Nancy Farmer

Nancy Farmer grew up in a hotel near the Mexico-Arizona border, here she worked the switchboard when she was just nine. She found the time to hang out in the old state prison as well as the hobo jungle along the banks of the Colorado River. In 1963, she got her BA from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

The best place to start is the Sea of Trolls series, the earliest of Nancy Farmer's multi-book series: it opens with The Sea of Trolls (2004) and runs to 3 books across 2004–2009, ending with The Islands of the Blessed (2009).

Nancy Farmer has 58 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1985 and 2025. 46 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being the Sea of Trolls series with 3 books — and 12 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Nancy Farmer's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Matteo Alacran (2002–2013, 2 books) and Sea of Trolls (2004–2009, 3 books).

This guide splits Nancy Farmer's 58 books into 3 named series and 12 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Sea of Trolls (3 books, 2004–2009); Matteo Alacran (2 books, 2002–2013); L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future (41 books, 1985–2025).