The Winternight Trilogy
#824.23 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2017–2019 Reading commitment Low Katherine Arden Last reviewed 2026-08-11
Overview
A completed historical fantasy trilogy set in medieval Russia, following Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl who can see the household and nature spirits her neighbors have forgotten how to honor, as encroaching Christianity and a demonic threat from the old stories both bear down on her village and, eventually, the wider Russian world. Katherine Arden's debut, The Bear and the Nightingale (2017), was named among the year's best science fiction and fantasy titles by major booksellers and drew a Locus Award nomination for best first novel, with critics such as Publishers Weekly praising its "stunning prose" and immersive fairy-tale atmosphere, while other reviewers noted the ending's stakes felt less sustained than the novel's middle stretch. The completed trilogy -- continuing through The Girl in the Tower (2017) and concluding with The Winter of the Witch (2019) -- was a Hugo Award finalist for Best Series, and Arden herself received John W. Campbell Award recognition as a notable new writer, cementing the Winternight books as one of the most acclaimed Russian-folklore-inspired fantasies of the late 2010s.
Fairy-tale retelling, Historical fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Winternight Trilogy Katherine Arden
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Bear and the Nightingale | 2017 | 1 | core | 4.08 (245,320 ratings) |
 | The Girl in the Tower | 2017 | 2 | core | 4.35 (117,175 ratings) |
 | The Winter of the Witch | 2019 | 3 | core | 4.48 (93,733 ratings) |
Core Canon = all 3 novels of the completed trilogy (Del Rey, 2017-2019).
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Winternight Trilogy? The Winternight Trilogy's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for The Winternight Trilogy? Publication order, starting with The Bear and the Nightingale. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Winternight Trilogy finished? Complete (2017–2019).
- How much reading does The Winternight Trilogy take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~1,079 pages).
- How is The Winternight Trilogy ranked? #82 in this site's official ranking, based on 456,228 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #82?
Ranked #82 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.23 across 3 core books.
- Backed by 456k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 4.08 to 4.48.
- 0.02 behind #81, A Song for Arbonne.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 3 books · Complete · 456k ratings · Ranks #82 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Bear and the Nightingale (2017)
- The Girl in the Tower (2017)
- The Winter of the Witch (2019)
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)
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2018: finalist: The Bear and the Nightingale; 3rd place, no-cutoff convention.
- Hugo Award (Best Series), 2020: nominated: The Winter of the Witch; Series-level nomination for the Winternight trilogy as a whole; recorded against the completed series' final volume per this canon's series-award convention.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what The Winternight Trilogy and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi Historical fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.26
- The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox Historical fantasy / Comic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.20
- The Golem and the Jinni Historical fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.13
- Saga of the Light Isles Historical fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.09
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.23 across 456,228 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: The Winternight Trilogy admitted as a single-author universe accepted 2026-08-11
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Winternight trilogy Tier 2
- sfadb: Katherine Arden Tier 2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_and_the_Nightingale
Last reviewed: 2026-08-11
Rule: Core Canon = all 3 novels of the completed trilogy (Del Rey, 2017-2019).