Between Earth and Sky
#1674.14 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2020–2024 Reading commitment Medium Rebecca Roanhorse Last reviewed 2026-08-06
Overview
Rebecca Roanhorse's Between Earth and Sky trilogy is an epic fantasy set in the invented secondary world of the Meridian region, drawing broadly on pre-Columbian American cultures and mythologies rather than European ones. Black Sun (2020) opens the story of Naranpa, a sun priestess facing rebellion within her own clergy, Xiala, a disgraced ship captain of the seafaring Teek people, and Serapio, a young man raised and physically transformed from birth to be the living vessel of a vengeful crow god, as their fates converge on the city of Tova during a rare solar eclipse tied to an ancient massacre. The trilogy continued with Fevered Star (2022) and concluded with Mirrored Heavens (2024), expanding the political conflict between Tova's ruling clans and the returning god's followers. It went on to win the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Series, one of relatively few series-length works to win that award, and the trilogy has been widely noted for centering Indigenous-inspired worldbuilding within a genre historically dominated by European models.
Epic fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Between Earth and Sky Rebecca Roanhorse
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Black Sun | 2020 | 1 | core | 4.16 (57,313 ratings) |
 | Fevered Star | 2022 | 2 | core | 4.07 (23,298 ratings) |
 | Mirrored Heavens | 2024 | 3 | core | 4.20 (11,150 ratings) |
Complete trilogy set in the invented secondary world of the Meridian region, inspired broadly by pre-Columbian Americas. No Expanded-canon short fiction exists for this specific universe as of this research.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Between Earth and Sky? Between Earth and Sky's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Between Earth and Sky? Publication order, starting with Black Sun. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Between Earth and Sky finished? Complete (2020–2024).
- How much reading does Between Earth and Sky take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~1,435 pages).
- How is Between Earth and Sky ranked? #167 in this site's official ranking, based on 91,761 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #167?
Ranked #167 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.14 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (91,761 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.13 of each other.
- 0.01 behind #166, Song of Albion.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 3 books · Complete · 92k ratings · Ranks #167 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Black Sun (2020)
- Fevered Star (2022)
- Mirrored Heavens (2024)
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)
- Hugo Award (Best Novel), 2021: finalist: Black Sun; Lost to Network Effect (Martha Wells).
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2021: finalist: Black Sun
- Locus Award (Fantasy Novel), 2021: finalist: Black Sun; Placed 4th in the Locus poll.
- Ignyte Award (Outstanding Novel (Adult)), 2021: won: Black Sun
- Lambda Literary Award (LGBTQ Speculative Fiction), 2021: nominated: Black Sun
- Locus Award (Fantasy Novel), 2023: finalist: Fevered Star; Placed 9th in the Locus poll.
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Suggestions computed from what Between Earth and Sky and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Daevabad Trilogy Epic fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.29
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- Capitale du Sud Epic fantasy / Sword & sorcery · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.28
- The Covenant of Steel Epic fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.27
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.14 across 91,761 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Between Earth and Sky admitted as a single-author universe accepted 2026-08-06
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-06
Rule: Core = the complete 3-novel trilogy (Black Sun, Fevered Star, Mirrored Heavens), one continuous plotted narrative in an invented secondary world. No Expanded Canon currently exists for this universe.