Audiobook Review: Blade Breaker (Realm Breaker #2)

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Narrator: Natalie Naudus

Audiobook Length: 16 hours 52 minutes

In the sequel to Realm Breaker, a divided world must rally, an unstoppable enemy must be defeated, and the fate of the world rests on a blade’s edge.

Andry, a former squire, continues to fight for hope amid blood and chaos.

Dom, a grieving immortal, strives to fulfill a broken oath.

Sorasa, an outcast assassin, faces her past when it returns with sharpened teeth.

Valtik, an old sorceress, summons a mighty power.

And Corayne, a pirate’s daughter with an ancient magic in her blood, steps closer to becoming the hero she’s destined to be.

Together they must assemble an army to face Queen Erida and Taristan’s wicked forces. But something deadly waits in the shadows, something that might consume the world before there’s any hope for victory.

Blade Breaker is the third novel in the Realm Breaker series, which follows a large cast of characters. This story picks up right where the last novel left off, which took me a bit to remember what was happening as I completed the previous novel last year. The stories do read well together, but it would have been better if I read them back-to-back. I think I may need to reread the first two before I begin the third novel in 2023.  The series draws inspiration from Lord of the Rings where there are companions set out on a journey to defeat a villain. While this series is not a retelling, it does feel connected to the source material.

The story continues to follow along multiple characters and their POVs. Corayne is the “main” character of the story, who is the daughter of a pirate and set on saving the Realm.  While she started as a more subdue character, it was nice to see her grow and learn more about the secrets around her. I do wish there were a little more about her life and development as most was done through telling rather than showing. This is generally the case for most of the story, the characters, and the world.

Andry, the squire, Sorasa, the assassin, Dom, the immortal, Sigil, the warrior, and Valtik, the old witch all makes up parts of the other characters in the story. Together the characters all have their own internal struggles along with trying to work together. On the other side is Erida and Taristan who are working on conquering all Allward. Even though they are the villains of the story, Aveyard manages to help the reader show their side of things. Erida and Taristan work well together as she leans more towards being the brain side while Taristan in the brawn, which helps them balance each other.

Overall, this story builds on the previous one while also setting up the next novel. As there are multiple POVs, there moments where I felt the reader spent too much time with one and not enough with another. There’s a lot going on at any given moment, which does make it difficult to fully connect to any of them. The descriptions of the world are well-done as it is easy to follow along and picture everything. The portions with the characters did sometimes feel drawn out as some thoughts/feelings could be summarized in favor of using those pages to explore more about the characters. This was still an intriguing story where I cannot wait to read the third when it becomes available in 2023.