Corrupted Crimson cover

Corrupted Crimson

Painting the Mists • Book 5

4.15 ABR Score (1.3K ratings)
★ 4.39 Goodreads (851) ★ 4.71 Audible (446)
13h 52m Released 2020 Fantasy

About This Audiobook

Book five in the Painting the Mists series finds Cha Ming navigating the treacherous politics of a capital city where commerce and corruption are inseparable. What begins as a favor for a struggling friend quickly spirals into a desperate race against time: a poisoned king, a kingdom fracturing from within, and malevolent spirits that have been quietly stoking conflict for generations. Laplante weaves multiple crises together, each amplifying the others, with the fate of an entire realm hanging in the balance.

Adam Verner brings the sprawling cast to life with steady, reliable character differentiation that rewards listeners deep into a long series. At nearly fourteen hours, the story has room to breathe, and Verner matches the narrative's shifting tones, from tense marketplace scheming to high-stakes spiritual confrontation. For fans of cultivation fantasy, hearing the power dynamics and intricate world-building spoken aloud deepens immersion considerably, and the strong Goodreads reception reflects a story that earns its complexity.