Soulbrand: this series keeps getting better

About

Soulbrand is the 3rd book in the Weapons and Wielders series written by Andrew Rowe.

Blurb

The Tournament of the Sacred Sword sounded like exactly the type of thing Keras would enjoy: a series of challenges for thousands of contestants seeking a chance to fight for the Sacred Sword of Earth. He knew there would be challenges. It wouldn’t be a high-stakes tournament without a few high-profile assassinations and mysterious murders, after all. But Keras wasn’t ready to run into someone from his homeland, and he certainly wasn’t prepared for the revelations that came from their confrontation.

Still reeling from the strange revelations of their meeting, Keras plunges back into the fight, preparing for the battle royale — a massive free-for-all contest outside of the scope of the standard tournament rounds. When the consequences of that match tear at the bonds between his allies, he’ll have to face new challenges alone.

Satoshi Muramasa, the strange swordsman from the distant kingdom of Artinia. Crown Princess Edria Song, the Wielder of Diamantine. Ishyeal Dawnsglow, the Wielder of Soulbrand.

When their blades clash, the heart of the world will tremble.

Review

After a reading slump and DNF books, Soulbrand was a much needed savior. And the author had a pleasant surprise even before I started reading, nearly 300 pages longer than the second book.

I'm now following at least four larger universe with multiple series type of setting, including this one. I read about 80+ books a year, so it is nice to have book summaries and chapters about magic system, characters etc. Even with those guides, I had a tough time recalling minor events/characters from earlier books in this series. Thankfully, it didn't affect my enjoyment much.

The last book ended in a cliffhanger, so it was nice to finally get some answers in this book (but at the cost of many more new questions). The tournament arc picked up from where it ended in the second book and continued to provide entertaining setting and matches. It was good to have parts of the overarching plot take greater significance in this book. Having just the tournament would've become a tad boring otherwise.

I had one major complaint (which might be just my imagination) - a lot of chapters at the start felt like an older Corin POV, especially the planning.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Daniel Waldron's review on goodreads:

This is a wonderful continuation of the story so far and a great wrap up for the tournament story line. Excellent characters, excited to see where they go. Hopefully we'll get even more answers to all of the questions in the next book.

From Jeff's review on goodreads:

The conclusion of the tournament arc was appropriately epic with plenty of twists and turns that felt earned rather than random or out of nowhere. The universe continues to get bigger and bigger and it constantly feels like chess pieces are being moved on multiple boards yet somehow playing the same game.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2021 bingo categories:

• First Person POV
• Revenge-Seeking Character
• Comfort Read (HM)
• Published in 2021
• Cat Squasher: 500+ Pages
• Self-Published
• Has Chapter Titles