Read these 15 epic fantasy series about dragons

10. War of the Ancients by Richard A. Knaak

Normally, I wouldn’t go near a video game adaptation for a list like this…but it just so happens that Richard A. Knaak’s Warcraft series, War of the Ancients, is not only a great video game spinoff, but also some of the best dragon books around. There are very few books that bring you inside the mind of a dragon as seamlessly and skillfully as Knaak does in this series, and while there is a prequel book (Day of the Dragon), it’s really not necessary if you just want to dive into the meat of the trilogy.

The premise of these books is that a handful of characters from different backgrounds stumble across a rift that pulls them back in time to a pivotal time in Warcraft history: when the demons of the Burning Legion invaded the world and nearly conquered it. Dragons were a huge part of what kept the elves and other races from falling, so they factor into the trilogy in a huge way.

In case you’re not familiar with Warcraft, it’s set in the world of Azeroth, which is filled with orcs, trolls, elves of different types, dwarves, bull people called Tauren, and more. The dragons are only one creature among many, but War of the Ancients goes out of its way to making them extremely memorable.

A huge part of the reason why this series works so well is Krasus, a.k.a. the dragon Korialstrasz, a character Knaak created specifically for his books who was so popular and beloved that game studio Blizzard eventually added him to the Warcraft canon. Following Krasus, the books take us into the very complex dragon culture that exists in the Warcraft universe, and give a backstory for Deathwing, one of the series’ most memorable antagonists. It also features some truly excellent battle scenes.