©Jamie Drew
Books by Samantha Shannon
Samantha Shannon is an award-winning New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling fantasy author. Born in London in 1991, Samantha studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford from 2010 to 2013. In 2013, at the age of 21, she published The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first instalment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels. Her first book outside the series, The Priory of the Orange Tree, has sold over a million copies in English worldwide. Its prequel, A Day of Fallen Night, hit shelves in February 2023, becoming an instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller. Her most recent book is Among the Burning Flowers, published on 16 September 2025.
“The Bone Season is Samantha Shannon’s first book. It’s a really intriguing kind of science fiction: it’s an alternate present, derived from a different history in the 19th century. We end up with this very alluring, strange version of the present, where people are often born with different kinds of magic. But if you have the wrong kinds of talents, you’re often arrested and sent to Oxford, which is run by very strange supernatural beings, one of whom is called the Warden. Wardens are what Oxford colleges have instead of headmasters. He’s a magnetic figure. A young writer meets him quite early on and is deeply unimpressed; she’s been imprisoned and sent to this centre, this penal colony essentially, that is Oxford in this alternate version of now. It’s one of those lovely slow-burn romances where you think, ‘Oh, no, you shouldn’t – oh, this is really bad.'” Read more...
The Best Sci-Fi Romance Novels
Natasha Pulley, Novelist
Interviews with Samantha Shannon
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1
The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms trilogy Book 1)
by Tasha Suri -
2
Sabriel (Old Kingdom series Book 1)
by Garth Nix -
3
Queen of Coin and Whispers
by Helen Corcoran -
4
The Final Strife (Ending Fire series Book 1)
by Saara El-Arifi -
5
The Circle (Engelsfors trilogy Book 1)
by Mats Strandberg & Sara Elfgren
The Best Fantasy Book Series, recommended by Samantha Shannon
The Best Fantasy Book Series, recommended by Samantha Shannon
A fantasy series allows us to explore the complexities of characters, the far corners of their worlds, and the consequences of their actions – for best-selling author Samantha Shannon, this is “a privilege, and such a joy.” Here she recommends five rich, sustained fantasy worlds, featuring old gods, spymasters, witches, plagues, and the land of the dead – and above all, characters who keep surprising us.
The Best Mythopoeic Fantasy, recommended by Samantha Shannon
Fantasy writers often create vivid, intricately detailed worlds in which their stories unfold. Rich mythmaking of this kind often features alternative religions, languages and cultures, and is known among fans and scholars as ‘mythopoeia’. Here, Samantha Shannon—author of the internationally bestselling The Bone Season sequence—recommends five of the best mythopoeic fantasy books.
Interviews where books by Samantha Shannon were recommended
The Best Sci-Fi Romance Novels, recommended by Natasha Pulley
Sci fi opens up new possibilities for romance stories, unconstrained by social reality. It’s an exciting time for the genre, says Natasha Pulley, bestselling author of The Mars House. Through her five contemporary favourites, she explores how human emotion – including romantic love and friendship – elevates the best sci-fi novels, creating stories with realism and depth.
