The Greatcoats
#1334.18 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 4 books Status Complete 2014–2017 Reading commitment Medium Sebastien de Castell Last reviewed 2026-10-14
Overview
The Greatcoats follows three disgraced magistrate-duelists — Falcio val Mond, Kest Murrowson, and Brasti Goodbow — in the fractured kingdom of Tristia. They once served as Greatcoats, an order of traveling judges empowered to carry the king’s law into every corner of the realm; after the king’s assassination and the collapse of royal authority, the Greatcoats were stripped of standing and hunted as traitors by the very dukes whose abuses they once checked. The quartet follows Falcio and his companions as they try to fulfil the king’s final, cryptic orders and restore the rule of law he once championed, across a series widely praised for its blend of swashbuckling action, banter, and real emotional stakes.
Epic fantasy, Sword & sorcery · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (4 works) counts toward ranking
The Greatcoats Sebastien de Castell
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Traitor's Blade | 2014 | 1 | core | 4.04 (26,859 ratings) |
 | Knight's Shadow | 2014 | 2 | core | 4.24 (14,751 ratings) |
 | Saint's Blood | 2016 | 3 | core | 4.25 (11,063 ratings) |
 | Tyrant's Throne | 2017 | 4 | core | 4.41 (8,785 ratings) |
The core quartet, completing the story of Falcio val Mond and his fellow Greatcoats.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Greatcoats? The Greatcoats's Core Canon is 4 books.
- What is the reading order for The Greatcoats? Publication order, starting with Traitor's Blade. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Greatcoats finished? Complete (2014–2017).
- How much reading does The Greatcoats take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 4 Core Canon books).
- How is The Greatcoats ranked? #133 in this site's official ranking, based on 61,458 reader ratings across 4 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #133?
Ranked #133 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.18 across 4 core books.
- A smaller readership (61,458 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #132, The Edge Chronicles (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 4 books · Complete · 61k ratings · Ranks #133 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (4 Core Canon books)
- Knight's Shadow (2014)
- Traitor's Blade (2014)
- Saint's Blood (2016)
- Tyrant's Throne (2017)
Documented internal/story order
- Traitor's Blade (2014)
- Knight's Shadow (2014)
- Saint's Blood (2016)
- Tyrant's Throne (2017)
Awards (verified)
- David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy -- Morningstar Award (Best Fantasy Debut), 2015: finalist: Traitor's Blade; Shortlisted; confirmed on the author's own site.
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Suggestions computed from what The Greatcoats and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Lightbringer Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.33
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- The Rigante Epic fantasy / Historical fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.31
- Ash and Sand Grimdark / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.30
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.18 across 61,458 ratings on 4 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 Greatcoats admitted accepted 2026-09-21
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Sebastien de Castell -- Wikipedia Tier 2
- Traitor's Blade -- Wikipedia Tier 2
- The Greatcoats -- Sebastien de Castell's official site Tier 1
Last reviewed: 2026-09-21
Rule: Core Canon is the complete four-novel quartet: Traitor’s Blade, Knight’s Shadow, Saint’s Blood, and Tyrant’s Throne, which tells one continuous, now-finished story. A later short-story collection and a separate spin-off series set on a different continent of the same wider world are distinct works outside the scope of this admission.