The Bone Clocks / Slade House
#6813.83 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Complete 2014–2015 Reading commitment Low David Mitchell Last reviewed 2026-09-28
Overview
David Mitchell's two fantasy novels of the hidden war between the Horologists, immortals reborn across the centuries, and the Anchorites, who buy their long lives with the souls of psychic children, catalogued as one universe. The Bone Clocks (2014), winner of the World Fantasy Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize, follows Holly Sykes across six decades and six narrators from a teenage runaway in 1984 Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast, as the immortals' feud plays out in the margins of her life. Slade House (2015), grown from a story Mitchell first published on Twitter, is its compact haunted-house companion: every nine years a guest is summoned through a small iron door in Slade Alley and does not come back. Mitchell has said all his novels share this universe; only the two fantasy novels are registered here.
Urban fantasy, Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
The Bone Clocks (2014) core · 3.84 (98,479 ratings); Sceptre, 2 September 2014. Six linked sections, 1984-2043; the atemporal war of Horologists and Anchorites is the hidden mythology that Mitchell says underlies all his novels.
Slade House (2015) core · 3.81 (71,206 ratings); Sceptre, 27 October 2015. Grew from the Twitter story 'The Right Sort' (2014); the publisher describes it as inhabiting the same universe as The Bone Clocks, and its Marinus is the Horologist of that novel.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Bone Clocks / Slade House? The Bone Clocks / Slade House's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for The Bone Clocks / Slade House? Publication order, starting with The Bone Clocks. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Bone Clocks / Slade House finished? Complete (2014–2015).
- How much reading does The Bone Clocks / Slade House take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books · ~842 pages).
- How is The Bone Clocks / Slade House ranked? #681 in this site's official ranking, based on 169,685 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #681?
Ranked #681 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.83 across 2 core books.
- Backed by 170k reader ratings.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 2 rated core books rate within 0.03 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #680, Zimiamvia (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 2 books · Complete · 170k ratings · Ranks #681 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment urban fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- The Bone Clocks (2014)
- Slade House (2015)
Awards (verified)
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 2015: won: The Bone Clocks
- Booker Prize, 2014: nominated: The Bone Clocks; Longlisted (Man Booker Prize 2014).
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.83 across 169,685 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: Canon extension: The Bone Clocks / Slade House (David Mitchell) accepted 2026-09-28
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-09-28
Rule: Core Canon = The Bone Clocks (2014) and Slade House (2015). Mitchell's other novels share the universe but are literary, historical or science fiction and are out of scope.