Between Two Fires
#1304.18 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2020 Reading commitment Low Christopher Buehlman Last reviewed 2026-08-26
Overview
Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires (2020) is a standalone dark historical fantasy set during the Black Death, in which a disgraced knight, Thomas, and an orphaned girl who claims to see angels become caught between fallen angels and demons contesting a plague-stricken medieval France. Buehlman, previously known for horror and dark fantasy, grounds the novel in meticulously researched fourteenth-century detail: ruined villages, corrupt clergy, and a countryside stripped bare by disease, even as the plot escalates into an overtly supernatural war between Heaven and Hell fought through and around its human characters. The book was praised on release for combining historical grimness with a genuinely theological horror-fantasy premise, treating the plague itself as a symptom of a celestial conflict rather than a mere backdrop, and it stands as a complete, self-contained story with no sequels or connected works in the same setting.
Dark fantasy, Historical fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Between Two Fires (2020) core · 4.18 (98,366 ratings); A standalone dark historical fantasy set during the Black Death, with fallen angels and demons contesting a plague-stricken medieval France.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Between Two Fires? Between Two Fires's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Between Two Fires finished? Complete (2020).
- How much reading does Between Two Fires take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book).
- How is Between Two Fires ranked? #130 in this site's official ranking, based on 98,366 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #130?
Ranked #130 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.18 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (98,366 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #129, The Neverending Story (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 1 book · Complete · 98k ratings · Ranks #130 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.18 across 98,366 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit Between Two Fires (Christopher Buehlman) accepted 2026-08-26
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26
Rule: Core Canon is the single 2020 novel, unrelated in setting and cast to this author's other fantasy series already catalogued.