Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
Dragon Lord. Despot. Psychopath.

Old Dark is a viperous dragon lord who rules the world with an iron fist. For two hundred years he and his dragons have terrorized humans and elves, forcing them to pay tribute or die.

There's a deadly conspiracy brewing. And if he doesn't contain it, it will destroy him and everything he's built.

But Dark was born to fight. There's a reason the ancients called him Dark the Wicked...

Old Dark is the first book in the dark fantasy series The Last Dragon Lord. Readers who like the Age of Fire series and Smaug from the Lord of the Rings will enjoy this series.

250 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 5, 2016

7 people are currently reading
498 people want to read

About the author

Michael La Ronn

80 books167 followers
Science fiction and fantasy on the wild side!

Michael La Ronn is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Android X, Eaten, and The Last Dragon Lord series.

In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that life is too short. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. He’s also a total Final Fantasy geek.

If you're new to Michael's work, visit this link to grab his $1 Series Starters--->www.michaellaronn.com/seriesstarters

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
14 (27%)
4 stars
18 (35%)
3 stars
14 (27%)
2 stars
3 (5%)
1 star
2 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Chase.
135 reviews8 followers
September 8, 2023
What an interesting and very enjoyable book. I had no idea what to expect going into this, so pretty much every chapter was surprising and brought some new twist.

I loved the setting and the world building which was actually done really well for a relatively short first book in the series. The premise is really intriguing - an ancient dragon lord who gets "assassinated" only to wake up a thousand years later to a world that is completely modern and which has pretty much forgotten his time. The magic was also really simple, yet interesting, and the magic itself is pretty much the foundation for a lot of the world building.

I also really liked the characters, and the interesting mix of elves, humans and dragons. Pretty much all the characters felt different and interesting in their own ways. Some characters are total assholes but I can't help but love them because they're so charming and charismatic, and some even had me feeling for them due to the treatment they received throughout the book.

The entirety of this book felt like one huge setup for the series, and the author definitely did the setup in such a good way that I'm actually really damn interested to read the next book. It didn't end on a cliffhanger, but the world building and character development makes me really curious to see how things kick off in the next part.
Profile Image for Pierre.
178 reviews21 followers
May 30, 2023
Waking a ruthless overlord out of a millenium long cursed slumber, what could go wrong...

The world has moved on, humans, elves and dragons places have been turned upside down.
So has the natural flow of magic, once overseen by dragons at the price of a hard dominion, now exploited with little care for sustainability.
This brings about a crisis the world has never seen, as the balance is lost and society has already begun a slow but certain collapse.

Interesting characters with mixed pov from dragons and humans/elves in a well crafted world where technology and magic are intermingled to render an original urban fantasy setting.

One of my fears was that Dark would only be a villain, but he turns out to have other dimensions, such as being a guardian (however arrogant and brutal) of a certain equlibrium. Which makes me all the more curious about how this is going to end, because his way cannot be the only one, but he probably will not hear that, being a little bit stubborn.
Profile Image for Kevin Potter.
Author 28 books153 followers
July 23, 2019
I'm listening to this as part of The Last Dragon Lord collected trilogy. Although I received a free copy from the author/publisher, I am choosing to leave this honest and unbiased review.

Since I'm listening to the trilogy as a whole, you'll find a more in depth review on the collection.

First, Miles Meili gives us a solid 4-star performance. Although I don't personally feel the dragon voices have enough power to them, that actually kind of fits with how dragons are presented in these books. Miles has a good assortment of voices and does reasonably well with the female voices. His vocal inflections are good, as is his control of tempo.

Now, the story.
Based on the concept as it appeared in the description, I really wanted to love this book. It's an idea that near and dear to my heart (dragons, of course!).

The opening chapters that take place in the past were awesome.

However, we quickly flash forward to a world that I would call magical realism. It's basically the real world but with elves, dragons, and magic.

I do not believe it was the author/publisher's intent, but I feel misled. I was not expecting an urban fantasy/magical realism story. I was expecting a medieval epic fantasy. Anyone who's been following my reading tastes will know that I'm not generally a fan.

Now, on account of feeling certain it was not an intentional deceit, I will endeavor not to allow it to affect my review.

For all that I don't like some of them, the characters are well drawn and feel like real (if stupid and arrogant) people.

I'm having trouble with the presentment of the dragons though. Very little is said about specifically how big the dragons are, but in the beginning it makes them out to be massive and completely unassailable my humans except by the most devious means.

But later in the book the dragons actually seem quite squishy and defeatable.

That aside, however, the author has told a good story with a few interesting things going on. I'm particularly impressed with the idea of Abstraction and all the potential ramifications of it.

My biggest legitimate complaint is the ending though. They're was no attempt or pretense at tying things off. We're right in the middle of a scene when we're left with "To Be Continued."
Profile Image for M.A. Brotherton.
Author 17 books22 followers
September 7, 2016
Old Dark is an Urban Fantasy that steps outside the normal UF conventions. The magic system is unique and the political angle is a nice detour from the more traditional paranormal noir of the genre.

The book is split into acts and Act 1 is a little slow, but enjoyable. By the time I was in Act 2, I was engrossed.

The book is billed as being about Old Dark, the last Dragon Lord. But, I think I enjoy the side characters, Miri and Lucan, much more.

That said, I do wish there was more with Old Dark or the other dragons and am looking forward to them having bigger, more active roles in the rest of the series.

I'm really looking forward to seeing where the series goes from here. It could fan out in a dozen different directions and if I've learned anything from reading Michael La Ronn's other books, it's impossible to predict.

Definitely a recommended read. 5 stars.
28 reviews1 follower
October 29, 2016
The Author emailed me and asked me to read his newest series and write a review for him. I am all about writing reviews and reading books.

At first I wasn't sure what to think but loved that it was hard to put down. It's captivating and is an original piece of work and have found a new author that I like. The only thing that spoils the book is seeing at the end a "to be continued". I am dying to know the rest of the story and what happens to Dark. I was thrilled to see that I could read two chapters of the next book.
Profile Image for Julie Powell.
Author 72 books324 followers
September 7, 2016
I was asked to read this for an honest review.

This is a fantasy tale about a dragon who fights to keep power and is filled with action, adventure with a good sense of place.

I don't give spoilers but will say that this well-written story has believable characters, a reasonable plot and a nicely-crafted world.

Worth a look for fantasy lovers.
Profile Image for Adelaide Metzger.
598 reviews16 followers
May 10, 2019
Spoiler-Free review

3.9 out of 5 stars, but I’ll go ahead and round it up to 4.

The number one and overall element that had me buy, invest my time to read, and purchase the rest of the trilogy as soon as I was finished with this first book was the concept alone.

No one has written anything like this book. I have never read a book with this idea before. There are so many freaking good things about this book—and it left enough of an impact on me to not only buy the next two in the trilogy, but also to recommend this book to others—however, I’m not really 100% invested in the characters quite yet. This book also doesn’t really feel whole because there’s no climax. It just ends on a minor cliff hanger. There’s nothing wrong with that and I have no problem with that type of story structure, but it kind of took me by surprise and left me a bit unsatisfied.

I want so bad to talk more about what happens in this book, but it would spoil it for sure. But I’ll do my best without giving anything away.


So the description of this book is extremely vague on purpose. But, just so you know, that basic description covers only the first couple chapters. This takes place in a fantasy world setting where elves and humans live under the empiric and steady rule of dragons—in this case Alsatius Dark II. Those first couple chapters reminded me so much of the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim except the dragons are in charge instead of being hunted. After that the story is flipped upside down in a surprising and refreshing way and things become more complicated.

Michael La Ronn knows his characters and juggles many of them in a very organized way while doing some very complicated world-building in a way that made it simple for me to understand. I was a little peeved with him stopping in the middle of the story to put history-lesson chapters, but I understand that he had to do so in order to explain this completely quasi-familiar world. I am also still a little confused with some things such as the “technological” concept of Abstraction (which I thought was magical, but apparently not). I do feel like you do really have to pay attention as not to get confused with the world-building, but I also felt like La Ronn does most of the heavy lifting and I was able to read through this almost leisurely.

There was some awesome parallel comparing going on with Dark and one other half-elf character that I really hope turns into something remarkable further down the line. They are two very different characters but they both suffer from the similar societal neglect and they both want the same respect that they once had. There’s also some really juicy drama between two elf family members that I just craved more of. I am a sucker for family conflict and what makes families adhere or separate, so if I can get some flashbacks or more of the drama between a particular character and his uncle I will be a happy camper.



I found out about Michael La Ronn through YouTube’s author community. After watching several of La Ronn’s writer-help videos the only thing I expected from reading his work was that it was going to be worth reading. His knowledge of story structure and characters alone had me hook, line, and sinker to purchase his books and this book was where I decided to start purely because of the concept.

The way this ended made the book feel very episodic like it was the pilot episode to a television series rather than an epic feature film. But I’m completely okay with that and I have the next two already, so I don’t have to wait to find out what happens, I can just jump right in.

Profile Image for Angel Leya.
Author 94 books82 followers
August 13, 2022
This is not exactly the story of the description, which I found a little off-putting. I mean, in the end it was a good thing, because I'm not sure what shape the story would've taken if not for that, but a little forewarning might have been nice, lol.

Here's what I would write, read at your own peril, lol:



The ending felt a bit abrupt, but otherwise, this was a good start to the series and an interesting take on dragons.
17 reviews
May 27, 2025
Main character and his uncle sound the same, all the women sound the same, there's a lot of plot conveniences, I wouldn't say deus ex machina, but things just fall into place a LOT. Main character dude is really whiny and generally not smart, even though he acts like a tony stark like character. There's a lot of sentence repetition, like, "She said," and "He said." Writing style is amateurish, but the overall premise is interesting. Basically a dragon King gets sent into the future and has to deal with modern advances, but I'm at the half way point and I don't think I'm going to finish it. King basically turns into a supporting character after he is in the future and the dumb playboy turns into the main character. Overall very disappointing that I'm not able to get fully into this book series.
Profile Image for Sherman Darden Jr.
60 reviews
February 8, 2022
The magic system and world itself is interesting, and the characters start off great and interesting and different. They are the type of character's that I do not root for usually unless i'm hoping for a massive payoff arc that I didn't really notice at first. Characters do have arcs just not in a way that I hoped they would go. Maybe the second book will make the changes clearer.

Miri is my favorite character, she reminds me of Maggie Madsen (transformers) quite a bit.

The politics were actually very engaging and did not over shadow the magic, for me at least the politics of it actually enforce the magic system making it even more cool.

Old Dark is the sort of character that forces me to think differently about what hero's can be in stories. If you are deep into Star Wars lore Dark is kind of a combination of Kreia and her two apprentices from Knights of the Old Republic (game and Legends).

This is the kind of story begging (in a positive way) to be an anime or Saturday night cartoon like Code Lyoko or Dragon Prince (Netflix).
Profile Image for Z.S. Diamanti.
Author 13 books472 followers
November 21, 2022
Admittedly, this was not what I expected at all. It’s an interesting read.

The book, however, made no effort to tie things up at the end and is merely a part of a series. Think of it more like an episode than a standalone book.

Thought it had some interesting concepts and ideas, but I do wish that it had been more of a full novel. Ending the book in what appeared to be the real start of the story was rather disappointing.

It was interesting enough that reading the series as a complete work might be worthwhile.
Author 6 books4 followers
November 9, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well drawn and I liked the concept of dragons living in abstraction. There are some interesting places this idea could take the story.

However, the one fly in the ointment, so to speak, is that Old Dark is not a complete book and ends with a cliff hanger and the announcement - to be continued. Personally I'm not a fan of this, and it left me feeling a little cheated, but the story was good enough I will probably purchase the second book anyway.
2 reviews
August 10, 2025
I fell in love with these characters, and now I don’t want to put the series down. The best way I can describe them is, "A bunch of lovable assholes." They feel real with their flaws and strengths.

The book starts a bit slow, but I am beyond happy I stuck with it. This may be my new comfort series.
Profile Image for Viktor.
6 reviews
June 8, 2018
A great book, if not for the way it just ends right in the middle of its rising action.
No conclusion, not even a partial one, just a cliffhanger.
Profile Image for Alexis.
1,217 reviews17 followers
June 12, 2019
Thanks to the author for sending me a free copy of this book. It's interesting because we also have the POV of dragons, and that's the first part of the book. I like that change of perspective, even if there's a lot of violence and blood.
Profile Image for Tai Manivong.
Author 10 books8 followers
July 23, 2018
I got attached to the character Dark as soon as the book began. The dragons were very believable and unique. I have to admit though, that when the point of view switched to elf and human characters it took a while for me to warm up to their characters. I think that is because I liked dark so much. The magic systems and ideas were unique and intriguing. I can't wait to read more.
Profile Image for Escape Into Reading.
980 reviews43 followers
August 23, 2016
Before I start my review, I would like to thank Michael La Ronn for allowing me to review Old Dark.

**All opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone. I received Old Dark from Michael La Ronn for free for my honest and unbiased review**

Now onto my review:

This book was deliciously good.

Mainly told from the viewpoint of Old Dark, a vicious black dragon, it totally embraced how society perceives dragons and runs with it. Greedy, vicious leaders who won’t hesitate to destroy a village to make a point. Loved it!! Not too often that you read a book that 100% supports the bad guy.

What I loved is that the author refused to kill him off. Instead, he had him cursed in an attack and that curse went wrong and he fell asleep for 1,000 years. In this time, humans, elves and dragons were coexisting rather peacefully. Dragons were no longer feared but they worked with humans. Elves can use magic and magic defines their whole society. Human and elves intermarry and have children. There was a downside, though. Magic was being drained from wells beneath the city faster than it could replenish itself.

This is where you meet Miri Charmwell and Lucan Grimoire (love the names btw). Miri is a professor in the Department of Magical Sciences. He is running for governor (against his uncle). They get thrown together when he discovers a dragon tomb in the middle of the Ancestral Bogs and he needs her to help him discover whose tomb it was.

I will admit, I didn’t care for Lucan or Miri’s characters at all, at first. Miri grew on me, at least. Lucan, well he’s came across as a bastard and the author did nothing to dissuade me from that impression.

I do love the latter part of the book. Not going to give anything away but it was great. The ending, even though it was a cliffhanger, was perfect. I really can’t wait to read the next book!!

How many stars will I give Old Dark? 4

Why? Loved the story. Like I said above, it was delicious and a breath of fresh air. Miri’s character was a little naive and Lucan’s character was a bastard. The only thing I didn’t like was that it was a cliffhanger (as you all know, I hate them).

Will I reread? Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age range? Teen on up

Why? Some sexual situations, lots of violence but nothing too gory
Profile Image for Cassandra-anne Delorie.
72 reviews3 followers
November 8, 2016
***THIS BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW***
***Cassandra Delorie #NerdGirlLola’s Review***

What can I say about this book…? Other than it is utterly amazing. I was completely enthralled by the story of Old Dark; it’s the perfect combination of old school fantasy meets new urban fantasy.

The story is broken up into five acts with interesting intermezzos in-between. In the first act we are introduced to Old Dark and his dragon kin. He is a merciless Dragon Lord who requires fealty or death. He is feared by both humans and Elves alike. As the story progresses we find out that not everyone is content with him as the Dragon Lord. These conspirators will stop at nothing to see him topple off of the pedestal he has placed himself on.

This book is highly intriguing and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. The story mixes magic with technology and fantasy with politics (which I didn’t really think was possible considering they are polar opposites in my opinion). Really it’s an all around great read. One of the best I’ve read for 2016.

I can’t help but parallel some of the happenings in the book to some of our current world situations. In the book there is a magic shortage due to over use on the Aquifer which can be likened to our search for more oil or other fuel alternatives. There is a huge election going on in the book as well and the mudslinging can be compared to the current candidates for president. Even though this is considered Fantasy I have a feeling that maybe the author was drawing on the state of our current world for some inspiration. Which I think is awesome because it makes the book more relatable, just without all the dragons of course.

Overall I think this book is an excellent read. I loved it and can’t wait for the next one to come out so I can see what happens.

***Review has been done in conjunction with Nerd Girl Official. For more information regarding our reviews please visit our Fan Site: www.facebook.com/NerdGirl.NG***
149 reviews13 followers
April 24, 2023
Great book. Amazing story about dragons and magic. Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.