The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Author page

Samantha Shannon

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-08-21

Samantha Shannon was born November 8, 1991, in Hammersmith, London, and grew up in Ruislip; she is of Irish descent through her father's side, with ancestors from County Roscommon. She studied English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating in 2013. Shannon began writing at fifteen with an unpublished novel called Aurora, and in 2012, while still a student, she secured a six-figure publishing deal with Bloomsbury for the first three books of what became a planned seven-book dystopian fantasy series. Her major work is The Bone Season series, begun in 2013, a dystopian fantasy following a clairvoyant protagonist in an alternate version of London; four books have been published to date, with two more forthcoming through 2027. In 2019 she published The Priory of the Orange Tree, a standalone high-fantasy epic centered on dragons and female-led political intrigue that has sold more than a million copies and established her as a major voice in contemporary fantasy. She followed it with The Roots of Chaos cycle, including A Day of Fallen Night (2023) and Among the Burning Flowers (2025). Shannon has lifelong Visual Snow Syndrome and developed bilateral tinnitus in 2025; she is openly sapphic. Film and television adaptations of The Bone Season have been optioned multiple times since 2012.

Universe(s)

The Roots of Chaos

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #131 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.18
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

The Bone Season

  • Core Canon books: 5
  • Current rank: #279 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.07
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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