Dragon? Yes, a dragon! Wouldn’t you be awestruck to look up and see one flying overhead? A friendly one, of course. Not a torch-your-fields, steal-your-sheep, eat-the-princess sort of dragon. In books and legends, both types exist. And as part of fantasy lore, dragons have been around for thousands of years.
The first mention of dragons is thought to be in Sumerian myths, followed by Chinese and Indian legends dating back to 2700 B.C. Greek mythology, dating back 4,000 years, is full of draconic images and tales. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, mentions of dragons (dragunes, dragouns) appear in Old English as far back as the 1200s, describing “a mythical monster represented as a huge and terrible reptile." In modern literature, most dragons share the qualities of being large, reptilian, winged, and fire-breathing.
Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series is the current dragon runaway bestseller. The first book, Fourth Wing, (just out in paperback) has been on the New York Times bestseller list for an amazing 72 weeks. Winner of multiple book awards and currently in development as a television series, “Fourth Wing” introduces Violet Sorrengail, an unwilling candidate for the elite position of dragon-rider. The second book in the series, Iron Flame has been on the NYT bestseller list for 46 weeks, and continues Violet’s dragon-rider training - and love story. The final book in this thrilling trilogy, Onyx Storm, has a publication date of January 21, 2025.
Naomi Novik, another well-known name in sci-fi and fantasy, has won numerous awards and nominations for her writing, including “Temeraire”, which also appears under the title His Majesty’s Dragon. The nine books in this series (known as the Temeraire series) follow Captain Laurence through an alternative history of the Napoleonic Wars as he bonds with a dragonet and becomes a part of England’s dragon fleet.
Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon, the first book in his Inheritance Cycle series, when he was a teenager. Published in 2001, “Eragon” is a classic dragon book, complete with epic quests and other classic fantasy elements. Paolini went on to write 5 more books in this series, which has also spawned a movie and a video game. Like Rebecca Yarros’ series, this series features a young protagonist and crosses the boundary line between adult and young adult fiction, in the area sometimes referred to as “new adult”.
In 2009, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman won the William C. Morris Award for first-time authors writing for teens. The title character, Seraphina, is a court musician who harbors a secret that may unbalance the uneasy peace existing between humans and dragons. Hartman followed “Seraphina” with Shadow Scale and then two more dragon-related books in the same universe but with different main characters, Tess of the Road and In the Serpent’s Wake.
No list of dragon books would be complete without Anne McCaffrey’s iconic Dragonriders of Pern series. The late great McCaffrey wrote Dragonflight in 1968, and the series now spans 25 books, still being written by McCaffrey’s children. The books are wonderfully egalitarian, with dragons and riders both male and female. McCaffrey herself was the first female writer to win both a Hugo and a Nebula award. Still waiting on the movie adaptation of these marvelous dragon books!
New at the Library
Fiction
- The Naturalist’s Daughter by Tea Cooper
- Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea
- Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith
Nonfiction
- The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity by Timothy Winegard
- A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times by Athena Aktipis
- This is Why You Dream: What Your Sleeping Brain Reveals About Your Waking Life by Rahul Jandial
Children
- The Knight Thieves by Jenn Bennett
- The LEGO Halloween Games Book by Tori Kosara
- I’m Sorry You Got Mad by Kyle Lukoff
This is just a small sampling of the many new titles added each week to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District collection. Visit the district’s 15 locations, our website at www.fvrl.org , or call (360) 906-5000 to reserve titles or find additional listings.
