If you haven't read The Bound and the Broken by Ryan Cahill, prepare to meet your next epic fantasy obsession. Starting with the release of Of Blood and Fire in 2021, Cahill has taken the self-publishing world by storm, selling more than half a million copies of the series and captivating readers. To date, there are four books and three novellas in The Bound and the Broken series, with the final book expected to release sometime in 2027.
The series is about to get a huge boost in visibility. Last year it was announced that the independent UK-based bookshop The Broken Binding, best known for creating jaw-dropping special editions of previously-published works, was launching its own publishing house, appropriately called The Broken Binding Publishing. Cahill's dragonrider fantasy books are being re-released as the flagship first series from The Broken Binding publishing, bringing them to a much wider audience around the world. This will culminate in the release of the final book in 2027.
Now, we have a glimpse of what the first book will look like. Feast your eyes on the cover artwork for the new edition of Of Blood and Fire, releasing February 17, 2026:
The new run of Bound and the Broken books features cover artwork by Tom Roberts, and will have black-and-white interior illustrations throughout. Pre-orders are now live.
"I'm beyond excited to finally be able to announce this deal," Cahill said of the re-releases last year. "The Broken Binding Press is a special company, run by people who genuinely have a burning passion for fantasy and for the book world as a whole. I know they will treat the series with the love and care that I would myself, and that means everything to me."
As a fun fact, when this deal with The Broken Binding Publishing was first announced in October 2024, the press materials said that Cahill's series had sold around 300,000 copies worldwide. That number is now over half a million, following the self-published release of the fourth novel, Of Empires and Dust, in March, 2025. This is a series very much on the rise, and with this run of new editions giving it wider distribution, there's never been a better time to check it out.
The Bound and the Broken is an epic fantasy series with dragonriders that combines classic genre tropes with a modern storytelling approach to bring more depth to exploring things like grief, identity, loyalty, and rebellion. Read on if you'd like to learn more about the first book, Of Blood and Fire.
Of Blood and Fire official description
Born in fire. Tempered in blood.
Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North.
In the remote villages of southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving — a test of courage and skill that not all survive.
But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen's world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries.
There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold. He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will.
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