For Readers Who Love a Wandering Bard
October 17, 2026
Some readers come to fantasy for the dragons. I come for the person with the instrument on their back.
A bard is a good way into a world. She's welcome at every inn and gone before the argument starts. She hears the gossip before the king does. She carries songs that outlive the people who sang them, which means she carries their grief too, whether she wants to or not. A sword can settle a fight. A song can settle a room.
What I look for on the shelf
My own short list isn't about titles. A road that costs something: blisters, bad weather, a bed paid for by the night. Swords with weight and a history, not just a glow. Music treated like real work, with calluses and cracked fingertips. And company. The kind that starts as a practical arrangement, two people heading the same way for their own reasons, and slowly becomes something neither would've signed for.
That last one is the hook for me. Found family works best when it's earned in small things. Who takes the cold watch. Who knows how you take your tea. Who goes quiet when you do.
If that's your kind of road, you'll feel at home in The Bard and the Blade Saga, where a bard signs inn registers with a single word, Drake, and a swordsman named Dhaelen carries two very different blades. Whispers of the Wyrm, Book One, is relaunching soon. I don't have a date yet. If you'd like to follow along, you can add it on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/aabennette.
Now yours. What do you look for first in a fantasy road story: the music, the swords, or the people sharing the fire? And if there's a bard you love, tell me in the comments. I'm always building a shelf.
Whispers of the Wyrm, Book One of The Bard and the Blade Saga.