Spellwright books in order

Reading order

The Spellwright trilogy by Blake Charlton takes place in a world where magic is a form of writing. Spellwrights compose magical sentences within their own muscles, and the quality of their spelling determines the power and accuracy of their spells. At Starhaven, a grand academy built into a mountain, a young student named Nicodemus Weal struggles with cacography: every spell he writes comes out garbled. He was once believed to be the Halcyon, a prophesied figure who would prevent a catastrophic war, but that hope faded when his disability emerged.

The first book begins as a murder mystery at Starhaven and expands into a wider conflict involving demons, deities, and ancient prophecy. Spellbound follows Nicodemus on a quest beyond the academy, where he discovers the scope of the conspiracy surrounding his condition. Spellbreaker shifts perspective to Leandra, Nicodemus’s daughter, and moves the setting to the tropical Ixonian Archipelago. Charlton drew directly from his own experience with severe dyslexia when building the magic system, and the result is one of the more original approaches to magic in modern fantasy.