FORMAT/INFO: A Trade of Blood was published by Del Rey on August 4th, 2026. It is 400 pages long and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: A Trade of Blood is another superb fantasy murder mystery in an eerie, creepy world. This particular installment takes a look at how the meat gets made - and I mean that literally. Ana and Din are sent to a part of the empire renowned for its cattle pastures and butchery floors, as well as for its two feuding noble families who have been squabbling over the land for centuries. As with the previous two books, everything is just a little bit off in a way that is unsettling to the reader. This is an empire willing to alchemically enhance and manipulate anything and anyone for its survival - although in this adventure, we start taking a real peek behind the curtain at the cost of that survival.

This was also a particularly personal adventure for Din, in more ways than one. His own alchemical enhancements that give him an eidetic memory also cost him life span and fertility. And while he may not care so much about losing the ability to procreate, Din starts to get some reminders that his life will likely be much shorter than those around him. It's a realization that makes him grapple with both his past and future.

The mystery itself is a good one - why would a man who confessed to a murder have no recollection of how or why he did it? The answer is absolutely chilling and disquieting. I will say that keeping track of the cast of characters involved in the two feuding houses did become a little bit daunting at times, simply because there were so many names and connections between everyone, but it's a minor issue.

In short, A Trade of Blood has confirmed what I've suspected: if Bennett releases one of these books every year for the foreseeable future, I will be a very happy reader indeed.

FORMAT/INFO: A Forsaken Prophecy was published by Saga Press on July 21st, 2026. It is 480 pages and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: A Forsaken Prophecy is an excellent sequel full of all the angst and complicated emotions you could want from our poor tortured protagonists. Picking up from the tumultuous events from the end of book one, it does a great job of putting our characters between a rock and a hard place. Each must decide what compromises they’re willing to make: is it more important to make short term compromises in order to survive, or should you refuse to bend even a little in order to protect a fledgling rebellion? What’s more important, your rebellion or those you love? Which one are you willing to sacrifice in order to protect the other? There are plenty of terrible tough decisions to be made, and I was thoroughly engrossed to see how our characters navigated the waters they were in.

Nina in particular really bears the weight of these decisions and as a result, we are treated to some impressive bouts of feminine rage throughout the book as she finally decides she has had ENOUGH. But while Nina does get some fantastic moments to call people out, I did feel like she was put a little bit to the side in this book. That’s in part because there are more POVs in this sequel than there were in book one (which only featured Nina and Patrick). With more POVs, that means there's less time to spend with each POV, and in this case, it felt like Nina got the short end of the stick (somewhat ironic given there were those who were insisting that no one gets to decide her fate but her). Some POVs offered some interesting insights, but some POVs belonged to characters I wanted to drop kick into the sun (sorry not sorry Theo). I preferred it when it was just a two POV book, but I also understand the need to broaden the POVs as the scope of the series broadens.

As for the romance, it continues its delicious slow burn. Without going into spoilers from book one, Nina and Patrick have some things to work through and feelings to grapple with. I enjoyed the turmoil, especially as it didn’t feel like unnecessary roadblocks, but real people working through real emotions brought on by their circumstances.

The plot this time goes into the overarching lore of the world as our characters unpack a hidden prophecy and try to understand its implications. I enjoyed the race against time and continuing to see how other communities are faring in the world, especially as strikes and rebellion pit the upper classes against the working class and regular everyday folks struggle to hold onto ideals when they can’t feed their families.

All in all, A Forsaken Prophecy is an engrossing sequel that continues to put our heroes through the wringer, forcing them to make impossible choices. It’s moody and atmospheric and will throw you right back into all the angst and drama you loved from book one. Cannot wait to see how everything concludes in the finale!

FORMAT/INFO:  The Infinite State will be published by Tor Books on August 4th, 2026. It is 416 pages and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Infinite State is a dystopian sci-fi that's ironically undercut by succeeding a little too well at crafting a seemingly inescapable authoritarian police state. I admit, I had to sit with The Infinite State for a bit before I wrote this review. I was caught up in trying to figure out why the bleakness of the author's previous series, Empire of the Wolf, worked for me, while the bleakness of The Infinite State left me underwhelmed. But it has finally clicked. Bear with me for a moment.

In Empire of the Wolf, you are told from page one that the empire in this saga is doomed to fall. We know everything is going to fall apart, but the drama is in HOW it falls apart. More importantly, even though the empire is doomed, the characters we follow still have agency. They are making choices and they are still the ultimate drivers of the narrative. And even in ultimate failure, there are some successes to be found along the way.

In The Infinite State, we arrive at the very worst of times. The empire is a totalitarian surveillance state, where no one is safe from political murder. There should be excitement in watching characters break out of this nightmare. The problem is that success doesn't actually seem like a viable path for our characters. The government knows all their moves before they make them. Resistance is futile. A lot of the story is things happening to them, rather than as a result of their actions. Whatever victories our heroes achieve is because they are caught up in political machinations way above their head, not because they have some cunning plan of their own.

I don't hate the characters outright. Cyprian, an Inspecktor in the state police and by far my favorite of the three POVs, is a competent but disillusioned man who has realized the futility of trying to achieve any real justice. His job is to keep his head down and to make political assassinations disappear. His junior office, starry-eyed with patriotism, can't understand how things work and suffers for it. Cyprian is out here doing his best to survive because he's been around long enough to actually know how to survive. But surviving is all he really does.

Katherine, on the other hand, is a character that stumbles into success. Now there is plenty to be said about the fact that this woman even has the idea to begin with to start a new planet and government. She's the will that keeps the progress of this whole project moving forward. But really, that's all that she contributes: a will to succeed. She's not particularly smart or politically savvy, but somehow keeps moving the ball forward.

And lastly there's Julian, whose poor unfortunate arc is to be the guy who comes from a privileged life in a neighboring regime of planets; when he comes to spend his racing career in Pater Aeternus, he doesn't imagine that life could be THAT bad here. He quickly realizes his mistake when he violates the "morality" clause of his racing contract.

Interesting characters, for sure. But watching them trapped in an authoritarian state, knowing that none of them would break free without circumstances outside their control aligning, that was a level of bleakness I found a bit suffocating. I want to know our heroes can make things happen on their own. Sure, sometimes it takes a bit of luck, but there's got to be that glimmer of hope. And this story was decidedly without hope because for the most part, our characters are just passive prisoners in a nightmare.

Despite all my critiques, I will be continuing with the series. It's still an interesting premise, even if the execution was too bleak for my taste. There's also the fact that, as the first book of the series, our characters are just getting started. They're already more proactive in the final pages; there's every chance that will only grow with time. But if you're looking for an escape from our present world society, this may not be the one for you.