Raetian Tales Books in Order

The Raetian Tales sit in a very different corner of Diane Duane's work. These books lean into historical atmosphere, mountain folklore, and the feeling that the land itself is listening.

The first story follows Mariarta, a young woman from a remote Alpine village whose life changes when strange voices begin speaking in the wind. What starts as private unease turns into a curse on her community, a search across Raetia, and a much larger fight over who, or what, is trying to claim her.

That makes the series feel both intimate and wide at the same time. On one level, it is about one girl trying to save her family, understand her heritage, and keep hold of herself. On another, it is about old powers, old grudges, and a country under outside pressure. The political backdrop matters here. So does the texture of village life, travel, weather, and belief.

The tone is more folkloric than the Young Wizards books and more earthy than Duane's Star Trek fiction. Magic feels dangerous, half-hidden, and tangled up with place. The mountains matter. The wind matters. Local customs matter.

If that is your kind of fantasy, this page is a good stop. Expect a coming-of-age story with curses, storms, and a strong sense of landscape, but also a book that keeps one foot in history and one in myth.

It has a colder, stranger mood than a lot of her better-known work, and that is part of the appeal.