Impossible Creatures
#1904.13 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Ongoing 2023–present Reading commitment Medium Katherine Rundell Last reviewed 2026-10-21
Overview
Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures books take place in the Archipelago, a secret cluster of thirty-four islands hidden in the Atlantic where the creatures of myth, griffins, sphinxes, centaurs, dragons, krakens and stranger beasts, have lived for thousands of years, sustained by the glimourie, a primal magic flowing from the Glimourie Tree. Christopher Forrester, sent to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, learns that his family guard one of the ways through to it; Mal Arvorian, a girl of the Archipelago who can fly with the help of a magic cape, is pursued by a man who wants to kill her, while the glimourie fades and its creatures begin to die. Planned as five books, the series has been compared by its publishers' reviewers to Tolkien and Pullman; its first book was the Waterstones Book of the Year.
Portal fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Impossible Creatures Katherine Rundell
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Impossible Creatures | 2023 | 1 | core | 4.09 (33,303 ratings) |
 | The Poisoned King; First published by Bloomsbury in the UK in September 2025; the ISBN recorded is Knopf's US edition. | 2025 | 2 | core | 4.30 (7,651 ratings) |
 | The Neverfear | 2026 | N/A | core | 4.53 (108 ratings) |
Katherine Rundell's planned five-book fantasy of the Archipelago, where the creatures of myth survive.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Impossible Creatures? Impossible Creatures's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Impossible Creatures? Publication order, starting with Impossible Creatures. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Impossible Creatures finished? Ongoing (2023–present).
- How much reading does Impossible Creatures take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is Impossible Creatures ranked? #190 in this site's official ranking, based on 41,062 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #190?
Ranked #190 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.13 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (41,062 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 4.09 to 4.53.
- Less than 0.01 behind #189, Saga of Pliocene Exile (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 3 books · Ongoing · 41k ratings · Ranks #190 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length portal fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Impossible Creatures (2023)
- The Poisoned King (2025)
- The Neverfear (2026)
Documented internal/story order: 2 of 3 Core Canon books
- Impossible Creatures (2023)
- The Poisoned King (2025)
Internal chronology is documented for 2 of 3 Core Canon books; the remaining 1 are not yet mapped onto the same ordinal scale.
Awards (verified)
- Waterstones Book of the Year, 2023: won: Impossible Creatures
- British Book Awards (Children's Fiction Book of the Year), 2024: won: Impossible Creatures
- Foyles Book of the Year (Children's), 2023: won: Impossible Creatures
- Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, 2024: won: Impossible Creatures; Named as a winner in the publisher's list of the book's awards; year inferred from the book's first eligible award round.
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Suggestions computed from what Impossible Creatures and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Pandava Quintet Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.24
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- Tristan Strong Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.21
- The Book of Wirrun Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.07
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.13 across 41,062 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: Canon extension: Impossible Creatures (Katherine Rundell) accepted 2026-10-19
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Series page on the rating platform (ratings and years with titles) Tier 2
- Bloomsbury (publisher description and review, via ReadingZone) Tier 2
- Kirkus Reviews Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-21
Rule: Core Canon = Impossible Creatures (2023) and The Poisoned King (2025), the first two of a planned five; later books join as Core when published.