A review by hanz
The Book of Dragons by Jonathan Strahan

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
  • 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.