Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bloodsick | 2014 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 2 | Dead Spots | 2012 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 3 | Companion Pieces | 2018 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 4 | Trail of Dead | 2013 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 5 | Spell Bond: More Tales From the Old World | 2021 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 6 | Bloodsport | 2025 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 7 | Boundary Crossed | 2015 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 8 | Boundary Lines | 2015 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 9 | Boundary Born | 2016 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 10 | Midnight Curse | 2017 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 11 | Shadow Hunt | 2018 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 12 | Born Magic: The Diary of Scarlett Bernard | 2020 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 13 | Old World War | 2022 | Melissa F. Olson | N/A |
| 14 | Born Magic | 2020 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
The Old World is Melissa F. Olson’s shared supernatural universe, built across more than a decade of novels, novellas, and short story collections. The universe has its own mythology: magic is ancient, tied to the fossil record and the evolution of life, and it produces different kinds of supernatural beings, including vampires, werewolves, witches, nulls, boundary witches, and others. Each region has its own structure of supernatural authority, and the books follow characters navigating those hierarchies from Los Angeles to Boulder to beyond.
The chronology collects the core reading order across the Scarlett Bernard series (seven books), the Boundary Magic series (seven main books plus novellas), the Disrupted Magic trilogy, and connecting short fiction. Reading in this order lets the crossover events and shared characters land with full impact. Characters who appear briefly in one series become central in another, and the later books in both main series reference events from across the universe.
The chronology is especially useful for readers who have already read one series and want to know where to jump into the others without spoiling themselves. Olson has been open on her website about which books can be skipped without losing the main narrative threads, but the short fiction and novellas reward readers who want the full picture of how the Old World fits together.