I want to read a book about/featuring dragons

[NaomiMisora]

I've been wanting to read about dragons for a while. Vampires are what I usually read about but I've become interested in dragons. I don't know where to start. Any recommendations for someone new to the genre?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dragons_in_literature

Ones Memorable to me.
McCaffery: Pern series (though they are not what they appear to be)
Ursula Le Guin : Earthsea Trilogy, now more than 3. Dragons in newer books, but you need to read the older ones
The Hobbit,
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Eragon (Inheritance series)
Robin Hobb's Liveships series, then Elderlings, then Tawny Man. Various ones, not in Soldier Trilogy.
Cornelia Funke: Dragon Rider (The Inkspell series is a bit older and better)
Terry Brooks, Magic Kingdom of Landover novels Strabo is an occasional character
C.J. Watterson: Of North Blood Drawn (incidental, but I suspect a later book of the series may have more)
Perhaps Raymond E. Fiest's "Magician", I like it, but it's not to everyone's taste. First in a long series of books. No dragons in the rest.

Oh, an amusing parody of Dragons in 1st or 2nd Discworld books. Later books featuring Ankh Morpork have pet swamp dragons, though in one book, one faces a Noble Dragon.

Many of the books listed in the Wikipedia article are only incidentally dragon or else not so good any way. I see there are other book on the Wikipedia list I've read, some good, some bad, but above are the most memorable.

There are others here better steeped in Dragon lore.

It's not exactly a genre. That would be like saying Trolls, Dwarfs or Elves are a Genre, they are in SF. The Pern series, especially on the early & better ones, feels like Fantasy. But technically it's got no magic and is "really" SF. The early ones are very good indeed.

 

[NaomiMisora]

Thank you so much!

 

[Overread]

Pern series books are the go-to recommendation and McCaffrey is often quipped as "The Dragon Lady". It's a huge series and certainly has a LOT of dragons in it to keep you happy. I found the writing a little, old-style compared to some modern authors which can mean that her writing is a little bit of an acquired taste; but well worth the time spent getting used to her voice for the stories.

I'd also recommend:
Dragon's Bane by Barbra Hambley - an interesting story and whilst not focused around the dragons as the core character it is very much related to dragons and well worth reading for a dragon fan.

Ray mentions the Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb; but he's forgotten the first series beginning with Assassin's Apprentice. Hobb's main series of writing is essentially two nations within the same world connected together and going through a time of huge change. Assassin's Apprentice starts the first trilogy of books that sets the ground work and established some great characters (dragons doth appear toward the end of the trilogy). Then you get Liveship Traders; which jumps to a new nation, but builds upon the first (and one key character appears in secret from the first!). Liveship also has way more dragons. Then you get Tawnyman which takes you back to the original trilogies characters; then you get into her latest which is all about dragons (and which again jumps back to live-ships).
She's also got another which (yes you guessed it) jumps back to the first block of characters again (there's a pattern here!)

Temeraire by Naomi Norvik - strongly recommend this one. It's got dragons in every single corner and is what you get when you put the Napoleonic era with dragons! Seriously good series and very much a book for dragon fans!

I'll also suggest checking out "The Book of Jhereg" by Steven Brust. Whilst not exactly about what you'd consider as your typical fire-breathing scaled dragons there "are" dragons within it. The stories are shorter than most of the ones above and thus makes for a lighter enjoyable adventure read. You also get to meet Jhereg which are dragon-like little critters (well you meet one at first).

 

[Bugg]

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons is another good one, set in a Victorian-style world and told in the form of a memoir

 

[Tower75]

Temeraire by Naomi Norvik - strongly recommend this one. It's got dragons in every single corner and is what you get when you put the Napoleonic era with dragons! Seriously good series and very much a book for dragon fans!

Highly agreed. I'm not really into the whole dragon story, truth be told. Dragons for me are things that pop up in PS4 games that you must be deal with. I had no inclination to read about them. I looked upon dragon stories as a shoe maker whom looks upon a pair of Reeboks.

That was before Temeraire entered my life.

Alternate-history, Napoleonic wars with the British Royal Aviation Corp. Self-aware, talking war-dragons whom take to the skies with their crew to defend His Majesty's realm from the French. Yes. Very much for me that.

The writing is superb. It feels very English, which is a compliment as it's written by a Yank.

Got sucked into it from the start; I got very emotionally invested in it. It actually made me laugh and cry.

Can't say enough good things about it.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Dragon and the George by Gordon Dickson It's wonderful comic fantasy novel about man whose wife get kidnapped by and evil wizard from an alternate universe. When he rolls here to this world , he finds himself inside the body of bumbling Dragon named Gorbash which compounds his problems.

 

[Davidjb]

I liked the Dragon Lance series which always gets mixed reviews. The one I would recommend is The Time of the Twins (I think that's volume 1 then there's three books The War of the Twins and another one)

There's some excellent characters chief of which is Raistlin. It involves time travel which is often not very well done but in this case it is very well done. There's dragons and an excellent dragon lady Kitira who gets a really excellent comeuppance.

If you like this then Dragons of Autumn Twilight is good but not as good as Time of the Twins in my view. The reviews on Amazon are good

 

[Overread]

I totally forgot - Dragon Champion by EE Knight. One of the very few series where the lead characters are dragons; in fact lead character. Each book of the series focuses upon one of the key single dragon characters as they establish themselves in the world. Each with their own trails and troubles such as befit a dragon.

A very unique take on things as many publishers tend to avoid protagonists which are not human (or are mostly human like vampires).

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I liked the Dragon Lance series

Technically, yes there is a dragon in the first one. I did read it not long ago, it was better than I thought it would be, but the actual dragon seems less significant somehow than the two dragons in The Dawn Treader or Smaug in the hobbit (it feels a bit derivative of Smaug).
I expected more dragons? But maybe the next book has more?

 

[Randy M.]

Tea With the Black Dragon by R. A. McAvoy

Not action/adventure or border-line horror, it's a charming and frequently witty short novel. A good change of pace if you've been reading longer, more intense books.


Randy M.

 

[Mirannan]

A rather odd one with a very odd take on dragons: the short story "Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith.

 

[Davidjb]

Technically, yes there is a dragon in the first one. I did read it not long ago, it was better than I thought it would be, but the actual dragon seems less significant somehow than the two dragons in The Dawn Trader or Smaug in the hobbit (it feels a bit derivative of Smaug).
I expected more dragons? But maybe the next book has more?

Yes, dragons appear quite late in the tale in Time of the Twins series but there are certainly more dragons in the Dragons of Summer flame etc. I liked the premise that the good/bad dragons had a pact, but of course there is a twist. Generally, they are good books and worth a read. Amazon reviews are plentiful and mostly good. It isn't for everyone of course but I think the charactersiation is great. I wouldn't recommend the later books though as some of the characters got a bit tiring.

 

[Timba]

The Dragon and the George by Gordon Dickson It's wonderful comic fantasy novel about man whose wife get kidnapped by and evil wizard from an alternate universe. When he rolls here to this world , he finds himself inside the body of bumbling Dragon named Gorbash which compounds his problems.

Totally agree and the many sequels make good reading also.

 

[dwndrgn]

I'll second all of the above (with special note on Dragon Champion - as the poster above mentioned, this is different in that all of the mains and secondary characters are NOT human or humanoid. Refreshing.) and add in The Last Dragonlord by Joanne Bertin, The Dragon Brigade by Margaret Weiss and Robert Krammes, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Eon Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman, Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs and A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan.

Also must mention the Dragon Orb series by Mark Robson who came up with the idea for the four book series on this very forum!

 

[tobl]

Tea With the Black Dragon by R. A. McAvoy

Not action/adventure or border-line horror, it's a charming and frequently witty short novel. A good change of pace if you've been reading longer, more intense books.


Randy M.

loved that one.
as for dragons what about the inheritance cycle? is quite good actually

 

[BAYLOR]

The Dragon Lord by David Drake.

 

[NaomiMisora]

Thank you all! I'm starting with Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy

 

[BAYLOR]

Thank you all! I'm starting with Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy

You might also find The Forgotten Beasts of Eld my Patricia McKillip to be worth checking out too.