A Thousand Nights
#11523.60 adjusted 3.62 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Unfinished 2015–2016 Reading commitment Low E. K. Johnston Last reviewed 2026-11-01
Overview
A Thousand Nights is a pair of young-adult fantasy novels by E. K. Johnston, published by Disney Hyperion in 2015 and 2016. The first is a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, set in a desert land where a demon-possessed king kills a new wife each month, and an unnamed girl takes her sister's place to stop him. Spindle follows several generations later in the same world and reinterprets Sleeping Beauty: a princess is cursed by a demon and rescued by a group of exiled spinners. A novella, The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers, is listed between the two. No further novels are announced.
Fairy-tale retelling, Historical fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
A Thousand Nights E. K. Johnston
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | A Thousand Nights | 2015 | 1 | core | 3.63 (14,279 ratings) |
 | Spindle; Also published in the US as Kingdom of Sleep in some editions. | 2016 | 2 | core | 3.36 (1,937 ratings) |
Two linked retellings in one desert-and-mountain world, set generations apart.
Quick answers
- How many books are in A Thousand Nights? A Thousand Nights's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for A Thousand Nights? Publication order, starting with A Thousand Nights. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is A Thousand Nights finished? Unfinished (2015–2016).
- How much reading does A Thousand Nights take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books).
- How is A Thousand Nights ranked? #1152 in this site's official ranking, based on 16,216 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #1152?
Ranked #1152 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.60 across 2 core books.
- A smaller readership (16,216 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.01 behind #1151, Magic for Liars.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 2 books · Unfinished · 16k ratings · Ranks #1152 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- A Thousand Nights (2015)
- Spindle (2016)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what A Thousand Nights and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Toads and Diamonds Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Low commitment · 3.74
- A Study in Drowning Dark fantasy / Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Low commitment · 3.66
- Nampeshiweisit Historical fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.08
- Six Crimson Cranes Fairy-tale retelling / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.07
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.60 across 16,216 ratings on 2 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon Extension: 22 universes, among them The Ordered and Reflections of Eterna; four candidates ruled out accepted 2026-11-01
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Kirkus Reviews, Spindle Tier 2
- Kirkus Reviews, A Thousand Nights Tier 2
- Wikipedia, A Thousand Nights Tier 2
- Wikipedia, E. K. Johnston Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-11-01
Rule: Core Canon = the novels A Thousand Nights (2015) and Spindle (2016); the novella The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers is excluded.