The Unbroken cover art

The Unbroken

Magic of the Lost, Book 1

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The Unbroken

By: C. L. Clark
Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri
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About this listen

Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award and a Nebula Award

Every empire demands a revolution.

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale.

In a political fantasy unlike any other, debut author C. L. Clark spins an epic tale of rebellion, espionage and military might on the far outreaches of a crumbling desert empire.

2022, Nebula Award for Best Novel, Winner

©2021 C. L. Clark (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Military

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Critic reviews

Clark gives us an unflinching story of colonialism and revolution and the people caught between. The Unbroken grabs you by the collar, breaks your heart over its knee, and mends it. An astonishing debut (Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter)
It doesn't take long to realize The Unbroken is something special. I'm going to need book two ASAP (David Dalglish)
Grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. A perfect military fantasy: brutal, complex, human and impossible to put down (Tasha Suri)
Get ready to fall in love with Touraine and Luca in one of the best fantasy debuts I have ever read! (Matt Wallace, Hugo Award winner and author of the Savage Rebellion series)
Rife with political, familial, and romantic tension, The Unbroken is a riveting epic fantasy about a city on the knife's edge of rebellion, a tangle of alliances, and a desperate search for magic and hope (K.A. Doore, author of The Perfect Assassin)
All stars
Most relevant  
This was an absolute revelation to read and the performance was superb!

Knowing that this was a debut novel left me open-mouthed and learning it is a series made me overjoyed.

Fantasy is a genre filled with cishet white guys who are largely oblivious to the amount of politics and colonialism they include in their works without thinking about it. It's the entire foundation of much of the genre and TTRPG offshoots like D&D. But this takes the existing tropes and analogues to history and includes them purposely to great effect, weaving a beautiful, heartbreaking, and exciting tale filled with realised complex and flawed characters and concepts and tensions so often ignorantly and clumsily included and/ or offensively handwaved that are handled deftly with care and understanding. The book isn't just politics either, I'm just saying it handles them well.

Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read.

Utterly Phenomenal

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Beautiful world-building in a world that’s not instantly familiar to most of us and is so worth getting to know: power, politics, suppressed magic, underground resistance and resurgence, with two compelling characters at its heart: the traduces, banished princess and the overlooked servant discovering her powers and her potential. Wonderful, evocative writing - can’t wait to hear the sequel.

Immersive, intricately-plotted, compelling

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I loved everything about this book and audio. From the story, the characters, the world building, to the delivery, wording and development. I would 100% recommend any to any fan of Fantasy. I cannot wait to read the next 2 instalments in the trilogy.

An undying tale of rebellion, magic and belonging

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This beautiful, well crafted book has left me reeling, thinking over each decision the characters made and thirsty for more.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
Loved the narration too.

Looking forward to the next in the series!!!!

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This novel is absolutely fantastic. i've enjoyed every minute of it. The drama, the action, the pain. And especially the difficult relationships.

Fantastic

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The story drags. The set-up was interesting but the main character keeps on trying to do things that are doomed to fail. Next to nothing she undertakes succeeds in achieving it's goal right up untill the end. You're supposed to root for her, but she's making it really difficult.

There's a lot of jumping to conclusions on romance as well, which unbalances the story. Sometimes it's dragged into completely unrelated conversations too, driving home a point that didn't need to be made. Show don't tell. I felt very little tension between the princess and the lieutenant, but hey here's literally every other character ensuring me that it's there?

Despite all that I did finish it. I did get invested and that does count for something.

I think a little bit of the drag can also be explained by the narration that made every other sentence a question. The accent is great but there were a lot of weird cuts and misplaced questionmarks.

Can't recommend this one :(

One failure after another

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Overall I very much enjoyed this book, it has good worldbuilding to set the backdrop, nothing too special but simple and effective. The characters are interesting, flawed, naive, complement, and develop as the book goes on, although at times a couple of bits felt slightly contrived to move the story along in contrast to established characters or goings on. Often found myself frustrated at things not being said or acted open, but then that just shows I was invested, and that the characters, like real people, won't always make the right decisions or say the right things, even when someone really needs a good slap!
Narration was excellent and the emotion put into it really draws you in; brings life to the characters. Adds pace and drama to the story, not just a monotone recitation of the words, which I absolutely loved!
Can't recommend this and the sequel enough, the sequel is even better!

An excellent book of revolution and finding a home

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Excellent storyline, characters and narration. I enjoyed the realism in a fantasy setting. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Beautiful narration

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Interesting plot and strong descriptive writing. The main characters weren't very likeable. I was expecting more sapphic romance but finished the book purely because of the overall story.

interesting plot

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Reasonably interesting story but overacted which was distracting. Good characters. Okay writting. Works as a self contained story.

Overacted

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