The Book of Dragons by Jonathan Strahan and various

I want to thank Harper Voyager for providing me with an e-ARC, via Netgalley. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

I saw someone talk about this as an upcoming book they couldn’t wait for. I needed to read this because DRAGONS! Also, I saw that R.F. Kuang had a story included. I requested a copy but didn’t think I would be approved because it released within a week. I did though and I’m so glad that I did!

I don’t typically read anthologies, they are harder for me to read because you have all these different writing styles. Once I got into some stories, they were over and I had to start over. I did find that my pacing was slower than normal but it was so worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were so many amazing stories that will stay with me for a long time. There are some stories that I had a harder time connecting to. I believe there were only 3 and there’s nearly 30 stories, so that’s a great ratio.

One story that really got me emotional was, A Whisper of Blue by Ken Liu. It was so interesting and so beautiful. I actually had a hard time getting back into this book after that story. I felt like I was having a book hangover from one single story!

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I absolutely loved R.F. Kuang’s story called, The Nine Curves River. It was such a beautiful but heart breaking story!

I also really, really enjoyed the story, We Don’t Talk About the Dragon by Sarah Gailey. It had me hooked from the beginning and I was so intrigued because there is so much mystery. I absolutely loved how it ended!

I think one of the stories that I liked least, was towards the end, Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It by Scott Lynch. I don’t know if it was because I was tired or what. It just was really crazy and I had a harder time with the writing style.

There is a lot of poetry mixed into this book and I actually quite enjoyed it. I think I’m starting to come around to reading more poetry.

One of the things that I loved most about this was all the different ways these stories portrayed dragons. It wasn’t just your straight forward fire breathing fantasy dragon. There’s so many different ways that authors used dragons in their stories and they were full of imagination.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology! I found I liked a lot of new to me authors. There are so many different writing styles and it was just a lot of fun. If you are looking for some great stories about dragons and some a way to try out some new authors, this is a great way to go! I really want to buy this book because I want to see the Illustrations and it just needs to be on my shelf.

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