
Shattered Sea
young adult fantasy
Series · young adult fantasy
The Hunter series by Mercedes Lackey has 3 known books (3 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Hunter (2015).
Start here: Hunter (2015) — then read straight through in publication order.
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
Hunter opened the trilogy in 2015 at 374 pages -- its longest entry -- following Joy Charmand's move from an isolated mountain community into the walled city of Apex and its celebrity culture built around telegenic monster-hunters.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of HunterElite followed in 2016, running 360 pages, as Joy confronts a bureaucracy more interested in managing its heroes' image than the monsters actually breaching the walls.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of EliteApex closed the trilogy in 2017 as its shortest book at 304 pages, escalating both the monster threat and the corruption underneath Apex's carefully managed heroics.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of ApexA century after an interdimensional catastrophe called the Diseray tore holes between Earth and other worlds, monsters now cross freely into human cities, and society survives behind heavily defended Cities protected by young, magically Gifted fighters called Hunters. Joyeaux "Joy" Charmand grew up in an isolated mountain community training to fight monsters directly; when she's recruited to the walled city of Apex, she finds a celebrity culture built around telegenic Hunters competing for fame and sponsorship, and a bureaucracy more interested in managing its heroes' image than in the monsters actually breaching the walls. Hunter establishes Joy's adjustment to Apex and its politics; Elite and Apex escalate both the monster threat and the human corruption underneath the city's carefully managed heroics, forcing Joy to confront threats from both directions at once.
The trilogy pairs a straightforward monster-hunting premise with a sharper satirical edge aimed at celebrity culture and reality-television spectacle, filtered through a teenage protagonist raised outside that system and uneasy about being absorbed into it.
Three novels: Hunter (2015), Elite (2016), and Apex (2017).
Publication order, which is also the only order — it's a single continuous story following Joy Charmand across all three books.
Yes, it's marketed and shelved as YA, with a teenage protagonist and a coming-of-age arc layered under the monster-hunting plot.
No. It's a standalone contemporary/post-apocalyptic setting with its own history and cast, unconnected to Valdemar or any of Lackey's other continuities.
No. The trilogy concluded with Apex (2017) and no further installment has been published.
Reading order last verified .