Reading order
What to Read Before The Last King of Faerie: A Shadowhunters Reading Guide
The full Shadowhunters sequence, a Dark Artifices refresher and the companion stories to read before Cassandra Clare’s next trilogy.
Where to begin
Start with City of Bones; return through The Dark Artifices
The Last King of Faerie opens The Wicked Powers on November 3, 2026, but it continues an established world. From scratch, follow Clare’s recommended series sequence below. For readers who already know Shadowhunters, Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness supply the closest background to Kit, Ty and Dru. That shorter route sacrifices wider context. Better in Black is an optional companion, not a prerequisite.
The first volume of a new trilogy can look like a fresh beginning. The protagonists have already grown up inside another story, and the returning adults bring histories of their own. Reading the three Dark Artifices novels answers a different need from reading the whole Shadowhunter sequence.
This guide keeps the endings out of the discussion. It separates a first reading from a refresher, explains what the five earlier books covered here contribute, and leaves the forthcoming novel to its announced premise.
The full route recommended by Cassandra Clare
This is the author’s broad series order, not the internal historical timeline. The Victorian and Edwardian stories occur earlier than the contemporary ones, but reading them first is a different choice. Each sequence below stays in its own book order.
1. The Mortal Instruments
City of Bones → City of Ashes → City of Glass → City of Fallen Angels → City of Lost Souls → City of Heavenly Fire. The six novels introduce Clary, Jace, Simon, Isabelle, Alec and Magnus, alongside the Shadow World’s conflicts and institutions.
2. The Infernal Devices
Clockwork Angel → Clockwork Prince → Clockwork Princess. This Victorian London trilogy follows Tessa, Will and Jem. It supplies family and relationship history that later books can assume.
3. The Dark Artifices
Lady Midnight → Lord of Shadows → Queen of Air and Darkness. The Los Angeles Blackthorns and Emma take the lead. Kit, Ty and Dru develop here before becoming central to The Wicked Powers.
4. The Last Hours
Chain of Gold → Chain of Iron → Chain of Thorns. The next generation after The Infernal Devices lives in Edwardian London. Its place here is part of the recommended reading sequence, rather than a claim that it happens after The Dark Artifices.
5. The Wicked Powers
Begin with The Last King of Faerie. The announced following titles are The Last Prince of Hell and The Last Shadowhunter. This is the final Shadowhunter trilogy; its first novel is forthcoming as of October 22, 2026.
The shorter route for someone who already knows Shadowhunters
Read or revisit Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness, in that order. This keeps the Blackthorn family’s development intact instead of reducing Kit and Ty to names in a character list. Their choices make more sense alongside Emma, Julian, Mark, Cristina and the rest of the household.
This is a character-focused refresher, not an alternative official order or a promise that three novels explain everyone. The Dark Artifices itself inherits events from The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, and can spoil them. The shorter route leaves that earlier history partly secondhand.
The companion books have different jobs
After The Mortal Instruments
Clare places Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, The Bane Chronicles and The Eldest Curses after The Mortal Instruments. Tales follows Simon’s training and is useful before The Dark Artifices. The Bane Chronicles expands Magnus’s past. The Eldest Curses follows Magnus and Alec in The Red Scrolls of Magic and The Lost Book of the White; these are not substitutes for the main series.
Ghosts of the Shadow Market
Read The Infernal Devices first, as Clare advises. For preparation focused on Kit and Ty, finish The Dark Artifices before the collection’s later stories, especially The Lost World and Forever Fallen. Those stories occur after Queen of Air and Darkness and contain spoilers for it.
Secrets of Blackthorn Hall
A further bridge after The Dark Artifices, told through letters, journal entries and messages as Emma and Julian investigate their inherited house. Read it after the trilogy, with the historical-family background in mind. It adds continuity rather than replacing any of the novels.
Better in Black and The Shadowhunter’s Codex
Better in Black revisits romances across several series and includes a Wicked Powers preview. Save it until the relationships it revisits are familiar. The Shadowhunter’s Codex is a world companion, not another narrative installment that needs to be inserted between two novels.
The books in detail
What these six books contribute
The five earlier books below are the ones analyzed on Book Review Guide. They are a selection from a much larger bibliography, not the complete reading sequence. The sixth is the announced new release.
The starting point
City of Bones
The Mortal Instruments, book 1
Clary Fray searches for her missing mother while discovering that New York contains demon hunters and supernatural communities hidden from ordinary sight. Jace and Simon pull her toward different accounts of whom she can trust. The unfamiliar rules arrive through a family mystery rather than a detached introduction to the world.
This is where Clare’s recommended sequence begins. Its brisk discoveries and banter establish a different experience from the crowded Blackthorn household of The Dark Artifices. Continue through the other five Mortal Instruments novels afterward; this first volume alone is not preparation for the final trilogy.
The closest background, book 1
Lady Midnight
The Dark Artifices, book 1
Emma Carstairs follows murders that resemble the deaths of her parents. At the Los Angeles Institute, her parabatai Julian Blackthorn has taken on the work of raising his siblings. Their investigation, Mark’s return from Faerie and the prohibition on romantic love between parabatai make family care and private desire difficult to separate.
The murder case gives the book a clear forward movement, while household scenes establish the people who later inherit the story. Kit, Ty and Dru need that setting around them. Lady Midnight is the beginning of their immediate context, although it assumes history from the preceding series.
The closest background, book 2
Lord of Shadows
The Dark Artifices, book 2
The search for the Black Volume of the Dead draws the family toward the faerie courts. The Clave’s authority and Faerie’s bargains place competing demands on people whose first loyalty is often to one another. Kit’s growing connection with Ty and Livvy brings another kind of investigation and trust into the expanding story.
The sequel develops the younger characters while making the political consequences harder to contain. Its many viewpoints interrupt one another, and it ends with a substantial cliffhanger. Read it between the other Dark Artifices novels rather than treating it as a separate Faerie adventure.
The closest background, book 3
Queen of Air and Darkness
The Dark Artifices, book 3
The trilogy’s finale follows a family under strain while the Shadowhunter community faces a struggle over power, exclusion and the uses of magic. Emma and Julian’s relationship, the younger siblings’ decisions and the danger from Faerie all need answers on different scales.
It closes the central Dark Artifices story and leaves Kit, Ty and Dru with personal histories that matter to The Wicked Powers. Its crowded structure also opens doors beyond the trilogy. The spoiler recap linked below is for after finishing this novel, not a shortcut that preserves its surprises.
Optional companion
Better in Black
Ten stories of Shadowhunter romance
This collection revisits established relationships across periods and series, including Emma and Julian, Jace and Clary, and Will and Tessa. The shorter stories exchange the sustained architecture of a novel for individual encounters and reunions. They assume that these relationships already mean something to the reader.
It includes a preview of The Wicked Powers, but it is not a required sixth step after the four earlier main series. Reading it too early can reveal relationship outcomes. The appeal is additional time with the cast, rather than essential replacement context for the novels.
The next trilogy
The Last King of Faerie
The Wicked Powers, book 1
The official premise places Dru in her fourth year at Shadowhunter Academy before a kidnapping takes her into Ash Morgenstern’s power in Faerie. Elsewhere, a disappearance brings Kit Herondale and Ty Blackthorn together despite their estrangement. The new trilogy follows these characters within the wider Shadowhunter story.
The announced release date is November 3, 2026. These are premise and publication details, not an assessment of an unreleased novel’s pacing, ending or quality. Earlier preparation explains the relationships that this opening situation takes for granted.
If there is little time before November 3
For a returning reader who has finished The Dark Artifices, the recap is the quickest refresher. After that, the later Ghosts of the Shadow Market stories offer additional continuity, while Better in Black supplies separate romantic stories and a preview. They do not all answer the same question.
For someone starting from zero, a deadline is a poor reason to replace the earlier novels with a few character notes. Start City of Bones and continue at a pace that lets the relationships develop. Beginning the final trilogy later preserves the opportunity to discover the earlier stories firsthand.
How much context does each route give you?
The full series route supplies the broadest view of the returning cast and their world. The Dark Artifices route concentrates on the household from which Kit, Ty and Dru emerge, at the cost of some earlier context. The companions fill particular gaps and revisit relationships; they are not interchangeable entrance points.
That is the useful distinction to keep before ordering another book. Follow the novels for the main story, use the recap to recover a story already read, and add companion collections for the particular characters or periods they explore.
Cassandra Clare: covered books and wider bibliography · More fantasy releases in November 2026
Quick answers
Reading-order questions
Can I start with The Last King of Faerie?
It is the first Wicked Powers novel, but it continues the Shadowhunter world and characters introduced earlier. Starting from scratch, use Clare’s full series sequence. The Dark Artifices is the closest character background, not a guarantee of complete context.
Which books introduce Kit, Ty and Dru’s shared history?
Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness develop their story within The Dark Artifices. The later Ghosts of the Shadow Market stories continue some of that history after the trilogy.
Is Better in Black required?
No. It is a companion collection of romantic stories with a Wicked Powers preview. It supplements earlier reading and can spoil established relationships if read too soon.
Should I follow story chronology instead?
Chronology and Clare’s recommended series sequence answer different questions. The broad author-recommended route here begins with The Mortal Instruments even though the historical series take place earlier.
Sources
Sources for this guide
Reading sequence and announced release details checked October 22, 2026.
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