Shadow and Bone

About the Shadow and Bone series

Alina Starkov is an orphan mapmaker in the war-torn, Tsarist-Russia-inspired kingdom of Ravka when she discovers she's a Sun Summoner -- the one Grisha power rare and strong enough to destroy the Shadow Fold, the swath of magical darkness swallowing her country. Pulled from the army into the opulent, dangerous world of the Grisha, she's trained by the Darkling, the most powerful (and most magnetic) Grisha alive, while her childhood friend Mal searches for her from the other side of the war.

This is the trilogy that launched the entire Grishaverse: a chosen-one arc with real teeth, a morally ambiguous power-versus-love-interest dynamic in the Darkling that became a genre touchstone, and a richly drawn fantasy-Russia setting that still feels distinct years later. The love triangle between safety (Mal) and power (the Darkling) is the emotional spine of the series, and Bardugo doesn't let either option come free of cost.

It's the natural starting point for readers who want epic-fantasy stakes with a romance at the center, before branching out into the wider Grishaverse (Six of Crows and beyond).

How to read this series

Read the trilogy in publication order: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising. It's one continuous story told across three books with no separate chronology to worry about.

You can read this trilogy before or after Six of Crows -- they're set in the same Grishaverse but follow different characters in different cities, so neither is a strict prerequisite for the other, though this trilogy does introduce the Grisha magic system that Six of Crows builds on.