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Penance of Blood: A Dark Fantasy
Scarred by a supernatural war, a disgraced paladin must redeem himself through bloodshed in the first installment of this thrilling fantasy series.
Alken was once a Knight of the Alder Table. But when the ravages of war tore apart the world he once knew, he was stripped of his title and cast into shame. Now, as an uneasy peace reigns, he moves through the shadows of a realm haunted by demons and the restless dead—an outcast in his own homeland.
Seeking atonement, Alken accepts the burden of a cursed axe and becomes the chosen executioner of the immortal Choir. Known throughout the realm as the “Headsman of Seydis,” he’s soon tasked with a much darker rid the land of treacherous foes and nightmarish monsters. As he faces off against these horrors, his lonely struggles bring him to a haunted backcountry where evils old and new gather at the castle of a mad lord.
To defeat this growing cabal of adversaries, Alken will need more than just brawn and the lingering remnants of a magic that burns him as readily as his opponents. Forging unlikely alliances, he finds himself surrounded by danger and conspiratorial plots at every turn. And with each traitor he vanquishes, he’s met with choices that blur the line between the knight he once was and the warrior he’s become.
The first volume of the hit dark fantasy adventure—with more than 850,000 views on Royal Road—now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!
Tropes reluctant hero, redemption quest, and good versus evil.
Alken was once a Knight of the Alder Table. But when the ravages of war tore apart the world he once knew, he was stripped of his title and cast into shame. Now, as an uneasy peace reigns, he moves through the shadows of a realm haunted by demons and the restless dead—an outcast in his own homeland.
Seeking atonement, Alken accepts the burden of a cursed axe and becomes the chosen executioner of the immortal Choir. Known throughout the realm as the “Headsman of Seydis,” he’s soon tasked with a much darker rid the land of treacherous foes and nightmarish monsters. As he faces off against these horrors, his lonely struggles bring him to a haunted backcountry where evils old and new gather at the castle of a mad lord.
To defeat this growing cabal of adversaries, Alken will need more than just brawn and the lingering remnants of a magic that burns him as readily as his opponents. Forging unlikely alliances, he finds himself surrounded by danger and conspiratorial plots at every turn. And with each traitor he vanquishes, he’s met with choices that blur the line between the knight he once was and the warrior he’s become.
The first volume of the hit dark fantasy adventure—with more than 850,000 views on Royal Road—now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!
Tropes reluctant hero, redemption quest, and good versus evil.
- GenresFantasy
300 pages, Paperback
Published January 27, 2026
16 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 15, 2026
The quick and easy recommendation for AJ Drummond’s “Penance of Blood” is that if you want solid dark fantasy, the vibe of this is INCREDIBLE. Furthermore, if you want dark fantasy (or any high fantasy, really) that isn’t *epic* fantasy levels of sprawling or *lengthy*? This should be your next read.
Put simply, clocking in at only less than 300 paperback pages, “Oathbreaker”’s opening arc in “Penance of Blood” is a very limited-scope story with little happening outside the scope of its primary plot, and for a fantasy novel, I can’t tell you the refreshment that comes with that. I love me some epic fantasy - to the point that lower-stakes or smaller-scope fantasies can sometimes put me off on account of not going deep enough on some of their things. But to say that Drummond masterfully balances the plot with the little things that hint at bigger things to come yet without ever getting distracted would be to do him a disservice. He doesn’t just do that masterfully, he does that better than anybody else working in the genre right now that I can think of off the top of my head!
First off, let me inform you a bit of the framing of the story, which is itself already great: imagine a brooding ex-paladin who has to internally battle between his tasks being effectively a mercenary for certain spiritual forces despite his general exile from the more holy aspect of what made him a paladin. Now imagine some of the most unlikely alliances, the discomfort that comes with trying to complete his goals despite his past, and all of the possible magical beings that inhabit a dark fantasy world, and you really do have something here. I did a poor job trying to explain at all what this is doing, but suffice it to say that Drummond tells this story very well.
On a more technical aspect, I have to call out that there a solid handful of words that are noticeably overused (every author has some of these, to be fair, just not usually quite as apparent as Drummond here at times), and there are plenty of moments where the prose can be identified as that of a debut, and that’d be correct. There are also many things that my personal copy edit brain would have opted to change with regard to dialogue-paragraph construction (very often a character’s dialogue will be split into more than one paragraph with no discernible reason to do so nor indicator to back it up, making it sometimes hard to tell who’s actually speaking). None of these are even close to deal-breakers though when the story itself is this investing.
I mean, really, the long story short is that the main character is surprisingly dynamic, the plot is fairly simple - but never inherently “predictable” (or, perhaps “cliché” would be the better word) - and Drummond never forgets about anything he introduces. The story feels handily *complete* in a very real way, despite there being 2 open directions for the continuation of the story! Yet, he never forgets about the worldbuilding and especially lore ideas! There’s a LOT here, but he - through the narrator - never talks about anything that he doesn’t need to. If you need information about something, he gives it to you, but if you don’t need it, he doesn’t. Better yet: there are many things that are *hinted at*, but never explained too much *because* they are not intrinsically relevant yet. But you can feel just how much detail there is here, and you KNOW the future is so bright. (For the story, not necessarily the characters, lol)
Also, one of my favorite side-characters I’ve read in a long time features here. You’ll know who it is as soon as you’re introduced!
I don’t think this review was as good as I would optimally have liked, but truly I think this is a special story in the fantasy space. I don’t read dark fantasy either, speaking on that point specifically, but this is FANTASTIC dark fantasy.
Since a lot of “Oathbreaker” has been written already serially on Royal Road, the official publisher of this re-edited first volume already is planning to publish 3 of them, with potential for more. This just came out in February, and volume 2 comes out very soon at the end of April, I believe, and I plan to pick that one up as soon to release as I can.
I recommend this if you want either dark fantasy or any fantasy that doesn’t extend beyond its necessities. And if you want a great main character with a great dynamic with the primary side character!
Put simply, clocking in at only less than 300 paperback pages, “Oathbreaker”’s opening arc in “Penance of Blood” is a very limited-scope story with little happening outside the scope of its primary plot, and for a fantasy novel, I can’t tell you the refreshment that comes with that. I love me some epic fantasy - to the point that lower-stakes or smaller-scope fantasies can sometimes put me off on account of not going deep enough on some of their things. But to say that Drummond masterfully balances the plot with the little things that hint at bigger things to come yet without ever getting distracted would be to do him a disservice. He doesn’t just do that masterfully, he does that better than anybody else working in the genre right now that I can think of off the top of my head!
First off, let me inform you a bit of the framing of the story, which is itself already great: imagine a brooding ex-paladin who has to internally battle between his tasks being effectively a mercenary for certain spiritual forces despite his general exile from the more holy aspect of what made him a paladin. Now imagine some of the most unlikely alliances, the discomfort that comes with trying to complete his goals despite his past, and all of the possible magical beings that inhabit a dark fantasy world, and you really do have something here. I did a poor job trying to explain at all what this is doing, but suffice it to say that Drummond tells this story very well.
On a more technical aspect, I have to call out that there a solid handful of words that are noticeably overused (every author has some of these, to be fair, just not usually quite as apparent as Drummond here at times), and there are plenty of moments where the prose can be identified as that of a debut, and that’d be correct. There are also many things that my personal copy edit brain would have opted to change with regard to dialogue-paragraph construction (very often a character’s dialogue will be split into more than one paragraph with no discernible reason to do so nor indicator to back it up, making it sometimes hard to tell who’s actually speaking). None of these are even close to deal-breakers though when the story itself is this investing.
I mean, really, the long story short is that the main character is surprisingly dynamic, the plot is fairly simple - but never inherently “predictable” (or, perhaps “cliché” would be the better word) - and Drummond never forgets about anything he introduces. The story feels handily *complete* in a very real way, despite there being 2 open directions for the continuation of the story! Yet, he never forgets about the worldbuilding and especially lore ideas! There’s a LOT here, but he - through the narrator - never talks about anything that he doesn’t need to. If you need information about something, he gives it to you, but if you don’t need it, he doesn’t. Better yet: there are many things that are *hinted at*, but never explained too much *because* they are not intrinsically relevant yet. But you can feel just how much detail there is here, and you KNOW the future is so bright. (For the story, not necessarily the characters, lol)
Also, one of my favorite side-characters I’ve read in a long time features here. You’ll know who it is as soon as you’re introduced!
I don’t think this review was as good as I would optimally have liked, but truly I think this is a special story in the fantasy space. I don’t read dark fantasy either, speaking on that point specifically, but this is FANTASTIC dark fantasy.
Since a lot of “Oathbreaker” has been written already serially on Royal Road, the official publisher of this re-edited first volume already is planning to publish 3 of them, with potential for more. This just came out in February, and volume 2 comes out very soon at the end of April, I believe, and I plan to pick that one up as soon to release as I can.
I recommend this if you want either dark fantasy or any fantasy that doesn’t extend beyond its necessities. And if you want a great main character with a great dynamic with the primary side character!
February 20, 2026
I tried writing a long review glazing this, but I decided to go for short and sweet instead. Buy it, read it, then read it again. It’s great. Cant wait for book 2.
February 17, 2026
A Dark Home Run
This book doesn’t read like a debut novel. Pacing, action, world building and dialogue are all done well. Beautiful dark setting. Main Character First person POV done very well, Alken’s “voice” is very strong and consistent.
The late middle of the book felt weaker to me, but returned to form shortly after to finish strong.
4/5
This book doesn’t read like a debut novel. Pacing, action, world building and dialogue are all done well. Beautiful dark setting. Main Character First person POV done very well, Alken’s “voice” is very strong and consistent.
The late middle of the book felt weaker to me, but returned to form shortly after to finish strong.
4/5
March 5, 2026
This book is awesome. The MC is this tortured dark paladin. It's like if Diablo met the Dresden Files... super satisfying.
also the narrator has this rumbling voice that matches the MC's energy perfectly.
also the narrator has this rumbling voice that matches the MC's energy perfectly.
February 19, 2026
Great debut!
If you love curse of strahd, vampires, foggy woods, and fickle fey this is the book for you! Excited to see what is next for Alken!
If you love curse of strahd, vampires, foggy woods, and fickle fey this is the book for you! Excited to see what is next for Alken!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews