World guide

The Cursed Empire

The setting of Rachel's complete quartet. An empire that yoked dragons to its ambitions and told itself the arrangement would hold. Four books measure exactly how wrong it was.

The lay of the land

The Cursed Empire books are Rachel's epic mode: wide canvas, high politics, and fire on the horizon. The titles trace the arc plainly. Dragons, then traitors, then monsters, then ruins. It is a story about power that mistakes itself for permanence, and about the people, loyal, furious, or both, who live in the cracks of it.

Because the quartet is complete, the empire can be toured start to finish with no waiting. Readers who like their fantasy political, their romances earned, and their finales conclusive tend to settle in here.

What to expect

Dragons as statecraft

Here dragons are not scenery. They are leverage, and everyone at court knows it.

Intrigue first

Alliances shift chapter to chapter. The most dangerous rooms in the empire have no weapons in them.

A finished arc

Four books, published across two years, complete. The ending is written and it holds.

Good to know before you start

Where to start: Empire of Dragons, then straight through in order. Series status: complete quartet. Reader note: ratings climb book over book, and the finale is the best reviewed of the four. See the reading order guide for the full catalog.

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