The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End
#1744.14 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 1982–2000 Reading commitment Low Robin McKinley Last reviewed 2026-09-29
Overview
Robin McKinley's two-novel fantasy of the desert kingdom of Damar (Greenwillow Books, 1982-1984). The Blue Sword follows Angharad "Harry" Crewe, an orphaned Homelander girl swept into the Hillfolk's war against the Northern horde; The Hero and the Crown, an internal-chronology prequel published two years later, tells the earlier story of Aerin, the half-Damarian princess who becomes the legendary figure Harry hears of centuries on. Aerin, shunned in her own kingdom over rumors about her foreign mother, teaches herself swordsmanship and rediscovers a lost fire-proofing ointment, using both to battle the great dragon Maur and, eventually, an evil sorcerer threatening Damar itself. The Hero and the Crown won the 1985 Newbery Medal, with McKinley crediting the two books' appeal to letting her write female protagonists who could have traditionally heroic, dragon-fighting adventures "without requiring me to be untrue to my gender," a stance widely credited with helping open space for action-driven heroines in children's and YA fantasy.
Epic fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Chronicles of Damar Robin McKinley
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Hero and the Crown | 1984 | 1 | core | 4.21 (55,592 ratings) |
 | The Blue Sword | 1982 | 2 | core | 4.20 (63,629 ratings) |
Internal chronology is settled, not disputed, despite running counter to publication order: The Hero and the Crown (pub. 1984) is an internal-chronology prequel to The Blue Sword (pub. 1982) -- Aerin, its protagonist, is already a centuries-old legendary figure within The Blue Sword's own story. internal chronology values reflect story order (1=earliest), not publication order. Registered as a duology (2 books, no further Damar novels published or announced in over 40 years) per the duology enum value's intended use.
Spindle's End (2000) core · 3.82 (25,524 ratings); G. P. Putnam's Sons, May 2000. A retelling of Sleeping Beauty set in another country of the same world as Damar: the novel refers to Damar and to Harimad-sol as historical events, per its encyclopedic entry.
Library / Expanded (4 works)
The Healer (1982) ; Short story set in Damar; collected in Imaginary Lands (1985) / A Knot in the Grain (1994).
The Stagman (1984) ; Short story set in Damar; collected in A Knot in the Grain (1994).
The Stone Fey (1998) ; Short story set in Damar.
A Pool in the Desert (2004) ; Short story set in Damar.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End? The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End's Core Canon is 3 books, plus 4 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End? Publication order, starting with The Hero and the Crown. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End finished? Complete (1982–2000).
- How much reading does The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~910 pages).
- How is The Chronicles of Damar / Spindle's End ranked? #174 in this site's official ranking, based on 144,745 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #174?
Ranked #174 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.14 across 3 core books.
- Backed by 145k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #173, Memories of Idhún (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 3 books · Complete · 145k ratings · Ranks #174 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Blue Sword (1982)
- The Hero and the Crown (1984)
- Spindle's End (2000)
Documented internal/story order: 2 of 3 Core Canon books
- The Hero and the Crown (1984)
- The Blue Sword (1982)
Internal chronology is documented for 2 of 3 Core Canon books; the remaining 1 are not yet mapped onto the same ordinal scale.
Awards (verified)
- Newbery Medal (Honor Book), 1983: honor: The Blue Sword
- Newbery Medal (Medal (winner)), 1985: won: The Hero and the Crown
Related universes
- Same author Deerskin: Both created by Robin McKinley. Deerskin (a dark, unnamed generic-kingdom fairy-tale retelling) was confirmed a wholly separate setting from The Chronicles of Damar (an invented desert-fantasy world) at Deerskin's own admission, no shared characters or continuity.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.14 across 144,745 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Chronicles of Damar admitted; Core Canon = both Damar novels accepted 2026-08-07
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia -- Robin McKinley Tier 2
- Wikipedia -- The Blue Sword Tier 2
- Wikipedia -- The Hero and the Crown Tier 2
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-29
Rule: Core Canon = the two Damar novels, The Blue Sword (1982) and The Hero and the Crown (1984), registered as a duology, and Spindle's End (2000), a standalone set in another country of the same world. Internal chronology of the duology is settled: The Hero and the Crown's events precede The Blue Sword's. 4 Damar-set short stories are registered Expanded as companion material.