Shadow & Bone Books Complete Beginners Guide & Where To Start
Shadow & Bone Books: Complete Beginner’s Guide & Where To Start
Contents
After watching Netflix’s Shadow & Bone, audiences may want to go back and read the book series it’s based on by Leigh Bardugo. Here’s where to start.
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Netflix’s Shadow and Bone is out, and audiences may be curious to go back and read the original books but in need of a beginner’s guide and wondering where to start. The first book by author Leigh Bardugo (and the book that gives the Netflix series its name), Shadow and Bone, was first released in 2012. Since then, the series has grown by six more books, two companion books, and a number of short stories. It’s sold over 3 million copies in the English language alone, not including the most recent two books, and translated into 38 languages around the world to date.
Set in a fictional world that readers refer to as the Grishaverse, it first starts out following the story of Alina Starkov, a teenage orphan in war-torn Ravka who discovers she has extraordinary powers that could help save her kingdom. Subsequent books branched out to focus on other characters that originally had supporting roles in the original trilogy, and other books that follow characters who weren’t in the original trilogy at all. Through it all, Bardugo’s fanbase has only grown to keep pace with the Grishaverse.
The Netflix adaptation of Shadow & Bone has garnered great reviews. Still, while the vast and varied world offers something for everyone, it may leave those new to the books feeling a bit daunted. Many people wonder if they should start with the original Grisha trilogy or skip ahead to the Six of Crows duology first, and whether they’ll be lost if they choose the latter approach. Either way is fine, but it’s almost always best to start with the first books in the series, so that’s how this guide will tackle it.
The Original Grisha Trilogy
The first books in the Grishaverse form the Grisha trilogy and are the best place to start as they clearly lay out the Grishaverse. In order, the books are Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising. They follow Alina Starkov, who discovers she has the rare powers of a Sun Summoner, long-rumored but thought to be a myth. With her newfound abilities, she has the potential to destroy the Shadow Fold, a swath of near-impenetrable darkness that bisects the kingdom of Ravka and has been slowly strangling the country for over a century thanks to it being populated with ravenous creatures.
The trilogy sets up the concept of the Grisha, the equivalent of the world’s magic casters, along with explaining its system of magic, its kingdoms and people, and the general state of the world. It’s an intensely fun and engaging fantasy series and a quick read. However, Bardugo herself has publicly stated more than once that they were the first books she ever wrote and heavily influenced by the fantasy she grew up with, and there are perhaps a few things she’d do differently now. There are a few YA genre tropes, such as the Chosen One narrative and the love triangle (thankfully resolved quickly) that feel a bit dated. Thanks to the richness of Bardugo’s world-building, however, it’s still a tremendously entertaining read.
The Six Of Crows Duology
Next on the reading list is the duology comprised of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, in order. While one of the main characters in the duology was mentioned in the original trilogy, the duology is completely separate from the original Grisha trilogy aside from being set in the same world. Set after the destruction of the Shadow Fold, the story of the duology moves away from the kingdom of Ravka and to the small country of Kerch, specifically the city of Ketterdam. There, the young and ambitious gang leader, Kaz Brekker, has big aspirations to rule the criminal underworld of Ketterdam with his gang, the Dregs, also known as the Crows. When they’re hired for a high-stakes job, Kaz has to assemble a team of skilled misfits and outcasts to pull off the impossible.
While there are certainly Grisha in the Six of Crows duology, they are not the main focus of the story. Instead, Bardugo switches gears from Russian dark fantasy to a world that feels more like a steampunk Victorian underworld built around a heist story. Her writing considerably levels up in the duology, with the characters being more complex and layered, not to mention diverse. While plenty of people have read the duology first, or only read the duology, and enjoyed it, it’s still recommended to read it after reading the first three books as references are made to the events of the original trilogy.
The King Of Scars Duology
The third group of books on the list is the newest duology of King of Scars and Rule of Wolves, the latter of which was just released in March 2021. King of Scars brings it back to the kingdom of Ravka and re-anchors the story firmly in the world of the Grisha. With The Darkling being defeated, however, and the Shadow Fold gone, the story focuses on Nikolai Lantsov, the former prince, now king, of Ravka. The young ruler appeared in the original Grisha trilogy in the second and third book before he was the king, and the story of the duology picks up after the events of the original trilogy. Nikolai finds himself struggling to rebuild the war-torn nation he inherited from his feckless father while also grappling with the effects of the terrible curse he was afflicted with in the original trilogy.
Balancing him out is Zoya Nazyalensky, who was a major supporting character of the trilogy. She’s with him every step of the way as his Grisha court advisor and right-hand woman. The King of Scars duology is arguably the most adult of the Grishaverse books to date; while Zoya and Nikolai are still young, they’re no longer children, and the burden of managing a nation in turmoil provides a fraught setting in which Bardugo explores two of her arguably more misunderstood characters from the original trilogy.
Companion Books & Tie-Ins
Those who devour the stories of the Grishaverse and decide they want to know more about the world may want to turn to Bardugo’s companion books next. Half-fiction and half-supplementary material, The Language of Thorns is a collection of short stories that are framed as fairy tales from the world of the Grishaverse. Like the other books, the fairy tales are both beautiful and sad, brutal and hopeful. The fairy tales children learn from a young age, particularly Ravka, are mentioned often throughout the Grishaverse books, and Language of Thorns provides an interesting companion for those who want to dive a little deeper into the world and the fictional stories that have shaped it.
There’s also The Lives of Saints. It exists in the original Grishaverse trilogy as a book that all young Grisha children and Ravkan children alike read, telling the story of the saints of their faith, similar to a children’s Bible. With this companion book, Bardugo went and actually created and wrote the book referenced so often in the trilogy. As with The Language of Thorns, it’s an interesting read on its own that also provides a richer foundation for the world of the Grishaverse.
To sum it up, the recommended order is: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising, then Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, then King of Scars and Rule of Wolves, and, lastly, The Language of Thorns and The Lives of Saints for anyone who wants to explore further. In the meantime, audiences can get their fill of the Grishaverse by binging Shadow and Bone season 1 to get a primer for the world.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/shadow-bone-books-beginners-guide-where-start/
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