Fireborn
#6343.95 adjusted 3.95 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 7 books Status Complete 2013–2025 Reading commitment High Vanessa Ricci-Thode Last reviewed 2026-10-30
Overview
Vanessa Ricci-Thode, a Canadian author based in Waterloo, Ontario, writes a dragon fantasy world in which people with elemental gifts live alongside dragons. The Fireborn series began with Dragon Whisperer in 2013, about Dionelle, who is immune to fire and is made a dragon whisperer, and continues with her descendants, including the fireborn blacksmith Spark. The fifth and final book, Favour Fire, appeared in 2025 and brings in the water-gifted hero-for-hire Tollar, who also stars in The Dragon Next Door. The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts (2024) is a middle-grade adventure that two reviewers place in the same universe. The author publishes the books herself and describes the series as finished.
Epic fantasy, Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (7 works) counts toward ranking
Fireborn Vanessa Ricci-Thode
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dragon Whisperer; First published as an ebook by Iguana Books in 2013; the ISBN is that of the 2023 tenth-anniversary paperback. | 2013 | 1 | core | 4.10 (20 ratings) |
 | Trueflame | 2023 | 2 | core | 4.27 (11 ratings) |
 | Fireborn | 2023 | 3 | core | 4.30 (10 ratings) |
 | Firebound | 2023 | 4 | core | 4.29 (7 ratings) |
 | Favour Fire | 2025 | 5 | core | 4.33 (6 ratings) |
Dragon fantasy following several generations of fire-immune women and their dragons, ending with Favour Fire.
Fireborn companion novels Vanessa Ricci-Thode
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts; Middle-grade novel; placed in the Fireborn world by reviewers and by its series tag at the retailer. | 2024 | 1 | core | 3.77 (44 ratings) |
 | The Dragon Next Door | 2025 | 2 | core | 3.78 (36 ratings) |
Two further novels set in the same dragon-and-wizard world: a Tollar adventure and a middle-grade ghost story.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Fireborn? Fireborn's Core Canon is 7 books.
- What is the reading order for Fireborn? Publication order, starting with Dragon Whisperer. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Fireborn finished? Complete (2013–2025).
- How much reading does Fireborn take? High reading commitment (estimated from 7 Core Canon books).
- How is Fireborn ranked? #634 in this site's official ranking, based on 134 reader ratings across 7 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #634?
Ranked #634 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.95 across 7 core books.
- A smaller readership (134 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.77 to 4.33.
- 0.05 behind #633, The Light Maze.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 7 books · Complete · 134 ratings · Ranks #634 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (7 Core Canon books)
- Dragon Whisperer (2013)
- Fireborn (2023)
- Firebound (2023)
- Trueflame (2023)
- The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts (2024)
- Favour Fire (2025)
- The Dragon Next Door (2025)
Documented internal/story order
- Dragon Whisperer (2013)
- The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts (2024)
- Trueflame (2023)
- The Dragon Next Door (2025)
- Fireborn (2023)
- Firebound (2023)
- Favour Fire (2025)
Awards (verified)
- Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction (Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction), 2025: won: The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts
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Suggestions computed from what Fireborn and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn / Osten Ard Epic fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.10
- Dragonlance Epic fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.09
- Chronicles of Amber Epic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.08
- The Hythrun Chronicles Epic fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.08
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.95 across 134 ratings on 7 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon Extension: Night Huntress, Kitty Norville, Das Geheimnis von Askir, Die uralte Metropole, Le Bâtard de Kosigan, Erdwelt, L'ultimo elfo and Fireborn accepted 2026-10-30
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Thodestool Fiction (author site), Books Tier 2
- Thodestool Fiction, About Tier 2
- Fantastic Fiction, Vanessa Ricci-Thode Tier 2
- History That Never Was review Tier 2
- Metaphorosis review Tier 2
- Amazon US listing title (Fireborn tag), seen only in search result Tier 2
- SFADB Andre Norton Award Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-30
Rule: Core Canon = the five Fireborn novels from Dragon Whisperer (2013) to Favour Fire (2025), plus the companion novels The Dragon Next Door (2025) and The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts (2024); the short story 'Testing the Waters' and non-fiction are excluded.