Carol Berg Books in Order
This page lists Carol Berg's books in order, with quick summaries, reading order guides, series notes, and helpful advice on where to start.
Last updated: July 1, 2026
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Carol Berg books in publication order
19 books
Transformation
by Carol Berg
2000
Seyonne, once a Warden and now a slave, is bought by Prince Aleksander, heir to the empire that crushed his people. When he discovers a demon threat aimed at the prince, duty forces him to protect the man he has every reason to hate.
Revelation
by Carol Berg
2001
Back in Ezzaria, Seyonne should finally be home, but the worsening demon war and a baffling encounter shake everything he believes. His search for a possessed child becomes a deeper search into history, faith, and his own soul.
Restoration
by Carol Berg
2002
Seyonne is plagued by madness, visions, and the fear that he may be the one who destroys the world. As empire and demon war collide, he and Aleksander must face the cost of everything they have become.
Song of the Beast
by Carol Berg
2003
After years of brutal imprisonment, musician Aidan McAllister is free but ruined in voice, body, and spirit. To learn why his life was destroyed, he must face the god who shaped his gift and the enemies who broke him.
Guardians of the Keep
by Carol Berg
2004
While waiting for the Prince of Avonar to recover, Seri tries to deliver a dead man's final message and keep her distance from his troubled son. That hope collapses as secrets, old enemies, and a plot against D'Arnath's Bridge close in.
Son of Avonar
by Carol Berg
2004
Seri has built a hard, quiet life in exile after sorcery destroyed her world. When she shelters a speechless, half-mad fugitive, she is drawn back into forbidden magic, buried grief, and a threat that reaches beyond her realm.
Daughter of Ancients
by Carol Berg
2005
Five years after the war, Gerick wants nothing to do with old curses or Avonar's politics. But when a mysterious woman claims to be D'Arnath's lost daughter, he is pulled into ancient history, family knots, and his own dark fate.
The Soul Weaver
by Carol Berg
2005
Betrayal shatters the fragile plans to stop a world-spanning war, and the Prince of Avonar must face danger within his own household. Meanwhile his haunted son Gerick is driven across broken boundaries toward the truth of their enemy.
Flesh and Spirit
by Carol Berg
2007
Left half-dead in a wilderness and hooked on a brutal enchantment, Valen finds refuge in a monastery that hides dangerous secrets. A stolen book of maps draws him into prophecy, civil war, and the buried past of Navronne.
Breath and Bone
by Carol Berg
2008
Hunted by priestess, princes, and powers older than humanity, Valen must keep moving through a kingdom collapsing into war. His fight to save children, uncover truth, and heal the land costs him everything he has left.
Cartamandua Legacy
by Carol Berg
2009
This omnibus gathers Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone, the full story of Valen, a runaway sorcerer and addict caught in war, prophecy, and the hidden powers shaping Navronne.
The Spirit Lens
by Carol Berg
2009
Portier, a failed student of magic turned librarian, is summoned to investigate an attempted murder with eerie magical signs. His unlikely partners and a growing web of secrets pull him into court politics, forbidden sorcery, and old rivalries.
The Soul Mirror
by Carol Berg
2011
Anne de Vernase is dragged back into court life when her gifted sister dies in a suspicious magical accident. Plagues, sinkholes, murder, and the dangerous Dante turn her search for answers into a fight for survival.
The Daemon Prism
by Carol Berg
2012
Broken in body and hated by nearly everyone, Dante clings to a strange magical puzzle and a soldier's recurring dream. The search for its meaning drives him toward ancient enchantment, divine secrets, and the risk of losing himself completely.
Dust and Light
by Carol Berg
2014
Pureblood artist Lucian de Remeni-Masson is forced into grim work sketching the dead, only to find that his portraits reveal truths no one wants known. In a kingdom strained by war and winter, his gift draws him into murder and conspiracy.
Ash and Silver
by Carol Berg
2015
A man known as Greenshank serves a secretive order, but stolen memories and old loyalties begin breaking through his carefully trained new life. As Lucian's past returns, he is pulled into murder, history, and dangerous magic beyond the human world.
An Illusion of Thieves
by Carol Berg
2019
Banished from the Shadow Lord's side after her brother's magical theft, Romy returns to the streets with little but wit and dangerous secrets. A plot to topple the city pulls her into a heist where forbidden magic may be the only answer.
A Conjuring of Assassins
by Carol Berg
2020
Romy and her makeshift crew are sent to find and destroy a secret list that could ignite war across the Costa Drago. Their mission soon tangles with old loyalties, hidden identities, and a far larger conspiracy.
A Summoning of Demons
by Carol Berg
2021
After an earthquake rocks Cantagna, Romy and the Chimera use forbidden magic to save lives while fear and suspicion spread through the city. Ancient legends, political danger, and a mission they do not fully understand push the team to its limit.
Where to start with Carol Berg
If you want her signature emotional epic fantasy: Transformation → Revelation → Restoration
If you like fantasy mysteries and court intrigue: The Spirit Lens → The Soul Mirror → The Daemon Prism
If you want one strong standalone first: Song of the Beast
If you want the Navronne books: Flesh and Spirit → Breath and Bone → Dust and Light → Ash and Silver
If you want a faster caper fantasy: An Illusion of Thieves → A Conjuring of Assassins → A Summoning of Demons
Carol Berg sub-series and character series
Books of the Rai-kirah books in order
Explore this seriesChimera books in order
Explore this seriesCollegia Magica books in order
Explore this seriesThe Bridge of D'Arnath books in order
Explore this series
Guardians of the Keep
by Carol Berg
2004The Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 2
Son of Avonar
by Carol Berg
2004The Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 1
Daughter of Ancients
by Carol Berg
2005The Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 4
The Soul Weaver
by Carol Berg
2005The Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 3
The Bridge of D'Arnath books in chronological order
The Sanctuary Duet books in order
Explore this seriesValen books in order
Explore this seriesStandalone Carol Berg books
Author bio
Carol Berg grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, in a family full of readers. Her roots, she has said, were in a family of teachers, musicians, railroad men, and avid book lovers. Those long, hot Texas summers were made for tearing through mysteries, spy stories, swashbucklers, mythology, science fiction, and classic novels, and that broad reading life still shows up in her fantasy.
At Rice University, she studied mathematics, but she also chased English classes whenever the syllabus included novels. A college roommate handed her The Lord of the Rings, and that turned out to be one of the books that quietly changed the direction of her reading, and eventually her writing.
Writing was not the first plan. After college she taught high school math, spent years at home raising three sons, earned a degree in computer science from the University of Colorado, and then worked for Hewlett-Packard as a software development engineer for seventeen years.
It was a long road to fiction.
A friend teased her into trying to write, and the hobby got away from her in the best possible way. She sold three novels in 1999, and by 2002 she was writing full time.
Many readers start with Transformation, the opening book of the Rai-kirah trilogy. It introduces Seyonne, a former Warden who has been enslaved by the empire that crushed his people, and it also shows one of Berg's signature strengths right away. She likes smart, battered characters, hard moral choices, and fantasy worlds where the emotional cost matters as much as the magic.
You can see that same pull in Song of the Beast, where a ruined musician tries to understand why his life was destroyed, in Flesh and Spirit, where the runaway sorcerer Valen staggers through civil war, prophecy, and addiction, and in The Spirit Lens, which mixes court politics with magical investigation. Under the name Cate Glass, she took some of that same tension into An Illusion of Thieves, a faster, more urban fantasy built around forbidden magic, espionage, and a makeshift team of survivors.
Fans of Berg often talk about how intensely she puts her characters through the wringer, and that is fair. But the books are not just grim for the sake of it. Again and again, she pairs hardship with close point of view, questions of duty and conscience, and the stubborn idea that damaged people can still choose decency. Her worlds also tend to keep religion, class, politics, and magic rubbing against each other, whether the story is unfolding in a desert empire, a crumbling kingdom, or a crowded city where sorcerers hide in plain sight.
She also writes caper fantasy as Cate Glass.
Berg has lived in Colorado for decades and makes her home at the foot of the Rockies. Her sons are grown, and she has written about evenings spent with her husband, a mechanical engineer, watching good movies or well-written television. It suits a writer whose path to fantasy ran through math, software, family life, and a very long habit of reading.
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