The Highest House Books in Order

The Highest House is Mike Carey and Peter Gross returning to fantasy in a more old-world mode, but the story still has the same interest in systems, power, and survival that runs through so much of Carey's work. It begins with Moth, a boy sold into slavery and taken to the vast palace called the Highest House, where every level hides its own routines, hierarchies, dangers, and secrets.

Moth is not alone for long.

Inside his head is a voice, ancient, sharp, and possibly helpful, belonging to a being trapped deep within the stones of the House itself. That gives the series both its immediate mystery and its strange intimacy. The setting is huge, but the story is experienced through one frightened, observant child trying to understand what kind of place has swallowed him.

The comic mixes court intrigue, myth, labour, religion, and architecture into something that feels both fairy-tale old and politically concrete. The palace matters because it is a machine of power as much as a fantasy landmark. People work there, suffer there, scheme there, and disappear there.

If you like secondary-world fantasy that feels thoughtful rather than bombastic, and that trusts atmosphere as much as battle scenes, The Highest House is a strong late-career Carey project.