Do I Need to Read the Grisha Trilogy Before Six of Crows

If you lot're planning on reading the Grishaverse books, don't start with Shadow and Bone

Here's the best order for reading Leigh Bardugo's fantasy novels

By Apr 27, 2021, 3:00pm EDT

Photo: David Appleby/Netflix

If you binge-watched Netflix's Shadow and Bone this weekend and you've never read the Leigh Bardugo books it was based on, you might be thinking about trying the main trilogy the show adapts.

Here's some unsolicited communication: Don't start with the first novel, Shadow and Bone.

But wait, y'all might ask yourself, is that non the book that the show is based on? Isn't it the first book of the serial? The i that sets the stage for everything else? The one that introduces the Grisha, Sunday Summoner Alina Starkov, and the swath of sentient darkness that tears Ravka in half?

Well, yes. But yous know how some Star Wars fans recommend a not-intuitive guild to watch the movies? I'g nigh to suggest a similar strategy for diving into the Grishaverse books. Information technology isn't a specially controversial method, by whatever ways, just for those unfamiliar with the books, I am here to be your Grisha guide.

And with that: Start with Vi of Crows.

Photo: Netflix

Six of Crows is the starting time book in Bardugo's spinoff duology. It focuses on a ring of criminals led by the cunning Kaz Brekker, as they pull off a chiliad heist. The duology takes place two years after the events of the start trilogy, but the get-go book doesn't actually incorporate any spoilers for what happens to Shadow and Bone's Alina, the Darkling, and the remainder of the Ravka coiffure. I take no difficult empirical information on this, merely I would chance a guess that Six of Crows is more pop than the primary trilogy. Why else would the Crows characters be roped into the evidence, even though they don't canonically appear in the showtime books?

Newbies starting to read the serial with Six of Crows after watching the show won't exist lost, since out of the vi "Crows," v of them — Kaz, his correct-hand pocketknife-wielding spy Inej, sharpshooter Jesper, Ravkan spy Nina, and Fjerdan soldier (and hunter of Grisha) Matthias — appeared in season ane of the Television series. Their characters will make more sense in the show with the background of the book, and the hazard to run across their future adventures in the existing books makes their storyline in the series more interesting. Additionally, Six of Crows steps out into the world across Ravka. Shadow and Bone is primarily concerned with Ravkan politics and what information technology ways to be a Grisha, which is interesting on its own, but Half-dozen of Crows expands on the universe, and Bardugo'south worldbuilding gets a run a risk to smooth.

Just starting with Six of Crows likewise makes sense because the Crows duology is just objectively amend writing. Shadow and Bone has all the trappings of a debut novel. The first-person perspective does the other characters a disservice, and it follows a typical Chosen One setup. Even Bardugo admits there are things she wishes she'd done differently, similar including more character diversity and fleshing out Mal's character. The main trilogy gets meliorate with each subsequent book, as Bardugo grows into her own world's potential. Only if you desire to be pulled in from the get-go, Six of Crows is the way to go.

Photo: Attila Szvacsek/Netflix

My recommended gild — even if you haven't watched the show — is to start with Half-dozen of Crows, which aptly entices readers into a new earth, and has a cast of vivid, dynamic characters. 6 of Crows does, admittedly, end on a bewilderment, but the stakes it sets up will make the conflict in the main series fifty-fifty richer.

If you lot are curious enough, you should and so switch to the primary trilogy (Shadow and Os, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Ascent), since the second Crows book, Crooked Kingdom, contains some spoilers for the big fundamental Grishaverse plot, and some appearances from characters who announced in the first trilogy. And so move to Crooked Kingdom. Later on that, you tin dive into the sequel series (Male monarch of Scars and the newly released Rule of Wolves) which pulls in Nina, Squaller Zoya Navalyskey, and yet-to-be-introduced-in-the-show Prince Nikolai Lanstov (my favorite grapheme in the franchise) equally they bargain with the aftermath of the turmoil in Ravka.

The Grishaverse books are an exciting fantasy serial that ushered in a whole wave of loftier-fantasy YA which steps outside of the typical medieval England settings. If yous haven't paid much attention to the immature-adult genre since it stopped dominating culture with serial like the Twilight and Hunger Games novels, y'all may not realize the bear on that Bardugo's series has had on the genre since then. The globe is rich, but the dynamic characters are what capture fans' hearts. The Netflix series achieves the grand feat of adapting the series while caters to fans of the books starting time, sprinkling in little details, and hinting at the earth beyond the first story. Reading the books volition broaden the feel of watching the prove — and ready you lot for possible upcoming adventures in farther seasons.

Shadow and Os is streaming on Netflix.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/22406182/shadow-and-bone-grishaverse-book-order