Naomi Novik Books in Order

Naomi Novik writes two kinds of fantasy with equal authority: the Temeraire series - nine novels that put dragons into the Napoleonic Wars as an air force with crews and ranks, making Captain Will Laurence and his dragon Temeraire one of the great partnerships in the genre - and the dark-school Scholomance trilogy, where a lethal magical high school tries to eat its graduates. Between and around those: Uprooted (2015) and Spinning Silver (2018), standalone fairy-tale novels that each made every award list, and The Summer War (September 2025), her newest. The order question has one clean answer for each shelf, and this page gives all of them (2006–present).

Where to start

His Majesty's Dragon (2006), Temeraire #1 - the Napoleonic air force begins. Readers who want one book instead of nine: Uprooted (2015); readers who want the school: A Deadly Education (2020).

Does the reading order matter?

Three shelves. Temeraire, strictly in order: His Majesty's Dragon (2006), Throne of Jade (2006), Black Powder War (2006), Empire of Ivory (2007), Victory of Eagles (2008), Tongues of Serpents (2010), Crucible of Gold (2012), Blood of Tyrants (2013), League of Dragons (2016) - complete in nine, one continuous war story, and the first three came out inside eighteen months. The Scholomance, strictly in order: A Deadly Education (2020), The Last Graduate (2021), The Golden Enclaves (2022) - complete, and book two's ending makes reading straight through mandatory. The standalones - Uprooted, Spinning Silver (2018), and The Summer War (September 2025), a magic-and-brothers novella - read in any order. Buried Deep and Other Stories (2024) collects thirteen stories across all her worlds, including Temeraire pieces. One correction this page exists to make: The Summer War is not a Temeraire book, whatever the retailer thumbnails suggest

Which one is the best?

His Majesty's Dragon (2006), one of the great fantasy debuts; Uprooted (2015), the award-sweeping standalone; A Deadly Education (2020), the school that kills.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Diana Wynne Jones books in order, Robin Hobb books in order, Brandon Sanderson 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.