Fourth Wing Books in Order

Fourth Wing is Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean series — the book that detonated romantasy's next wave in 2023. Violet Sorrengi was trained for the scribe wing until her mother, the commanding general, orders her into Basgiath War College's rider quadrant, where cadets bond dragons or die trying and the survival rate is a plot point. dragons with opinions, a enemies-to-lovers core, and a war grounded in a generations-old lie. Two sequels in eighteen months made Yarros a household name; the series is planned for five books, with book four in progress as of fall 2026 (2023–present).

Where to start

Fourth Wing (2023), obviously and only. It is the series' foundation and the rare first book that is also its most accessible: the war college, the squads, the wingleader, the first Threshing — everything the series later escalates is planted here. There is no alternate entry, no prequel, no jumping-on point. Readers new to romantasy should know the content profile honestly: Fourth Wing is new-adult, with explicit romance and real character death from the first chapters.

Does the reading order matter?

Strict publication order: Fourth Wing (May 2023), Iron Flame (November 2023), Onyx Storm (January 2025). Each ends on a cliffhanger that the next resolves within its first act, so the series reads as one long story in three movements — binge-reading is the correct format, which is exactly how it became a phenomenon. A Threshing Day novella arrived September 29, 2026 as a side-story, not book four. Book four has no title or date yet: Yarros confirmed she is writing it through fall 2026, with publication realistically in 2027, and the series remains planned for five books.

Which one is the best?

Fourth Wing is the consensus best — the war college is the series' perfect engine and the debut outshines most openers. Onyx Storm is the strongest sequel by critical account: tighter than Iron Flame, bigger emotionally, and the biggest publishing event of 2025. Iron Flame is the divisive middle — the necessary setup book, written fast, that gains on reread once the reader knows what it is building toward.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Sarah J. Maas books in order, Throne of Glass books in order, ACOTAR books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.