The Tainted Khan

The Soulbound Saga, Book 2

By: Taran Matharu

Narrated by: Tom Babbage

The next installment in New York Times bestselling author Taran Matharu’s Soulbound Saga—a thrilling cultivation and progression epic fantasy series—continuing the harrowing journey of Jai as he navigates returning to his own people, growing in his magic and as a warrior, fending off attacks both without and within...and, of course, bonding even more with his dragon!

Jai dreams of being a dragon rider. He dreams of freedom from the Sabine Empire and a world in which he can lead his people, the Kidara, to freedom. But even though he has his dragon, Winter, she is still growing, just as he’s still growing in his own power. And the road to victory is even more fraught than he had hoped.

Because even when he finds a tribe on the Great Steppe, they are not his people. More, they are outcasts, the Tainted, and he finds that he knows little of the customs and political intricacies that take place in these vast grasslands. He is a stranger amongst his own kind, and that is even more apparent when he reunites with the Kidara, for Jai’s uncle rules, and is loath to cede power to his nephew. And even if Jai was sure he could take the reins of the leadership, he isn’t sure he could actually hold them.

But the legionaries and Gryphon Guard of the Sabine Empire are wreaking havoc against the other tribes of the Great Steppe, and Jai is forced to learn a lifetime’s worth of knowledge in a matter of months. From taming the massive khiroi that make up the tribe’s calvary, to levelling up his magic, to becoming a true warrior, worrying over the fate of the woman he loves, and strengthening his bond with Winter, Jai is a dragon rider with a massive weight on his young shoulders. And his greatest hope is that the shoulders of Winter will soon be strong enough to help carry him.

©2025 Taran Matharu (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

Worth a listen

I thought this book was a lot better than the first one. The narrator was great as well.

Amazing book! Great story line, awesome adventure!

I hope the author makes this a long many book series, it’s an excellent read, perfect for dragon rider book fans!

I enjoyed it so much !!!

When will Book 3 be available???
I am looking forward to it. The only minor issue I had was that the story moved a little too slow while he was on the Mountain Top, other than that I enjoyed it. Book one was my favorite.

No growth since first book

The story and cultivation system are so at odds with one another that the only way the author could come up with to pair them is that in every single encounter and every single day we are reminded of his “meager mana reserves”. The mc cant use 4 spells in a day and cant fill his core ever so he stays constantly weak and pathetic in every single fight. This is directly at odds with a cultivation system where you continually grow stronger. It is to the point that the system leads to major annoyance as we are supposed to believe that this guy ascended and now just cant fill the core and when full be still only gets like two spells and hes done, thats it. The mc is still as weak as when he first bonded literally nothing has changed and it damages the story in a major way. Pretty much a damsel in distress at all times.