Anji in Shadow
Rebellion and ruin await in the gripping second installment of Evan Leikam's debut fantasy series, perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie, R.F. Kuang, and Nicholas Eames.
The king is dead. She's still alive. The revolution is yet to come... The riveting adventure continues in the sequel to Evan Leikam's breakout fantasy debut Anji Kills a King.
Anji has survived a dozen different deaths. The king is dead, her family is dead, the fabled mercenaries of the Menagerie are dead—and she's still here, the price that was on her head now jingling as coins in her own pocket.
In the wake of her journey, the city she once called home has changed, and a revolution is brewing in a camp on the riverbank. A revolution Anji's new windfall was meant to fund, and still could if she can forgive them for being willing to throw her life away to do it. But building a bright new kingdom won't be as simple as cutting one king's throat... and in a city of dark alleys and desperate times, her path will take her to shadowy places she never could have expected.
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Evan Leikam
In the world of grimdark fantasy, few debut authors arrive with the kind of visceral clarity and underground buzz that surrounds Anji Kills a King. Evan Leikam didn’t take the traditional path into publishing—no MFA, no prestigious workshops. Instead, his journey began backstage in dimly lit venues and on long van rides across Europe and the U.S., drumming for an indie rock band and scribbling story ideas on the back of setlists. Somewhere between the stage and the solitude, a world took shape—one filled with haunted bounty hunters, fractured kingdoms, and a girl who topples an empire with a single, fatal act.
The Rising Tide
In a kingdom teetering on the edge of collapse, one quiet act of violence sends shockwaves through the realm—The Rising Tide begins not with a noble hero, but with a servant girl who kills her king.
This dark fantasy series unfolds in a brutal, unflinching world where justice is murky and rebellion is dangerous currency. At its center is Anji, a low-born castle servant whose decision to assassinate a tyrant does not liberate a kingdom—it fractures it. Hunted by the Menagerie, a secretive order of bounty hunters who wear animal-shaped masks and wield magic like a weapon, Anji's path becomes a tense game of survival through forests of blood politics, ruined sanctuaries, and faith twisted into fanaticism.
The Rising Tide consists of one book and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of two more books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
