Naomi Novik was born and raised in New York, but it's the Polish folk tales of her mother's Catholic family that give her best-loved books their particular flavour — fairy tales told properly, with cold and hunger and bargains in them. She first made her name with the nine-book Temeraire series, an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars fought with a corps of intelligent dragons. (She also, back in 2007, co-founded Archive of Our Own, the volunteer-run fan-fiction archive — which tells you a little about how she thinks about stories.)
The two standalones she wrote afterwards — Uprooted and Spinning Silver — are where most readers begin, and where we'd send you too. Both won Locus Awards, and Uprooted also took the Nebula for Best Novel; more to the point, they're the warmest and most re-readable things she's written. Her newer work runs darker — the Scholomance trilogy is set in a school that is actively trying to kill its pupils — so it's worth knowing which Novik you're picking up.
If you like to read in order, the Temeraire books go in publication order and the Scholomance is a tidy three-book run, but Uprooted and Spinning Silver are entirely self-contained: no series to commit to, no homework first.
On our shelves
Dark ForestEarthy Magic
Uprooted
Every ten years the wizard takes a girl from the valley, and this time, to everyone's surprise, he takes Agnieszka — clumsy, perpetually grubby, and quietly furious about it. The magic here smells of woodsmoke and turned earth, and the corrupted Wood at the valley's edge is genuinely creeping. Read it when you want a fairy tale with mud under its nails.
Winter TaleClever Women
Spinning Silver
A moneylender's daughter is too good at turning silver into gold — so the cold king of the winter folk comes to claim her for it. Three women, told in turn, scheme their way through a frozen Lithuania of ledgers, debts and bargains that bite. Read it deep in January, with the heating on and the dark pressing at the window.
Where to start
Start with Uprooted. It's a self-contained fairy-tale fantasy steeped in Polish folklore, with a slow-burn romance and no series to commit to — and it's the book cosy-leaning readers tend to fall for first. If it casts its spell, Spinning Silver gives you more of the same wintry, folkloric magic.
Naomi Novik’s books
A quiet village girl named Agnieszka is taken into service by a cold, immortal wizard known as the Dragon, and must learn magic to fight a corrupted, malevolent forest — the Wood — that threatens her valley. Polish folklore with the warmth of a fireside telling.
On our shelves →
A reworking of Rumpelstiltskin set in a wintry, folkloric kingdom, where a moneylender's daughter who can seemingly turn silver into gold draws the eye of the icy Staryk king. Told through several women's voices, all winter and bargains struck.
On our shelves →A short standalone fairy-tale novella in which a young witch must undo a curse she laid on her brother with angry, prophecy-charged words — and uncovers an old conflict between mortals and the immortal summerlings. A folktale to read in an afternoon.
The first Temeraire novel — published in Britain as 'Temeraire' — in which a naval captain captures a French ship carrying a dragon egg and bonds with the hatchling, then joins the aerial corps of the Napoleonic Wars. Less cosy than her standalones, but the bond between captain and dragon is its beating heart.
The first Scholomance book: a dark-academia fantasy set in a lethal magic school with no teachers, where simply surviving to graduation is the whole game. Narrated by the prickly, doom-prophesied El — sharp and dark, not cosy.
The second Scholomance book follows El through her final year as the school's threats close in and her power and alliances are tested. It ends on a considerable cliffhanger leading straight into the finale.
The concluding Scholomance novel, in which El leaves the school and confronts the wider system of magic and the forces that prey on young wizards, resolving the trilogy's central mystery.
Good questions
The Temeraire series reads in publication order, beginning with His Majesty's Dragon (2006), and the Scholomance is a trilogy: A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, then The Golden Enclaves. Uprooted and Spinning Silver are standalones you can read on their own, in any order. (In the UK, His Majesty's Dragon was published as 'Temeraire'.)
Neither — they're two entirely separate standalones, not linked to each other and not part of any series. Read either one first; both stand completely alone.
American — she was born and raised in New York. Her mother's family were Polish Catholics, and the Polish folk tales she grew up with feed her folklore fantasies like Uprooted and Spinning Silver.
If you've read one, read the other — they share the same wintry, folkloric magic even though the stories are unconnected. After that, The Summer War (2025) is a shorter fairy-tale novella in much the same key.
It's Novik's darker, dark-academia trilogy, set in a lethal magic school with no teachers where surviving to graduation is the goal, narrated by the prickly El. Read it in order: A Deadly Education (2020), The Last Graduate (2021), then The Golden Enclaves (2022).
Her most recent book is The Summer War (2025), a short fairy-tale novella, and she has a new series called Folly announced.
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