Richard A. Knaak

Lore & Background

Knaak was born in Chicago, Illinois, to James Richard Knaak and Anna Maria (Trappen) Knaak. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying chemistry and then rhetoric, earning a bachelor's degree in 1984. He worked as a warehouseman, resume writer, and office clerk before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1988. His first short story was sold in 1986 and published in 1987. He lists Roger Zelazny, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Edgar Allan Poe as major influences.

In Their Own Story

The rain on Sigil's outer rim tasted of copper and old arguments. A figure in a long, unremarkable coat stood beneath the eaves of a bookshop whose sign had been scraped and repainted so many times it was now just a palimpsest of someone else's name. Inside, the shelves held not books but small, sealed vials of narrative—each one a story someone had abandoned mid-sentence. The figure picked one up, held it to the grey light filtering through the glass, and watched the ink swirl. Somewhere in the vial, a dark elf was still trying to remember why she had chosen the ice. The figure set it back, paid the shopkeeper in a coin that had no face on it, and walked out into the rain, leaving the door to swing on its hinge like a sentence that would never quite close.

Reader's Guide

Knaak's works include Dragonlance titles such as The Legend of Huma, Kaz the Minotaur, Land of the Minotaurs, Reavers of the Blood Sea, and The Citadel, as well as the Minotaur Wars and Ogre Titans series. He wrote the ten-volume Dragonrealm series, the Diablo series (including Legacy of Blood, The Kingdom of Shadow, Moon of the Spider, and The Sin War series), and Warcraft works such as Day of the Dragon, Night of the Dragon, the War of the Ancients trilogy, the Sunwell Trilogy, and others. He also wrote Age of Conan novels, Pathfinder Tales (Reaper's Eye), and independent books like King of the Grey, Frostwing, The Janus Mask, Dutchman, and more.

Did You Know?

• Knaak's first Dragonrealm story, 'Firedrake,' helped him get his first Dragonlance project.
• He worked as a warehouseman, resume writer, and office clerk before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1988.
• His favorite fellow authors include Robert E. Howard, Glen Cook, L. Sprague de Camp, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Harry Turtledove, Jennifer Roberson, Laurell K. Hamilton, Harry Harrison, and Robert Sawyer.