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Samantha Shannon is a British author that writes dystopian fiction. Born in 1991 in Hammersmith, London, Shannon did not grow up in a literary household. She was the first person in her family to attend university.
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Order of The Bone Season Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Bone Season | 2013 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | The Mime Order | 2015 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | On the Merits of Unnaturalness (Short Story) | 2015 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | The Pale Dreamer (Short Story) | 2016 | Description / Buy | |
| 5 | The Song Rising | 2017 | Description / Buy | |
| 6 | The Dawn Chorus (Short Story) | 2020 | Description / Buy | |
| 7 | The Mask Falling | 2021 | Description / Buy | |
| 8 | The Dark Mirror | 2025 | Description / Buy |
Order of The Roots of Chaos Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Priory of the Orange Tree | 2019 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | A Day of Fallen Night | 2023 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Among the Burning Flowers | 2025 | Description / Buy |
Samantha Shannon Anthologies
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Because You Love to Hate Me | 2017 | Description / Buy |
She blames Margaret Atwood for introducing her to the dystopian genre. She read ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ and it hooked her. She was also inspired by John Donne.
After taking an interest in poets like Emily Dickinson, no one was surprised when she started churning out fantasy fiction novels. Even though people know Shannon for titles like ‘The Bone Season’ and ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree,’ which she published in her 20s, the author was just 15 years old when she wrote her first book.
The novel, which she titled ‘Aurora,’ never saw the light of day. Shannon sent the manuscript to several agents, but they rejected it. At one point, her mother started throwing the rejection letters away before Shannon could see them because she knew they would upset her daughter.
Fortunately, the author refused to abandon her dreams. She attended St. Anne’s College, Oxford, where she pursued English and Literature. Shannon had already secured a six-figure deal from Bloomsbury by the time she graduated.
She left several unanswered questions when she wrote ‘The Bone Season. But she also gave the book a solid ending. The novel wouldn’t have felt incomplete if publishers had rejected the idea of a sequel. But when Shannon spoke to Bloomsbury, they immediately asked her to write more novels in the series.
By the time negotiations ended, the author had settled on seven books. The first book taught her so much because it was unfinished and hardly worth publishing when she submitted it. Nonetheless, the book was still entertaining enough that Bloomsbury Publishing offered her a hefty advance.
When she heard the news, Shannon did not celebrate. Instead, she went to her room and sat on her bed in shock because she couldn’t believe that her hard work was finally paying off.
She did quite a bit of research for ‘The Bone Season’ because she wanted to incorporate old ideas and traditions about clairvoyance into her story.
Once she secured her publishing deal from Bloomsbury, people started calling her the next J.K. Rowling. The author wanted to use a pen name because she thought it would help her succeed in what felt like a male-dominated genre at the time.
But when she presented her idea to Bloomsbury, they told her it wasn’t necessary because the field was no longer male-centric. She has chosen to keep the potential pseudonyms she considered to herself because she might use them in the future.
Best Samantha Shannon Books
The author doesn’t believe that aspiring writers have to go to university to hone their craft. In interviews, she has revealed that Oxford did not teach her how to write. Samantha Shannon’s best books include:
The Bone Season: Paige was a dreamwalker, and her life in Scion London was far from secure. Even though she was breaking every rule by simply existing, Paige was working for Jaxon Hall and using her abilities to infiltrate people’s minds.
Inevitably, things went wrong. Before Paige could comprehend her predicament, they drugged the 19-year-old and carted her off to a secret city. Now, she must submit herself to Warden. The Rephaite is her new master.
Even though Warden is her natural enemy, Paige thinks she can escape her dire fate if she plays along, at least for a while.
The Priory of the Orange Tree: The lives of three women are about to intertwine. For Queen Sabran, time is running out. The fate of her kingdom rests on her ability to conceive a daughter. But first, she has to survive.
The House of Berethnet has enjoyed a long and illustrious reign. But everything they have fought to protect could crumble if the assassins hiding in the shadows have their way.
Ead is expected to protect Sabran. No one knows that the outsider is part of a secret order and that she uses forbidden magic to keep the Queen safe.
Meanwhile, Tane’s future is balancing on a knife’s age. She spent her childhood yearning for the opportunity to become a dragonrider. But now that her dream is within reach, she has to make a difficult choice.
When Does The Next Samantha Shannon book come out?
The next book by Samantha Shannon is The Dark Mirror and will be released on February, 25th 2025. It is the newest book in the The Bone Season Series.