Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't read very many story collections, but I knew I wanted to read this as soon as I read the title. I absolutely love dragons! They are a staple in fantasy and many authors are extremely creative and original when it comes to featuring them in their stories. I was hopeful that these would follow suit and I'd get to read about dragons like I normally wouldn't. When I usually think of them I think of them from stories like The Hobbit, or Game of Thrones. Classic, fire-breathing creatures that hoard riches. I am very pleased to say that this book lived up to the hype around it!

Every single story used dragons and the ideas behind them in such original ways. Many were East Asian based which I found incredibly cool, seeing as there are legendary mythologies in many different cultures. Even the poems were interesting, which I usually steer clear of. Many of these stories left me wanting to read more about the characters and I felt they were far too short. A couple could have been ideas behind full blown books, such as Seanan McGuires short story "Hoard", which was possibly my favorite in this collection.

This was really well put together, but still I always have a hard time with short story collections. Right when I'm getting to know the characters it ends and suddenly I'm thrust into a brand new world. Overall I really loved this collection and definitely plan on checking out some of the authors I have yet to read a full-length novel from.

As with any anthology, I connected better with some works than others. With that said, there's a lot to love here in The Book of Dragons, which features all new dragon-themed stories and poems by many award-winning and beloved authors, including Peter S. Beagle, Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott, Amal El-Mohtar, Sarah Gailey, R. F. Kuang, Ann Leckie, Ken Liu, Scott Lynch, Seanan McGuire, Patricia McKillip, Garth Nix, J. Y. Yang, Jane Yolen, and more. It's a stellar lineup, especially since these aren't reprints.

The dragons in this anthology aren't all your typical Western, fire-breathing dragons roaming a faux-medieval Europe. There are dragons from various types of Asian mythology, mechanical dragons, memory-erasing dragons, and bee-like dragons. There are dragons used as energy sources and dragons used for terraforming planets. There are post-apocalyptic settings, far-future settings, and alternate history settings. In short, there is remarkable diversity in how the authors approached this fantasy staple.

Fans of Garth Nix's Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz stories will be delighted to find a new one here. I also was tickled to notice that Aliette de Bodard's story appears to be a prequel to her recent novella, In the Vanishers' Palace, showing the Vanishers and the destruction they wrought before they vanished.

Other particular favorites from this anthology include stories by Zen Cho, Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, Seanan McGuire, and Scott Lynch. Cho's story involves a naga sage struggling against family obligations. Liu's story involves a society powered by draconic energy. Elliott's story was a captivating tale of a widow in a deeply misogynist culture that views widows as societal burdens and sends those widows whose families are not wealthy or loving enough to pay the tithe to be sacrificed to the dragons that help protect their settlements from demons. Seanan McGuire's story was a truly lovely take on the concept of the dragon hoard, as the dragon runs a foster home and "hoards" the children the system has failed, making a safe home for them. Scott Lynch's story is a departure from his usual style, but still excellent. It follows a WWII veteran Marine struggling to reintegrate after the war, who finds a new career as a sheriff's deputy in the fight against dragons as he watches the world crumble around him.

I was less impressed with elements in the stories by Peter S. Beagle and Michael Swanwick. In Beagle's story, it is mentioned that the protagonist is a teacher (professor?) whose last relationship was with a student (not one of his, but a student at his school nonetheless) who supposedly "seduced" him. I found that exceedingly gross. In Swanwick's story, the protagonist is a child who is evidently destined to marry her boss/father figure, which was also exceedingly gross.

Despite my reservations with those two stories, I thought this was a fantastic collection of stories and poems. The breadth in this anthology was phenomenal, and you could hardly ask for a finer set of contributors. Also, while my eARC had no illustrations, evidently the finished version includes black-and-white line drawings by Rovina Cai for each story, which sounds delightful.

Dragons. That was all I needed to know before requesting this ARC on netgalley, but THEN I saw the incredible list of included authors, writers, and poets that were included and I was beyond excited to read it.
And I will say that the best way to read it is slowly, over the course of time, and not trying to read it straight through. Enjoy each piece, and keep coming back for another.
This anthology, like most, have a little something for everyone. If you don't like one short story, maybe you'll enjoy the next! Or at least enjoy one of the amazing poems like, I Make Myself A Dragon by Beth Cato. I personally found something to enjoy with every single installment; it could be my unwavering love for these mythical creatures, but each installment was beautiful. Some devastating, and some bright... I promise you will find something in this anthology that you will enjoy.

"Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Kate Elliott, Ken Liu, Todd McCaffrey, Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, and other modern masters of fantasy and science fiction put their unique spin on the greatest of mythical beasts - the dragon - in never-before-seen works written exclusively for this fantasy anthology compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan and with art by Rovina Cai!

Here there be dragons...

From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations.

Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today - Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang - and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales."

The older I get the more I want to proclaim my love of dragons!

The Book of Dragons begins with a love of dragons. What do they mean to not only each of personally, but to our culture. Are they figures of worship, of benevolence, of destruction? Do they grace our skies, slumber under mountains, or perch on churches? Featuring an all star cast with some of my all time favorites, I knew I had to get my hands on this book! Do you remember your first experience with dragons? My first dragon was in Tamora Pierce's Wild Magic series. A bond, a partnership, a relationship born of sacrifice, that did not hide from the cruelty of humans on the creatures of our world.

The strength of this short story collection is the fact that by the only limitation being "must have dragons" to the writing prompt, the diversity of stories is really large. I found it a bit jarring at first that many were quite contemporary settings, but once I settled in, I enjoyed it more. Right now it's hard for me to focus on a long book and so this was a lot easier for me to read one or two short stories at night before bed. I also like that this contained poetry, which I think should be incorporated into these type of collections more often.

As always, short story collections are a mixed bag, and I liked some of the stories more than others. However, there's a lot of diversity here, and a lot of great authors, so I think that almost everyone will find something they really like within this collection.

I love short story anthologies. I’m hardly one to shy away from big, sprawling epics, but it’s great having things that can be started and finished over breakfast. I love getting bite-sized stories from favorite authors. I love getting to sample stories from authors I’m curious about but never quite got around to picking up. I love reading stories from writers I’ve never heard of but am certainly going to look into now.

I also love dragons, as all right-thinking people do. Accusations of them being cliched make no sense: there is simply too much variety packed into the idea of dragons for it to *ever* be cliched. This book has Western, fire-breathers stealing livestock, and Eastern water-dwellers bestowing blessings. It’s got steam-powered dragons, and dragon beehives, and dragon foster moms, and dragon lawyers, and dragons who are cranky about their commute. It’s got intelligent dragons and it’s got animalistic dragons. It’s got good dragons and evil dragons. It’s got riddling dragons, it’s got imaginary dragons, it’s got metaphorical dragons, and it’s got Dungeons & Dragons. And they’re all great.

The contributing authors include some very well-known names, as well as some up-and-comers. In no particular order, they are: Daniel Abraham, Kelly Barnhill, Peter Beagle, Brooke Bolander, Zeb Cho, Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliot, Sarah Gailey, Ellen Klage, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie, Scott Lynch, Ken Liu, Todd McCaffrey, Seanan McGuire, Patricia A. McKillip, Garth Nix, K.J. Parker (a.k.a. Tom Holt), Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Rachel Swirsky, Ella Katherine White, and J.Y. Yang.

Unusually, this book also features a number of poems, with entries from Beth Cato, C.S.E. Cooney, Amal El-Mohtar, Theodora Goss, Jo Walton, and Jane Yolen. I’m not an expert on poetry, but I enjoyed these quite a bit.

Some of my favorite authors are in here, and I wasn’t surprised to love their stories. **Daniel Abraham** (*The Dagger & The Coin, The Long Price Quartet, the Expanse*) gets metaphorical with the story of a former mercenary determined to protect his hoard of ill-gotten gold. **R.F. Kuang** (*The Poppy Wars*) tells us about a girl willingly sacrificing herself to a dragon to end a drought. **Peter S. Beagle** (*The Last Unicorn*), true to form, tell a sad, sweet story of a professor meeting a dragon in the form of a human woman while riding the bus. **Aliette de Bodard** (*The Dominion of the Fallen, Obsidian & Blood*) give us a prequel to her excellent short novel *In the Vanishers’ Palace* ([which I previously reviewed here](https://redd.it/dqr83u)). And **Scott Lynch** (*The Gentlemen Bastards*) gives us a story of a Wyoming sheriff trying to keep people safe from an invasion of dragons, with scant help from the government.

There were other stories I loved, from authors I either hadn’t heard of or had heard of but never read. **Ellen Klages** tells the story of a girl, stuck bored at her relatives’ house, being taken by her aunt to San Francisco’s Chinatown with promises that there will be lots and lots of dragons. **Ella Katherine White** tells of a girl agonizing over whether or not to sell her beloved steam-powered flying dragon to pay for her education. **Kelly Robson** tells an exciting story of a dragon chasing down a school bus full of kids and the bus drivers’ heroic effort to keep her charge safe. **Seanan McGuire** tells us about a dragon in human form who, instead of hoarding gold, hoards foster children who need a loving home. From **Brooke Bolander** we hear about an amnesiac dragon in human form, working as a mob enforcer. **Kelly Barnhill** tells us about a girl who accidentally made a dragon in a science class lab experiment gone very wrong (or very right, as far as the girl is concerned). **Michael Swanwick** gives us a Jack Vance-esque story involving a girl, bandits, mages, deserts, time travel, and (of course) a dragon. **Kate Elliott** gives a powerfully feminist story of a society where women without husbands or fathers are sent as sacrifices to dragons (reading this story really pissed me off, in a good way). And **Sarah Gailey** gives what might have been my favorite of the anthology, a deep and moving story of abuse and escape and a dragon in the barn that no one talks about.

I know I didn’t talk about all the stories, but though they of course can’t *all* be favorites, I enjoyed every single one of them.

The Book of Dragons is the latest SciFi/Fantasy Anthology put together by Editor Jonathan Strahan, featuring a large number of short stories - and a few pieces of poetry - all based upon a common theme: the presence of Dragons. The anthology format is a tricky one to review - since stories within the same collection can vary greatly in quality - but in this case it allows its cast of writers to write a variety of stories that deal with the subject - Dragons - in many many different ways: you have technological dragons, eastern dragons, western dragons, draconic spirits, dragons that are illusionary or imaginary, etc.

And WHAT a cast of writers, ranging from classic SF/F favorites like Peter S Beagle and Patricia A. McKillip to more modern favorites like Ken Liu, Kate Elliott, Aliette de Bodard, and more....I could go on and on. The quantity of award winning authors involved here is frankly astonishing, and the results are more often than not damn good. They produce stories and poems that hit practically every possible tone, from bittersweet to inspiring, and features far more hits than misses. If you are looking for a collection of stories to read, this is a damn good one.

TRIGGER WARNING: Several stories feature spousal or child abuse within, usually via emotional abuse, but at least one instance of recalled physical abuse is also mentioned. Please be advised.

In a prior review of a similar themed anthology (Robots v Fairies), I started my review with a quick one sentence summary of every story in the anthology. There are 30 stories and/or poems in this anthology, which Amazon list at 576 pages and very definitely feels like it, so I'm not going to do that. Also I'm not really the greatest lover of poetry so I'm not going to comment too much on the five poems included here, even though they seem very enjoyable - Theodora Goss' "The Dragons" really was great for me, but that may be because the last line really hit my personal background.

Obviously the common theme here is "Dragons" and the anthology is very liberal about what that means. In fact Ellen Klages' story is non-fictional about a childhood trip to Chinatown (and its dagon statues) in San Francisco. And then we have mechanical dragons, imaginary (or possibly) imaginary dragons, spirits which may or may not be dragons, eastern dragons, etc. In some of these stories the dragon in question is an actual character; in others they're just an aspect of the setting. I should note that least two of these stories take place in existing worlds' of the author, but I never felt lost without prior knowledge of those worlds (and indeed may have missed that a story or two took place in such a world).

To be more review-oriented here, the anthology features an absolute incredible cast of writers, many of whom I've read before and loved and it absolutely shows. There's only one story I think is a real miss - "Matriculation" by Ellen Katharine White which just seems to end as if it's part of a larger story but without any further context it just falls flat (and I can't find any prior stories in that world from google, so I was really confused). Other than that there's a lot of highlights, but to name just three:

"Hikayat Si Bujang, or, The Tale of the Naga Sage" by Zen Cho is the fun tale of a Naga in the modern world who left home to try and seek enlightenment on his own and is compelled to come home when his father is dying....without realizing the effect his actions - and his natural ability to cause rain and storms - has on other people.

"The Long Walk" by Kate Elliott: A strong story in a fantasy world where unwanted (old or barren) women who can't pay bribes to the priests must make the "long walk" to their supposed doom at the hands of dragons and the new widow, formerly emotionally browbeaten by her husband, deciding to make her own destiny along that path.

"We Don't Talk About the Dragon" by Sarah Gailey: The story of a girl who grows up with a dragon in the barn, which she's tasked with feeding but cannot tell anyone about or complain about or her controlling father will get mad - a story with clear allegorical implications that ends on a strong triumphant note.

The Elliott and Gailey stories are among the ones I highlighted the trigger warning above btw, though there are a number of excellent other stories without such, and a few pure fun ones instead if you want that instead of ones with potentially bitter backstories. It's an absolute great collection and I would definitely recommend it.

I requested to read this anthology because I love Dragons, fantasy, many of the authors in this anthology, and I've been really enjoying short story collections lately.

As with most short story collections some of these stories were amazing, and there were some that I did not enjoy as much. My only real criticism of this collection is that I thought the stories could have been organized so that there was a better mix of fantasy, sci-fi, and magical realism/urban fantasy. Sadly magical realism/urban fantasy are not stories that I enjoy so I did have to slough through the first part of the collection to get to the selection of stories that I really enjoyed towards the end of the collection.

I really enjoyed "The Exile" by JY Yang, "The Long Walk" by Kate Elliot, "Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz", by Garth Nix, "The Hunt" by Aliette de Bodard, "Camouflage" by Patricia A. McKillip,

If you love dragons, sci-fi and/or fantasy you should absolutely pick up this book! While I personally may not have enjoyed all the stories, they were all very well written. With the list of authors who wrote stories for this collection, you cannot go wrong.

4/5 stars

A fabulous, well-written anthology - I loved almost every story, which is really rare for me in anthologies like this. I initially wanted to read it for Patricia Mckillip's story, and was fully prepared to not care about and/or actively dislike at least half of them, so it was such a pleasant surprise to find story after story that made me think and gave me all the feels - and occasionally chills. I have some new authors to check out now which is always nice. Will absolutely be recommending this one.

One of my favorite stories was Zen Cho's naga story. The mafia / water dragon story was surprisingly good too. I felt like the broke university student / mechanical dragon story wasn't long enough to fully develop, but I still enjoyed it. I didn't really get into the poetry, but I'm not really into poetry so that isn't surprising. Edit: OK except C.S.E. Cooney's poem because I loved that one. The story with the students whose souls got turned into dragons really stuck with me. I loved McKillip's story as expected. Just overall a fabulous anthology full of surprising twists on the mythology of dragons and well worth the read.

will review on amazon and b&n on the release date

A wonderful mix of short stories and poetry from some of the best fantasy writers of our time. There is a wide range of approaches and styles of dragons sure to appeal to many readers.

An utter delight.

Most anthologies are a mixed bag in terms of quality, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of these. Here are the works I enjoyed the most:
KJ Parker's "Habitat"
Beth Cato's "I Make Myself a Dragon"
Zen Cho's "Hikayat Sri Bujang, or, The Tale of the Naga Sage"
Ken Liu's "A Whisper of Blue"
Sarah Gailey's "We Don't Talk about the Dragon"
Daniel Abraham's "Yuli"
Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky's "We Continue"

When I was about fifteen, I encountered the Legends anthology edited by Robert Silverberg. It's how I encountered Terry Pratchett's Discword, Stephen King's The Dark Tower, Tad Wiliams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn among others. I think this new anthology of dragon stories, packed full of stories from some of the most lauded sci-fi/fantasy writers of the present age, will serve that role for a lot of readers. I've been meaning to read Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown for ages, and enjoying her short story in here to so much was just the kick in the pants I needed to finally obtain a copy.

Like pretty much every single anthology I've ever read, The Book of Dragons is a mixed bag that ranges from fantastic to head-scratchingly mediocre. But what it has going for it - besides the fact that it's about dragons and is, therefore, a must-read - is exactly that mixed bag. I guarantee that there will be at least one story for every reader to enjoy.
There were five truly standout pieces for me:
1. The Nine Curves River by R.F. Kuang for its lyrical prose and how wonderfully it paints the story while giving depth and connection to its character despite the short page count.
2. I Make Myself a Dragon by Beth Cato for being a poem that hit me straight in the feels while being utterly inspirational.
3. The Long Walk by Kate Elliott for confirming the fact that Kate Elliott is a master at worldbuilder and that she's capable of creating universes with whatever space she's given.
4. We Continue by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky for a super original take on dragons and suffusing their story with so much emotion.
5. Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It by Scott Lynch for creating an alternate history world that left me both satisfied with the conclusion and wanting to explore more.
Overall, a good read if you're looking for quick pieces about dragons you can fit in short bursts in between tasks or if you're looking for some good fantasy/sci-fi without the commitment of a full novel. Definitely worth a read at least for the five pieces I singled out, IMHO.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the delightful early read!

This was a fun collection of stories that take the standard idea of dragons and diversifies that idea through the lens of a bunch of different authors. It was really interesting to see how dragons have become such a staple character trope and how they have impacted readers throughout the generations.

I sometimes struggle a bit with reviewing anthologies, because it is hard not to be able to give a star rating to every story. and to consider the work as a whole. And don't get me wrong, there are some fabulous stories in here - the steampunk vampires and R.F. Kuang's river god stories were excellent. But there were quite a few that just felt lacking. Quite a few of the short stories had abrupt endings with no real closure. And although I completely understand that the theme of the anthology was "dragons" and that encompasses a wide variety of things, some of the "dragons" felt a little too metaphorical in nature. The stories seemed to jump around from modern sci-fi to Asian fantasy, and the transitions were often abrupt. Still, there are a few gems in here! I would recommend reading some parts of this book, but I am not sure the good parts outweigh the bad enough to recommend the whole thing.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This was one of the first collections of short stories where I enjoyed more stories than I disliked. It was so interesting to read all the different tales involving dragons. Each story had its own twist on the classic dragon story and it was just so exciting to read! Highly recommend if you’re a dragon lover!

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.

I’ve been reading through this a few stories at a time in order to savor this ARC in the middle of quarantine hell. There’s a great balance of industry giants, rising talent, and folks you might not necessarily know. There also was poetry commissioned for this, and someone remembered that Amal El-Mohtar also does poetry, which is always good to see. Not every entry in this hits, but the balance of hits to misses is still extremely good. Definitely worth picking up when it comes out.

Anthologies aren't really my thing, and dragons aren't really my thing. So why pick up The Book of Dragons, you ask? Simple, fantasy is my thing, and this book includes short stories written by some of my favorite fantasy authors - R.F. Kuang and Garth Nix among them. In the process of making my way through the anthology, I discovered a lot of familiar names whose books I've yet to read - but whose writing hooked me and made me want longer stories (including Seanan McGuire and Sarah Gailey).

The anthology is wonderfully diverse in both authors and stories - you aren't going to find over 20 different versions of Smaug from The Hobbit here (not hating on Smaug, that's just the dragon that seems to have captured my imagination in childhood). You will get dragons that are mechanical, imaginary, manifestations of emotions, threats to society, shapeshifters, and more. You will get stories that are heartfelt, scary, unnerving, ethereal, adventurous, and challenging. There was only one story that I found myself having a really hard time getting through - "Yuli" by Daniel Abraham, which did not have a clear storyline, and centered on a war vet that was itchy for a new fight.

Here are the stories that were highlights for me:
--"A Whisper of Blue," Ken Liu (The story centers around dragons that make or break community success based on how many of them there are - their breath produces energy)
--"Pox," by Ellen Klages (A super cute story regarding a girl wandering through Chinatown in San Francisco, eating food, making some magical purchases, and thinking a lot about Ursula Le Guin!)
--"The Nine Curves River," by R. F. Kuang (Not directly related to The Poppy War trilogy, this is still an instantly engaging read about two sisters trying to navigate their relationship in the midst of an unknown and doomed future for one of them)
--"Lucky’s Dragon," by Kelly Barnhill (This story had me on edge! A girl makes a dragon in science class and her neighbor that nobody else seems to see takes an interest and reaches out to help)
--"La Vitesse," Kelly Robson (Fast paced and super fun, a dragon is chasing a school bus full of children and the driver tries to figure out how to outrun her regrets and the dragon)
--The Long Walk," Kate Elliot (Women are exiled to a land of dragons after their husbands die, effectively becoming "ghosts" themselves. On the journey, cooks to help her fellow women survive and seeks to learn what else is beyond her small world)
--"We Don’t Talk About the Dragon," by Sarah Gailey (A girl is sent to feed metal to a dragon in the barn each week, providing a temporary escape from the harsh realities of her home life)

If you are looking to get a taste of the writing by some of the biggest names in fantasy and are willing to give dragons a shot, this is a great book to gift or pick up! I'm excited to see what illustration are included in the final copy. Thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I read this because I love dragons, however I will say I am always wary when it comes to anthologies. This book fell into the same issues I have with anthologies in that I liked some stories and others I did not. This isn’t to say that the authors who wrote the disliked stories were bad in anyway, just not my cup of tea. All in all I think this is a good book for dragon lovers!