The Silver Arrow
#5054.00 adjusted 3.99 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Ongoing 2020–present Reading commitment Low Lev Grossman Last reviewed 2026-11-02
Overview
The Silver Arrow is a middle-grade fantasy series by Lev Grossman, who is also the author of The Magicians. In the first book, published in 2020, eleven-year-old Kate receives a life-size steam locomotive, the Silver Arrow, as a birthday present from her uncle Herbert, whom she has never met. She and her younger brother Tom ride it along magical rail lines, carrying talking animals to new homes. In the sequel, The Golden Swift (2022), Kate and Tom are conductors on the Great Secret Intercontinental Railway, and a second train, the Golden Swift, appears. Two books have been published, and a third is listed as upcoming without a date.
Cozy fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
The Silver Arrow Lev Grossman
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Silver Arrow | 2020 | 1 | core | 4.00 (4,292 ratings) |
 | The Golden Swift; First published in the UK by Bloomsbury in July 2022; the US edition from Little, Brown followed in 2023. | 2022 | 2 | core | 4.01 (770 ratings) |
Two middle-grade fantasy novels about siblings who run a magical steam train that moves animals to safer homes.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Silver Arrow? The Silver Arrow's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for The Silver Arrow? Publication order, starting with The Silver Arrow. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Silver Arrow finished? Ongoing (2020–present).
- How much reading does The Silver Arrow take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books).
- How is The Silver Arrow ranked? #505 in this site's official ranking, based on 5,062 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #505?
Ranked #505 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.00 across 2 core books.
- A smaller readership (5,062 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 2 rated core books rate within 0.01 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #504, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 2 books · Ongoing · 5k ratings · Ranks #505 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment cozy fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- The Silver Arrow (2020)
- The Golden Swift (2022)
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 awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what The Silver Arrow and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Little Grey Men Cozy fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.15
- Circus Mirandus Cozy fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.10
- The King of the Copper Mountains Mythic fantasy / Cozy fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.09
- A Snicker of Magic Cozy fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.08
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.00 across 5,062 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: 31 universes; 3 candidates ruled out; open items closed accepted 2026-11-02
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Hachette Book Group Tier 2
- Raising Readers (Hachette) Tier 2
- Lev Grossman author site Tier 2
- Wikipedia (Lev Grossman) Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-11-02
Rule: Core Canon = The Silver Arrow (2020) and The Golden Swift (2022).