the margin wight asked (in the comments of another post) for recommendations of dragon books, particularly any dating from 1905 or before. I answered him in my usual slapdash fashion, but I keep thinking of more and more dragon stories. They're all post-1905, though, so I'll ask you, Internets People, if you can think of any older dragon stories/books with dragons. The only one I can think of is E. Nesbit, who wrote a story called "The Last of the Dragons." By a huge, MASSIVE coincidence, that's the story that finishes up Ricasso Press's Black Dragon, White Dragon anthology, in which I have a story. ("Sea and Sky"--you can find the table of contents listed on this page) And in an even more astonishing coincidence, Black Dragon, White Dragon is finally back from the printers and should be available very soon!
While I do love E. Nesbit's books, some of them are hard to find. Apparently she wrote one called The Seven Dragons, published in 1899, which seems to be a collection of stories about dragons. And you can download it from Project Gutenberg here! I did!
And since I love lists, and love dragons, I'll start a list of books about dragons. This is by no means a comprehensive list, partly because I had to sell or give away so many of my books when I moved the last three times, partly because I'm not actually all that organized. Please add to the list in the comments! (For simplicity's sake, I've listed only the first book of a given series, or in the case of worlds with multiple storylines--like Anne McCaffrey's Pern books--those books I like best or think are most important.)
Books about Dragons
Bear, Elizabeth, Blood and Iron, 2006 (the dragon may also appear in other of her Promethean books; I haven't read them yet)
Jones, Diana Wynne, Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998); dragons also appear in a small way in its sequel, Year of the Griffin
MacAvoy, R.A., Tea with the Black Dragon (1983) and its sequel, Twisting the Rope
McCaffrey, Anne, SF series "Dragonriders of Pern," begun 1968, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums
Nesbit, Edith, The Seven Dragons (1899)
Novik, Naomi, series starting with His Majesty's Dragon (British title Temeraire), 2006
Pratchett, Terry, several books in the Discworld series, esp. The Colour of Magic (1983) and Guards! Guards! (1989)
Rowling, J.K., book 4 of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
Tolkien, J.R.R., The Hobbit (1936)
Wrede, Patricia, YA series starting with Dealing with Dragons (1990)
Yep, Lawrence, series based on Chinese folklore, starting with Dragon of the Lost Sea, 1982
Yolen, Jane, SF series "The Pit Dragons," begun 1982, Dragon's Blood
3 comments:
Me commenting to me now. I dropped by a used book store this morning (and bought two books on steamships, gawd help me), and there are officially Too Many Dragon Books to list them all. Even if I limit myself to ones I've read that I like. But feel free to post if I've missed some that really ought to be listed.
The heroine of one of my favourite books EVER, Earthchild by Doris Piserchia, rides a dragon. It's not *called* a dragon, but it's a huge, intelligent, foul-tempered winged creature she flies bareback across the wasteland of a future biochemically altered Earth.
It's a dragon, yo, and SF. It's also the best $2.95 you'll ever spend. highly recommended.
That sounds like a book I'd like! In fact, I'm going to add it to my next book order right now, thanks!
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