Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Demon’s Reign | 2022 | David Estes | Buy |
| 2 | Demon’s Rage | 2024 | David Estes | Buy |
Bloodwood Saga marks a shift toward darker fantasy territory for David Estes. Demon’s Reign opens in a world that demons have already conquered, and the human characters are survivors trying to find footing in a hierarchy they did not build and cannot easily fight. The tone is grimmer than most of Estes’s earlier work, and the title sequence — Reign, then Rage — signals an escalation in the conflict.
The series was published over two years, with Demon’s Rage arriving in 2024. At two books, it is one of Estes’s shorter series, though it is unclear whether he plans to continue the Bloodwood world beyond these two entries. The books are adult in orientation and closer in feel to his Kingfall Histories and Fatemarked Epic than to his YA output.
Readers who want demon-centric dark fantasy with a focus on power and survival rather than romance will find Bloodwood Saga a solid read. It pairs naturally with the Last King trilogy and the Forsworn Oath series for readers working through Estes’s post-2020 adult fantasy catalog.