The House of Sundering Flames (#3)
New Edition Forthcoming March 2026
Paris, turn of the century.
In a city ruined by a magical war, the magical factions known as Houses intrigue against each other to gain power.
House Harrier is no one’s friend, which leaves an ample trail of suspects when a mysterious magical explosion devastates the House and its surrrounding areas. Emmanuelle, partner of the head of House Silverspires, finds herself in the ruins of House Harrier with no memories of the explosion, struggling to navigate amnesia and survive in hostile territory. Thuan, co-head of House Hawthorn, navigates his prickly relationship to his husband while dealing with changed politics and dark magic. And Philippe, once an immortal, accompanies an envoy from his own country in the East, seeking a missing spirit with great power.
But the flames are rising, and vengeance is coming for those who fought in the war, and their descendants. They will have to stand together, or burn alone…
Reviews
"De Bodard’s prose is precise and elegant, and her characters are compelling and fascinating, even – especially – when they’re making terrible compromises and impossible choices. They’re very human – even the immortal and the dragon prince. Events mount with increasing tension, histories hinted at with terrible implication, until the revelations and resolutions of the climax. This is a clever book, and a nuanced one, and to me it feels like a tour-de-force of storytelling. I deeply enjoyed it, and I recommend it highly."
"De Bodard has a marvelous visual imagination...While the spectacle satisfies even as it goes on a bit, the real resolution of this fascinating trilogy returns us to where it began – with de Bodard’s complex, rich, and conflicted characters trying to come to terms with family, loyalty, honor, exile, and power in a setting at once wildly romantic and existentially bleak, just as the real Paris could accommodate the world views of both Victor Hugo and Sartre."
"Aliette de Bodard’s Dominion of the Fallen is one of my favorite fantasy series of the last couple of decades."
"Thrilling and creepy A.F., a definite must for fans of de Bodard and fantastical fiction."Tade Thompson, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Rosewater trilogy