Written by Korean American author Mai Corland, Five Broken Blades (2024) is the first installment in the Broken Blades fantasy series. Five Broken Blades interweaves narratives from multiple perspectives. Corland uses Korean culture and mythology to enhance her worldbuilding, and her novel follows five of the most ruthless and dangerous liars in the country of Yusan as they become ensnared in a plot to kill the king. Fraught with betrayal, magic, and devious deception, Five Broken Blades challenges notions of freedom, rebellion, and the possibility of love amid cruel secrets. (Its sequel, Four Ruined Realms, is set for publication in 2025.) Like other popular fantasy writers, including Axie Oh (The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea), Corland references Korean culture, mythology, and folklore to build the world of her novels.

This guide refers to the 2024 Entangled: Red Tower Books e-book edition, distributed by Google Play Books.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of suicidal ideation, rape, and enslavement. Scenes of sexual assault and graphic violence are also depicted.

Plot Summary

In the city of Umbria, a strongman named Royo returns from a job to find that someone has delivered an invitation for a new job; to learn more, he must meet someone staying at the Black Shoe Inn. There, he meets a young woman named Aeri, who is the long-lost daughter of King Joon. She wants to hire Royo as her bodyguard for her mission and offers to pay him with a diamond worth 50,000 mun—the exact amount he needs to free his deceased lover’s father from being wrongfully imprisoned.

Elsewhere in Fallow, Euyn, the exiled prince of Yusan receives a letter requesting that he meet the sender in a stable. No one is supposed to know that Euyn has survived his exile, but when he goes to the stable, he finds his former lover and the king’s royal spymaster, Mikail, who make a proposition that he has no choice but to accept. He must kill his brother—Joon, the king of Yusan—and take the crown for himself.

In the city of Gain, Sora, one of two poison maidens in existence, is indentured to Count Seok. She is sent to assassinate the political opponent of the count to whom she is indentured: Seok. When she returns, Seok offers to free her and her sister Daysum if she kills the king.

With no other choice, Sora accepts and grudgingly sets out with Seok’s son, Tiyung. Unbeknownst to her, Tiyung has orders to kill her after she kills Joon. However, as they travel, Tiyung proves himself different from other nobles; he is kind and caring to the poor in a way that his father would never allow.

Meanwhile, Royo and Aeri are traveling by riverboat to rendezvous with Mikail, Euyn, Sora, and Tiyung in Rahway when their riverboat is attacked by pirates and they are forced to jump ship. When they do, Aeri performs an impossible feat by making them land in a rescue boat instead of in the Sol River. They escape and find passage on a second riverboat to the city.

Simultaneously, Mikail and Euyn are traveling the deserts of Fallow when they are attacked by brigands. They leave none alive, but at nightfall, they are attacked by mythical birds of prey called samrocs and barely manage to escape with their lives. They recuperate in the city of Tile, and although Euyn still has residual feelings of betrayal because Mikail agreed to Euyn’s exile, the two rekindle their love and make their way into Yusan via the mountain pass.

In Rahway, Sora and Tiyung visit Rune, the western count, and encounter the recently arrived Mikail and Euyn. Rune forces Sora to display her poisoning talents by killing a dog, and Euyn is impressed enough to allow Sora to join their assassination team. Sora, Tiyung, Mikail, and Euyn then meet Royo and Aeri at an inn, where Aeri demonstrates her uncanny abilities as a thief. Although eyes are trained on her every movement, she can steal any object unseen, and she owes this power to a secret artifact called the Amulet of the Dragon Lord.

Satisfied, Euyn is confident that their plans for regicide will work. With Aeri’s thieving ability, they will be able to steal Joon’s Dragon Lord crown, an artifact that grants him immortality. With Sora’s poisoning talents, Joon will die instantly before his guards can stop the attack. The six comrades travel to Tamneki and stop in Oosant for the night. However, while Royo, Aeri, Sora, and Tiyung gather food, they are attacked by a local gang that kidnaps Sora. With Mikail and Euyn in tow, they storm the gang’s hideout and discover an illegal laoli operation. (Laoli is an addictive painkilling drug for which the island of Gaya was invaded and colonized.) They kill all the gang members and save Sora. When they depart that night, they now feel that they share a kinship forged in blood and violence.

They all arrive in Tamneki, but Dal, the eastern count who was meant to host them, is noticeably absent. A palace assassin is found dead in Dal’s estate’s courtyard, casting suspicion and sowing doubt in the group. They are notified the next day that Dal has died from an alleged heart attack. Aeri, Sora, and Royo voice concern over the plan to kill the king, as Dal was meant to introduce Sora to Joon. However, Mikail is driven by his need for revenge against the king, who killed his family and his people, so he persuades the others to follow through with the plan.

On the day of the Millennial Celebration, the six comrades move like clockwork during the annual tuhko tournament. Aeri is positioned as the king’s valet to steal the crown from him, while Mikail is positioned to Joon’s right. Euyn waits beneath the stadium, and Sora is ready to poison the King with Tiyung’s assistance. Royo watches from afar as a guard. When the tuhko game pauses, Aeri steals the crown, which Mikail destroys, and Sora kisses Joon with lips laced with poison, but the assassination attempt fails. Joon survives, and all six comrades are captured. At Qali Palace, Joon confronts his assassins and reveals that he has been the mastermind behind the plot all along; his purpose was to audition them for his true task: stealing the magical ring that belongs to his sister Quilimar, the Queen of Khitan. Although he offers rewards for the group’s success, he incarcerates Tiyung in Idle Prison and promises death to the loved ones of the remaining five. With no other choice, Royo, Aeri, Sora, Mikail, and Euyn comply with Joon’s demands, but they are now plotting ways to use Quilimar to destroy Joon.