Lion Hunters: Mark of Solomon Books in Order

The Mark of Solomon books are a two-part story inside Elizabeth Wein's larger Lion Hunters world. If the earlier books build the family history, this pair, The Lion Hunter and The Empty Kingdom, narrows in on Telemakos and follows him into a sharper, more intimate kind of danger. These novels are full of royal politics, espionage, and travel, but they stay close to one boy's mind as he tries to judge whom he can trust.

Telemakos already carries a lot into this duology. He is clever, observant, and unusually calm under pressure, but he has also been shaped by earlier violence and by the heavy expectations of the adults around him. In The Lion Hunter, a terrible accident with one of the emperor's lions leaves him physically wounded and shakes the peace of his family life. Not long after, it becomes clear that old enemies have not forgotten him. For his own safety, and for political reasons, he is sent away to the royal court of Himyar, where safety turns out to be a complicated word.

Telemakos is brave, but he is still a child.

That matters because these books never pretend courage cancels fear. In Himyar, Telemakos has to learn a new court, new loyalties, and a new set of rules while still carrying the aftereffects of torture, captivity, and grief. He is a natural spy, but Wein never makes spying look easy or glamorous. Every conversation has weight. Every act of kindness may be real, strategic, or both. His gift is that he notices things. His problem is that noticing is not the same as knowing what they mean.

By the time The Empty Kingdom begins, the pressure is tighter. Telemakos lives under the watch of Abreha, a powerful ruler who may be both protector and threat. He tries to warn his family and his emperor through coded messages while also dealing with the fact that loyalty is no longer clean or simple. People he should fear may show him favor. People he loves may ask more of him than he can give. The suspense comes from politics and intelligence work, but also from the emotional strain of being young, useful, and never fully safe.

The setting does a lot of work in these books. Aksum and Himyar are not generic ancient kingdoms. Their courts, trade routes, rivalries, and quarantine politics shape every decision. The world feels dry, bright, formal, and sometimes brutal. That sense of place gives the books their texture, and it also makes the stakes feel broader than one household or one throne.

Trust is the real battlefield.

Readers who like historical adventure with real moral weight will find plenty here. The Mark of Solomon books offer coded letters, divided loyalties, family tenderness, court intrigue, and the slow growth of a future king who is still learning where strength ends and vulnerability begins. They are tense books, but also deeply interested in recovery, affection, and the cost of growing up useful to powerful people.