Six Crimson Cranes
#2724.07 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Complete 2021–2022 Reading commitment Low Elizabeth Lim Last reviewed 2026-08-25
Overview
Six Crimson Cranes is Elizabeth Lim's two-book young-adult fantasy duology, published in 2021 and 2022 and set in a world inspired by East Asian, particularly Chinese and Japanese, folklore. An exiled princess, Shiori, is cursed by her stepmother, which turns her six brothers into cranes and silences Shiori under a spell that will kill her brothers with each word she speaks; to save them she must travel in silence, sewing shirts of nettles while a war brews back home, aided along the way by a paper bird, a dragon, and the boy she refused to marry. Loosely inspired by "The Wild Swans," the series was an instant New York Times bestseller and a National Indie Bestseller, was named Waterstones' 2022 Paperback of the Year, and won the Oklahoma Library Association's 2023 Sequoyah Book Award for high school readers.
Fairy-tale retelling, Mythic fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
Six Crimson Cranes Elizabeth Lim
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Six Crimson Cranes | 2021 | 1 | core | 4.17 (109,951 ratings) |
 | The Dragon's Promise | 2022 | 2 | core | 3.77 (38,683 ratings) |
Complete East-Asian-folklore-inspired duology plus a companion novella.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Six Crimson Cranes? Six Crimson Cranes's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for Six Crimson Cranes? Publication order, starting with Six Crimson Cranes. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Six Crimson Cranes finished? Complete (2021–2022).
- How much reading does Six Crimson Cranes take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books).
- How is Six Crimson Cranes ranked? #272 in this site's official ranking, based on 148,634 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #272?
Ranked #272 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.07 across 2 core books.
- Backed by 149k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #271, The Dreamblood Duology (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 2 books · Complete · 149k ratings · Ranks #272 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- Six Crimson Cranes (2021)
- The Dragon's Promise (2022)
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 awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what Six Crimson Cranes and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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- The Wrath and the Dawn Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Low commitment · 4.04
- Elatsoe Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 3.98
- A Song of Wraiths and Ruin Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.96
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.07 across 148,634 ratings on 2 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 Six Crimson Cranes (Elizabeth Lim) accepted 2026-08-25
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26
Rule: Core Canon covers both novels plus the companion novella of the complete duology: Six Crimson Cranes (2021), Six Scorched Roses (2022), and the duology's second novel (2022).