The Shadowhunter Chronicles reading order

Why the order isn't simple

• The series were written in a different order from their settings: The Infernal Devices (Victorian era, 2010-2013) was published while The Mortal Instruments (present day) was still coming out.
• The official site lists the novels series by series and says to start with any highlighted first book, which is not the same as strict publication order.
• Thirty companion novellas first came out as separate e-book installments and were then gathered in three collections, so a reader may already own a collection's contents piece by piece.
• The Eldest Curses third book and The Wicked Powers are announced but not published.

Which order should I use?

Publication order interleaves the series: The Infernal Devices came out between City of Glass (2009) and City of Fallen Angels (2011), and The Eldest Curses alternated with The Last Hours.

The official list keeps each series together. It is the only order published by the author's site; we do not add a fan-made chronology.

Use the sub-series filter to show a single series, or tick 'Main sequence only' to hide the companion novellas.

Where each order comes from

Publication order — Derived from publication dates

Ordered by first publication date (original language). Derived automatically from the dates listed for each work.

Official site list (series by series) — Author / publisher recommended

The order of the main novels on Cassandra Clare's official 'Exploring the Shadowhunter Chronicles' page: each series in turn — The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, The Last Hours, then The Eldest Curses. The site says readers can start with any highlighted first book; it does not place the companion collections. Source: Exploring the Shadowhunter Chronicles.

Novellas & short stories

All thirty companion novellas listed here appeared first as e-book installments — except the last two Ghosts of the Shadow Market stories, which were print-only — and were then collected. Individual release dates for the Bane and Academy installments are not yet verified, so they show as 'not placed' in publication order.

Collections & omnibus editions: what's inside

Each collection gathers one run of installments with no overlap between the three. If you bought the individual e-books, the ownership checker shows which collection you would duplicate; Ghosts of the Shadow Market adds two stories that were never sold separately.

Contents below are works from this series only. Tick the editions you own to check for duplicates and gaps.

About the sub-series

Five novel series and three companion runs share one world and many characters, but the official site treats each novel series as a separate entry point.

Where sources disagree

We don't pick a winner silently. When sources conflict we show each view and cite it.

How this page was verified

Series membership and the official listing order come from cassandraclare.com.

Publication dates and the contents of the three companion collections come from Wikipedia (secondary); the author's site does not list them. A later check against the publisher (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books) would raise these to primary.

Last verified 8 October 2026. Some works cite only secondary or catalogue sources.

Sources

Every date, order and edition listed on this page cites at least one of these. See our data methodology for how source types are ranked.

1. Exploring the Shadowhunter Chronicles — Cassandra Clare (official site) · Author (official) · accessed 8 October 2026
   Series-by-series list of the novels, stated as publication order with any highlighted book as a starting point; navigation lists the companion collections.
2. The Shadowhunter Chronicles — Wikipedia · Secondary reference · accessed 8 October 2026
   Novel publication dates; companion collection dates and installment titles; Ghosts installment release pattern.