Seraphina
#5653.90 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 5 books Status Ongoing 2012–present Reading commitment Medium Rachel Hartman Last reviewed 2026-08-19
Overview
Rachel Hartman's Seraphina universe is a young-adult secondary-world fantasy about humans and dragons capable of assuming human form, and the fragile diplomacy between them, set forty years after a treaty ended a long war between the two peoples. Seraphina (2012, winner of the William C. Morris Award for best YA debut) and its direct sequel Shadow Scale (2015) follow the title character, herself secretly half-dragon, as she navigates a court where that heritage would mean her death if discovered; Tess of the Road (2018) and its own sequel In the Serpent's Wake (2022) follow a different protagonist, Seraphina's half-sister Tess, in the same world; and Among Ghosts (2025) is a standalone prequel set roughly a century earlier, requiring no knowledge of the other books. This universe was surfaced for admission via that newest release, extending a series originally conceived as a single duology into a five-book, two-protagonist sequence.
Epic fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (5 works) counts toward ranking
Seraphina Rachel Hartman
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Among Ghosts | 2025 | 1 | core | 3.93 (523 ratings) |
 | Seraphina | 2012 | 2 | core | 3.94 (89,960 ratings) |
 | Shadow Scale | 2015 | 3 | core | 3.75 (22,417 ratings) |
 | Tess of the Road | 2018 | 4 | core | 3.91 (10,734 ratings) |
 | In the Serpent's Wake | 2022 | 5 | core | 3.94 (1,765 ratings) |
Internal chronology (per the books' own settings, not publication order): Among Ghosts (2025) is set roughly a century before Seraphina (2012) in the same world of dragons-in-human-form and human/dragon diplomacy; Shadow Scale (2015) directly continues Seraphina; Tess of the Road (2018) and its own sequel In the Serpent's Wake (2022) are same-world companion novels following a different protagonist. Publication order differs from this internal order; both are recorded, following this project's standing convention for a settled, author-established chronology divergence.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Seraphina? Seraphina's Core Canon is 5 books.
- What is the reading order for Seraphina? Publication order, starting with Among Ghosts. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Seraphina finished? Ongoing (2012–present).
- How much reading does Seraphina take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 5 Core Canon books · ~2,548 pages).
- How is Seraphina ranked? #565 in this site's official ranking, based on 125,399 reader ratings across 5 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #565?
Ranked #565 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.90 across 5 core books.
- Backed by 125k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #564, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 5 books · Ongoing · 125k ratings · Ranks #565 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length epic fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (5 Core Canon books)
- Seraphina (2012)
- Shadow Scale (2015)
- Tess of the Road (2018)
- In the Serpent's Wake (2022)
- Among Ghosts (2025)
Documented internal/story order
- Among Ghosts (2025)
- Seraphina (2012)
- Shadow Scale (2015)
- Tess of the Road (2018)
- In the Serpent's Wake (2022)
Awards (verified)
- William C. Morris Award (Best YA Debut), 2013: won: Seraphina; Awarded by YALSA (American Library Association) for the best debut young-adult novel published in 2012.
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- Shattered Sea Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.05
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.90 across 125,399 ratings on 5 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Seraphina (Rachel Hartman) admitted; 5-book Core Canon, discovered via its own 2025 prequel accepted 2026-08-19
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Rachel Hartman Tier 2
- Wikipedia: Seraphina (novel) Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-08-19
Rule: Core Canon = all 5 published novels, a single continuous author-controlled world. Internal chronology (Among Ghosts, then Seraphina, then Shadow Scale, then Tess of the Road, then In the Serpent's Wake) differs from publication order; both are recorded per this project's settled-chronology-divergence convention.