Samantha Shannon Books in Order — Bone Season and Priory Guide
British author of the ongoing Bone Season dystopian fantasy series and the celebrated standalone epic The Priory of the Orange Tree.
About Samantha Shannon
Samantha Shannon is a British fantasy author who published her debut The Bone Season at twenty-one, launching a long-running dystopian fantasy series set in a clairvoyant underworld. Her standalone epic The Priory of the Orange Tree is one of the most celebrated feminist fantasy novels of the last decade — an 800-page world of dragons, matriarchal power, and queer romance. Both her series and her standalones reward ambitious readers looking for substantial, fully realised fantasy worlds.
Where to Start
New readers have two strong entry points. The Priory of the Orange Tree is the most accessible starting point — it is standalone and requires no prior knowledge. The Bone Season is the place to start if you want a longer series commitment with a distinct dystopian edge.
Samantha Shannon Books in Order
The Bone Season
An ongoing dystopian fantasy series — four of a planned seven books published to date.
- 1
The Bone Season
The Bone Season, Book 1
Paige Mahoney, a rare dreamwalker clairvoyant working in London's criminal underworld, is captured and transported to a secret colony in Oxford controlled by a supernatural race called the Rephaim. A richly systematized dystopian fantasy with one of the most detailed magic taxonomies in the genre.
Note: Start here for The Bone Season series.
- 2
The Mime Order
The Bone Season, Book 2
Paige returns to London's clairvoyant criminal syndicate and finds herself drawn into a dangerous bid for power — and a growing resistance against the Scion empire. The world deepens considerably.
- 3
The Song Rising
The Bone Season, Book 3
Paige, now Underqueen of the syndicate, leads a resistance movement beyond London for the first time as the series escalates into full-scale rebellion. The most propulsive book in the series to date.
- 4
The Mask Falling
The Bone Season, Book 4
Paige arrives in Scion Paris on a covert mission that quickly unravels. The most emotionally interior book in the series — and the most significant development in her relationship with Warden.
Standalone Novels
Both books are set in the same world — The Priory of the Orange Tree is the original; A Day of Fallen Night is a prequel set centuries earlier.
- 1
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Standalone Novel
A sweeping 800-page feminist epic set in a world of dragons, matriarchal power, and queer romance — following four protagonists across a world on the brink of catastrophe. One of the most celebrated standalone fantasy novels of the last decade.
Note: The most accessible entry point for new Shannon readers.
- 2
A Day of Fallen Night
Standalone Novel
Set centuries before The Priory of the Orange Tree, this prequel follows four women across different continents as a catastrophic dragon awakening threatens the known world. Can be read independently.