3 reasons Victoria Aveyard’s Realm Breaker is a must-read fantasy tale

Red Queen author Victoria Aveyard is back this month with the first book in a new young adult series that’s sure to appeal to fans of high-stakes fantasy stories. Realm Breaker unravels a quest to save a kingdom quite literally being torn apart by Spindles, doorways to other realms that are now flooding into the land of Allward.

It’s no coincidence these openings in the realm are cropping up. Taristan, a man with Spindleblood and a Spindleblade, is creating them with the intent of creating chaos and handing a world that’s wronged him to a much greater villain: What Waits. Allward’s equivalent of the devil, What Waits is thought to be a children’s story by those residing there — but then, most of the characters don’t believe Spindles exist when the novel opens either.

And Realm Breaker opens with a slaughter, as Taristan destroys the initial group of knights and Elders (immortal beings with extraordinary strength and power) sent to stop him from making his first move against Allward. The only two survivors — a young squire and an Elder named Domacridhan — manage to escape with a second Spindleblade and the knowledge of what’s coming. Unfortunately, they’ll need more than that to prevent further destruction.

Because only a being with Spindleblood can use a Spindleblade to close the doorways between realms, Dom sets out to find the daughter of his former companion and Taristan’s late brother Cortael. The journey leads him to Corayne an-Amarat, the daughter of a well-known pirate and Aveyard’s newest chosen one.

Although it takes little convincing to get Corayne — whose mother has consistently denied her pleas to accompany her on adventures — on board with the plan, she and Dom will need all the help they can get to undo Taristan’s work. Not only will they need to find Andry Trelland, the squire who saved the second Spindleblade, but they’ll have to enlist the help of whatever allies they can get. Much to Dom’s chagrin, that means teaming up with some of the most eccentric and deadly personalities in the kingdom.

Told in multiple perspectives, Realm Breaker sees Corayne and her ensemble embarking on a quest that will test their limits and loyalties. A twist on the typical chosen-one narrative, it presents a fresh and fun adventure that will surely have readers hanging on every word.

If you’re still wondering if Realm Breaker is worth the read, however, here are the three incentives to pick it up this month.

This merry band of misfits

Realm Breaker‘s cast is comprised of a merry band of misfits, and the characters are perhaps the most compelling reason to pick up Aveyard’s latest. Although the group sets out on a Tolkien-esque quest, they’re far more eccentric than the typical archetypes seen in such stories.

From Dom and Andry, who are misfits in their own right, to Sorasa Sarn, a disgraced assassin who reluctantly finds herself tied up in the whole mess, there’s no shortage of intriguing personalities to follow — and the multi-perspective setup gives readers the opportunity to dive into each of them thoroughly.

Thanks to the characters’ massively different backgrounds and morals, Realm Breaker also contains plenty of fun banter and tense interactions that will no doubt have readers flipping the pages, eager for more. Because it’s not just the characters themselves that make this a worthwhile read, but how their relationships force them to grow and change. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how that continues heading into a sequel.

A uniquely crafted world

With so much fantasy on the market, it’s hard to say any setting is entirely unique. However, Aveyard’s concept of Spindles adds an uncommon layer to your typical high-fantasy setup, helping Realm Breaker stand out from the rest of the crop. The notion of cutting openings between realms is an exciting one, and it’s one the author could build further upon as this series continues.

Although her world is made up of many of the usual players in high fantasy — knights, queens, pirates, assassins, witches and ancient magical beings — the lore surrounding both Elders and Spindles leaves much to explore, and it places its own twist on fantasy tropes we’ve seen before.

Throwing all of these elements of fantasy together is also ambitious in its own right, promising fans of this book much more to come.

And that brings us to our third reason to gobble up this story…

An ambitious narrative

Realm Breaker certainly has its climax at the end, but it hardly puts a dent in what Corayne and her companions have set out to do. Aveyard has taken on an ambitious narrative with her latest story, and it’s going to take far more than one book to see Taristan defeated — something most readers will pick up on relatively early.

Added to the vast world the author has created — complete with other realms, which we could very well explore if she chooses to go that route — Realm Breaker‘s sprawling, multi-perspective story will leave readers eager for more by the time it ends.

In fact, there’s no winding down at the end of this novel; rather than wrap things up neatly until next time, Aveyard leaves off on a promise to throw more obstacles at our main cast of characters, whose fates are pretty much wide open when the book closes.

With so much to cover and explore, Aveyard’s Realm Breaker could very well be the first installment in YA’s next big fantasy series. For that reason alone, SFF fans shouldn’t skip out on this one. It certainly has the potential to go far.

Have you read Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard? Do you plan to? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!