year gap" issue.

So your confidence that "the best is still in store" for your series may be misplaced!

[Pellert]

1 hour ago, A wilding said:

Well to engage with the substance of this:

ASoS is widely considered the best ASoIaF book. However if you look "north of the wall" in the ASoIaF threads then you might see that there is a theory that it threw ASoIaF of track, and that the series has never recovered from it. (As you will know, the later books have come out at increasing intervals and are considered weaker by many people.) Basically the idea is that rearranging the plot to create a strong mid series ending in ASoS messed the story up. This relates to the "five year gap" issue.

So your confidence that "the best is still in store" for your series may be misplaced!

You caught me  I considered writing about that as well - because I agree to that view (I have read quite a lot about the what’s and whys after SoS, but I was not reading the series at the time of SoS release) - I just decided to cut my post a bit short. 
 

When I wrote “best yet to come” I was only doing a “book 3 to book 3” comparison without speculating how this particular series may spiral after that. That being said, I don’t see any red flags that it should not continue on it s current path, I feel it’s quite setup for a good continuation (but obviously who the hell knows what will happen!)
 

Out of interest, how was the expectations of aSoIaF here and in the fan base in general after SoS release? That was a bit before my time, but I have not seen that anyone foresaw that GRRM would face the challenges that he apparently has/ a drop in quality for the later books, based only on the ending of SoS and the status of the plot? Or did people actually already then see major challenges to tie things together?