Catherine Fisher Books in Order
Browse Catherine Fisher’s books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, stand-alone highlights, and easy tips on the best place to start.
Last updated: July 5, 2026
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Publication Order
46 books
Immrama
by Catherine Fisher
1988
A poetry collection shaped by the old Irish voyage tales, full of crossings, islands, and spiritual searching. It shows the mythic side of Fisher’s imagination before many of her novels arrived.
The Conjuror's Game
by Catherine Fisher
1990
Alick gets mixed up with Luke Ferris and an ancient board game that should never have been restarted. Once the key piece is lost, dark forces begin moving through Halcombe Great Wood.
Fintan's Tower
by Catherine Fisher
1991
Jamie and his sister Jen find the path to Fintan’s Tower, where an ancient prisoner and a magical cauldron are kept. Their rescue attempt turns into a perilous journey through the Otherworld.
Saint Tarvel's Bell
by Catherine Fisher
1992
An early fantasy built around an old bell and an older legend. Fisher uses a simple setup to open the door into wonder, unease, and the pull of folklore.
The Snow-Walker's Son
by Catherine Fisher
1993
Jessa and her cousin Thorkil are sent north to the fortress of Gudrun’s hidden son. What they find in the ice could either destroy them or give their people a way to fight back.
The Candle Man
by Catherine Fisher
1994
On the Gwent Levels, Connor meets a fiddler whose life is tied to a single candle. Helping him reclaim it means tangling with ghosts, old grudges, and the deadly force of the river Hafren.
The Hare and Other Stories
by Catherine Fisher
1994
Four short tales of magic, ghosts, and folklore, including The Hare and Ghost in the Rain. It is a compact sampler of Fisher’s gift for eerie atmosphere.
The Empty Hand
by Catherine Fisher
1995
A beast of ice and runes moves south from Gudrun’s frozen lands, spreading fear ahead of it. Jessa, Skapti, and Hakon must fight the threat while Kari’s own powers deepen.
The Unexplored Ocean
by Catherine Fisher
1995
This poetry collection moves through history, landscape, and sea voyage, including a sequence linked to Captain Cook. Fisher’s eye for myth and weather is already clear here.
The Soul Thieves
by Catherine Fisher
1996
Gudrun steals the soul of the Jarl’s young bride and lays frost-bound dreams over the land. Jessa and her friends must journey beyond the world’s edge to face the Snow-Walkers at last.
Belin's Hill
by Catherine Fisher
1997
Huw survives a family tragedy, but the past refuses to let him go. Dreams, visions, and an evil stone head pull him toward the buried horrors of Belin’s Hill.
The Relic Master/The Dark City
by Catherine Fisher
1998
Raffi is apprenticed to Galen, a Relic Master guarding scraps of lost technology in a broken world. When Galen’s powers begin to fail, they head for the City of Crow with the Watch close behind.
Interrex/The Lost Heiress
by Catherine Fisher
1999
After touching the power of the Crow, Galen is drawn into a hunt for the Interrex, last heir to a fallen empire. Revolution stirs, and Raffi, Carys, and the Sekoi are forced to choose sides.
Magical Mystery Stories
by Catherine Fisher
1999
A collection of short fantastical tales with quick turns, strange happenings, and a playful sense of the uncanny. It works well as a light introduction to Fisher in shorter form.
The Lammas Field
by Catherine Fisher
1999
At the annual Lammas Fair, Mick longs to become a real musician, and a strange woman offers him exactly that. The gift comes at a terrible price, as old folklore slips into modern life.
Altered States
by Catherine Fisher
2000
Fisher’s poetry here moves through dream, memory, myth, and estuary landscapes. The collection is compact but wide-ranging, with a cool, haunted feel.
Darkwater
by Catherine Fisher
2000
Sarah bargains with Lord Azrael for the restoration of Darkwater Hall, and a century later Tom is offered the same temptation. Their stories meet in a gothic tale of bargains, guilt, and redemption.
Flain's Coronet/The Hidden Coronet
by Catherine Fisher
2000
Galen gathers strength around the Interrex, but he still needs the lost Coronet of Flain. As new allies and old doubts crowd in, the struggle against the Watch grows more dangerous.
The Margrave
by Catherine Fisher
2001
Galen, Raffi, and their allies head toward the heart of the Watch’s power for a final reckoning. To stop the Margrave, they must survive betrayal, deep fear, and the darkest secrets of their world.
Corbenic
by Catherine Fisher
2002
Cal leaves his troubled mother behind and dreams of a cleaner, easier life, but he steps off a train into a Grail quest. Modern guilt and Arthurian myth spiral together in a dark journey toward self-knowledge.
Folklore
by Catherine Fisher
2003
A slim poetry collection that turns to old stories, remembered voices, and the half-seen edges of place. It offers a brief but atmospheric glimpse of Fisher’s work as a poet.
Snow-Walker
by Catherine Fisher
2003
This omnibus brings together The Snow-Walker’s Son, The Empty Hand, and The Soul Thieves in one volume. It follows Jessa, Kari, and their companions through frost magic, exile, and war at the edge of the world.
The Archon / The Sphere of Secrets
by Catherine Fisher
2003
The young Archon sets out across a brutal desert to seek peace and rain for his dying land. Behind him comes the General, hungry for power and the riches hidden in the mountains.
The Oracle / The Oracle Betrayed
by Catherine Fisher
2003
Mirany is the new Bearer of the god and not at all sure the god is real, until visions pull her into treachery. With only a scribe and a musician to help, she must protect the true heir.
The Glass Tower
by Catherine Fisher
2004
This omnibus gathers The Conjuror’s Game, Fintan’s Tower, and The Candle Man, three early fantasies rooted in Welsh myth and eerie landscapes. Each story follows young characters pulled into old magic with real stakes.
Darkhenge
by Catherine Fisher
2005
When Chloe falls into a coma after a riding accident, her brother Rob is told she has gone to Annwn. To reach her, he must pass through an ancient wooden henge and face the rivalry that divides them.
The Scarab / Day of the Scarab
by Catherine Fisher
2005
The Archon returns to a land seized by General Argelin and sliding toward terror. Mirany and her allies must face death itself, and the sinister power hidden in the scarab.
The Weather Dress
by Catherine Fisher
2005
Molly buys a secondhand dress that can change the weather, but it comes with one hard rule. When temptation pushes her toward a seventh wearing, magic turns dangerous.
Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher
2007
Finn lives inside a vast living prison of metal forests, ruins, and secret watchers, and he is sure he came from Outside. Claudia, trapped in a rigid world beyond it, may be his only way to the truth.
Sapphique
by Catherine Fisher
2008
Finn has escaped Incarceron, but freedom brings no peace, and his friends are still trapped inside. While Claudia fights for his future, the prison itself stirs around the legend of Sapphique’s glove.
The Pickpocket's Ghost
by Catherine Fisher
2008
Sarah discovers a ghost in her room, and it needs her help. To free it she must unlock a strange box, while deciding whether her prickly stepbrother can be trusted.
Circle of Stones / Crown of Acorns
by Catherine Fisher
2010
A scarred foster girl who calls herself Sulis arrives in Bath hoping for a new life. As ancient legend, Georgian ambition, and present-day danger begin to mirror one another, the city grows eerie and alive.
Magic Thief
by Catherine Fisher
2010
A short fantasy about theft, deception, and a dangerous brush with real magic. Fisher keeps the pace quick while letting the story turn on one risky choice.
The Ghost Box
by Catherine Fisher
2011
When a silver box appears in Sarah’s room, it brings a ghost that will not leave her alone. To solve the mystery, she must work out what the spirit wants before helping it makes everything worse.
Obsidian Mirror
by Catherine Fisher
2012
Jake comes to Wintercombe Abbey to learn what happened to his missing father and finds a mirror that can reach across time. Soon he is caught between a grieving inventor, a girl from the future, and deadly powers from the faerie world.
The Cat with Iron Claws
by Catherine Fisher
2012
In this retelling from Welsh legend, Coll chases the sow Henwen across King Arthur’s Britain, hoping to master a great enchantment. What follows is a lively brush with prophecy, monsters, and a fearsome cat.
The Box of Red Brocade/The Slanted Worlds
by Catherine Fisher
2013
Jake uses the mirror to search for his father and lands in Blitz-era London instead. With prophecies, future threats, and the dangerous Shee closing in, every path grows stranger.
At the World's End
by Catherine Fisher
2015
Earth has frozen after the Blue Star, and Caz and Will survive inside a sealed store with dwindling supplies. When Caz thinks there may be life outside, she risks the ice to look for her father.
The Door in the Moon
by Catherine Fisher
2015
On a sweltering Midsummer Night, Jake and Sarah are dragged into a violent past of revolution and terror. Back at Wintercombe, Oberon Venn faces a choice that could cost him his soul.
The Crystal Stair
by Catherine Fisher
2016
Life in the Settlement is safer than the frozen wastes, but it is also rigid and secretive. When Caz learns her father may still be out there, she and Will head back into the ice.
The Speed of Darkness
by Catherine Fisher
2016
As floodwaters rise around Wintercombe, the obsidian mirror becomes the center of one last desperate gamble. Jake, Sarah, Venn, and their allies race to change the past before Halloween brings disaster.
The Clockwork Crow
by Catherine Fisher
2018
On her way to a new home, Seren receives a parcel containing a sharp-tongued mechanical crow. Together they enter a snowy otherworld to find a missing boy and uncover the house’s hidden sorrow.
The Bramble King
by Catherine Fisher
2019
Fisher’s return to poetry gathers dark little tales, parables, imagined places, and sharply observed nature writing. It feels both playful and unsettling.
The Velvet Fox
by Catherine Fisher
2019
A new governess brings an enchanted carousel to Plas-y-Fran, and its tiny figures soon turn the house uncanny. Seren must find the missing Clockwork Crow before the fair folk tear her new family apart.
The Midnight Swan
by Catherine Fisher
2020
Seren buys a locked box at the Midsummer Fair and is pulled into the Crow’s final adventure. To free him from a dark spell, she must face hidden paths, uncanny allies, and the dangerous Fair Family.
The Red Gloves and Other Stories
by Catherine Fisher
2021
Nine middle grade stories of ghosts, bargains, strange objects, and old folklore. Some are retellings, some are new, but all carry Fisher’s taste for mystery and unease.
Where should I start?
If you want the big breakout YA series: Incarceron → Sapphique
If you want wintry middle grade fantasy: The Clockwork Crow → The Velvet Fox → The Midnight Swan
If you want myth-rich desert adventure: The Oracle / The Oracle Betrayed → The Archon / The Sphere of Secrets → The Scarab / Day of the Scarab
If you want eerie time travel and folklore: Obsidian Mirror → The Box of Red Brocade/The Slanted Worlds → The Door in the Moon → The Speed of Darkness
If you want classic cold-weather quest fantasy: The Snow-Walker’s Son → The Empty Hand → The Soul Thieves
Author bio
Catherine Fisher was born in Newport, Wales, and she has stayed closely tied to that part of the world. She studied English at the University of Wales and has said that myth and history caught her early. Those interests never really left, and they run through almost everything she writes, from ancient ritual and fairy lore to ruined futures and haunted houses.
Before writing became the center of her working life, Fisher did a mix of jobs that fit her fiction surprisingly well. She worked in education, spent time in archaeology, and later taught creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. Digging into the past, teaching, and reading old stories all seem to feed the same imagination.
She started out as a poet.
That matters. Even in her fiction, readers often notice the strong images, the clean rhythm, and the way weather, stone, ice, and landscape seem to carry meaning. Her early poetry collection Immrama won the Welsh Arts Council Young Writers' Prize, and she also won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition.
Her move into children’s and young adult fiction came around the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her first novel, The Conjuror’s Game, was shortlisted for the Smarties prize, and she followed it with books like The Snow-Walker’s Son and The Candle Man. These early novels already show what Fisher likes to do best, dropping ordinary or vulnerable young people into places where old magic is still very much alive.
She likes closed worlds.
Sometimes that means a frozen northern kingdom, as in the Snow-Walker books. Sometimes it means the desert temples and political danger of The Oracle. Sometimes it means a literal living prison, which is the big idea at the heart of Incarceron and Sapphique. Those two books brought her to a much wider audience, but they still feel very much like Catherine Fisher books, full of questions about freedom, identity, power, and the stories people tell to survive.
Another easy way in is The Clockwork Crow, followed by The Velvet Fox and The Midnight Swan. These books are shorter and younger in audience, but they carry the same strengths: sharp atmosphere, Welsh folklore, a brave young heroine, and just enough danger to keep the pages turning. For readers who like something more layered and eerie, the Chronoptika books beginning with The Obsidian Mirror mix time travel, gothic mystery, and the dangerous beauty of the Shee.
Awards and honors have followed steadily. She has won the Tir na n-Og Prize, received the Mythopoeic Society’s children’s fiction award for Incarceron, and in 2013 was named the first Young People’s Laureate for Wales. She is also a Fellow of the Welsh Academy.
She still lives in Newport, Gwent.
By now her work stretches across fantasy, science fiction, short stories, and poetry, but the thread through it is easy to spot. Fisher returns again and again to myth, memory, hidden power, and the uneasy meeting point between the old world and the new. If you like stories where the landscape feels alive and the past is never really past, she is very easy to keep reading.
Edited by
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