DRC Review: The Blackfire Blade by James Logan
- Story Eater
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Release date: 4 November 2025
Rating: 4.25/5
Book box(es)/SE's: The Broken Binding
Synopsis: Winter has come early to Korslakov, City of Spires, and Lukan Gardova has arrived with it. Most visitors to this famous city of artifice seek technological marvels, or alchemical ingenuity. Lukan only desires the unknown legacy his father has left for him, in the vaults of the Blackfire Bank.
But when Lukan's key to the vault is stolen by a mysterious thief known as the Rook, he and his friends race to win it back—and find themselves trapped in a web of murder and deceit. In desperation, Lukan requests the help of Lady Marni Volkova, scion to Korslakov's most powerful family.
Yet Lady Marni has secrets of her own. Worse, she has plans for Lukan and his friends. Plans that involve a journey into Korslakov's dark past, in search of a long-lost alchemical formula that could lead to the city's greatest discovery . . . or its destruction.
Review
Well, I didn't like The Silverblood Promise overly much, but The Blackfire Blade, especially for an urban fantasy, held. my. attention. Lukan returns with his permacrew, and they have quite the adventure all over another place in Logan's new and supremely leveled-up addition to The Last Legacy series. The new novel boasts a tightly-paced (though a tad repetitive) plot and another sampling of fantastic character interactions. I'm really glad I decided to go ahead and buy this one. Just in case turned out to be a good precaution to take here.
Even though I didn't get to listen to the fantastic narration of the audiobook for this one, I still stayed rapt the whole time. Lukan still tries to solve the mystery of his father's death, but he now has a found family—with all its hilarious flaws—and more mysteries to solve in addition to what happened to his father. Despite repeatedly failing to secure entry to his father's vault and see what answers await him, Lukan's tail chasing didn't feel so repetitive because of the absolute bombshells that kept dropping all around him. Korslakov's not quite as boring a city as Saphrona, and it has a more fantastic feel with a bit of steampunkery thrown in.
I really liked the detective element in this one, though I hated it in the last. It didn't feel formulaic and many small mysteries unfolded in succession with much larger emotional stakes attached to them. The characters once again provide the foundation and backbone for the world building, and the antagonists prove far more interesting to me than the seedy and boring ones from TSP. There's also an element of dark academia, which I love here because I feel it's done quite well. Korslakov reminds me of Piltover a bit, and I love a good meshing together of tech and magic. Flea and Ashra take the cake, of course, and the bonding the three do as a group tugged at my heartstrings. Great character building and writing endear many a story to me, and these three have definitely earned a favorite place in the great groupings of buddies .
Overall, a vastly improved 4.25/5 over the 3/5 for the first one. Lots of in-world profanity in this one, with expletives of "Builder's Balls" and "Lady's Blood," which undoubtedly stand in for real counterparts we've heard. Of course, the story ends on a cliffhanger—I wouldn't have expected any less—but it's always a bummer when I have to wait so long for a story to end. Some other loose strings remained untied which I very much hoped would have some answers. I'm hoping those will be addressed eventually.
My thanks to Tor/Macmillan for the DRC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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