“What are Dave Duncan’s Best Books?” We looked at all of Duncan’s authored bibliography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the books written by Dave Duncan and looked at their Goodreads, Amazon, and LibraryThing scores, ranking them against one another to see which books came out on top. The books are ranked in our list below based on which titles have the highest overall score between all 3 review sites in comparison with all of the other books by the same author. The process isn’t super scientific and in reality, most books aren’t “better” than other books as much as they are just different. That being said, we do enjoy seeing where our favorites landed, and if you aren’t familiar with the author at all, the rankings can help you see what books might be best to start with.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

The Top Book’s Of Dave Duncan

62 ) The Speaker and the Saints

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 61
• Amazon: 61
• LibraryThing: 61

…

61 ) Hero!

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 60
• Amazon: 58
• LibraryThing: 60

Space opera at its finest and most action-filled, from the bestselling author of fantasy quests, epic tales and swashbuckling adventures. Vaun, born a peasant in the stinking mud flats of Ult, a thriving colony planet, claws his way to survival and fame by becoming the toughest young officer in the …

60 ) King of Swords

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 56
• Amazon: 52
• LibraryThing: 54

Rigel has always known he is not quite human, but the only clue to his origin is the otherworldly bracelet he has worn since childhood. His search for his parentage leads him to the Starlands, where reality and fantasy have changed places. There he learns that he is a human-starborn cross, and his b…

59 ) Pillar of Darkness

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 62
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 61

Two hundred miles wide and higher than the moon, Sungoback has stood over central Africa for thirty years, a pillar of light by night and of darkness by day. Science cannot explain it; it destroys technology. What secret lies at its centre: aliens, eternal life, distant past, or far future? Most who…

58 ) Against the Light

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 57
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 58

The Hierarchy, high priests of the religious order the Light, rules both the magical kingdom of Albi and its religion. Worshippers in the old ways of the Earth Mother, clandestinely scattered throughout the land, are persecuted as heretics. And when missionary student Rollo Woodbridge returns to his…

57 ) Speak to the Devil

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 58
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 59

A new adventure of brotherhood and magic from beloved fantasist Dave Duncan In the Kingdom of Jorgary, the days of feudal chivalry are fading as national armies are formed. But Ottokar Magnus is still baron, and his host of brothers include Anton, an ambitious young soldier, and Wulfgang, an amiable…

56 ) Wildcatter

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 53
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 52

As long as there is money to be made, there will be Wildcatters – Dave Duncan Throughout human history wildcatters, the first great explorers and prospectors to lay claim to newly discovered lands, have marched to the beat of a different drummer – motivated by a deep yearning to be the first to walk…

55 ) Strings

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 49
• Amazon: 50
• LibraryThing: 45

Alya’s hunches were never wrong. So the scientists of 4-I were happy to promise her a place in the next offworld colonization team if she agreed to assess the potential of the latest worlds they had discovered. Then she met Cedric, the grandson of 4-I’s brilliant and tyrannical director, and for the…

53 ) Demon Sword

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 39
• Amazon: 47
• LibraryThing: 56

All of Europe is under the control of the Khan, whose conquering armies swept across the West in 1244. Scotland, in addition, lies under the heel of England. Young Toby Strangerson, a half-English bastard, reared by a witchwife, wants only to shed his hated “Sassenach” blood and free his beloved hig…

53 ) The Jaguar Knights

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 50
• Amazon: 47
• LibraryThing: 45

From Publishers Weekly In his latest energetic fantasy set in the medieval land of Chivial (after 2003’s Impossible Odds), Canadian author Duncan provides a feast of sword and sorcery, mystery and romance, featuring knights whose wits and words are as sharp as their edged weapons. Sir Wolf, known as…

52 ) Irona 700

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 51
• Amazon: 56
• LibraryThing: 30

Fantasy at its most enchanting: An original and absorbing tale from a master storyteller about the profound effects of a single life on the battle against ultimate evil It is Midsummer Day, the beginning of the year 700, in the city of Benign. All the children born in the year 684 celebrate their jo…

51 ) Past Imperative

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 42
• Amazon: 60
• LibraryThing: 31

…

49 ) The Eye of Strife

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 47
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 43

Sword fights and romance, miracles and mystery, treachery and sly humor…. A god summons a curious assortment of witnesses to his temple to testify on what they know about a jewel that was lost 1,000 years ago. At least one of them is guilty. Others are lying…. Dave Duncan at his devious best….

49 ) The Alchemist’s Apprentice

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 48
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 42

For the legendary Nostradamus, the future is a mystical vortex forever in motion. But for his young apprentice and protector, Alfeo Zeno, the present is spent poring over astrology charts, making calculations, learning arcane magic, and transcribing Nostradamus’s nebulous prophecies.Then the Council…

48 ) Pock’s World

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 58
• Amazon: 22
• LibraryThing: 45

A commission of five people, each with their own motives and agendas, is dispatched on an interstellar visit to Pock’s World to determine and advise whether it should be destroyed….

47 ) Silvercloak

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 40
• Amazon: 52
• LibraryThing: 31

…

46 ) Demon Knight

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 35
• Amazon: 56
• LibraryThing: 31

Demons on Loan When the Scottish outlaw Tobias Longdirk used gramarye, or magic, to defeat the Fiend, he did more than save Europe from abject slavery. He made himself the most feared and most envied man in all Italy. Now, with the hordes poised once more to sweep down over the Alps, Toby and his fr…

45 ) Shadow

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 38
• Amazon: 27
• LibraryThing: 52

Sald Harl would like nothing more than to soar on the wings of his noble eagle, but his youthful rides in the sky are cut short by an appointment to guard the prince. Sald watches his dreams of flight fade with his name and independence as he takes over his bodyguard duties. During a perilous journe…

44 ) Children of Chaos

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 51
• Amazon: 27
• LibraryThing: 38

On a dodecahedral world in thrall to the tyrannical, war-obsessed Hrag dynasty, no one could stop the Bloodlord from sending troops over the Edge to Florengia, invading its major cities, and offering them a choice between strict colonial rule and immediate and total destruction. When the doge of Cel…

42 ) Portal of a Thousand Worlds

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 29
• Amazon: 27
• LibraryThing: 55

The looming threat of a once-in-a-millennium magical event sends nineteenth-century China into violent chaos in this epic alternate-history fantasy. Author of the Seventh Sword series Dave Duncan transports us to Imperial China in an alternate nineteenth century – an Asian epoch not unlike the Boxer…

42 ) Ill Met in the Arena

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 45
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 26

The nobles of Aureity have been breeding their children for psychic powers for generations. Women’s powers are mental, including psychic control and mind-reading, making them ideal rulers. Men have superhuman strength and can teleport to any place they have previously visited. Consequently, young no…

41 ) Sir Stalwart

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 43
• Amazon: 22
• LibraryThing: 44

Expelled from Ironhall, the academy for training the king’s blades, young Stalwart faces a lonely battle for survival against sorcery, swordplay, and sinister plots as he seeks to save his king and prove himself a worthy servant….

40 ) Future Indefinite

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 32
• Amazon: 52
• LibraryThing: 24

Edward Exeter assumes the mantle of Liberator in the strange, alternate world called Nextdoor–a far-flung outpost of British imperialism where earthborn mortals possess the powers of gods. His decision has made him the target of betrayals and murderous plots. But Exeter has learned the Game well in…

39 ) Queen of Stars

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 36
• Amazon: 22
• LibraryThing: 49

Rigel has found a new home and new love in the Starlands, the magical realm responsible for his half-human, half-elfin heritage. But despite ridding the kingdom of horrific monsters and using his unequaled swordsmanship to help a new queen ascend to the throne, he has no time to savor these early vi…

38 ) A Rose-Red City

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 55
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 39

The city of Mera is a fortress hidden from the rest of humanity, a sanctuary for the diverse group of people rescued from death by the Oraclethat rules the city. The Oracle has brought together the citizens of Merafrom every land and every time period, protecting them from the ravages oftime, death …

37 ) The Runner and the Saint

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 32
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 39

Earl Malcolm has reason to fear the ferocious Northmen raiders of the Western Isles are going to attack the land of Alba, so he sends Ivor on a desperate mission with a chest of silver to buy them off. But the situation Ivor finds when he reaches the Wolf’s Lair is even worse than he was led to expe…

36 ) Daughter of Troy

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 41
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 50

The rightful-born queen of Lyrnessos, Briseis watched helplessly from the battlements as her husband and brothers were crushed by the invincible army of King Agamemnon. Taken into slavery, the proud, beautiful seer became the prize of Prince Achilles, the conquering Greeks’ mightiest hero. But passi…

35 ) Demon Rider

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 36
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 56

…

34 ) The Runner and the Wizard

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 19
• Amazon: 47
• LibraryThing: 28

Young Ivor dreams of being a swordsman like his nine older brothers, but until he can grow a beard he’s limited to being a runner, carrying messages for their lord, Thane Carrak. That’s usually boring, but this time Carrak has sent him on a long journey to summon the mysterious Rorie of Ytter. Rorie…

32 ) The Crooked House

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 44
• Amazon: 1
• LibraryThing: 48

Sir Stalwart and Emerald set off for an ancient lord’s house known as Smealey Hall, where they believe the source of evil–in the form of murder–lies, and along the way they are joined by Badger, a Blade-in-training….

32 ) Mother of Lies

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 45
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 36

The past fifteen years have not been kind to Celebre, the greatest city on the Florengian face of a dodecahedral world. Its walls have been breached and its Doge humiliated by the evil Bloodlord Stralg; all four of its heirs kidnapped and taken over the Edge to Vigaelia; its Dogaressa forcibly impre…

31 ) When the Saints

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 53
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 27

When we left the Brothers Magnus, they had assembled in Cardice to help Anton Magnus defend the castle from attack by a neighboring state with a significant military advantage and several officers who at any moment could request help from saints – or, depending on your perspective, from the devil. B…

30 ) The Hunter’s Haunt

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 17
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 35

Taking refuge from a blinding blizzard at the Hunter’s Haunt, Omar, the Trader of Tales, is in danger of being thrown out by the innkeeper unless he can top the tall tales of all the other guests….

29 ) Upland Outlaws

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 14
• Amazon: 50
• LibraryThing: 17

This sequel to “The Cutting Edge” sees Shandie, the rightful Imperor, having escaped the clutches of his enemies, but the power-mad Zinixo has placed a magical substitute on the throne. Enter Colvin – the greatest concentration of magic Pandemia has ever known….

28 ) The Living God

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 7
• Amazon: 52
• LibraryThing: 21

The sorcerer Zinixo had declared himself the Almighty, and none could doubt that the end of the era was at hand. Not for a thousand years had the world known upheaval on such a scale. Not since the War of the Five Warlocks had disaster and destruction wielded so free a hand across Pandemia. Goblin h…

27 ) Eocene Station

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 21
• Amazon: 22
• LibraryThing: 36

K. N. “Cannon” Ball and his superstar wife, Tempest, are running for their lives. Cannon has exposed a fraud so huge even heads of government are implicated and determined to keep Cannon from ever testifying. Nowhere is safe, so they step out of time to a research station 50 million years in the pas…

26 ) Faery Lands Forlorn

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 10
• Amazon: 58
• LibraryThing: 8

Inos, the late king’s daughter, had been kidnapped through the magic casement even as the Impish legions overrunning her tiny kingdom were storming the castle tower. Now she was a prisoner in a desert land ruled by a dockside whore with a talent for magic and a passion for politics. She little dream…

25 ) The Destiny of the Sword

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 8
• Amazon: 61
• LibraryThing: 6

The Riddle of the Goddess Wallie Smith had been dying on another world when the Goddess transferred his mind to the body of the barbarian swordsman Shonsu. Then She gave him the great, magical Sapphire Sword of Chioxin and sent him on a mission. All he had to do was to lead the arrogant band of swor…

24 ) Sky of Swords

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 25
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 16

The mightiest swordsmen in the relm, are bound by magic to defend their noble wards…to the death. The King’s Blades The unloved child of the unscrupulous King Ambrose,Princess Malinda learned at an early age to fight for what was rightfully hers. Now, with the Kings abrupt death, civil war has bec…

23 ) The Reaver Road

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 30
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 34

…

22 ) The Reluctant Swordsman

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 17
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 17

The last thing Wallie Smith remembered was a fog of hospitals, grim-faced doctors, and pain. So when he woke in the body of a barbarian swordsman, attended by a beautiful slave girl and a wizened old priest nattering about the Goddess, he assumed it was a fever-dream….

21 ) One Velvet Glove

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 3
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 51

The Tales of the King’s Blades continues… . So what happens next? Sir Rhys, Sir Sharp, and Sir Trusty – three of the world’s greatest swordsmen – are released from the Royal Guard in their twenties with no pension, no job, and no money. Rhys’s father is the great Blade hero, Sir Spender, who finds…

19 ) The Death of Nnanji

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 21
• Amazon: 33
• LibraryThing: 11

Those who read and enjoyed the original three-volume series, THE SEVENTH SWORD, will remember that the original trilogy presents a series of surprising endings, especially in the third volume. In order to avoid spoilers, the author has chosen to skirt some issues central to those volumes in the desc…

19 ) The Alchemist’s Pursuit

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 28
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 25

Hampered by arthritis, Nostradamus is in no mood for granting favors or running about looking for trouble. But when his apprentice Alfeo’s mistress asks him to investigate the murder of her beloved courtesan mentor – and promises a fortune in payment – he comes around. It appears that someone is mur…

18 ) Impossible Odds

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 23
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 28

Elite warrior swordsmen, they are unequalled in any time or realm . . . The King’s Blades The King has decreed that new Blades must be sworn into the service of the Grand Duke Rubin, deposed by a foul usurper and currently on the run. But none of the rough youths being readied at Ironhall possess th…

16 ) The Cutting Edge

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 13
• Amazon: 27
• LibraryThing: 21

Beautiful Queen Inos married the loyal stableboy Rap and made him her king. They were very much in love, and they lived happily ever after. Fifteen years went by Rap and Inos were comfortable, secure, and truly happy, raising their family in the little backwater kingdom of Krasnegar, well removed fr…

16 ) The Gilded Chain

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 19
• Amazon: 27
• LibraryThing: 15

Sir Durendal, the leader of the King’s Blades, the finest swordsmen in the magical land of Chivial, embarks on a quest for a glorious treasure that lies behind the walls of an ancient, isolated city where danger and death are everywhere….

15 ) Magic Casement

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 8
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 11

When her idyllic life in her father’s kingdom is disrupted by the appearance of a god strongly advising that she wed soon, Princess Inos leaves her friend, Rap, exiling herself to the Impire where she begins her training for marriage….

12 ) Lord of the Fire Lands

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 23
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 21

Having just finished five years of training to become deadly “blades”–the finest swordsmen in the land–Wasp and Raider refuse to bind themselves to the king during the graduation ceremonies and become outlaws and head for the dreaded “Fire Lands” to redeem themselves in battle….

12 ) West of January

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 26
• Amazon: 27
• LibraryThing: 3

West of January tells the story of a world where time moves very slowly. On the planet Vernier the sun creeps across the sky, returning to the same point every two hundred years. It takes a lifetime for each region of the planet to experience dawn, midday and dusk. The ramifications for the inhabita…

12 ) Present Tense

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 34
• Amazon: 2
• LibraryThing: 20

A masterful world-builder and award-winning fantasist nonpareil, DAVE DUNCAN carries us through the hidden portals that link two war-wounded worlds…into a miraculous realm where mortals become gods. THE GREAT GAME IS AFOOT! In the midst of the horror of the first World War, a stranger falls from n…

11 ) The Alchemist’s Code

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 30
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 13

The legendary Maestro Nostradamus may be able to glimpse the ever-changing future, but even he cannot see the danger that is about to envelop him and his daring apprentice Alfeo when Nostradamus is hired to find a foreign spy by Venice’s ruling Council of Ten. The only clues they can offer him are t…

10 ) Perilous Seas

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 6
• Amazon: 40
• LibraryThing: 8

…

9 ) Ironfoot

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 4
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 39

Medieval magic, murder, and mayhem! It is 1164, and for a hundred years England has been ruled by the Normans. A young Saxon boy named Durwin, crippled by a childhood accident, had caught the eye of a Norman sage teaching at a rural school of magic. Realizing that the boy had promise, Durwin was mad…

8 ) Paragon Lost

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 26
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 7

Over time, many legends have emerged from the shadows of Ironhall. Now one new Blade towers above his brother in arms: Sir Beaumont. His heart is the strongest and most pure and his mind is as keen, swift, and accurate as his sword. A glorious future seems predestined for young Beau on the day he se…

7 ) The Coming of Wisdom

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 11
• Amazon: 22
• LibraryThing: 10

The Goddess had rescued Wallie Smith from certain death, endowed him with a magnificent new body, and gifted him with the legendary Sapphire Sword of Chioxin. She asked only one service in return……

5 ) The Stricken Field

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 11
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 13

The mad dwarf Zinixo overthrows the Impire and proclaims himself almighty, but Rap, stableboy-turned-sorcerer-turned-king, is determined to wield all the magic required to topple the demented tyrant. Reprint. K. PW….

5 ) The Cursed

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 16
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 17

The empire had been dead these hundred years and more, but its corpse still twitched now and again as petty kingdoms rose and bickered and fell. Common folk such as Gwin struggled on as best they might. Now a distant war had claimed Gwin’s husband’s life, and a plague of the star sickness had carrie…

4 ) The Runner and the Kelpie

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 15
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 4

…

3 ) Emperor and Clown

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 4
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 5

A loyal stableboy, Rap fights in vain for the love of his queen, Inos, who lost everything–her beauty, her kingdom, and her dignity–when she married the evil, accursed Sultan Azak….

1 ) The Adventures of Ivor

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 1
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 2

At sixteen, Ivor of Bracken is too young to be a swordsman like his nine older brothers, but he has strong legs and a fine memory, so he can serve his lord as a runner, carrying messages. That sounds safe enough, except that this is Dark Age Scotland. Dangerous outlaws and sinister old gods still ro…

1 ) Trial by Treason

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 2
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 1

A burgeoning Saxon enchanter confronts a demonic plot against the king in the sequel to Ironfoot, a historical fantasy series set in twelfth century England. King Henry, campaigning in France, receives a muddled warning of a treasonous conspiracy in Lincoln Castle, his great fortress in the center o…

Dave Duncan’s Best Books

Dave Duncan Review Website Bibliography Rankings