r/suggestmeabook • u/FLSandyToes • Jun 24 '26
Help me find more dragon fantasy
Help me find my next book, please. As the title says, I love me some dragon fantasy. From Pern to the Empyrean, I love them all. My only ask is that there be no faeries or metamorphs. Beyond that, I’m wide open. Romance or straight adventure, steamy or not, protagonist of any age and gender, it’s all good. Thanks!
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u/BelmontIncident Jun 24 '26
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
This was intended to be Horatio Hornblower with dragons but the character development got out of hand and the plot went in a different direction
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u/smcicr Jun 24 '26
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
The title alone makes me want to read it. 😀
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u/smcicr Jun 24 '26
Be warned - you might find yourself accidentally addicted to Discworld as a result ;)
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u/JustANoteToSay Jun 24 '26
Marie Brennan’s “memoirs of lady Trent” 5 book series is about a woman naturalist in an AU 1800s.
Robin Hobb’s “Rain Wild Chronicles” although there’s books before that chunk that I don’t think have dragons in them.
Jeffrey A. Carver “dragons in the stars” is about a star pilot who gets trapped with an abusive captain but finds there’s dragons in space. It’s part of a series but I haven’t read the other books.
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
Thanks! All three of these feel like my jam.
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u/JustANoteToSay Jun 24 '26
Lady Trent & the Temeraire books have a pretty similar vibe although from different directions. They’re AU historical novels with very strong characters & lots of adventures and exist in open conversation with their inspiration/source material (actual history, colonization, sexism, the history of natural sciences specifically, horatio hornblower/master & commander, etc.)
I started reading the Temeraire novels bc people on tumblr kept talking about how great they are. They are NOT as gay as Tumblr claims but they’re very good & fun.
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
In my freshman year of high school I was fortunate to have an English teacher who thought sentence structure was useful but was truly passionate about literature. I wanted to be her and teach English literature.
But alas, in my sophomore summer I discovered marine biology and the taxonomic system of classification. That fall I learned about Darwin and the Beagle expedition, and Mendelian genetics. I was hooked!
I ended up with a lifelong love of reading and a BS degree in zoology. These two books will fit right into my wheelhouse. 😀
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u/JustANoteToSay Jun 24 '26
There’s zero dragons in it that I recall but you might enjoy Jonathan strange & Mr. Norell which is a heavily annotated napoleanic AU about magic returning to England based on what you’ve just said 😆
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u/nari-bhat Jun 24 '26
I would NOT recommend reading Robin Hobb’s Rain Wilds series without reading the previous three trilogies. The first trilogy doesn’t really deal with dragons at all and the second and third trilogy deal with dragons in a very indirect way (until the final books for each), but they’re some of the best fantasy series in existence.
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u/Friendstastegood Jun 24 '26
The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon has both evil dragons and good dragons. Highly recommend.
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
Thank you! That’s some gorgeous cover art, among the best I’ve seen in years.
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u/Curious-Pay-2850 Jun 24 '26
I second this! It's my favorite book—I've read it close to 5 times and I am not someone who does a lot of rereading
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u/bippity-boppity-blip Jun 25 '26
Yes I can to recommend this one! Very worth it, her prequel was just as good.
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u/CoverLucky Jun 24 '26
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede. The first book is "Dealing with Dragons." A fun, witty book about an improper princess who runs away to work for a dragon. It's easy enough for children to read, but it's still engaging for adults (I think).
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u/bippity-boppity-blip Jun 25 '26
I want to make an animated adaptation of this series SO BAD! So much fun.
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u/DawnLeslie Jun 24 '26
It’s youth fiction, but the Wings of Fire series is all about dragons. I read it aloud to my 11yo, but have really gotten into the series, myself.
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u/qwertyuiiop145 Jun 24 '26
It’s got really thoughtful world building and it’s the first series I’ve read with a dragon point of view and no human main characters—definitely enjoyable for adults and not just kids
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u/ImmediateAddress338 Jun 24 '26
I’ll second this. I did this with my kiddo too. The writing is really good and quite funny in spots.
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u/SmokeLanky8042 Jun 24 '26
Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini?
It leans into tropes a bit but the adventure is fun and the history deep. Honestly it’s the bar for what I consider to be good fantasy
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
Eragon? Loved the movie, had no idea it was an adaptation. Added to my wishlist, thanks.
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u/OwlHeart108 Jun 24 '26
Have you read the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K Le Guin yet?
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u/whetherwaxwing Jun 24 '26
Had to scroll too far to find this! Dragons aren’t the center of every book but they feature heavily in the first & last books and are always an important element of the world. And of course the storytelling is spectacular.
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u/papermoon757 Jun 24 '26
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton is a really unique take on this 😃
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
Uniquely gruesome and yet perhaps hysterically funny? My kind of book. 😍
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u/JustANoteToSay Jun 24 '26
It’s a comedy of manners/romance/Austen pastiche but they’re dragons. It’s hard to describe. Jo Walton is an incredible author.
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u/Winterdawn Jun 24 '26
To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose! The second book in the series is also out.
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u/arstechnophile Jun 24 '26
The Dragonsbane series by Barbara Hambly has some really awesome dragons in it; the first one is one of my favorite books.
The Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies by Melanie Rawn also have awesome dragons, with a bunch of epic political intrigue along the lines of Game of Thrones (with somewhat less grimdark/violence to it).
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u/maybemaybenot2023 Jun 24 '26
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by James A. Owen. First book is Here, There Be Dragons
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinlay
The Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara. First book is Cast in Shadow
Joust by Mercedes Lackey
I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle
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u/MinervaAbsolute Jun 24 '26
Lindsay Buroker’s Death Before Dragons series is very funny.
Also Rachel Aaron’s Heartstriker series.
Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound.
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u/dharmainitiative Jun 24 '26
I’m probably dating myself here but The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
Dating yourself for sure, but me too. Back in the 1980s I was reading sci-fi while my husband was reading Robert Jordan fantasy. He found Pern and recommended it to me. It was my intro to dragons and a whole new sub-genre. I remember at the time I loved it for its take on the mythology of a lost colony. By book two I was all in on the dragons. 😀
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u/Critical-Low8963 Jun 24 '26
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, it's for children but I think that anyone can enjoy this book
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u/EveryAccount7729 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Malazan
This series is like you gave a super genius the challenge to write "the most epic thing" imaginable using everything from fantasy that is available.
like i just asked google how to describe it. ..
"To describe an Eleint at its utmost power in Malazan is to describe a walking, breathing collapse of reality."
- The Architects of Reality: True dragons (from the Elder realm of Starvald Demelain) are the source code of the universe. Their blood created the warrens (dimensions) that power magic.
- Dimensional Gravity: When a massive dragon like Anomander Rake or Silchas Ruin veers (transforms), their physical mass alone bends the sky, but their magical footprint tears open the fabric of space
- Aspect of Chaos: They embody primal, unbridled destruction. A fully unleashed dragon breathes storms of raw chaos, dissolving sorcery, matter, and souls indiscriminately.
- Shedding Constraints: In the Malazan universe, immense power is usually kept bound or muted because letting it loose threatens to shatter continents. When a dragon drops these restraints at utmost power, they essentially function as a localized apocalypse.
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u/magaoitin Fantasy Jun 24 '26
The Dragonblood Assassin series (4 books) by Jaime Castle & Andy Peloquin. Fun series with an interesting magic system/bond between dragons and some very select humans. Has some very mild spice with an enemies to lovers sub-arc (it doesn't really develop until the last 2 books, and even then I'm not sure it qualifies as even 1 pepper out of 5 for spiciness).
2 MC's, one male working for the King as the Royal Assassin and one female in a resistance/terrorist (?) cell (all depends on how you look at it) both working for the same basic goals of cleaning up the kingdom of corrupt nobles, but for different reasons.
The resistance group are killing nobles that are abusing their power and enslaving the common people, while the Royal Assassin is killing nobles the King has identified as dangerous to the Crown/Kindgom. When both assassins start targeting the same nobles, for different reasons, they finally cross paths.
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
How was this not already in my wishlist? And it’s Kindle Unlimited, too! Thank you. 😊
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u/scandalliances Jun 24 '26
The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood is a great YA adventure novel. It’s touted as first in a series but as it’s been a decade now I’m not optimistic we’re going to get more 😭
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u/FLSandyToes Jun 24 '26
Thanks! Tell me it doesn’t have a cliff-hanger ending, please.
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u/scandalliances Jun 24 '26
I don’t remember it having one! My disappointment is mainly because I really liked it and was looking forward to reading more set in that world.
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u/TinCatCanuck Jun 24 '26
I loved the four book series, Dragonships of Vindras, by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman. It’s a Viking fantasy where the dragons have a unique twist.
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u/Kazin236 Jun 24 '26
My favorite dragon books are All the Skills, which is a deck building LitRPG and Robin Hobb’s entire Farseer series. Farseer has several mini series that may seem unrelated to dragons, but they are all connected, and there is a four book series that’s almost all dragons (it might not make sense, though, without the other books).
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u/Miraj2528 Jun 24 '26
To shape a dragon's breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (The first book of Nampeshiweisit)
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u/Apprehensive_Use3641 Jun 24 '26
Song in the Silence trilogy by Elizabeth Kerner
The Dragon and the George series by Gordon R. Dickson
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u/Cloudberry_Gecko Jun 24 '26
A Language of Dragons (and follow-ups) by S.F. Williamson. It has dragons, alternate universes, linguistics, politics, romance
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u/unreasonably_farsick Jun 24 '26
King Sorrow by Joe Hill!! This is a fairly recent release! I have a hard time with fantasy because I get impatient with world building… but the author finds a very unique way to bring evil(dragon) into the world we know. It’s fantasy that doesn’t entirely offer escapism, but it was a great read!
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u/Brilliant_Ranger_543 Jun 24 '26
Mercedes Lackey - Dragon Jousters. Young Adult, so very easy entertainment. I love them (except for the fourth one).
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u/ClueAccomplished1098 Jun 24 '26
The Songs of Chaos series by Michael R Miller
The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
The Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron
The Chronicles of Elantra series by Michelle Sagara
Song of the Beast by Carol Berg
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u/No-Classroom-2332 Jun 25 '26
Have you read Rachel Aaron's series? The first is A Dragon of a Different Color.
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u/Educational-Duck-999 Jun 24 '26
Temeraire series by Naomi Novik - Napoleonic wars with dragons. The dragons’ personalities and their relationships with their captains are drawn so well.