Hey bookwyrms, you see what I did there? š I hope you like dragons because the journey through Dragon’s Pass will be full of my favourite dragon tropes. Reading (or watching movies) about dragons never gets boring for me because of the sheer variety of ways dragons are portrayed in the media! While thinking about this I found this TVTropes article that lists a ton of dragon tropes. I thought it would be fun to find books in which my favourite tropes are present and share them for Wyrd & Wonder!
The orange dragon graphic was created by Elena Zakharchuk & the map was created by Ariana at The Book Nook
My list will consist of books or series I’ve read and just to have some sort of organization I’ll separate them into two categories: Adult & YA and Middle Grade. Obviously books can contain more than one trope but I’ll list the books under the main dragon trope it contains. Disclaimer: potential spoilers ahead (if you consider knowing a trope to be a spoiler). Here Be Dragons š²!
Adult Books
Weredragon
Dragon as a shapeshifterāmy absolute favourite dragon trope
The Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman
Dragonfall by L.R. Lam
Dragons Are Demonic
Dragons as evil beings
War of the Spark: Ravnica by Greg Weisman (my current read)
Dragon Tamer
Characters who tame or breed dragons
Joust by Mercedes Lackey
Middle-Grade & YA Books
Dragon Hoard
A classic tropeāthe dragon that guards its treasure
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Elemental Dragon
Dragons with elemental powers or associated with elements
The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland
Dragon Ancestry
Someone with dranconic ancestry or dragon blood
Seraphina Duology by Rachel Hartman
Dragon Rider
Self-explanatory but I love the connection between Dragon & Rider
The Aurelian Cycle by Rosaria Munda
That’s it! For most tropes I only found one book which clearly means I need to read more dragon books. There are so many dragon tropes to explore!
Thanks to the Wyrd & Wonder Hosts:
Imyril from There Is Always Room for One More
Lisa from Dear Geek Place
Jorie from Jorie Loves a Story
Ariana from The Book Nook
Annemieke from A Dance with Books
Let’s chat in the comments!
What’s your favourite Dragon Trope? Or name me a book that fits any of the categories I mentioned!
I like the trope of dragons as ancient wise beings, not necessarily allied with humans. Anne McCaffrey has the whole Pern series that popularized the dragon and rider trope. Patricia A. McKillip’s The Cygnet and the Firebird has the dragon shapeshifter trope as well as the dragon ancestry trope. Jane Yolen wrote several middle grade/YA books about dragon breeders, though it’s been so long since I read them that I don’t remember the titles. Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown features an evil dragon among other challenges for the titular hero(ine). I know there’s others, but they’re escaping me right now (very draconic, that).
Thank you for your thorough comment there are so many amazing recs there! McCaffrey and McKillip & McKinley are classic SFF authors I have been meaning to try out but have yet to. Well, I read a short story by McCaffery which I loved but I feel like I need to try MORE! I’ve never heard of Yolen but rest assured I’ll be looking them up! I also love the idea of dragons being removed from humans, they’re too wise to deal with humanity’s nonsense š
Dangerous to reply to my comment like that — I’ll shower you with more recs in response š Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea books are where I get the ancient wise removed from humanity trope from. McKillip’s Tower at Stony Wood features a crucial dragon’s hoard in one of the subplots. I would echo the rec below for His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley is about a boy raising an orphaned dragon; not sure if he’s a dragon breeder or a dragon tamer! Don’t know if it fits any of your listed tropes, but Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw is entirely dragons in a skewed version of 19th century England. Tamora Pierce has a very charming story of a dragon attempting to tame a human (The Dragon’s Tale, in Tortall and Other Lands).
hahah I suppose I like to live dangerously as long as books are involved š My cup overfloweth with dragon recs and I thank you once more ā„ Also I love that you are naming a ton of authors I already intend to read but now I feel like I’ve been lagging behind šI have another book by Jo Walton collecting dust on my shelves (Lent)!
Are you familiar with His Majesty’s Dragon? It’s part of a series in which dragons exist as semi-domesticated animals and the series follows their use in the Napoleonic Wars. I’ve only read the first one but have the second one when I’m feeling in the mood for it.
It’s definitely on my list I have heard such good things about it and I’ve also heard in some ways it’s similar to The Aurelian Cycle in my list because that’s inspired by The Russian Revolution so we have a historical-ish setting with dragons in both!
TNT has given you some good recs, so I won’t repeat them. Instead, I’ll give you some new ones.
For weredragon, I’d recommend The Last Dragonlord by Joanne Bertin (and the sequel Dragon & Pheonix), and Dragon’s Winter by Elizabeth A Lynn (and the sequel Dragon’s Treasure). For the latter, if you only plan to read book one, stop before part 5, if you want to read them both, read all – if you’re curious why, I explain it on the Dragon’s Winter post on my blog.
The Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies by Melanie Rawn are also good. I read them when I was a teen so have forgotten most of what they were about, but I remember they were good adult fantasy with dragons.
Witches of Eileanan by Kate Forsyth have dragons in them, but I think they are only in the first book, though they are an important part of that book. It’s a great series, even if dragons don’t feature heavily.
Oh wow okay, I had not heard of any of these authors previously so thank you so much for bringing them to my attention! I usually prefer to read whole series but I suppose I would have to decide if I want to continue on when I get to it but I’ll check out your post because now I’m curious! I went ahead and added all of those to my tbr and this is now my favourite comment section š
I loved The Invisible Library! I liked how the dragons and fae were set up as opposing forces in it. I didn’t know Dragonfall was dragon-shifters, but I’ve got a copy of it on my TBR.
Yes me too, I liked how the different factions were set up and how they represent order and chaos in different amounts on different worlds. Such a cool concept. & Oh nice I hope you like Dragonfall when you get to it!
So many great recommendations on here already. I would definitely say that the Pern novels by Anne McCaffery are a must for any dragon lover. I also love the Joanne Bertin books and Melanie Rawn. series. The latest dragon rider book I’ve read is Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu which I loved and is the first in a trilogy.
Thanks for even more recs! I went to add Matharu’s series to my tbr on GoodReads turns out I already have it on there and it looks SO cool!! That’s probably a sign from the Dragon Gods š
These are some great dragon tropes! Another one for the shapeshifting dragon trope (kinda) is The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds super cute and has been on my TBR for a while.
omg what? Be still my chocolate-loving heart, that sounds adorable!
I really loved Seraphina!
Me too, I read it once as a teen but it has stayed with me!
I haven’t read any of these yet although I have a few of them on my TBR and am definitely checking out the full blurbs for the others. How on earth did I forget about Seraphina though? I’ve made a note on my phone to see if my library still has it as I was desperate to read it then forgot all about it š
There are dragons in a few of Elixabeth Lims books and I guess they’d fit the weredragon trope most closely as they can shift form. Or Asian mythology if you’d count it as a trope since they’re based on it.
Hahha I blame other books for distracting you away from Seraphina but that’s hilarious. I hope your library doesn’t have a long wait for it! Glad some of these interest you, though I wouldn’t actively recommend the War of the Spark, you need a lot of extra context for it and I was SO disappointed by it!
Interesting I haven’t read any of Elizabeth Lim’s books let me look them up and I have no idea if Asian Mythology counts as a trope or just another type of dragon, that’s a good point!
Thank you. I can’t check for a week or so as they’re doing something to their catalogue. If they don’t have it I might treat myself to a copy š aww I’m sorry to hear that one let you down. Hopefully your next dragon read will be better.
I’d imagine it’s more type of dragon & genre but I’ve always loved those types of reads.
Ah okay hopefully they change their catalogue quickly haha and yes I think I need to read more books with that type of dragon, not one I’ve read enough!
Thank you. I think I need to read more books with dragons in general. I don’t think I’ve read anywhere near enough š
I agree, same for me!! I need MORE. If you see the comments below other people gave tons of amazing sounding recs!
Ooh thanks for the tip. I’ll go and check them out now. I hope you enjoy any that you pick up.
Same to you!!
Thank you.