The Book of Dragons: An Anthology | 
#AlphabetGame #LetterD
It was hard narrowing it down to just one dragon book for the 'd' prompt! 😂 But in the end, I went with this one, which I absolutely love! 🐉📚💕
#catsoflitsy #chaplin
Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Ramadan, AND Happy Weekend, litsy family! 🐇🐣💕 #dragonsoflitsy
I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new - don‘t judge me I have a lot of books.
Join the fun if you want. This is day 150
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#tbrpile
#bookstagram
Book Number 8 on my Top Ten list of favorite Dragon books! 🐉💕📚 I love all the different authors' interpretations of dragons! Some are stories, some are poems, but they are all really fantastic! #dragonsoflitsy #topttendragonbooks
so-soThere are some amazing stories here - some that will be on my favorites of 2020 list (The Long Walk by Kate Elliot; The Nine Curves River by R.F. Kuang). There are a couple that aren't “best of..“ but keep tugging at my heart (We Continue; Where the River Turns to Concrete; Matriculation). And there are also some that just irritated me (Hikayat Sri Bujang/The Tale of the Naga Sage; The Last Hunt; Except on Saturdays). Still, glad to have read it.
When our story starts, WWII has just ended, and Emery has been recently discharged from the Marines due to an injury. He hasn‘t quite figured out what to do with himself with suddenly - dragons show up in the world, mostly keeping to themselves except when they snacked on local livestock or a couple of unlucky residents. Emery is recruited by the local Sheriff to protect the county from the dragons. ⤵️⤵️⤵️
Just finished listening to the audio of The Book of Dragons (more on that tomorrow), and I was able to finish sewing up a dragon, a purple mermaid, and a castle for a quilt I‘m working on while listening. Always enjoy a good thematic book/quilt match :) Fun book, fun pattern! Excuse the rest of the mess on my design wall.
There is a dragon in the barn, but Cecily knows she's not to talk about it - especially not to outsiders, but not even with her parents or brothers. It quickly became clear that this story is a metaphor for domestic abuse, for surviving/healing from trauma, & for the bravery it takes Cecily to live life on her own terms - once the immediate danger has passed. The metaphor was a bit tangled up (as is living with trauma) & it worked. Recommended!
It‘s time for Will to take the final exam in his History of Ancient Sorcery class, and his professor sends him to another time and another place - a place with dragons and an ancient battle brewing. Another fun adventure story about finding and embracing one‘s own strengths . 3 stars.
Olav (a wandering adventurer) and Nahal (his child servant) are approached by a mage and given an unusual job, which is all well and good until they must confront a dragon. A fun adventure story with a bit of time travel, but nothing special.
This is printed in poem format, but as I listened to the audio version, it read just like prose. A bit of flash fiction, really. A woman arrives home to find a litter of 7 baby dragons hanging out in her back yard. She can‘t quite figure out what else to do with them, so she brings them inside and adopts them. What follows is an 8 minute read with almost no conflict, but just a bit of seratonin-inducing joy. A fun and happy read :)
Jing-Wei (a young girl) is on a quest to find the cave of miracles; she wants to save her village which has been beset by demons. On the way, she meets a lion and an elephant who are also demons (sort of, maybe), but they don‘t seem to want to eat her yet. There are some things about this one that are confusing, but overall it was an interesting read.
Jacq (aka Child) knows something is wrong. He lives in a dragon hive, having been found by a dragon (Collector aka Auntie) as a child & taken into her care. But she's beginning to act a bit strangely, seems to be physically declining, & Jacq is becoming very concerned. An interesting story - I liked that it shifted perspectives from Child to Auntie and back, turning some of our human ideas around to reveal their absurdity. A recommended read!
Okay, what? Just.. what? Evidently this story is a prequel to a novel by the author- but it seems to assume that you‘re familiar w/ that novel or that you don‘t care to understand the story. I don‘t get this story & honestly the whole experience (okay, the audio narrator was also exceptionally bad) was so annoying that I don‘t care to get it anymore. I don‘t understand why Jonathan Strahan (anthology editor) allowed this story to stand alone.
Only a few pages long. Our main character has a hoard - but it‘s not gold or jewels .. it‘s human children. The story itself was obvious (given the anthology and the story title) and there wasn‘t significant plot or character development. I think the author is trying to speak to the issues present in our foster care system and also assumptions that folks make, but there just wasn‘t really enough story to do this effectively.
Sir Hereward and the magical puppet Mr. Fitz are Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World - and they‘re looking for a dragon. Evidently this story is one of many stories by Garth Nix featuring these characters. A bit of well-written, light-hearted fun never goes amiss.
Elderly protagonist Asvi‘s husband has just died; she has spent the past 2 years caring for him in his long illness, and this has left her drained of any vitality - as had their arranged marriage throughout the decades. ⤵️⤵️⤵️
CW: sexual assault. A school bus driver is on her normal route when a vicious dragon begins to follow the bus. She and her teenage daughter don‘t always get along, but in order to save the lives of everyone on the bus, they must cooperate to outwit the dragon. A story that‘s unexpectedly about the generational impacts of trauma, the doubts of parenting, and the complexities of mother/daughter relationships.
A history teacher runs into a legendary immortal on the bus and spends an unforgettable day with her. She is Melusine of European folklore, usually depicted as a serpent/fish from the waist down (like a mermaid) - as she was condemned to take this form on Saturdays. This story annoyed me. Can we stop reducing legendary fay women to the moments in which they lay with a man? Surely there‘s a more interesting story he could have told of Melusine.
Our narrator, an exiled poet (who wrote against the government), is sent to an uninhabited planet along w/ a water dragon/god; their ‘fate‘ (punishment) is to report back the dragon‘s progress in terraforming the planet over the course of 10 years. ⤵️⤵️⤵️
Reading this anthology has finally inspired me to start a quilt project that I was super excited about until I opened the pattern and was instantly overwhelmed. This is only the beginning, but I‘m so glad to have started it :)
Lucky accidentally creates a tiny dragon during a science project; she hides it away & goes home to show her rather odd neighbor (who other people don‘t seem to notice much). Weird things begin to happen - but frustratingly, Lucky doesn‘t seem to notice. In fact, she‘s the most oblivious kid I‘ve met in fiction or IRL. It was irritating. I liked the message at the end (but just the message, not the execution).
This is the story that inspired my to buy this anthology after hearing it on Levar Burton Reads. His description: “A girl escorts her younger sister on an important and life-altering journey, while thinking back on their relationship and the nature of sacrifice.” His reading of it broke my heart. Listen here: https://www.stitcher.com/show/levar-burton-reads/episode/the-nine-curves-river-b...
Our unnamed narrator is bid by the Prince to catch a dragon; it‘s a terrible idea, he knows, but he accidentally managed to make a name for himself when he defeated a dragon who killed his brother, and you don‘t really say “no” to the Prince. The narrator was snarky, in a sometimes funny, sometimes annoying way. The prose was super expository - in a mostly meh way. Overall, it was fine.
In an alternate world, humans rely on energy produced by dragons (breathing heat/fire) for electricity - but dragons can‘t be tamed, merely.. enticed. The story focuses on a small town where a horde of small dragons have recently settled. The mayor is determined to use these dragons to increase the town‘s revenue, but Zoe seems them for the beautiful, autonomous creatures that they are.⤵️⤵️⤵️
Joe is an amnesiac; he remembers only that his (now) boss found him completely naked in a parking garage & offered him a name, a job (as hired muscle), & an apartment - all because Joe is a massive dude who makes an intimidating thug. Anything before that, he doesn‘t remember. It‘s hard to know when this becomes spoilery because a lot of the twists were obvious pretty early on. It was a captivating story & I hope to read more from this author.
Our narrator, a middle-aged, washed-up mercenary is living a boring life, raising his teenage grandson. We go back & forth between his musings as he tries to regain his strength (he knows someone is going to come after him) & his grandson‘s D&D game.. which is where the “dragon” of this story exists. But the D&D campaign isn‘t engaging, and the author‘s attempt to intertwine the 2 stories misses the mark. Also - that ending.. seriously? That‘s it?
Naga Sage Sri Bujang (a dragon) is enjoying his life atop a mountain, being sagely, seeking spiritual liberation - but this story begins when his sister asks him to return home; their father, the king, is dying. I didn‘t like any of the characters in this story. The dragons were all too human - which, perhaps, is part of the point -but let them be a bit dragonesque in an anthology about dragons, perhaps? The plot was weak & world-building lacking.
@Branwen
Ahhhhh this is so wonderful! I love it! There is art in it and it has dragons and it‘s so pretty and I love it! Ahhh did I mention that I love it!
It got here yesterday but I didn‘t have time to post it but omg I love it!!! Thank you!!!
(Confession: I may be dipping into 3 anthologies and 1 collection right now.)
Melee is desperate to be prepared for her first term at the University Institute for Magitechnicians, even if it means haggling with a vampire. The dragon in this story is a mechanical dragon that serves as Melee‘s cherished mode of transportation.⤵️⤵️
Libro.fm has The Book of Dragons (~18 hours of short fiction) on sale for $5 or 3.49 for members! This has been on my TBR since I listened to RF Kuang‘s “The Nine Curves River” on Levar Burton Reads and cried during my morning walk. Totally snatching up this deal.
This book is AMAZING so far! I'm only about five stories into it right now, but I'm really enjoying it. It's very cool to read about all these different types of dragons and the authors interpretations of them! 😀🐉💕📚 #dragonsoflitsy
Another really awesome thing I've discovered about this beautiful book is that there is a gorgeous black and white illustration of a dragon at the beginning of each story! How cool is that?! 😍🐉💕📚
Happy publication day to these three beauties which just arrived! 😍 I'm most excited for the tagged book because let's face it...you all know how much I love dragons! 💕📚🐉 And look at that absolutely gorgeous cover! #bookmail #bookhaul
