Spiritwalker
#6693.83 adjusted 3.84 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2010–2013 Reading commitment Medium Kate Elliott Last reviewed 2026-09-23
Overview
Spiritwalker is a completed alternate-history/gaslamp fantasy trilogy by Kate Elliott, published across 2010-2013 by Orbit. It is set in a nineteenth-century Europa still shaped by a lingering ice age, where the rising science of the Industrial Revolution stands in uneasy tension with the older power of cold magic, wielded by a network of secretive, politically powerful Cold Mage houses.
Cold Magic follows Catherine “Cat” Barahal and her cousin Beatrice, university students whose lives are upended when a cold mage arrives to claim Cat under an old, binding contract, drawing her into marriage and the hidden politics of the Cold Mage houses. Cold Fire and Cold Steel widen the story as Cat and Bee flee pursuing mages and a warlord bent on conquering Europa, and Cat ultimately crosses into the Caribbean-like Antilles to rescue her husband from the Wild Hunt amid a revolution stirring on both sides of the ocean.
Historical fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Spiritwalker Kate Elliott
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Cold Magic | 2010 | 1 | core | 3.72 (9,371 ratings) |
 | Cold Fire | 2011 | 2 | core | 3.92 (5,431 ratings) |
 | Cold Steel | 2013 | 3 | core | 3.98 (3,732 ratings) |
Complete trilogy; all three volumes are Core Canon.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Spiritwalker? Spiritwalker's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Spiritwalker? Publication order, starting with Cold Magic. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Spiritwalker finished? Complete (2010–2013).
- How much reading does Spiritwalker take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is Spiritwalker ranked? #669 in this site's official ranking, based on 18,534 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #669?
Ranked #669 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.83 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (18,534 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #668, Dante Valentine (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 19k ratings · Ranks #669 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length historical fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Cold Magic (2010)
- Cold Fire (2011)
- Cold Steel (2013)
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 award nomination could be confirmed for any of the three novels despite a targeted search.
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Suggestions computed from what Spiritwalker and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Last Binding Historical fantasy / Romantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.96
- The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club Historical fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.89
- The Macht Historical fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.87
- The Kingston Cycle Historical fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.86
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.83 across 18,534 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: Spiritwalker trilogy admitted accepted 2026-09-23
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Kate Elliott (writer) - Wikipedia Tier 2
- Cold Magic - Hachette Book Group Tier 2
- Cold Fire - Hachette Book Group Tier 2
- Cold Steel - Hachette Book Group Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-09-23
Rule: Core Canon is all three novels: Cold Magic, Cold Fire, and Cold Steel.