This Beloved 6-Book Fantasy Series Has a Protagonist Unlike Anything Else in the Genre

Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin can’t get enough of the fire-breathing dragons that serve as House Targaryen’s source of power. While there is no denying that Martin’s dragons are well-realized in his world—acting as a stand-in for divine right to rule and the mutual destructive capabilities of nuclear weapons—they do feel less impactful than other dragons from fantasy fiction. A big reason is that Martin wanted them to feel more “natural,” limiting them to four limbs because that’s closer to a real animal, and though they have intelligence, they are far from the cunning intellect of Smaug from J. R. R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit. Again, this approach fits the deconstruction of classical fantasy that Martin was going for, but it does leave a lot to be desired.

If one is interested in another series that combines dragons and politics, the place to look is E. E. Knight’s Age of Fire books. Released between 2005 and 2011, they are a series of xenobiology books set in a fantasy world populated by humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, and orcs-like beings called blighters. Sounds pretty standard, right? Except that the series is told entirely from the dragon’s point of view, which not only provides a new perspective, but it also presents a radically original approach to the genre that few other books have ever attempted.

What Are the ‘Age of Fire’ Books About?

The first book, Dragon Champion, begins with the birth of five dragon hatchlings: one red-scaled male, one copper-scaled male, one gray male lacking scales, and two green-scaled females. We immediately get our first look into the alien nature of dragons when we see, from the perspective of the gray male AuRon, that the males are compelled to fight to the death until only one is left. AuRon and the copper male team up to slay the red one, then the Copper falls out of the nest, surviving as an outcast while the parent dragons tend to AuRon and his sisters, Wistala and Jizara.

Their lives change forever when a group of dwarves aided by a human dragon hunter called the Dragonblade attacks their nest. Jizara and both of the parent dragons are killed, and the three surviving siblings are separated. From there, each of the first three books is dedicated to the chronicles of one sibling. AuRon travels the world as a wild dragon, making allies among beasts and sentient species, and learning all that he can about dragon history and their weaknesses. Wistala is adopted by an elderly elf named Rainfall and becomes involved in human and dwarf conspiracies as she tries to avenge her family. Finally, the Copper makes his way to the lower world and arrives at the Lavadome, an underground society of dragons full of political intrigue and power-grabbing, where he is given the name RuGaard.

This singular approach by Knight does a great job not only fleshing out each of the three protagonists, but also shifting the audience’s perspective with each book. AuRon’s narrative shows the world at its most base level, with him wandering between territories and interacting with humanoids only when needed; thus, his book is fully immersive in the dragon’s POV. Wistala then switches things up by focusing more on the humanoids and taking place in a more central location, allowing audiences to get to know some of the people of the world better and contrasting how dragons and humanoids view the world. Finally, the Copper spends the most time among other dragons, letting us see what a society of dragons would look like, and how it’s both similar and different to the humanoid ones.

‘Age of Fire’ Goes Hard Into Dragon Biology

Image via Roc Books

At their core, the Age of Fire dragons come from the classic Western Dragon of European mythologies. They are six-limbed reptilian creatures that live to advanced ages, have powerful scales that can repel most mundane weapons, breathe fire, hoard treasure, and are often found terrorizing the more humanoid races. What makes them stand out is the amount of detail Knight put into their biology. They don’t just collect treasure because it’s pretty, for example—they need to eat metal on a regular basis to keep their scales healthy and durable; otherwise, they become brittle and can fall off. The exception is gray dragons like AuRon, whose softer skin has chameleon-like properties to make up for their lack of protection. They also exhibit strong sexual dimorphism similar to birds, with male dragons possessing scales that include red, blue, copper, black, white, and gold, while females are always green.

Concerning dragon fire, it follows a trend in fantasy that began with the 2002 post-apocalyptic film Reign of Fire, which designed the dragons with two vents in their mouths that produce flame via biological combustion. In Age of Fire, fire is achieved via foua, a fatty substance that dragons spit and ignite into a sort of napalm. Knight’s dragons hatch from the egg with their wings beneath their skin, and it’s not until they reach about fifteen years old that the wings grow large enough to burst from their back. It’s a novel choice that isn’t done often when depicting six-limbed dragons in fantasy stories, offering a fun alternative to just slapping the wings onto the forearms like a bat.

Knight also does a great job of placing the reader inside the head of a dragon. They are sentient creatures, incredibly diverse in their personalities and interests, but there are a few things they have in common, mainly their species-wise superiority complex. Due to being the most physically impressive of the sentient races, all dragons have an in-built belief that they are destined to rule over others. Their long lives also mean that, in-between chapters, readers get to learn that their humanoid companions have reached advanced ages or even died, while the dragons feel like barely any time has passed. It all works together to make the dragons feel truly alien to the human mind, rather than the literary equivalent to humans in draconic costumes.

Political Intrigue Shapes Dragons and Non-Dragons Alike

Image via Roc Books

The last thing that makes Age of Fire such a compelling read is how it handles dragon politics and their reach in the wider world. At first, it feels more localized, either to the immediate territories around AuRon’s lair, the humans and dwarves Wistala interacts with, or the dragons of the Lavadome, who would feel right at home in Martin’s world with all the backstabbing, secret alliances, and political marriages they partake in. Each of the siblings enacts their schemes in different ways, but the Copper’s methods are the ones that feel the most like A Song of Ice and Fire. Due to multiple injuries in his youth that leave him half-blind, limited in his ability to use fire, and unable to fly without support, he immerses himself in the system and has an ambitious climb that even Petyr Baelish would acknowledge as impressive.

The complexity and scope of the politics only increase as the series goes on. Beginning with book four, Dragon Strike, the formula changes. Instead of one POV per book, the last three alternate between the siblings each chapter, while the scope of draconic ambition becomes truly global. Plans decades in the making come to fruition, new powers rise, and seemingly unimportant people turn out to have been masterminds all along. It does come at the cost of the interesting xenobiology and smaller stories of the earlier books, but still makes for an interesting journey.

In the end, Age of Fire is far from the juggernaut that other fantasy IPs are, but fans of the genre looking for something new and refreshing to read may find it right up their alley. Knight presents his dragons as biologically plausible while still existing in a fantasy setting, giving them plenty of unique characters and ambitions. Not to mention, it’s interesting to see a world where dragons are not just ancient monsters detached from mortal affairs, but political movers and shakers who can lead to the rise and fall of entire nations.