The Dragon Knight

#4673.88 of 664 ranked universes · full ranking

Books 9 books Status Complete 1976–2000 Reading commitment High Gordon R. Dickson Last reviewed 2026-09-05

Overview

The Dragon Knight is a complete nine-novel portal-fantasy series by Gordon R. Dickson, following Jim Eckert, a modern graduate student pulled into a parallel fantasy world and transformed into a dragon, who must navigate a mixed cast of dragons, knights, and magical creatures to rescue his fiancee. The opening novel expanded a 1957 short story and won a major genre award; the series was completed before the author's death, with no further installments planned.

Portal fantasy, Comic fantasy · For Adult

Core Canon: Reading Order (9 works) counts toward ranking

The Dragon Knight Gordon R. Dickson

	Work	Year	Internal chron.	Canon	Rating
	The Dragon and the George	1976	1	core	3.90 (6,788 ratings)
	The Dragon Knight	1990	2	core	3.91 (2,098 ratings)
	The Dragon on the Border	1992	3	core	3.83 (1,248 ratings)
	The Dragon at War	1992	4	core	3.88 (1,001 ratings)
	The Dragon, the Earl, and the Troll	1994	5	core	3.83 (859 ratings)
	The Dragon and the Djinn	1996	6	core	3.80 (793 ratings)
	The Dragon and the Gnarly King	1997	7	core	3.85 (663 ratings)
	The Dragon in Lyonesse	1998	8	core	3.86 (633 ratings)
	The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent	2000	9	core	3.91 (590 ratings)

Nine-novel portal-fantasy series (1976-2000) about Jim Eckert, a modern graduate student pulled into a parallel fantasy world and transformed into a dragon, who must navigate a mixed cast of dragons, knights and magical creatures to rescue his fiancee. Opened with a British Fantasy Award-winning novel expanded from a 1957 short story; completed with the ninth volume in 2000, before Dickson's death in 2001, no further installments planned or announced.

Quick answers

• How many books are in The Dragon Knight? The Dragon Knight's Core Canon is 9 books.
• What is the reading order for The Dragon Knight? Publication order, starting with The Dragon and the George. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
• Is The Dragon Knight finished? Complete (1976–2000).
• How much reading does The Dragon Knight take? High reading commitment (estimated from 9 Core Canon books).
• How is The Dragon Knight ranked? #467 of 664 ranked universes on this site, based on 14,673 reader ratings across 9 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.

Why is it ranked #467?

Ranked #467 of 664 ranked universes.

• Average reader rating of 3.88 across 9 core books.
• A smaller readership (14,673 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
• Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 9 rated core books rate within 0.11 of each other.
• Less than 0.01 behind #466, The Shadow (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
• Below the top-10 average of 4.45.

How the ranking works →

Why explore this universe?

Rated · 9 books · Complete · 15k ratings · Ranks #467 overall

Good choice if you want a long-running portal fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.

Reading order

Publication order (9 Core Canon books)

1. The Dragon and the George (1976)
2. The Dragon Knight (1990)
3. The Dragon at War (1992)
4. The Dragon on the Border (1992)
5. The Dragon, the Earl, and the Troll (1994)
6. The Dragon and the Djinn (1996)
7. The Dragon and the Gnarly King (1997)
8. The Dragon in Lyonesse (1998)
9. The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent (2000)

Documented internal/story order

1. The Dragon and the George (1976)
2. The Dragon Knight (1990)
3. The Dragon on the Border (1992)
4. The Dragon at War (1992)
5. The Dragon, the Earl, and the Troll (1994)
6. The Dragon and the Djinn (1996)
7. The Dragon and the Gnarly King (1997)
8. The Dragon in Lyonesse (1998)
9. The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent (2000)

Awards (verified)

• British Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 1977: won: The Dragon and the George

You might also like

Suggestions computed from what The Dragon Knight and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.

• Incarnations of Immortality Epic fantasy / Comic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.02
• Myth Adventures Comic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.02
• The Invisible Library Portal fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 3.97
• Wayward Children Portal fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 3.95

Official resources

• Wikipedia

Research details

Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.88 across 14,673 ratings on 9 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 Dragon Knight (Gordon R. Dickson) accepted 2026-09-05

Sources: (see source tier definitions)

• Dragon Knight (novel series) - Wikipedia Tier 2
• Gordon R. Dickson - Order of Books Tier 3

Last reviewed: 2026-09-05

Rule: Core Canon is the complete nine-book sequence: The Dragon and the George (1976), The Dragon Knight (1990), The Dragon on the Border (1992), The Dragon at War (1992), The Dragon, the Earl, and the Troll (1994), The Dragon and the Djinn (1996), The Dragon and the Gnarly King (1997), The Dragon in Lyonesse (1998), and The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent (2000).

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