Books of the Raksura Books in Order

The Books of the Raksura drop you into the Three Worlds, a sprawling fantasy setting of floating islands, ruined cities, and wildly different peoples. At the heart of it are the Raksura, shapeshifters who can move between winged, scaled forms and groundling bodies, living in extended courts built around matriarchal queens and their consorts.

The series begins with Moon, an orphan who has spent most of his life hiding what he is. Every time he thinks he has found a home among groundlings, someone sees him transform and panic sets in. When he finally meets Stone and is brought to the Indigo Cloud court, he discovers both kinship and a culture with rules he has never learned, from strict hierarchies to fierce territorial politics.

Across novels like The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea, and The Siren Depths, Moon struggles to figure out where he fits while the court confronts enemies who would like to wipe them out. Chief among those threats are the Fell, another shapeshifting species that raids and destroys groundling settlements, and whose resemblance to the Raksura makes it even harder for Moon to be trusted outside his own people.

Later books, The Edge of Worlds and The Harbors of the Sun, widen the lens. The Raksura are drawn into expeditions to ancient cities that may be tied to their own distant ancestors, forced into uneasy alliances with groundling powers, and pushed into a race to stop a disaster that could break the Reaches entirely. Two story collections, Stories of the Raksura Volumes I and II, fill in side adventures, court history, and key turning points like Moon and Jade's first clutch.

What carries the series is not just monsters and sky battles but the close focus on family structures and social roles that are alien yet emotionally recognizable. The courts have complicated gendered castes, communal child raising, and a deep expectation of loyalty, and Wells treats all of that as lived reality rather than window dressing. Moon's uncertainty, Jade's responsibility, and the older mentors' weary patience make the books feel as much about relationships as about quests.

If you want secondary world fantasy that is far from medieval Europe, with nonhuman protagonists, found family, and a steady mix of travelogue and court drama, this series is a welcoming, deeply developed place to spend several books.