Time of Iron
#6233.86 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Ongoing 2024–present Reading commitment Low Sarah Rees Brennan Last reviewed 2026-08-29
Overview
Time of Iron is an adult portal fantasy series by Sarah Rees Brennan, comprising Long Live Evil (2024) and All Hail Chaos (2026). It follows Rae, a woman whose ordinary life is falling apart, who accepts a magical bargain that pulls her into her own favorite fantasy series, only to wake up in the body of that story's villainess, in a kingdom sliding toward war under a furious emperor. Rather than accept the doomed ending already written for her character, Rae gathers the story's other villains, each likewise trapped by a narrative that was never going to let them win, into an unlikely alliance to rewrite all of their fates together. The series is notable for its self-aware, genre-conscious premise, treating the tropes and expectations of epic fantasy villainy as something its characters can recognize and actively resist, in the tradition of other portal fantasies that foreground the mechanics of story itself.
Portal fantasy, Romantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
Time of Iron Sarah Rees Brennan
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Long Live Evil | 2024 | 1 | core | 3.83 (23,649 ratings) |
 | All Hail Chaos | 2026 | 2 | core | 4.08 (3,691 ratings) |
A planned trilogy; a third volume (working title known but unpublished as of this research pass) has been announced but is not yet released, so it is not catalogued here.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Time of Iron? Time of Iron's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for Time of Iron? Publication order, starting with Long Live Evil. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Time of Iron finished? Ongoing (2024–present).
- How much reading does Time of Iron take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books · ~989 pages).
- How is Time of Iron ranked? #623 in this site's official ranking, based on 27,340 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #623?
Ranked #623 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.86 across 2 core books.
- A smaller readership (27,340 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #622, The Haunting (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 2 books · Ongoing · 27k ratings · Ranks #623 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment portal fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- Long Live Evil (2024)
- All Hail Chaos (2026)
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)
- European Science Fiction Society Award (Achievement Award, Best Written Work of Fiction), 2025: won: Long Live Evil; Presented at Archipelacon 2 (Aland).
- British Fantasy Award (Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award)), 2025: nominated: Long Live Evil; One of five nominees; the award went to a different novel that year.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what Time of Iron and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Morgaine Cycle Sword & sorcery / Portal fantasy · Unfinished · Low commitment · 3.99
- Greenhollow Duology Mythic fantasy / Romantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.96
- Saga of the Unfated Romantasy / Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 3.90
- The Echo Archives Portal fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 3.86
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.86 across 27,340 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: Time of Iron admitted as a single-author, series-scope universe; author record reused accepted 2026-08-29
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-30
Rule: Core Canon = the 2 novels published so far (2024, 2026). A third volume has been publicly announced by the author but is not yet published, so it is not catalogued here. No Expanded Canon.