I am a big ol nerd. No surprise here.
And I LOVE a book that has dragons in it! Not just peripherally, no— books where the dragons are characters, or the narrators, or the main focus of the book!
After 33 years, though, sometimes I feel like I’m finally scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Can you lovely redditors help me find some more excellent dragons to read?
Here’s what I’ve already read, listed in categories of “Favorites”, “Good”, “Meh”, and “No Thanks”.
**FAVORITES**
* His Majesty’s Dragon series by Naomi Novik
* The Lady Trent Memoir series by Marie Brennan
* The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood
* Dragon Fires Rising series by Marc Secchia
* Remembered War series by Robert Vane
* The Dragon Jousters series by Mercedes Lackey
* Songs of Chaos series by Michael R Miller
* The Age of Fire series by E. E. Knight
**GOOD**
* Breaking of Realms by Jasmine Young
* Magelands Dominion series by Christopher Mitchell
* The Dragon Guard series by Jada Fisher
* Dragon Assassin series by Arthur Slade
* The Dragons of Esternes series by Steve Turnbull
* The Magelands Eternal Siege series by Christopher Mitchell
* Dragons of Kendualern series by Sam Ferguson
* The Dragon Lords series by Jon Hollins
* Dragons
**MEH**
* Alveria Dragon Akademy by Ava Richardson
* Torvald Dragon Riding Heroes by Ava Richardson
* Dragon School series by Sarah K. L. Wilson
* Bitterwood by James Maxey
* The Year of the Dragon series by James Calbraith
**NO THANKS**
* Game of Thrones series (and anything else by GRRM)
by Atroxian
11 Comments
Do you mind graphic novels? The Tea Dragon Society trilogy is very sweet and low stakes with a gorgeous art style. The only thing I’ll warn you about though is that the dragons in it aren’t your typical dragons, so I’m not sure if it’s what you’re looking for.
As for novels, there’s the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini as well as the Seraphina duology by Rachel Hartman
**Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros**? It’s New Adult, and I feel like it might be meh for you (somewhat predictable plot and average writing), but the dragons were very likeable in this.
Dragon of the Lost Sea by Laurence Yep
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
A Book of Dragons by Leonard Baskin
**Gork, the Teenage Dragon** by Gabe Hudson and **Tooth and Claw** by Jo Walton.
Robin Hobb has varying amounts of dragons. I haven’t read them yet, but looks like the Rain Wild Chronicles would probably be the closest to what you’re looking for with dragons. I’d also recommend the Farseer trilogy.
Pern, McCaffrey
Symphony of Ages, Haydon (the latter books)
The Last DragonLord, Bertin (though last book is poor)
How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell. It’s a kids series, our family listened to a few on our road trip and they are funny and we all enjoyed them!
Fourth Wing or Serephina
The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman features dragons as characters, however they aren’t traditional dragons. They spend much of their time in human form, only transforming into their dragon form as the plot demands.
It may not totally be what you’re looking for, but it’s a fun series, with magical Librarians who act like spies stealing books from various alternate earths. All of they alternate worlds are along a spectrum of order/chaos, with dragons ruling the more orderly worlds and fae ruling the chaotic ones, with humans in the middle.
Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons) by Quenby Olson is a cozy dragon story set in, I believe, Victorian Era England.
The Dragon and the George, by Gordon R Dickson. You have to get past some very of-the-time chauvinism, so ymmv