Dragons, dragons, dragons – so many writers have written about them in one form or another. Here’s ten books featuring dragons for fellow lovers of the form.
- R.A. MacAvoy’s Tea With the Black Dragon (Kindle version) features urban fantasy and an ancient Buddhist dragon in search of spiritual teaching. Two of my favorite characters of all time occur in the form of the dragon and his teacher, Martha. There’s a sequel, Twisting the Rope (Kindle version) but it doesn’t quite live up to the magic of the first book.
- James Maxey’s trilogy, Bitterwood (Kindle version), Dragonforge (Kindle version) and Dragonseed (Kindle version),. This unique take on dragons has characters engaging enough to make you want to follow them forever.
- Tooth and Claw (Kindle version) by Jo Walton, is an awesome novel of manners featuring dragons. Smart and funny.
- Naomi Novik has taken dragons and mashed them up with Horatio Hornblower in her Temeraire series: In His Majesty’s Service (Kindle version), His Majesty’s Dragon (Kindle version), Throne of Jade (Kindle version), Black Powder War (Kindle version), Empire of Ivory (Kindle version), Victory of Eagles (Kindle version), and Tongues of Serpents (Kindle version).
- I first encountered Gordon R. Dickson’s The Dragon and the George (out of print and no Kindle version) in high school. This story of life from a dragon’s point of view is a solid fantasy read and one of the classics.
- No list like this would be complete without Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, which feature not just dragons but miniature ones in the form of fire lizards. My favorite of the books remain the Harper Hall trilogy, Dragonsong (no Kindle version), Dragonsinger (no Kindle version), and Dragondrums (no Kindle version).
- Another classic is J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit (Kindle version), in which the dragon Smaug plays a crucial role.
- A stuffed dragon is one of the entrancing side characters of Charmed Life (only available in Kindle version) by Diane Wynne Jones. All of Jones’ Chrestomanci books (or anything by her, really) are worth picking up.
- Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (no Kindle version) and The Dragons of Babel (Kindle version) feature gritty industrial dragons in one of the greatest fantasy settings of all time, full of danger and delight.
- Last but certainly not least, many of us are looking forward to George R.R. Martin’s Dances with Dragons (no Kindle version listed yet).
7 Responses
“Tea With A Black Dragon” is a classic. Read that years ago and carried the imagery with me. Didn’t realize there was a sequel.
“The Dragon and the George” is plain old fun.
The MacAvoy sequel is okay, but the main characters from the first book are not those of the sequel, although they appear.
OMG I loved the Harper Hall books as a kid! And all the Pern series, for reals.
When I first got into fantasy, in maybe 5th grade, my uncle sent me a giant box of Pern, Xanth, Steven Brust, and some other stuff. I devoured it! But Pern was always the gold standard for me as a kid, for whatever reason. I used my allowance to buy the Dragonlovers’ Guide to Pern and proceeded to made the klah recipe about a jillion times.
What did the klah taste like?
I guess this isn’t really relevant, because you aren’t talking about picture books, but The Dragon Machine is still my favourite.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Machine-Helen-Ward/dp/1840115947
That looks adorable, I’m going to try to find a copy for my goddaughter. Thank you for the recommendation!