The Towers of the Earth Books in Order

The Towers of the Earth is Nita Round's biggest steampunk fantasy canvas, the kind with airships, towers, old prophecies, and a world that keeps getting larger the deeper you go. At the center are three women who end up bound together by danger and by design: Magda Stoner, an airship captain who would rather act than brood; Lucinda Ravensburgh, a truthsayer whose gift makes touching the wrong object a serious event; and Ascara, the warrior who often has to hold the line when everything else starts to fall apart.

The real engine of the series is the trinity they form.

That bond gives the books their shape. A Hint of Hope lays some groundwork, but A Touch of Truth is where the main line really locks in, with missing people, a bloody mystery, and a silver brooch that changes everything. From there the series pushes outward into deserts, port cities, clan lands, and tower strongholds. The world has room for guns and cannons, but magic is just as important, and often far more dangerous.

What makes the setting work is that it never feels like decoration. Port Ruth, Gidhera, the sands, the towers, and the decks of an airship all matter because the characters have to make choices inside them. Magda's past keeps catching up with her. Lucinda's connection to truth and tower magic pulls her toward responsibilities she cannot dodge. Ascara carries the weight of home, clan, and protection. The wider story keeps asking whether these three can become what the prophecy needs before the world runs out of time.

The tone is adventurous, but it is not lightweight. There are mysteries to solve, betrayals to survive, and old enemies that refuse to stay buried. There is also a steady emotional thread running underneath all the action. The books care about how these women trust one another, fail one another, and keep choosing to come back. That is why the series rewards reading in order. The plot escalates, but so do the relationships.

Read it for the airships, but stay for the people.

If you want a clean label, steampunk fantasy is the obvious one, but the series also borrows from epic quest fiction, mystery, and magical adventure. It moves fast, yet it still finds time for world-building and for the slow tightening of the central trio. By the later books, the stakes are far beyond one city or one tower. Even so, the heart of the series stays simple: three women, each carrying a different piece of strength, trying to become enough together to face what none of them could survive alone.