Jim Butcher Books in Order
Jim Butcher runs three fantasy series at once, and all three are strict-order. The Dresden Files - Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard listed in the phone book - reached eighteen novels in January 2026 with Twelve Months, the first new case in six years, and it is one of the most reliably ordered series in the genre: every book ends changed. Codex Alera (2004-2009) is his six-novel Roman-legions-with-furies epic, complete. The Cinder Spires (2015-) is his Nineteenth-century-airships-with-cats line, three books in. This page sequences all three shelves and hands the deep Dresden ordering to the series page (2000–present).
Where to start
Storm Front (2000), Dresden #1 - the wizard-detective engine starts there. Epic-fantasy readers: Furies of Calderon (2004). Airship readers: The Aeronaut's Windlass (2015).
The complete list
Tick the boxes off as you read, or for the bookshelf.
| Year | Title | Series / type | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Storm Front | Dresden #1 — start here; full order on the Dresden Files page | |
| 2004 | Furies of Calderon | Codex Alera #1 — six novels, complete 2009 | |
| 2010 | Side Jobs | Dresden stories — slots after Changes | |
| 2010 | Changes | Dresden #12 — the earthquake | |
| 2015 | The Aeronaut's Windlass | Cinder Spires #1 | |
| 2018 | Brief Cases | Dresden stories — after book 15 | |
| 2023 | The Olympian Affair | Cinder Spires #2 · Nov 2023 (Warriorborn novella beside it) | |
| 2026 | Twelve Months | Dresden #18 · Jan 20 2026 — first in six years — the newest |
Does the reading order matter?
Three shelves, all strict. The Dresden Files: Storm Front (2000) through Twelve Months (January 20, 2026), eighteen novels, with the story anthologies Side Jobs (2010) and Brief Cases (2018) slotted mid-run - the full sequencing lives on the Dresden Files page here. Codex Alera: Furies of Calderon (2004), Academ's Fury, Cursor's Fury, Captain's Fury, Princeps' Fury, First Lord's Fury (2009) - six books, one war, complete. The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut's Windlass (2015), the Warriorborn novella (2023), The Olympian Affair (November 2023), with book three projected for 2027. Cross-shelf order does not matter; within a shelf it always does
Which one is the best?
Storm Front (2000), the debut that set the voice; Changes (2010), the Dresden earthquake; The Olympian Affair (2023), the Spires line at full sail.
Related guides
Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: The Dresden Files books in order, Rivers of London books in order, Neil Gaiman 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.
Frequently asked questions
What order should you read Jim Butcher books in?
Dresden 18 strict (own page); Codex Alera 6 (2004-09); Cinder Spires 2 + novella, #3 ~2027.
Where should I start with Jim Butcher?
Storm Front (2000) for Dresden; Furies of Calderon (2004) for Alera.
How many Jim Butcher books are there?
Twenty-six novels across three series - the Dresden Files (18, through Twelve Months, January 2026), Codex Alera (6, complete), the Cinder Spires (2 plus a novella) - with story collections beside them and a fanbase that has followed Dresden for a quarter century. As of October 2026 this list is current.
What was Jim Butcher's first book?
Storm Front (2000) — the first row of the list above.