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hanz's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
2.0
Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of most of these stories and it was a slog to get through at times. Some good stories in here, but I don't think it's worth reading the whole collection just for the few good ones and I wish I'd skipped more of the ones I wasn't enjoying.
Worst stories were Small Bird's Plea by Todd McCaffrey, which I didn't finish because it was badly written and used lots of Asian stereotypes from the outset; and Dragon Slayer by Michael Swanwick which was essentially centred around an adult man rescuing a child, forcing her into servitude and then marrying her, which is disgusting.
My favourite stories were
Worst stories were Small Bird's Plea by Todd McCaffrey, which I didn't finish because it was badly written and used lots of Asian stereotypes from the outset; and Dragon Slayer by Michael Swanwick which was essentially centred around an adult man rescuing a child, forcing her into servitude and then marrying her, which is disgusting.
My favourite stories were
- Where the River Turns to Concrete - Brooke Bolander
- Lucky's Dragon - Kelly Barnhill
- The Exile - JY Yang
- Hoard - Seanan McGuire
- We Continue - Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky
I'm looking forward to trying more of these author's work, as most of them I hadn't read from before.
rosie_reads_7's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
hawthornandhemlock's review
Soooo many stories set in modern day times. The first story was interesting and I would love to see it developed into a full novel but the rest were lacking in pretty much every aspect.
srredd5's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
aatiii's review
3.0
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Too many of these stories are not really about dragons.
qu33nofbookz's review
3.0
2 1/2 stars rounded up.
I love dragons. That being said I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book or how to rate it. This is supposed to be a collection of short stories and poems about dragons. But really the "stories" are just slices of scenes or ideas, if they resemble stories they are cut off so abruptly it felt like you are getting a teaser to a bigger book that you have to go get, but there isn't any more to get. (Edit: the latter half of the book are complete shorts) Also, the dragon element is lacking in many of them so I am not quite sure why they are in this collection. (Edit: most stories involved a god that had dragon like features, mostly Asian dragons, but were either mostly humanoid or just mentioned and not seen, or you only get a glimpse of at the end are not really a part of the story except to mention them as a part of the characters religion or local legend.) The drawings are a nice bonus, though I wish there were more or more detailed to the story than the tiny general sketches, which by the way are mostly of Europen style dragons when most featured in the stories are Asian style. I guess I'll go story by story for rating and summary and review. 75% of any dragons described are the eastern/Asian style/type dragons.
What Heroism Tells Us By Jane Yolen 2 stars
A very short "poem" that feels more like the opening paragraph of a novel. Mention of a dragon's eye...noting else dragon here.
Matriculation By Elle Katharine White 1 1/2 stars
Melee lives in a world where magic and technology blend and most of the population is undead, and the currency is blood. She has been accepted into magic tech university to get a degree to save the shop her father left her. She shops for a textbook she needs before needing to come up with tuition when her scholarship is canceled. The dragon is her flying machine she uses like a car. This had an abrupt ending that had me checking to see if the book was missing pages. The story just stops with an unsatisfactory ending.
Hikayat Sri Bujang, or, The Tale of the Naga Sage, By Zen Cho 3 stars
Sri Bujang is a dragon who is called home from his self-imposed exile to become king because his father is dying. He has been alone in the mountains for so long to become a sage, ie grow up he has forgotten what being in the real world of humans can mean. He must learn to stop being selfish and stop causing destruction and care for others.
Yuli By Daniel Abraham 1 1/2 stars
Yuli is a middle-aged ex-soldier whose teenaged grandson has come to stay with him. He is amused by the teen and his friends playing dungeons and dragons in the not basement because it has a window. He took a lot of drugs during his war years and is messed up mentally. He also brought back stolen gold coins as spoils of war and buried them in the not basement. A friend asks about the coins he has and warns him that people are coming for them. He gets himself back in shape. When he goes to the store one day he is set upon by a group of nine...mercenaries? villains or unknown origin? This story also had an abrupt cut off making you think pages are missing. The only mention of dragons is that there is one in the D&D game. I think there is supposed to be an illusion to Yuli being a dragon since he is hiding gold coins but it doesn't work.
A Whisper of Blue By Ken Liu 5 stars
Dragons are real and known worldwide. They provide a source of energy harnessed to make things run like electricity. This story is written like a transcript of a documentary of a bunch of people in a small town in Massachusetts where a swarm of dragons have come to live. Scenes of various dragons mixed with interviews of the townspeople telling the history of dragons, what they do for the humans, and about how the humans work with them and how the town can use the dragons to their benefit.
Nidhog By Jo Walton 2 stars
A short poem about the world symbolized as a tree resting on the back of a sleeping dragon. When we use up our resources and the tree dies the dragon will awake and destroy the world.
Where the River Turns to Concrete By Brooke Bolander 2 1/2 stars
Joe is a huge man with no memory working for a mob boss doing all the dirty deeds. He loves to swim and one day saves the life of a boy who drowned in his pool. He develops a budding love with the boy's mother who has a long line of magic/mysticism running through her family. She tells him a tale about meeting a river god/dragon as a child. He begins to remember the past, and after killing a witch his boss had hired long ago he remembers he is the river god/dragon and the mob boss made him a man when he dried up the river to make condos. He takes his revenge.
Habitat By K. J. Parker 5 stars
A knight and lord of unknown name once killed a dragon as a teen out of sheer dumb luck. With the death of his brother, he was sent off to war which he survived longer than almost anyone else again out of sheer dumb luck. When he returns home the crown prince wants him to catch a live dragon or he'll take all his lands away. We get a history of how dragons came to their lands, the reasons for war, and how the two are linked as he searches for one. When he is done with his quest all is well, with an interesting twist.
Pox By Ellen Klages 3 stars
Ellen is having a bad vacation, stuck in California when her sister and brother get chickenpox. She consoles herself with her favorite book, The Legend of Earthsea, and hunting snails in the garden for pennies until one day her aunt takes her for an adventure. She takes her for a day in Chinatown to meet up with a friend of hers. This story's setting is 1969 and it is heavily hinted and alluded that her aunt is bisexual and had a relationship with the friend they meet who is in a relationship with another woman. After their day of exploring the district where she compares everything to her book, she buys a lizard that looks like a dragon which might just actually be a dragon.
The Nine Curves River By R. F. Kuang 2 1/2 stars
Jiejie is writing an open letter to her little sister who is a sacrifice to the local dragon. Their kingdom of small islands is perfect thanks to the protection and power of a dragon. But to keep the dragon's favor each year they must sacrifice someone to it. On a festival day during the lunar new year week, Jiejie takes her sister to the main island, the big city for the first time. They spend the day walking around seeing the sights and enjoying the festival. JieJie reveals that her sister has been perfect since birth and that she grew jealous of her but now that her sister is going to die, chosen by the priests and brainwashed to accept her fate she feels bad. From her descriptions of her sister and her skills, it seems that her sister is linked to or might be a part of the dragon in human form. We never see the dragon it is only talked about.
Lucky’s Dragon By Kelly Barnhill 3 stars
Lucky is a budding scientist whose project in science class explodes and creates a dragon. The dragon is a part of Lucky and as the dragon grows she shrinks and her feelings disappear. Her neighbor and only friend, a scientist is actually an alien who knows what is going on and tries to help Lucky. The next day other students also make dragons which do the same thing to them as is happening to Lucky. Turns out the science teacher is behind all the dragons popping up.
I Make Myself a Dragon By Beth Cato 2 stars
A short poem about someone who wants to become a dragon to smite their enemies, most likely bullies. They will protect other weak people who are bullied and teach them to become strong dragons too.
The Exile By JY Yang 1/2 star
One of the most recent stories written the characters use the they/them pronouns. This story is not well done and doesn't make a lot of sense and the world-building/background/explanations are nill. This felt like a part of either an ongoing story or an already establish world from another book but one the author didn't mention. The god/dragon here has at least 3 names and the author keeps switching them out which is frustrating. Linear is some kind of priest and convicted criminal on a spaceship and he sees his duty as a punishment of some kind or it is his punishment? (Is being a priest a crime? The world-building really sucks in this story). He has to serve/feed the captured god (in Asian dragon form) that is on the ship (for power? not really explained). The god/dragon decides to present itself in human-like form to talk but Linear refuses. For 10 years he brings the food and he never sees the god/dragon again. At last, the ship reaches a planet and the god/dragon is let go there (apparently the god/dragon was the prisoner) to terraform the planet to be habitable for humans. It takes 10 years then the humans will come back to lay claim to it, Linear must stay on the planet in a bubble/dome house while the god/dragon does its thing and keep an observation journal. Linear starts to go mad from the isolation and notices that the planet is growing crystals which seem to be somewhat sentient. The god/dragon tries to communicate with Linear again but they refuse and flash back to how they got into the position they are in and the death of their lover. After 10 years in which Linear has blanked everything out in the madness of isolation, he comes to realize the planet is still toxic and won't support human life. He calls to the god/dragon who tells him that the humans ignored the life on the planet but he has not and they offered him freedom so he has made the planet better for the life forms, the crystals, already there. Linear is angry the god/dragon won't do what they enslaved them for and begins to realize how much trouble they are in since they were supposed to keep the god/dragon in check but didn't care about it for the whole decade. The god/dragon points out that they have been the living dead and have no future. So Linear decides to kill themselves after all the crap they went through to live.
Except on Saturdays By Peter S. Beagle 2 1/2 stars
An aging college professor meets Melusine an immortal dragon of legend in human form on a bus one night. She is in a wheelchair because her legs become a tale every Saturday and he helps her after she falls out of it. He follows her home where they talk about her past, her legend, and possibly make love before she transforms. He leaves always hoping to have another encounter with her but doesn't think he ever will.
La Vitesse By Kelly Robson 3 stars
Bea is a school bus driver in the very fringe of Canada. While driving the children home one day she notices the bus, which she has named La Vitesse is being chased by a dragon. She had seen one before months ago but no one believed her. Now she knows that all the children are in danger because the dragon wants to eat them if it can catch the bus. With the help of her authority hating, people hating doesn't listen to anyone punk of a teenaged daughter she must outrun and stop the dragon. A nice little twist at the end sets up for a longer book or second short story.
A Final Knight to Her Love and Foe By Amal El-Mohtar 2 1/2 stars
A short open letter about the love/hate relationship between the writer and a dragon.
The Long Walk By Kate Elliott 3 1/2 stars
Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz By Garth Nix 3 stars
Hoard By Seanan McGuire
The Wyrm of Lirr By C. S. E. Cooney
The Last Hunt By Aliette de Bodard 1 star
We Continue By Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky
Small Bird’s Plea By Todd McCaffrey
The Dragons By Theodora Goss
Dragon Slayer By Michael Swanwick
Camouflage By Patricia A. McKillip
“We Don’t Talk About the Dragon,” Sarah Gailey
“Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It,” Scott Lynch
“A Nice Cuppa,” Jane Yolen
I love dragons. That being said I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book or how to rate it. This is supposed to be a collection of short stories and poems about dragons. But really the "stories" are just slices of scenes or ideas, if they resemble stories they are cut off so abruptly it felt like you are getting a teaser to a bigger book that you have to go get, but there isn't any more to get. (Edit: the latter half of the book are complete shorts) Also, the dragon element is lacking in many of them so I am not quite sure why they are in this collection. (Edit: most stories involved a god that had dragon like features, mostly Asian dragons, but were either mostly humanoid or just mentioned and not seen, or you only get a glimpse of at the end are not really a part of the story except to mention them as a part of the characters religion or local legend.) The drawings are a nice bonus, though I wish there were more or more detailed to the story than the tiny general sketches, which by the way are mostly of Europen style dragons when most featured in the stories are Asian style. I guess I'll go story by story for rating and summary and review. 75% of any dragons described are the eastern/Asian style/type dragons.
What Heroism Tells Us By Jane Yolen 2 stars
A very short "poem" that feels more like the opening paragraph of a novel. Mention of a dragon's eye...noting else dragon here.
Matriculation By Elle Katharine White 1 1/2 stars
Melee lives in a world where magic and technology blend and most of the population is undead, and the currency is blood. She has been accepted into magic tech university to get a degree to save the shop her father left her. She shops for a textbook she needs before needing to come up with tuition when her scholarship is canceled. The dragon is her flying machine she uses like a car. This had an abrupt ending that had me checking to see if the book was missing pages. The story just stops with an unsatisfactory ending.
Hikayat Sri Bujang, or, The Tale of the Naga Sage, By Zen Cho 3 stars
Sri Bujang is a dragon who is called home from his self-imposed exile to become king because his father is dying. He has been alone in the mountains for so long to become a sage, ie grow up he has forgotten what being in the real world of humans can mean. He must learn to stop being selfish and stop causing destruction and care for others.
Yuli By Daniel Abraham 1 1/2 stars
Yuli is a middle-aged ex-soldier whose teenaged grandson has come to stay with him. He is amused by the teen and his friends playing dungeons and dragons in the not basement because it has a window. He took a lot of drugs during his war years and is messed up mentally. He also brought back stolen gold coins as spoils of war and buried them in the not basement. A friend asks about the coins he has and warns him that people are coming for them. He gets himself back in shape. When he goes to the store one day he is set upon by a group of nine...mercenaries? villains or unknown origin? This story also had an abrupt cut off making you think pages are missing. The only mention of dragons is that there is one in the D&D game. I think there is supposed to be an illusion to Yuli being a dragon since he is hiding gold coins but it doesn't work.
A Whisper of Blue By Ken Liu 5 stars
Dragons are real and known worldwide. They provide a source of energy harnessed to make things run like electricity. This story is written like a transcript of a documentary of a bunch of people in a small town in Massachusetts where a swarm of dragons have come to live. Scenes of various dragons mixed with interviews of the townspeople telling the history of dragons, what they do for the humans, and about how the humans work with them and how the town can use the dragons to their benefit.
Nidhog By Jo Walton 2 stars
A short poem about the world symbolized as a tree resting on the back of a sleeping dragon. When we use up our resources and the tree dies the dragon will awake and destroy the world.
Where the River Turns to Concrete By Brooke Bolander 2 1/2 stars
Joe is a huge man with no memory working for a mob boss doing all the dirty deeds. He loves to swim and one day saves the life of a boy who drowned in his pool. He develops a budding love with the boy's mother who has a long line of magic/mysticism running through her family. She tells him a tale about meeting a river god/dragon as a child. He begins to remember the past, and after killing a witch his boss had hired long ago he remembers he is the river god/dragon and the mob boss made him a man when he dried up the river to make condos. He takes his revenge.
Habitat By K. J. Parker 5 stars
A knight and lord of unknown name once killed a dragon as a teen out of sheer dumb luck. With the death of his brother, he was sent off to war which he survived longer than almost anyone else again out of sheer dumb luck. When he returns home the crown prince wants him to catch a live dragon or he'll take all his lands away. We get a history of how dragons came to their lands, the reasons for war, and how the two are linked as he searches for one. When he is done with his quest all is well, with an interesting twist.
Pox By Ellen Klages 3 stars
Ellen is having a bad vacation, stuck in California when her sister and brother get chickenpox. She consoles herself with her favorite book, The Legend of Earthsea, and hunting snails in the garden for pennies until one day her aunt takes her for an adventure. She takes her for a day in Chinatown to meet up with a friend of hers. This story's setting is 1969 and it is heavily hinted and alluded that her aunt is bisexual and had a relationship with the friend they meet who is in a relationship with another woman. After their day of exploring the district where she compares everything to her book, she buys a lizard that looks like a dragon which might just actually be a dragon.
The Nine Curves River By R. F. Kuang 2 1/2 stars
Jiejie is writing an open letter to her little sister who is a sacrifice to the local dragon. Their kingdom of small islands is perfect thanks to the protection and power of a dragon. But to keep the dragon's favor each year they must sacrifice someone to it. On a festival day during the lunar new year week, Jiejie takes her sister to the main island, the big city for the first time. They spend the day walking around seeing the sights and enjoying the festival. JieJie reveals that her sister has been perfect since birth and that she grew jealous of her but now that her sister is going to die, chosen by the priests and brainwashed to accept her fate she feels bad. From her descriptions of her sister and her skills, it seems that her sister is linked to or might be a part of the dragon in human form. We never see the dragon it is only talked about.
Lucky’s Dragon By Kelly Barnhill 3 stars
Lucky is a budding scientist whose project in science class explodes and creates a dragon. The dragon is a part of Lucky and as the dragon grows she shrinks and her feelings disappear. Her neighbor and only friend, a scientist is actually an alien who knows what is going on and tries to help Lucky. The next day other students also make dragons which do the same thing to them as is happening to Lucky. Turns out the science teacher is behind all the dragons popping up.
I Make Myself a Dragon By Beth Cato 2 stars
A short poem about someone who wants to become a dragon to smite their enemies, most likely bullies. They will protect other weak people who are bullied and teach them to become strong dragons too.
The Exile By JY Yang 1/2 star
One of the most recent stories written the characters use the they/them pronouns. This story is not well done and doesn't make a lot of sense and the world-building/background/explanations are nill. This felt like a part of either an ongoing story or an already establish world from another book but one the author didn't mention. The god/dragon here has at least 3 names and the author keeps switching them out which is frustrating. Linear is some kind of priest and convicted criminal on a spaceship and he sees his duty as a punishment of some kind or it is his punishment? (Is being a priest a crime? The world-building really sucks in this story). He has to serve/feed the captured god (in Asian dragon form) that is on the ship (for power? not really explained). The god/dragon decides to present itself in human-like form to talk but Linear refuses. For 10 years he brings the food and he never sees the god/dragon again. At last, the ship reaches a planet and the god/dragon is let go there (apparently the god/dragon was the prisoner) to terraform the planet to be habitable for humans. It takes 10 years then the humans will come back to lay claim to it, Linear must stay on the planet in a bubble/dome house while the god/dragon does its thing and keep an observation journal. Linear starts to go mad from the isolation and notices that the planet is growing crystals which seem to be somewhat sentient. The god/dragon tries to communicate with Linear again but they refuse and flash back to how they got into the position they are in and the death of their lover. After 10 years in which Linear has blanked everything out in the madness of isolation, he comes to realize the planet is still toxic and won't support human life. He calls to the god/dragon who tells him that the humans ignored the life on the planet but he has not and they offered him freedom so he has made the planet better for the life forms, the crystals, already there. Linear is angry the god/dragon won't do what they enslaved them for and begins to realize how much trouble they are in since they were supposed to keep the god/dragon in check but didn't care about it for the whole decade. The god/dragon points out that they have been the living dead and have no future. So Linear decides to kill themselves after all the crap they went through to live.
Except on Saturdays By Peter S. Beagle 2 1/2 stars
An aging college professor meets Melusine an immortal dragon of legend in human form on a bus one night. She is in a wheelchair because her legs become a tale every Saturday and he helps her after she falls out of it. He follows her home where they talk about her past, her legend, and possibly make love before she transforms. He leaves always hoping to have another encounter with her but doesn't think he ever will.
La Vitesse By Kelly Robson 3 stars
Bea is a school bus driver in the very fringe of Canada. While driving the children home one day she notices the bus, which she has named La Vitesse is being chased by a dragon. She had seen one before months ago but no one believed her. Now she knows that all the children are in danger because the dragon wants to eat them if it can catch the bus. With the help of her authority hating, people hating doesn't listen to anyone punk of a teenaged daughter she must outrun and stop the dragon. A nice little twist at the end sets up for a longer book or second short story.
A Final Knight to Her Love and Foe By Amal El-Mohtar 2 1/2 stars
A short open letter about the love/hate relationship between the writer and a dragon.
The Long Walk By Kate Elliott 3 1/2 stars
Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz By Garth Nix 3 stars
Hoard By Seanan McGuire
The Wyrm of Lirr By C. S. E. Cooney
The Last Hunt By Aliette de Bodard 1 star
We Continue By Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky
Small Bird’s Plea By Todd McCaffrey
The Dragons By Theodora Goss
Dragon Slayer By Michael Swanwick
Camouflage By Patricia A. McKillip
“We Don’t Talk About the Dragon,” Sarah Gailey
“Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It,” Scott Lynch
“A Nice Cuppa,” Jane Yolen
sparky_lurkdragon's review
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
4.5
As an anthology, there are highs and lows. The lows include a story that isn't even about a dragon, but the highs are well worth it.
pasanov's review
adventurous
dark
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
5.0
elsecallerreads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I think this anthology will delight anyone who loves dragons. Sometimes with anthologies that are written by multiple authors the quality varies greatly from story to story. I'm happy to say this isn't the case here. Every story was at least 4 stars for me and I was delighted by each one.
tinynavajo's review
5.0
If you enjoy dragons then you'll enjoy this book quite a lot! Highly recovered and you find a lot of new authors as well!