The Bone Season
#2744.07 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 5 books Status Ongoing 2013–present Reading commitment Medium Samantha Shannon Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Overview
The Bone Season is a planned seven-book series by Samantha Shannon, of which five volumes have been published between 2013 and 2025, set in a dystopian future London under the oppressive Republic of Scion, which persecutes clairvoyants with an underworld ruled by an otherworldly race. Paige Mahoney, a rare "dreamwalker" clairvoyant, is arrested and drawn into a penal colony run out of a reimagined Oxford University, where she must survive alongside, and eventually trust, one of Scion's own founders. The debut volume drew comparisons in the press to other genre-defining young-adult series and was praised for its inventive worldbuilding and confident new authorial voice; it was also selected for a major American morning show's monthly book club. The series blends dystopian, urban, and secondary-world fantasy elements across its expanding scope.
Urban fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (5 works) counts toward ranking
The Bone Season Samantha Shannon
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Bone Season | 2013 | 1 | core | 3.85 (108,604 ratings) |
 | The Mime Order | 2015 | 2 | core | 4.22 (46,319 ratings) |
 | The Song Rising | 2017 | 3 | core | 4.20 (30,649 ratings) |
 | The Mask Falling | 2021 | 4 | core | 4.44 (20,139 ratings) |
 | The Dark Mirror; The fifth novel of the planned seven-book sequence; the gap between it and The Mask Falling (2021) was not catalogued when the universe was admitted (2026-08-21). | 2025 | N/A | core | 4.50 (10,543 ratings) |
Planned as a seven-book series; five novels published as of this update, two more announced/expected but not yet published.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Bone Season? The Bone Season's Core Canon is 5 books.
- What is the reading order for The Bone Season? Publication order, starting with The Bone Season. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Bone Season finished? Ongoing (2013–present).
- How much reading does The Bone Season take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 5 Core Canon books · ~2,622 pages).
- How is The Bone Season ranked? #274 in this site's official ranking, based on 216,254 reader ratings across 5 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #274?
Ranked #274 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.07 across 5 core books.
- Backed by 216k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.85 to 4.50.
- Less than 0.01 behind #273, Chronicles of Ixia (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 5 books · Ongoing · 216k ratings · Ranks #274 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length urban fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (5 Core Canon books)
- The Bone Season (2013)
- The Mime Order (2015)
- The Song Rising (2017)
- The Mask Falling (2021)
- The Dark Mirror (2025)
Documented internal/story order: 4 of 5 Core Canon books
- The Bone Season (2013)
- The Mime Order (2015)
- The Song Rising (2017)
- The Mask Falling (2021)
Internal chronology is documented for 4 of 5 Core Canon books; the remaining 1 are not yet mapped onto the same ordinal scale.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.07 across 216,254 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: The Bone Season admitted accepted 2026-08-21
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-21
Rule: Core Canon is the four novels published so far of a planned seven-book series.