Deborah Harkness Books in Order (Updated April 22, 2026)

Deborah Harkness is best known for the All Souls novels. For most readers, that is the only reading order that matters. The fiction side is one main sequence, now expanded beyond the original trilogy, with a sixth All Souls novel titled The Falcon and the Rose already announced but not yet dated on the author’s site.

Separate from that, Harkness has published an All Souls companion guide and two scholarly nonfiction books from her academic career.

The one-line answer

Read Deborah Harkness like this:

1. A Discovery of Witches
2. Shadow of Night
3. The Book of Life
4. Time’s Convert
5. The Black Bird Oracle

Then add The World of All Souls only if you want the companion material, and keep her academic books separate. That is the cleanest and safest order for almost every reader.

What belongs where

Main fiction continuity

• A Discovery of Witches
• Shadow of Night
• The Book of Life
• Time’s Convert
• The Black Bird Oracle
• The Falcon and the Rose announced

Companion, not a novel

• The World of All Souls

Separate academic nonfiction

• John Dee’s Conversations with Angels
• The Jewel House

That means you do not need a complicated franchise map here. You mainly need to know that The World of All Souls is supplementary, while the two history books are outside the fantasy fiction entirely.

All Souls books in order

This is the sequence most readers are actually looking for. Publication order is also the recommended order, because the books build on each other’s revelations, relationships, and family history.

1. A Discovery of Witches (2011): Diana Bishop, a historian and reluctant witch, calls up a bewitched manuscript in Oxford and is pulled into forbidden alliance and attraction with vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
2. Shadow of Night (2012): Diana and Matthew time-walk to Elizabethan London to search for magical answers, turning the series from hidden-world discovery into a deeper historical and family reckoning.
3. The Book of Life (2014): Back in the present, Diana and Matthew face old enemies, missing manuscript pages, and the larger consequences of everything set in motion by the first two books.
4. Time’s Convert (2018): The series shifts focus to Marcus MacNeil and Phoebe Taylor, exploring what it actually means to become a vampire while still building on the world established in the original trilogy.
5. The Black Bird Oracle (2024): Diana and Matthew, now parents, confront the Congregation’s demand to test their twins’ magic, sending Diana back into her own family history and opening a new era of the series.

The next All Souls book

6. The Falcon and the Rose (upcoming): Deborah Harkness has officially announced the title of the sixth All Souls novel, but her site says publication details are still to come, so it is best treated as confirmed but undated for now.

The companion book

• The World of All Souls (2018): A guide to the first three All Souls novels with synopses, character material, maps, recipes, and background on the science, creatures, magic, and alchemy of the series.

Where the companion fits

Read The World of All Souls after The Book of Life at the earliest, because it is designed around the first trilogy rather than serving as an introduction. Some readers wait until after Time’s Convert and even The Black Bird Oracle, but it is not required reading for the novels themselves. That placement is an inference from the guide’s own description as a companion to the first three books.

Deborah Harkness nonfiction books in order

These are not fantasy novels. They belong to her scholarly work as a historian and should be treated as separate reading territory.

1. John Dee’s Conversations with Angels: Cabala, Alchemy, and the End of Nature (1999): A scholarly study of John Dee’s angel conversations, alchemy, and natural philosophy, written before Harkness turned to fiction.
2. The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (2007): A history of scientific culture in sixteenth-century London, focused on the collaborative and contentious communities behind early modern inquiry.

Best reading orders by reader type

If you only want the novels

1. A Discovery of Witches
2. Shadow of Night
3. The Book of Life
4. Time’s Convert
5. The Black Bird Oracle

That is the cleanest route and the one most readers should use.

If you want the fullest All Souls experience

1. A Discovery of Witches
2. Shadow of Night
3. The Book of Life
4. The World of All Souls
5. Time’s Convert
6. The Black Bird Oracle

This keeps the guide in the place where it spoils the least and explains the most. The guide is optional, but it makes the world feel richer once the trilogy is done.

If you are curious about Deborah Harkness as a scholar

1. John Dee’s Conversations with Angels
2. The Jewel House
3. Then begin A Discovery of Witches

This is not the best story-first route, but it does show how closely her fiction grows out of her academic interests in alchemy, magic, books, and early modern history.

Do you need chronological order?

Not really. Even though Shadow of Night spends significant time in the past and Time’s Convert reaches back into Marcus’s earlier life, Deborah Harkness’s books are meant to be read in publication order, because that preserves the reveals around Diana, Matthew, the manuscript, and the wider creature world.

Latest release status

The newest released All Souls novel is The Black Bird Oracle, which published in 2024, and the author’s site was promoting its paperback in May 2025. The next series book, The Falcon and the Rose, has been officially announced by title, but no publication date was given on the announcement page I checked.

FAQs

What is the best Deborah Harkness book to start with?

Start with A Discovery of Witches. It is book one, the foundation of the world, and still the clearest entry point into everything that follows.

Is Time’s Convert book 4?

Yes. Deborah Harkness’s official books page labels Time’s Convert as Book Four of the All Souls series.

Is The Black Bird Oracle book 5?

Yes. The official site identifies The Black Bird Oracle as Book Five of the All Souls series.

Do I need to read The World of All Souls?

No. It is a companion guide, not a core novel. Read it for background and extra context, not because the story requires it.

Is there a sixth All Souls book?

Yes. The Falcon and the Rose has been announced, but I did not find a firm publication date on the official announcement page.

Final recommendation

If you want one decisive answer, read the All Souls novels in publication order and stop there unless you want bonus material. That means beginning with A Discovery of Witches (2011), continuing through The Black Bird Oracle (2024), and treating The World of All Souls as optional extra reading rather than essential story reading.