The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Author page

Melanie Rawn

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-10-04

Melanie Rawn was born in 1954 and earned a BA in history from Scripps College. Before becoming a full-time novelist, she worked as a teacher and an editor. She is best known for the Dragon Prince trilogy (1988–1990), an epic fantasy series that established her reputation, followed by the Exiles series, including The Ruins of Ambrai (1994) and The Mageborn Traitor (1997); the trilogy's long-awaited third volume has remained unfinished for decades, a delay Rawn has attributed to her experience with clinical depression, though in 2014 she expressed intent to complete it. She later wrote the Glass Thorns series (2012–2017), and collaborated with fellow fantasy authors Kate Elliott and Jennifer Roberson on the shared-world novel The Golden Key (1996), a richly detailed alternate-history fantasy set in a Renaissance-inspired world. Rawn's fiction is known for intricate political intrigue, large ensemble casts, and immersive worldbuilding. Her work has earned three Locus Award nominations: for Dragon Prince in 1989, for Skybowl in 1994, and for Ruins of Ambrai in 1995. Despite the interruptions in her writing career, Rawn remains a respected and influential figure in modern epic fantasy, admired for the ambition and emotional depth of her multi-volume sagas.

Universe(s)

Dragon Prince

  • Core Canon books: 6
  • Current rank: #300 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.06
  • Award recognitions: 1 nomination

Exiles

  • Core Canon books: 2
  • Current rank: #211 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.11
  • Award recognitions: 1 nomination

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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