Sun Wolf and Starhawk
#5303.92 adjusted 3.92 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 1984–1990 Reading commitment Medium Barbara Hambly Last reviewed 2026-10-09
Overview
Barbara Hambly's sword-and-sorcery trilogy (1984-1990) follows Sun Wolf, a mercenary captain of middle years and few scruples, and Starhawk, his cool second-in-command. In The Ladies of Mandrigyn he is kidnapped by the women of a conquered city and made to train them as soldiers against the wizard-king who enslaved their men, and discovers in the process that he carries a magic no one can teach him; The Witches of Wenshar takes the pair south in search of a teacher and into a string of demonic murders; The Dark Hand of Magic binds him to a curse laid on his old company. Praised by The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as the most original of Hambly's early sequences, and a separate world from her Darwath and Windrose books.
Sword & sorcery · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Sun Wolf and Starhawk Barbara Hambly
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Ladies of Mandrigyn | 1984 | 1 | core | 3.98 (3,487 ratings) |
 | The Witches of Wenshar | 1987 | 2 | core | 3.86 (1,914 ratings) |
 | The Dark Hand of Magic | 1990 | 3 | core | 3.84 (1,609 ratings) |
Barbara Hambly's sword-and-sorcery trilogy of Sun Wolf, a mercenary captain who discovers he has the power of magic and no one to teach him, and Starhawk, his second-in-command: a war against a wizard-king, a search for a teacher, and a curse on his old company. Four self-published sequel novellas (2015) continue the pair's story.
Library / Expanded (5 works)
- A Night With the Girls (2015) companion · 4.07 (67 ratings); Self-published short story of about 7,000 words (Smashwords, June 2015): while Sun Wolf is away, Starhawk answers a call from his old mercenary company, besieging a city and attacked by something that seems to be magic.
- Fairest in the Land (2015) companion · 4.14 (64 ratings); Self-published novelette of about 11,500 words (July 2015): Sun Wolf and Starhawk are hired to find the Night Queen believed to have cursed a princess with ever-lengthening sleep.
- Nanya of the Butterflies (2015) companion · 4.06 (64 ratings); Self-published novelette of about 14,000 words (2015), a sequel story to the trilogy.
- Hazard (2017) companion; Self-published short work (2017), a sequel story to the trilogy.
Gwenael (2018) companion · 4.26 (61 ratings); Self-published novelette of about 15,000 words (Smashwords, December 2018): Sun Wolf revisits the ruined fortress of the Wizard-King of The Ladies of Mandrigyn in search of the dead sorcerer's books of magic.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Sun Wolf and Starhawk? Sun Wolf and Starhawk's Core Canon is 3 books, plus 5 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for Sun Wolf and Starhawk? Publication order, starting with The Ladies of Mandrigyn. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Sun Wolf and Starhawk finished? Complete (1984–1990).
- How much reading does Sun Wolf and Starhawk take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~734 pages).
- How is Sun Wolf and Starhawk ranked? #530 in this site's official ranking, based on 7,010 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #530?
Ranked #530 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.92 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (7,010 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.14 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #529, Arkadien (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 7k ratings · Ranks #530 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length sword-and-sorcery universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Ladies of Mandrigyn (1984)
- The Witches of Wenshar (1987)
- The Dark Hand of Magic (1990)
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 could be confirmed for the trilogy.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.92 across 7,010 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: Sun Wolf and Starhawk (Barbara Hambly) accepted 2026-10-08
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Tier 2
- Wikipedia Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-08
Rule: Core Canon = The Ladies of Mandrigyn (1984), The Witches of Wenshar (1987) and The Dark Hand of Magic (1990), complete trilogy. Expanded = the five self-published sequel short works (A Night With the Girls, Fairest in the Land, Nanya of the Butterflies, Hazard, Gwenael; 2015-2018).