Witchlands
#5213.93 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 5 books Status Complete 2016–2025 Reading commitment Medium Susan Dennard Last reviewed 2026-08-25
Overview
Susan Dennard's Witchlands is a five-novel epic fantasy sequence set across a continent of warring empires where every person is born with a magical "witchery," from truth-telling to weather-control to communing with the dead. It follows Safiya fon Hasstrel, a Truthwitch who can always tell when someone is lying, and her companions, including the Windwitch Merik Nihar and the Bloodwitch Aeduan, as a fragile continental peace comes apart around them across escalating wars, political betrayals and a slowly revealed prophecy. The sequence ran Truthwitch (2016), Windwitch (2017), Bloodwitch (2019), Witchshadow (2021) and the 2025 finale Witchlight, with several companion novellas filling gaps between the main volumes. Dennard built an active online fan community around the series through maps, playlists and behind-the-scenes worldbuilding material released alongside each book.
Epic fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (5 works) counts toward ranking
The Witchlands Susan Dennard
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Truthwitch | 2016 | core | 3.84 (53,845 ratings) |
 | Windwitch | 2017 | core | 3.95 (23,355 ratings) |
 | Bloodwitch | 2019 | core | 4.25 (12,724 ratings) |
 | Witchshadow | 2021 | core | 3.95 (5,148 ratings) |
 | Witchlight | 2025 | core | 3.85 (1,035 ratings) |
Five-novel main sequence; concluded with the 2025 finale.
Library / Expanded (1 work)
Sightwitch (2018) · 3.97 (8,040 ratings); An illustrated prequel novella commonly bundled with the main sequence. Its present-day narrative is set one year before Truthwitch, per the official publisher description; it also contains framing journal entries from an ancient Sightwitch Sister set roughly a thousand years earlier.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Witchlands? Witchlands's Core Canon is 5 books, plus 1 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for Witchlands? Publication order, starting with Truthwitch. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Witchlands finished? Complete (2016–2025).
- How much reading does Witchlands take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 5 Core Canon books · ~2,192 pages).
- How is Witchlands ranked? #521 in this site's official ranking, based on 96,107 reader ratings across 5 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #521?
Ranked #521 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.93 across 5 core books.
- A smaller readership (96,107 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.84 to 4.25.
- Less than 0.01 behind #520, The Book of Words (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 5 books · Complete · 96k ratings · Ranks #521 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 (5 Core Canon books)
- Truthwitch (2016)
- Windwitch (2017)
- Bloodwitch (2019)
- Witchshadow (2021)
- Witchlight (2025)
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what Witchlands and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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- Shadowfell Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.02
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.93 across 96,107 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: Witchlands admitted (Susan Dennard) accepted 2026-08-25
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- https://susandennard.com/books/the-witchlands/
- Rating-platform source ↗
- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635853/witchlight-by-susan-dennard/
Last reviewed: 2026-08-25
Rule: Core Canon = the complete five-novel main sequence: Truthwitch (2016), Windwitch (2017), Bloodwitch (2019), Witchshadow (2021), and Witchlight (2025). Expanded Canon = one illustrated prequel novella, Sightwitch (2018), commonly bundled with the main sequence but not part of its numbered run.