Aliette de Bodard Books In Order

Publication Order of Obsidian and Blood Books

Publication Order of Dominion of the Fallen Books

Publication Order of Dragons and Blades Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Xuya Universe Books

Publication Order of Xuya Universe Romance Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Aliette de Bodard is an American author of fiction. She was born in the United States but was raised in the city of Paris in France. Although she was raised by her parents in France and speaks French as her primary language, she speaks English as well which she learned at the insistence of her parents.

Her first book is titled Servant of the Underworld and was published in 2010. It is the first of three books in the Obsidian and Blood Trilogy, followed by Harbinger of the Storm published in 2011 and the final book Master of the House of Darts, published the same year. An omnibus of the trilogy was published in 2012.

She also wrote the Universe of Xuya series, consisting of On a Red Station, Drifting (published in 2012) and The Citadel of Weeping Pearls (2017). She has also written the Dominion of the Fallen series, with four novels in the series that include the first book Of Books, and Earth, and Courtship, with later novels The House of Shattered Wings and the follow-up, The House of Binding Thorns rounding it out.

She is the winner of the British Science Fiction Association Best Book Award for her 2015 novel, The House of Shattered Wings. Aliette de Bodard is also the author of the novellas Lullaby for a Lost World and has worked on a number of collections, including Dark Currents, Scattered Among Strange Worlds, and more.

Servant of the Underworld is the first in the Obsidian and Blood trilogy series. It takes place in Tenochtitlan, well known for being the capital of the thriving Aztec empire. The year is Year One-Knife. The main character is named Ceyaxochitl, and she happens to be the second in command when it comes to the Mexica Empire.

Acatl-tzin is a High Priest of the Dead and he operates as a person of importance in a world where the people believe that the end of the world can only be offset by using human sacrifice. When he is interrupted right in the smack dab middle of a ceremony for a dead noble that is intended to ease his passage to the Underworld, Ceyaxochitl requests that he attend to the scene of a crime.

A Priestess has gone missing from her empty chambers and all that remains behind is a tremendous amount of blood in addition to the smell of Jagua magic. Ceyaxochitl would normally handle the investigation of the murder or at least the abduction herself, but she has a lot on her plate at the moment dealing with the matters of the empire. Not only that, the prime suspect they have for the crime is the estranged brother of Acatl, so it only makes sense to have the high priest in charge of the investigation and hopefully finding the priestess.

It’s up to the high priest to find this woman or else risk having the boundaries between the world of the living and the dead be broken down with all chaos to break loose– and potentially face the end of the world. Since his counterpart is very busy with her official duties, Acatl must take over. Fortunately, his relationship with the supernatural and the Underworld means that he will be able to use his magical abilities to look into the case and find answers that others would not otherwise be able to.

But Acatl suspects that his warrior brother might be behind it all, and he’s going to need to confront their past where his parents shunned him for wanting to be a priest and their status as enemies if he will be able to find out if it is true. When the investigation gets even more complicated he must take on the confident Teomitl as an aide. With a society plagued by power struggles and imbalance and even gods walking among them, everything is uncertain.

In this world, women are too old at thirty-five and must take a husband or become priestesses. They are still below men even while being in the priesthood, while men who go to war are held up high in regard in the culture and even awarded courtesans.

Through it all, Acatl must search the person responsible for the disappearance of the priestess Eleuia while everything and everyone else seems to be pursuing their own interests. This fantasy set in the heart of Mesoamerica in a very specific time involves blood magic, death, mystery, and the entry into an exciting and somewhat historical world full of political intrigue and drama that is lush in its detail. Read this book for yourself to see how the mystery turns out!

Harbinger of the Storm is the second book in the Obsidian and Blood series. This sequel is also set in the Aztec empire in a world that is again teetering on the brink of going completely extinct. The main character is once more Acatl, who remains the High Priest of the Dead in Tenochtitlan. He works as the keeper of the boundaries between the living and the dead and works also as a coroner and director of funerals when he needs to.

Still humble and quiet, Acatl has grown accustomed to his duties and is fresh off solving a mystery involving the disappearance of the high priestess and magic. Now he has a new problem on his hands when a nobleman who is very high ranking– The Revered Speaker, the ruler of Tenochtitlan– turns up dead. Not only dead but ripped up into pieces thanks to an invocation. Not only that, another council member turns up dead, looking like murder, and more deaths follow after that.

Acatl has to get involved because the killer has violated the ancient barriers by using forbidden magic that has huge consequences. Not only that, but it’s starting to look like the person who cast the spell belongs to the court. Now he must find the killer and save the area from the chaos and even the apocalypse of demons unfolding from this forbidden magic.

This fifteenth-century Aztec murder mystery follows the basics of a fictional Aztec society and how the people interact with the gods and goddesses, who depend on people for their devotion but also manipulate them to suit their own agendas, even if he would prefer that they stay out of it and had no thirst for human blood through sacrifice in the first place. Can Acatl solve the mystery? We’re about to find out, and see Acatl tackle one last hurdle in the final book, Master of the House of Darts