The Book of Dragons: An Anthology

I am loving this book so well put together and great stories. The authors are putting me there.

Dragons. This anthology is all about the dragons. Not sold yet? Look at the list of the authors.The stories show a remarkable range both in ideas and in tone. The Book of Dragons is a well-balanced collection of serious and lighthearted, introspective and explosive, realistic and uncanny. Featured stories and poems draw from different myths and cultures and show many faces (snouts?) of dragons. Above all, though, they entertain. There were, of course, a few that did not appeal to me or that I flatly disliked. With almost 30 stories, there’s zero chance of a reader loving everything, though.Stories that stood out for me include Where the River Turns to Concrete by Brooke Bolander, which blends climate fiction, crime story, and a love story (of sorts). Plus, Bolander’s take on dragons awed me. Michael Swanwick's Dragon Slayer is absurd but wildly entertaining. It throws dragons, wizards, fallen heroes, and time travel into the mix and the end-result is insane. Kudos for the clever use of gender-switching and darkly humorous use of time-travel.As a die-hard fan of K.J. Parker, I enjoyed Habitat. With his usual dry humor, he proves that all heroic deeds need some dirty work to happen. It made me laugh and appreciate the satisfying ending. We Continue, by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky set on a planet where dragons live in hives and human colonists struggle to survive gut-punched me in a good way. While heartbreaking and sad, it shows that when we lose those we love, we have to continue and move on. Such is the cycle of life and death.My favorite story, Matriculation by Ellen Klages, blends humor, imaginative worldbuilding, and personal drama. Melee, a future student of magitech, needs expensive books to study. The story follows her haggles with pawnshop owners believing education should have a steep price. I loved the characters, the tone, and the setting (including mechanical dragons). And I want more.As for the weaker stories, The Exile by JY Yang didn’t click with me. I liked the idea and the mix of sci-fi and fantasy, but not the execution or story-telling. I felt the gender topic (both the dragon and its caretaker are non-binary and addressed as xir/they) was more important than the story itself. Other than this one? I love Seanan McGuire’s writing, but I found her story, Hoard, predictable and disappointing. Her name sells books so I understand why the anthology features her story, though.Strahan's choices provide a diversity of voice, subject, and form and a balance between fresh and established voices. I recommend The Book of Dragons to all speculative fiction readers. In addition to the richly varied stories, it provides a fascinating perspective on dragons across cultures.

This is a well curated collection with great stories in one volume. Very enjoyable!

Really enjoyed most of the stories (I'm not a big fan of poetry) I almost skipped what I thought was a poem (because of the way it was written) but it turned out to be a great short story! Wish some of the stories were longer or were novels.

Each and every story or poem was very well done, and a good number were even better than that! The best all-round collection I have read in years.

I’m not always a fan of anthologies but I liked this one. I tend to balance the score for them like the scales of justice. Some stories I like, others I do not. I enjoyed most of them in this book, and a few quite well - pointing me to new (for me) authors.It’s worth reading.

I really like this collection. It is not so easy to find a collection like this. So often I find too much sci/fi included. I didn't read all but most.

purchased as a gift

Hermoso libro. Con una portada super detallada y bella.

As a huge fan of dragons, I was really looking forward to this book. I've only read about half of the stories, and to be honest, many of them were slogs to get through. While the book isn't technically lying about being dragons, in the sense that most of the stories mention them, they aren't really ABOUT dragons. Most of them just mention dragons, but they could be replaced with any sort of macguffin and work just as well. Maybe the stories get better, but right now I'm not sure I can make myself read any further.Such a letdown. And then there is that one story that makes a mockery of english pronouns...