Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Southern California, and worked in copywriting, journalism, and even on-set makeup and special effects before her Yale English degree led anywhere near a fantasy career. That eclectic background shows in the Grishaverse, the interconnected fantasy world she launched with the Shadow and Bone trilogy: orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov discovers she's a Sun Summoner powerful enough to destroy the magical darkness swallowing her Tsarist-Russia-inspired homeland, and is drawn into a dangerous partnership with the Darkling, the most powerful — and most magnetic — Grisha alive. Bardugo followed it with Six of Crows, a duology set in the same world but following an entirely different cast: Kaz Brekker, the most feared criminal in the city of Ketterdam, assembling a crew of six outcasts for an impossible heist. Six of Crows is frequently cited as the stronger entry point of the two — darker, funnier and more morally complicated — and neither series requires the other to be read first. New readers can start with either, though Shadow and Bone introduces the magic system Six of Crows builds on. Netflix adapted both into the Shadow and Bone television series (2021-2023) before cancelling it after two seasons. Bardugo has since expanded into adult fantasy as well, including novels set at her own alma mater.