Sam Sykes Books in Order (Updated August 7, 2026)

Sam Sykes is an American fantasy author best known for the Aeons’ Gate, Bring Down Heaven, and Grave of Empires trilogies.

His bibliography has two principal novel continuities. Aeons’ Gate and Bring Down Heaven follow the same group of adventurers, with the second trilogy continuing directly from the first. Grave of Empires is a separate world centered on outlaw mage Sal the Cacophony.

Sykes also wrote Brave Chef Brianna, a completed all-ages comic created with artist Selina Espiritu.

The Reading Order in One View

Readers following Lenk and his companions should use this order:

1. Tome of the Undergates (2010): Six hostile adventurers accept a sea voyage to recover a religious relic, only to encounter pirates, demons, and evidence that an ancient gateway may be opening.
2. Black Halo (2011): The divided companions become stranded on a dangerous island while competing factions pursue the stolen tome and the power connected to it.
3. The Skybound Sea (2012): Lenk’s group confronts the consequences of the opened gateway as demons, alien forces, and old grudges threaten the wider world.
4. The City Stained Red (2015): The surviving adventurers arrive in Cier’Djaal seeking payment and new lives, but the city’s political, criminal, and supernatural conflicts pull them back into violence.
5. The Mortal Tally (2016): Cier’Djaal collapses into open warfare while Lenk travels east in pursuit of the demon Khoth-Kapira.
6. God’s Last Breath (2017): Khoth-Kapira enters the mortal world as Lenk and his former companions face the final conflict of their shared story.

Readers following Sal the Cacophony should use this order:

1. Seven Blades in Black (2019): Imprisoned outlaw Sal recounts her campaign against the mages who betrayed her and stole her magic.
2. Ten Arrows of Iron (2020): Sal joins a scheme involving an airship fleet, a powerful weapon, and the escalating war between mages and machinists.
3. Three Axes to Fall (2022): Sal’s bargains, enemies, and unfinished acts of revenge converge in the final Grave of Empires novel.

The shorter Grave of Empires stories can be added after the novels or inserted by publication date.

Two Worlds, Not One Shared Universe

Lenk’s World

Aeons’ Gate and Bring Down Heaven form one continuous six-novel sequence.

The same principal characters appear across both trilogies:

1. Lenk
2. Kataria
3. Asper
4. Denaos
5. Dreadaeleon
6. Gariath

Bring Down Heaven assumes that readers understand their relationships, supernatural encounters, personal divisions, and survival of Aeons’ Gate.

Sal’s World

Grave of Empires takes place in a different setting called the Scar.

Its world combines guns, blades, airships, magical war machines, rogue mages, and rival empires. Sal does not cross paths with Lenk or the Aeons’ Gate cast.

Brave Chef Brianna

Brave Chef Brianna occupies another separate continuity.

It is a comic fantasy about opening a restaurant in a city populated by monsters. It has no narrative connection to Sykes’s adult fantasy novels.

The Best Starting Point

Tome of the Undergates is the best beginning for readers who want to follow Sykes’s career from his first novel and complete his longest connected story.

Seven Blades in Black is the stronger entry for readers who prefer a focused first-person narrator, magical firearms, revenge, and a completed modern fantasy trilogy.

Brave Chef Brianna is the appropriate starting point for younger readers or anyone seeking a shorter comic story.

Aeons’ Gate Books in Order

Aeons’ Gate follows a group of adventurers who remain together less through friendship than through money, shared danger, and a growing realization that each member is carrying a private crisis.

The trilogy is also sold under the collective name An Affinity for Steel.

Tome of the Undergates

1. Tome of the Undergates (2010): Lenk and five fellow adventurers join a religious expedition seeking the Aeons’ Gate, but a pirate attack places them against forces that may be attempting to reopen a path between worlds.

The book introduces the entire group through conflict rather than unity.

Lenk hears a mysterious voice, Kataria belongs to a people hated by humans, Asper struggles with a disturbing physical change, and the remaining companions carry their own secrets.

Black Halo

2. Black Halo (2011): After the expedition goes wrong, the companions are scattered across Teji and forced to pursue the stolen tome while the island’s peoples, creatures, and hidden powers close around them.

The novel continues directly from Tome of the Undergates.

Each character follows a more separate path, making the group’s mistrust and differing priorities central to the story.

The Skybound Sea

3. The Skybound Sea (2012): The adventurers must respond to the larger demonic threat behind their earlier journey while an inhuman power prepares to erase humanity.

This concludes Aeons’ Gate.

It resolves the expedition and its immediate supernatural crisis, but it does not end the lives of Lenk and his companions.

Is Aeons’ Gate Complete?

Yes.

Tome of the Undergates, Black Halo, and The Skybound Sea form a completed trilogy.

The characters continue in Bring Down Heaven, so The Skybound Sea is a trilogy ending rather than the conclusion of the entire continuity.

An Affinity for Steel Omnibus

An Affinity for Steel (2014): This omnibus collects Tome of the Undergates, Black Halo, and The Skybound Sea in their correct order.

It contains the complete Aeons’ Gate trilogy.

Readers who own the omnibus do not need separate copies of those three novels.

Name the Beast

Name the Beast (2013): Kataria’s earlier life and her relationship with her mother, Kalindris, reveal more about shict culture and the family history behind her hostility toward human society.

The story was published in the multi-author anthology Dangerous Women.

It belongs to the Aeons’ Gate continuity but is not required between two novels.

Read it after Tome of the Undergates at minimum. The least disruptive placement is after The Skybound Sea.

Bring Down Heaven Books in Order

Bring Down Heaven is not a reboot.

It returns to Lenk and his companions after Aeons’ Gate, placing them in the wealthy city of Cier’Djaal. Their attempt to claim payment and separate from adventuring becomes part of a conflict involving armies, criminal factions, tribal powers, monstrous industries, and a persuasive demon.

The City Stained Red

1. The City Stained Red (2015): Lenk reaches Cier’Djaal intending to collect his reward and abandon the sword, but the city’s silk trade, criminal wars, foreign armies, and ancient powers make escape impossible.

The novel reintroduces the group after Aeons’ Gate.

It can explain its immediate city conflict, but it reveals the survivors and consequences of the earlier trilogy.

The Mortal Tally

2. The Mortal Tally (2016): Cier’Djaal becomes a battlefield while Lenk follows Khoth-Kapira into the Forbidden East and begins questioning whether the demon’s promised peace might be preferable to the mortal world.

The companions spend much of the book divided.

Their individual choices determine which factions survive long enough to face the final crisis.

God’s Last Breath

3. God’s Last Breath (2017): Khoth-Kapira walks freely in the mortal world, gathering desperate followers while Cier’Djaal becomes the site of a final struggle among humans, shicts, tulwar, demons, and former companions.

This is the conclusion of Bring Down Heaven.

It also provides the current ending of Lenk’s six-novel narrative.

Is Bring Down Heaven Complete?

Yes.

God’s Last Breath concludes the trilogy and the main story that began in Tome of the Undergates.

No seventh Lenk novel had been announced with a confirmed title or release date as of August 7, 2026.

Ale & Blood

Ale & Blood (2018): Lenk and Kataria wake in a prison cell after a night of drinking, learn that a nobleman has been murdered, and must reconstruct what happened before they are punished in the arena.

Sykes describes the novella as a side quest involving the Bring Down Heaven cast.

Its events take place between the group’s larger disasters, but the story was designed to be readable without an exact chronological placement.

Read it after The City Stained Red or save it until after God’s Last Breath.

The Complete Lenk Reading Order

Readers wanting every principal Lenk and Kataria story can follow this route:

1. Tome of the Undergates (2010): The adventurers join the expedition seeking the Aeons’ Gate.
2. Black Halo (2011): The companions pursue the tome across a hostile island.
3. The Skybound Sea (2012): The gateway crisis reaches its conclusion.
4. Name the Beast (2013): Kataria’s family history expands the shict side of the world.
5. The City Stained Red (2015): The group arrives in Cier’Djaal seeking money and escape.
6. Ale & Blood (2018): Lenk and Kataria investigate the consequences of a disastrous night.
7. The Mortal Tally (2016): The city war expands while Lenk follows Khoth-Kapira.
8. God’s Last Breath (2017): The demon and the divided companions enter their final conflict.

Ale & Blood was published after the trilogy ended. Its suggested position after The City Stained Red is based on its side-adventure format, not on a firmly numbered placement.

Readers who prefer strict publication order can save it until after God’s Last Breath.

Grave of Empires Books in Order

The Grave of Empires trilogy follows Sal the Cacophony, an outlaw mage armed with a sword and a magical gun.

The novels are framed through Sal’s own accounts of her past. Her explanations are forceful and vivid, but readers should not assume that her version of every relationship, betrayal, or disaster is complete.

Seven Blades in Black

1. Seven Blades in Black (2019): Awaiting execution, Sal recounts her journey across the Scar to kill the mages who betrayed her and took away her powers.

The Scar lies between the Imperium of mages and the Revolution of machinists.

Sal’s pursuit brings her into contact with soldiers, rogue magic users, monsters, war machines, and people she has already disappointed.

Ten Arrows of Iron

2. Ten Arrows of Iron (2020): With cities destroyed and her personal life in ruins, Sal joins a plan to steal power from the Ten Arrows airship fleet.

The sequel enlarges the war between the Imperium and the Revolution.

Sal’s revenge becomes part of a conspiracy capable of destroying both empires and everyone still close to her.

Three Axes to Fall

3. Three Axes to Fall (2022): Sal reaches one of the Scar’s remaining free cities as enemies from every stage of her story gather to collect the price of her magical bargain.

This is the final Grave of Empires novel.

It resolves Sal’s main revenge campaign and the conflict developed across the trilogy.

Is Grave of Empires Complete?

Yes.

Seven Blades in Black, Ten Arrows of Iron, and Three Axes to Fall form a completed trilogy.

Three additional novellas tell separate Sal the Cacophony adventures. They expand her history without reopening the main trilogy as a fourth novel.

Grave of Empires Novellas in Order

Publication order is the clearest way to place the novellas.

The Gallows Black

The Gallows Black (2019): Sal enters the freehold of Last Word to kill a target, then frees that same person when an execution threatens to deny her the satisfaction of doing it herself.

The story takes place before Seven Blades in Black.

New readers should still begin with the novel, which provides the fuller introduction to Sal, the Scar, and her revenge list.

Read The Gallows Black after Seven Blades in Black.

The Iron Dirge

The Iron Dirge (2020): Sal reaches an isolated town and encounters a secretive mage, a vengeful bandit leader, and a colossal migrating creature.

The novella was published after Ten Arrows of Iron.

Its immediate adventure stands alone, but Sal’s voice, magic, and destructive approach to helping people are better understood after the first two novels.

Dream of the Falling Axe

Dream of the Falling Axe (2023): A frontier settlement calls Sal for help with a danger linked to her past, then discovers that her solutions can be nearly as destructive as the original problem.

This novella was published after Three Axes to Fall.

It is the latest published Sam Sykes book and works best as additional reading after the completed trilogy.

The Recommended Grave of Empires Route

1. Seven Blades in Black (2019): Sal begins recounting the revenge campaign that brought her to execution.
2. The Gallows Black (2019): An earlier visit to Last Word adds another example of Sal turning a killing into a larger crisis.
3. Ten Arrows of Iron (2020): Sal joins a heist involving airships and imperial power.
4. The Iron Dirge (2020): A remote settlement becomes the setting for another independent Sal adventure.
5. Three Axes to Fall (2022): The main trilogy reaches its final confrontation.
6. Dream of the Falling Axe (2023): A later-published side story returns to Sal and another problem from her past.

The novellas are optional.

Readers interested only in the central narrative can read the three novels consecutively.

Songs of the Cacophony and Grave of Empires

Early announcements called Sal’s series Songs of the Cacophony.

The novels were ultimately published and marketed as The Grave of Empires trilogy.

These are not two different series. Both names refer to Sal the Cacophony’s fantasy setting and principal novel sequence.

Brave Chef Brianna

Brave Chef Brianna (2017): Aspiring chef Brianna enters a family competition to build the best restaurant, but the only location she can afford is in Monster City, where she must understand customers whose bodies, tastes, and customs differ dramatically from her own.

Sam Sykes wrote the comic, with art by Selina Espiritu.

The story was originally released as four individual issues before being collected in one volume.

Brave Chef Brianna Issue Order

1. Brave Chef Brianna #1 (2017): Brianna accepts her father’s restaurant challenge and opens a business in Monster City.
2. Brave Chef Brianna #2 (2017): Her early attempts to feed monster customers expose practical problems with ingredients, expectations, and competition.
3. Brave Chef Brianna #3 (2017): Pressure from her brothers and the demands of running the restaurant test Brianna’s confidence and friendships.
4. Brave Chef Brianna #4 (2017): The restaurant competition reaches its conclusion as Brianna decides what kind of chef and business owner she wants to become.

The collected edition contains the complete four-issue story.

Readers should buy either the collection or the individual issues, not both, unless collecting alternate formats.

Is Brave Chef Brianna Connected to the Novels?

No.

It has its own cast, setting, tone, and visual continuity.

Knowledge of Lenk, Sal, Aeons’ Gate, or the Scar is unnecessary.

Sam Sykes Books in Publication Order

The list below separates newly published narratives from omnibuses that collect earlier work.

1. Tome of the Undergates (2010): Lenk’s adventuring company begins the expedition that uncovers the Aeons’ Gate threat.
2. Black Halo (2011): The scattered companions pursue the stolen tome on Teji.
3. The Skybound Sea (2012): Aeons’ Gate concludes with a struggle against demons and an inhuman threat.
4. Name the Beast (2013): Kataria’s past and relationship with her mother receive a shorter companion story.
5. The City Stained Red (2015): Lenk and his companions enter Cier’Djaal and become trapped in its wars.
6. The Mortal Tally (2016): Lenk follows Khoth-Kapira while the city collapses into violence.
7. Brave Chef Brianna (2017): A young chef opens a restaurant in a city populated by monsters.
8. God’s Last Breath (2017): The Bring Down Heaven trilogy and Lenk’s main story reach their conclusion.
9. Ale & Blood (2018): Lenk and Kataria investigate a murder after waking in jail with incomplete memories.
10. Seven Blades in Black (2019): Sal the Cacophony begins recounting her revenge across the Scar.
11. The Gallows Black (2019): An earlier Sal adventure turns an execution into a war for a free city.
12. Ten Arrows of Iron (2020): Sal becomes involved in a heist targeting a powerful airship fleet.
13. The Iron Dirge (2020): Sal enters a remote settlement threatened by bandits, magic, and a migrating monster.
14. Three Axes to Fall (2022): Sal’s main trilogy concludes as the price of her bargain comes due.
15. Dream of the Falling Axe (2023): A frontier town asks Sal to solve a problem connected to her past.

Latest Sam Sykes Book

As of August 7, 2026, the latest published Sam Sykes book is Dream of the Falling Axe.

Dream of the Falling Axe (2023): Sal the Cacophony answers a frontier settlement’s request for help, bringing her weapons, history, and tendency to worsen every situation before resolving it.

It is a digital novella rather than a fourth Grave of Empires novel.

No later novel or novella had a confirmed title and publication date as of this update.

Current Series Status

Aeons’ Gate

Complete trilogy

The Skybound Sea concludes the gateway conflict.

Bring Down Heaven

Complete trilogy

God’s Last Breath concludes the continuation of Lenk’s story.

Full Lenk Continuity

Complete six-novel sequence

The principal route runs from Tome of the Undergates through God’s Last Breath.

Grave of Empires

Complete trilogy

Three Axes to Fall concludes Sal’s principal narrative.

Grave of Empires Novellas

Three published side stories

The Gallows Black, The Iron Dirge, and Dream of the Falling Axe add separate Sal adventures.

Brave Chef Brianna

Complete limited comic series

The collected volume contains all four issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Sam Sykes book should I read first?

Begin with Tome of the Undergates for the Lenk continuity.

Begin with Seven Blades in Black for the separate and more recent Grave of Empires trilogy.

Are Aeons’ Gate and Bring Down Heaven connected?

Yes.

Bring Down Heaven continues the same characters after The Skybound Sea.

Can I begin with The City Stained Red?

The city plot is introduced in that novel, but beginning there reveals who survives Aeons’ Gate and assumes knowledge of the characters’ earlier relationships.

Tome of the Undergates is the safer beginning.

What is An Affinity for Steel?

An Affinity for Steel is the collected edition of the Aeons’ Gate trilogy.

It contains Tome of the Undergates, Black Halo, and The Skybound Sea.

Is Bring Down Heaven a sequel trilogy?

Yes.

It should be read after all three Aeons’ Gate novels.

Is Ale & Blood required?

No.

It is a comic side adventure involving Lenk and Kataria rather than a numbered main novel.

Where should I read Ale & Blood?

Read it after The City Stained Red or after completing God’s Last Breath.

Its exact position is less important than knowing the principal characters.

Where does Name the Beast fit?

It is a Kataria prequel story.

Read it after Tome of the Undergates, or save it until after The Skybound Sea.

Is Grave of Empires connected to Lenk’s books?

No.

It has a separate world, cast, magical history, and conflict.

Is Songs of the Cacophony a different series?

No.

Songs of the Cacophony was an early name used for Sal’s series. The published trilogy is normally called Grave of Empires.

Is Grave of Empires complete?

Yes.

Three Axes to Fall concludes the novel trilogy.

When should I read The Gallows Black?

Read it after Seven Blades in Black.

Although its events occur earlier, the first novel gives Sal a more complete introduction.

When should I read The Iron Dirge?

Read it after Ten Arrows of Iron.

It is an optional standalone adventure within Sal’s world.

When should I read Dream of the Falling Axe?

Read it after Three Axes to Fall.

It was published after the trilogy and is additional Sal material.

Are the Grave of Empires novellas essential?

No.

The three novels provide the complete central story.

Is Brave Chef Brianna a novel?

It is a four-issue comic series collected as a graphic novel.

Is Brave Chef Brianna suitable for younger readers?

It was published through BOOM! Studios’ all-ages KaBOOM! imprint and is considerably lighter than Sykes’s adult fantasy novels.

Does Brave Chef Brianna share a universe with Sal?

No.

The similarities in humor and monsters do not indicate shared continuity.

What is Sam Sykes’s latest book?

Dream of the Falling Axe, published in 2023.

Has another Sam Sykes book been announced?

No later title had a reliably confirmed publication date as of August 7, 2026.

The Reading Decision

For the longest continuous story, read Tome of the Undergates, Black Halo, and The Skybound Sea, then continue directly into The City Stained Red, The Mortal Tally, and God’s Last Breath.

Add Name the Beast for Kataria’s background and Ale & Blood for a separate Lenk and Kataria misadventure.

For Sal the Cacophony, read Seven Blades in Black, Ten Arrows of Iron, and Three Axes to Fall in order. The Gallows Black, The Iron Dirge, and Dream of the Falling Axe are optional additions, with publication order providing the simplest placement.