Saga of the Borderlands
#2064.12 adjusted 4.11 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2000–2004 Reading commitment Medium Liliana Bodoc Last reviewed 2026-08-26
Overview
Liliana Bodoc's Saga of the Borderlands is an epic fantasy trilogy drawing on pre-Columbian Latin American mythologies rather than European ones, following the peoples of the Ancient Lands as an invading empire threatens their world from across the sea. Originally published in Spanish as La Saga de los Confines between 2000 and 2004 -- Los días del venado, Los días de la sombra, and Los días del fuego -- the trilogy follows multiple protagonists drawn from different Ancient Lands peoples as they set aside old rivalries to resist the invading Husihuilkes' enemies, the Ancient Lands' own term for the colonizing force threatening them. Bodoc, an Argentine writer, has been credited as one of the first major Latin American authors to build an epic fantasy explicitly on Indigenous American mythological frameworks rather than adapting European medieval models, and the trilogy won recognition in the Spanish-language literary world before its first volume was published in English translation as The Days of the Deer in 2013.
Epic fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Saga of the Borderlands Liliana Bodoc
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Days of the Deer | 2000 | 1 | core | 3.93 (4,162 ratings) |
 | The Days of the Shadow | 2002 | 2 | core | 4.31 (2,127 ratings) |
 | The Days of the Fire | 2004 | 3 | core | 4.35 (1,815 ratings) |
Core Canon: the complete trilogy, originally published in Spanish as La Saga de los Confines. The first volume was published in English translation (Atlantic Books, 2013) as The Days of the Deer; an independently confirmed English translation date for the second and third volumes could not be established and is left unrecorded rather than guessed.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Saga of the Borderlands? Saga of the Borderlands's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Saga of the Borderlands? Publication order, starting with The Days of the Deer. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Saga of the Borderlands finished? Complete (2000–2004).
- How much reading does Saga of the Borderlands take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~790 pages).
- How is Saga of the Borderlands ranked? #206 in this site's official ranking, based on 8,104 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #206?
Ranked #206 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.12 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (8,104 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.93 to 4.35.
- Less than 0.01 behind #205, The Girl Who Drank the Moon (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 3 books · Complete · 8k ratings · Ranks #206 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)
- The Days of the Deer (2000)
- The Days of the Shadow (2002)
- The Days of the Fire (2004)
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 independently corroborated juried award recognition has been found for this trilogy.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.12 across 8,104 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: Admit eight universes: progression fantasy, translated fantasy, and older pulp fantasy accepted 2026-08-26
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-27
Rule: Core Canon is the complete trilogy, The Days of the Deer through The Days of the Fire.