Rebecca Yarros’Onyx Stormand its cliffhanger ending, which left readers wonderingwhat happened to the missing dragon eggsand what happened during Violet’s memory gap, has left romantasy fans hungry for more, but unfortunately it’ll be some time yet until the nextEmpyreannovel releases. Thankfully, there are plenty ofromantic fantasy books likeOnyx Stormto read in the meantime – and better yet, there are options for readers who are more interested in dragons than romance.
Empyreandragons are categorized by color and tail type, and have a wide variety of skills and abilities they can use in battle, whether alongside their riders or battling alone. Yet Yarros' approach to dragons and dragon-riding is far from the only one in fantasy literature, and these other books and series are equally brilliant stories about these massive, scaly creatures of myth and legend.
10His Majesty’s Dragon
Naomi Novik, 2006
Naomi Novik’s fantastical alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars isa bizarrely familiar and yet unique take on what was a seriously chaotic and violent part of European history. In the real world, the series of seven wars lasted from 1803, when the British Empire declared war on France, until 1815, when Napoleon was defeated for the last time at the Battle of Waterloo.His Majesty’s Dragon, the first in Novik’s series, is set in 1804, during the first major conflict of the Napoleonic era.
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League of Dragons
2016
Captain William Laurence is a British naval officer happily commanding the HMSReliant, yet after his ship seizes a French frigate and discovers a dragon egg onboard that’s about to hatch, he finds himself in the unexpected position of having to bond with the young dragon so it can be utilized by the British Air Corps.Empyreanfans will feel right at home as Laurence and his new dragonet, which he names Temeraire, learn to work together and discover the incredible powers the young dragon hides beneath his jet-black scales.
9Dragon Keeper
Robin Hobb, 2009
The first book of Robin Hobb’sRain Wild Chroniclesfollows a group of newly-hatched dragons, as well as their keepers, as they try and reestablish themselves in the swampy and inhospitable Rain Wilds.The Dragon Queen Tintaglia has apparently abandoned the region, leaving the people of the Rain Wilds to care for the new hatchlings, all of which are unable to care for themselves.
TheRain Wild Chroniclesis actually the fourth set of books written in Robin Hobb’s greaterRealm of the Elderlingsseries.
Dragon Keeper’s cast of misfits – both the malformed young dragons and their keepers, natives of the Rain Wilds who have draconic mutations like claws and scales – are a far cry from Violet and the other soldiers of theEmpyrean, but the depth of their compassion for each other is unmistakable. As the book ends, the group are preparing an expedition up the Rain Wild River to take the dragons to their ancestral home: the ancient city of Kelsingra, wheremystical secrets will ensure that no one will survive the expedition unchanged.
8A Natural History of Dragons
Marie Brennan, 2013
A Natural History of Dragonsis the first in Marie Brennan’sThe Memoirs of Lady Trentseries, and follows the exploits of the titular Isabella, Lady Trent, as she bucks the gender norms of her home nation of Scirland and become not only her nation’s first female naturalist of renown, but to also catalog the fascinating attributes of the wild dragons that live throughout the world. She and her new husband, on their first scientific expedition together, must not only deal with the dreaded Vystrani Rock-Wyrms, butalso a conspiracy of international proportions.
While the relationship between Isabella and her husband Jacob isn’t always the most passionate, prospective leaders will enjoy carrying further on in the series to see Isabella discover where to find that passion.
Brennan’s juggling of Isabella’s predominantly privileged and academic perspective on the world – which is broadly based on the real world in the mid-19th century, right down to Scirland being nearly a carbon copy of Victorian England – with how she is repeatedly thrust into uncomfortable or even socially taboo situations is masterful, creatinga compelling and sympathetic protagonist. And while the relationship between Isabella and her husband Jacob isn’t always the most passionate, prospective leaders will enjoy carrying further on in the series to see Isabella discover where to find that passion.
7Dragonflight
Anne McCaffrey, 1968
Dragonflightis the first book in Anne McCaffrey’sDragonriders of Pernseries, which has been thrilling and delighting draconic aficionados for over 50 years. The book is a combination of two novellas, “Weyr Search” and “Dragonrider,” which take place on the planet Pern in the far, far future, after human colonists were stranded on the planet by the appearance of the dreaded Thread, strings of red spores that fall from the sky and consume all organic material. Thankfully,the colonists were able to tame the planet’s indigenous dragons, whose flight and flaming breath became their best weapon against the Thread.
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The people of Pern have since fallen into a feudal system, valuing dragonriders above all, andDragonflightfollows a young woman named Lessa, who has been chosen to bond a queen dragon and to help rebuild the Weyrs, five settlements that have lain empty for years. Lessa’s drive to succeed, and her connection to her dragon, Ramoth, will be familiar toEmpyreanfans,and may well have even inspired Yarroswhen she created Violet’s character.
6The Legend of Huma
Richard A. Knaak, 1988
The first of theDragonlanceseries of tie-inDungeons & Dragonsnovels to not feature the original group of heroes,The Legend of Humais a glimpse back into the past of the world of Krynn long before the War of the Lance. It’s also a chance to see how Huma, the greatest Knight of Solamnia – familiar to readers of theDragonlance ChroniclesandLegendsseries as a near-messianic figure –went from man to myth while riding on the back of a silver dragon.
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In D&D’s new Dragonlance campaign, the Knights of Solamnia make some really fun to play character options for roleplay as well as for their feats.
Empyreanfans will appreciate the martial nature of the dragon-riding Knights as they battle against their evil counterparts, the followers of the Dark Queen Takhisis, Dragon of Many Colors and None. While Huma is no spellcaster,his friend Magius – another nameDragonlancereaders will recognize– provides a magical punch that would make Xaden or other channelers look like a child having a tantrum.
5Dragon Champion
E. E. Knight, 2005
The first book of E. E. Knight’sAge of Fireseriesfollows AuRon, a gray dragon hatchlingtaken from his sisters after an attack on their home and sold to humans. After escaping captivity, he goes seeking the ancient black dragon NooMoahk and the secrets he guards, and from there finds himself in conflict with the self-styled Wyrmmaster, a human supremacist with genocidal ambitions.
Dragon Championand the two other initial books in the series,Dragon AvengerandDragon Outcast, each follow one of the surviving dragons of AuRon’s clutch, and work as standalone novels. The second sequence of books is a trilogy thatfollows all three of the dragonsas they find themselves embroiled in world politics and massive power struggles.
4Sword of Destiny
Andrzej Sapkowski, 1992
Sword of Destiny, the second collection of short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski that start off hisWitcherSaga, admittedly only has one story featuringdragons, which are known to be exceptionally rareon the Continent where the White Wolf Geralt of Rivia plies his trade as a monster-hunter for hire. That story, “The Bounds of Reason,” sees Geralt and his companion, the delightfully petulant bard Jaskier, hired by the eccentric knight Borch Three Jackdaws to join his party of adventurers and sellswords, who are hunting a green dragon.
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The Witcher’s monsters aren’t made to be easy to look at, but some of them are actually pretty cute.
“The Bounds of Reason” – adapted by Netflix as the sixth episode ofThe Witcher’s first season, “Rare Species” – is a fascinating look into how dragons work in the world ofThe Witcher, where they’re so rare as to barely be believed in, yet far more horrifying monsters are commonplace. Even more rare than everyday green dragons, though, are the gold ones thateven a seasoned monster-hunter like Geralt thinks are only a myth– much like the gold dragons inEmpyrean.
3Into the Darkness
Harry Turtledove, 1999
Harry Turtledove is renowned for his work writing alternate history, such as hisWorldwarbooks which sees aliens invade Earth during World War II, or hisSouthern Victoryseries, which hypothesizes a timeline where the Confederacy didn’t lose the American Civil War.Into the Darknessis the beginning of hisDarknessseries (also known asWorld at War), which isa fantastical parallel of the real World War II.
Nations of the Darkness Series and their real-world analogues
Spain and Portugal
Zuwayza
Finland
Into the Darknessand its fantastical reimagining of 20th-century conflict tells of a world overflowing with magic, where mages do the work of engineers and wheredragons and other mighty monsters take the place of mechanical weapons of war. Characters like Sabrino, the noble dragon-flying ace who grows to resent the cruel leadership of his home nation of Algarve, will feel especially familiar to fans ofOnyx Stormand how Violet and the other members of the Fourth Wing are repeatedly torn in their allegiances.
2The Dragon and the George
Gordon R. Dickson, 1976
Gordon Dickson’sDragon Knightbooks tell of how medieval history professor Jim Eckert finds himself in a strange world and, stranger still,inhabiting the body of the great dragon Gorbash. There to rescue his fiancé Angie, a doctoral student who disappeared during an experiment in astral projection, Jim must first free her from the clutches of two other dragons, and then seek the wizard Carolinus, who he hopes can help them both return home.
The Flight Of Dragons
Cast
Writer Peter Dickinson is transported from 20th-century Boston to a mystical realm where magic is losing its power. Alongside the Green Wizard Carolinus and a team of fantastical allies, Peter must thwart the evil Red Wizard Ommadon. Utilizing his knowledge of science, Peter battles to restore balance between magic and logic.
The world ofThe Dragon and the Georgeisa strange one, but oddly endearing. Dragons in this world call all humans “georges,” in reference to the real-world legend of St. George fighting a dragon. The book was also loosely adapted as the 1982 animated filmThe Flight of Dragons, produced by the sameRankin/Bass studios that previously produced the animatedHobbitandReturn of the Kingadaptations.
1Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, 1989
While Terry Pratchett’sDiscworldnovels delve deep into all manner of fantasy tropes, there surprisingly aren’t all that many dragons running around on the Disc; that’s because dragons, or rather the extremely large and powerful ones we generally associate with the word, require so much magic to live that they have a hard time existing in the real world. Instead,draco nobilisare all crammed into a little pocket dimension full of magic, where they can contentedly slumber the millennia away –at least, until some short-sighted human tries to summon one.
Draco nobilis, or “noble dragons,” are one of the two kinds of dragon found on the Disc. The other, far more commondraco vulgaris(generally called “swamp dragons”) are approximately two feet long, and can (and do) eat just about anything combustible in order to keep their inner flames alight. Unfortunately, swamp dragons are extremely volatile, and extremely excitable, meaning that the greatest threat to a swamp dragon is its own anxiety, and that their leading cause of death is exploding.
And that’s the crux ofGuards! Guards!A cabal of ambitious men summon a dragon to the city of Ankh-Morpork, hoping to stage a revolution against the city’s government that will let them install a king on the throne;the dragon in question, however, has some unique ideas about who deserves to wear the crown. Thankfully, Night Watch Captain Samuel Vimes,one ofDiscworld’s greatest charactersand most miserable heroes, is on the job to save the day and return the city of Ankh-Morpork to its usual, dysfunctional status quo.
