As a kid, I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons, not to mention that my favorite author was J.R.R. Tolkien, so dragons were a formative part of my life back then. I could not imagine writing my own fantasy novel without having a dragon in it. I know many people love the intelligent form of dragon, the kinds that talk, but I actually prefer my dragons to be deadly and vicious creatures without any great intelligence other than a cruel cunning.
A dying king. A mysterious invader. The seer's vision was clear: find the lost shard from the Spire of Peace or the realm would drown in blood. The problem: eight hundred years ago the elven hero Kathkalan took the shard with him into the lair of the most vicious dragon ever known to mankind...and he never returned.
Reluctantly drafted to lead the quest is the minor noble Midas, torn between his duty to the realm and the desire to protect his sons. With an unlikely band of heroes, including two elderly rangers and a young tinker’s son, Midas must risk losing everything he loves if he is to locate the shard and save the Known Lands.
If you thought Smaug was cool, the dragons in The Silmarillion are even cooler! Glaurung, the Father of Dragons; Ancalagon the Black, the first winged dragon; and Scatha, among others. This book is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful I have ever read, though it does take some effort on the part of the reader. I took the time to look up every name and placename that I didn’t understand, and that led me to fully understand everything and love it that much more. It’s totally worth the effort.
The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion fills in the background which lies behind the more popular work, and gives the earlier history of Middle-earth, introducing some of the key characters.
The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.
Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of…
If you loved Harry Potter, well you should be grateful to this book, which featured a wizarding school many years earlier. The prose is spare but lovely, and the story is an absolute classic. And there are some pretty cool dragons in the story, especially Yevaud. No fantasy lover should miss this series.
The first book of Earthsea in a beautiful hardback edition. Complete the collection with The Tombs of Atuan, The Furthest Shore and Tehanu
With illustrations from Charles Vess
'[This] trilogy made me look at the world in a new way, imbued everything with a magic that was so much deeper than the magic I'd encountered before then. This was a magic of words, a magic of true speaking' Neil Gaiman
'Drink this magic up. Drown in it. Dream it' David Mitchell
Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.
Far better than the tv shows (though the early seasons were pretty great as well), this series is amazing, even if some readers are frustrated at how long the author is taking to complete it. Anyone who has watched the show knows there are some pretty awesome dragons in the story. For me, personally, this was the book that set me on the path to writing my very first novel, so I’ll always be grateful to GRRM for his inspiration.
HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A GAME OF THRONES is the first volume in the series.
'Completely immersive' Guardian
'When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground'
Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
From the fertile south, where heat breeds conspiracy, to the vast and savage eastern lands, all the way to the frozen…
This series of four books is dominated by dragons. Dragons are no longer being born properly, and those that are have severe problems and may not even survive. The only hope for their survival is to seek out an ancient, lost city of dragons.
Return to the world of the Liveships Traders and journey along the Rain Wild River in this standalone adventure from the author of the internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy.
Guided by the great blue dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wilds River, the first to make the perilous journey to the cocooning grounds in generations. Many have died along the way. With its acid waters and impenetrable forest, it is a hard place for any to survive.
People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. One such is…
Dragons form one of the main and most dangerous trials faced by the young wizard competitors in this installment of the wildly popular series. I’m not a huge fan of modern YA novels, but these ones are well done, and even the movies were terrific.
When the Quidditch World Cup is disrupted by Voldemort's rampaging supporters alongside the resurrection of the terrifying Dark Mark, it is obvious to Harry Potter that, far from weakening, Voldemort is getting stronger. Back at Hogwarts for his fourth year, Harry is astonished to be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to represent the school in the Triwizard Tournament. The competition is dangerous, the tasks terrifying, and true courage is no guarantee of survival - especially when the darkest forces are on the rise.
These adult editions with glorious jacket art by Andrew Davidson are now available in hardback for…
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
Each of the sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also a view of ourselves through the eyes of the bull, illustrating our pre-literate use of myth, how the advent of writing and the urban revolution changed our view of ourselves, and how even bullfighting in Spain is a variation on the ancient sacrifice of the sacred bull.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. In I Am Taurus, author Stephen Palmer traces the story of the bull in the sky, starting from that point 19,000 years ago - a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull. Each of the eleven sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also an attempt to see ourselves through…
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