The Way of Renegades
The Bards and Dragons Saga • Book 1
by Steve D. Wall
Why You'll Love This
Flintlock rifles, scheming bards, and dragons in the same world — and somehow it all holds together.
- Great if you want: gritty, gun-powder fantasy with morally complicated characters avoiding their pasts
- The experience: fast-moving and plot-driven with a buddy-dynamic that builds steadily
- The writing: Wall keeps multiple perspectives in motion without losing momentum or clarity
- Skip if: you prefer deep world-building over propulsive, character-driven plotting
About This Book
In a world where flintlock rifles and dragon fire exist in uneasy tension, The Way of Renegades follows two men trying to disappear — and failing spectacularly. Ulric, a disgraced war hero hiding in a frontier city, wants only to stay forgotten. Dellioph, a bard with secrets worth killing for, wants only to play his music. Neither gets what he wants. When a revolutionary weapon, a ruthless political coalition, and a collision of bad timing force them together, the stakes stop being personal and start being civilization-wide. Wall builds his world around the uncomfortable truth that the past has excellent aim.
What makes this book work as a reading experience is Wall's refusal to let the premise do all the heavy lifting. The flintlock-fantasy setting is inventive, but the real draw is the character-driven momentum — two protagonists whose voices feel genuinely distinct, whose motivations complicate each other, and whose reluctant partnership earns its tension. The prose moves with the confidence of a writer who trusts action and wit in equal measure, and at 468 pages, the story earns every one of them.
