A Dragon-Lover's Treasury of the Fantastic

This is the second dragon anthology I've read in the past couple of years. Dragons don't have any particular fascination for me compared to other fantasy creatures, although I do like them. In the case of the earlier anthology, I picked it out because of the authors who were included; A Dragon-Lover's Treasury of the Fantastic was something my mother picked up for me at a garage sale.

Unsurprisingly, there was a little overlap between the two collections: namely, the entries in this collection by Anne McCaffrey, George R. R. Martin, Roger Zelazny, and Gordon R. Dickson. Martin's "The Ice Dragon" is as haunting as ever, and I continue to find Dickson's "St. Dragon and the George" amusing. Until I read Margaret Weis's introduction, I was show more unaware how important McCaffery's "Weyr Search" was to modern dragon literature. I had tried to read it when I encountered it in the other anthology, but got bogged down by all the crazy hyphenated names and history. It's still not my favorite of the stories collected here, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. I very much liked Gemma and regretted her fate. The ending, and the promise it held, excited me and made me almost want to search out McCaffery's Pern novels.

Aside from Dickson's story, I didn't like many of the humor pieces, but I was pleasantly surprised with the science fiction entries. Weis says in the introduction that dragons are among the most human of mythical creatures, which I'm not sure I agree with, and I'm not sure Steve Rasnic Tem would either. There is an exquisite moment of purely physical communication between the dying protagonist of his story "Last Dragon" and the titular, extraterrestrial dragon, the last of his species, but the focus is generally on the dragon as Other. Even better is Gregory Benford and Marc Laidlaw's "A Hiss of Dragon," which features some truly marvelous worldbuilding. In this story, dragons were created and genetically engineered by humans to harvest fruit, but have become more dangerous than intended. The conflict, however, is mostly between different factions of engineers and harvesters—quite an exciting and action-packed tale!

I was excited to see two of my favorite authors, Patricia McKillip and Jane Yolen, included here, but only Yolen's story impressed. "Cockfight," like several of her short stories about King Arthur, later became a novel: Dragon's Blood. Having read the story, I'm definitely interested in trying the book out. McKillip's "The Fellowship of the Dragon" features a large-ish cast of female warriors for a story its length, and I didn't think she did a good enough job making them distinctive. Plus, the ending was disappointing.

After Benford and Laidlaw's, I found Joan D. Vinge's "Storm King" to be the most original of the dragons, a creature more of lightning rather than fire. In this story, the dragon is an important thematic element, but the focus is more on the antihero's obsession with power, and what it costs him. Great tale. Another story where the dragon is secondary in importance is Nancy Varian Berberick's "The Wizard's Boy." I loved the mythology of wizardry, and the relationship between the wizard and his thief-turned-apprentice.

"The Dragonbone Flute" joins Martin's story in the "haunting" category. Tilton's story is a marvelous examination of what grieving looks like, and her dragons are quite a bit better at it than the human shepherd who befriends them.

As for Orson Scott Card's "A Plague of Butterflies" ... it's basically one big "WTF?" moment. There are dragons, of course, but also butterflies, angels (I think), tree spirits, and God only knows what else. I was never sure which was which and yes, a dragon does get the ugly-beautiful-fat queen pregnant. I don't even.

All in all, a good anthology, and one I'll be hanging on to. show less

This book is pretty much exactly as advertised - if you're in the mood for some dragons, and you're a fan of fantasy fiction, there are stories here for you.
They're not all excellent stories - but my rating gets raised up to 4 stars because it does have some true classics here - Anne McCaffrey's gloriously un-PC 'Weyr Search' (the one that started it all!) and George R.R. Martin's 'Ice Dragon,' for example.

The Jane Yolen story is an excerpt from her 'Pit Dragon' trilogy, which is still my favorite of her works.
The Joan Vinge selection is a wonderfully complex fairy tale, and one I hadn't read before, as a bonus.
I had read the McKillip before; it's a nice feminist take on a quest story.
Mickey Zucker Reichert - eh, I found the Japanese show more setting unconvincing.
L. Sprague de Camp - not a fan. You might be, but it's just not my style of humor. If you like this, you'll probably also like Gordon R. Dickson's piece, which finishes up the book, and maybe even the rather crass Craig Shaw Gardner one. I just didn't think the Mike Resnick piece was funny at all.
Roger Zelazny's 'The George Business' is also humorous - but I liked it much better.
Lois Tilton's 'Dragonbone Flute' is similar in setting, but beautiful and poignant.
Esther Friesner's Viking-flavored tale was quite entertaining - pleasantly so, after I quite disliked the book I read by her recently.
Barbara Delaplace's story of an abused wife is well-intentioned but clunky.
Steve Rasnic Tem's sci fi/horror take on a dragon story is interesting, but not my favorite thing I've read by the author. The Greg Benford/Marc Laidlaw entry is also sci-fi... but, maybe because I just read it recently, it suffered in comparison to the similar 'Override' by George R.R. Martin.
Nancy Berberick - seems like it would be a good intro to a typical fantasy novel. Maybe it is - she's written several 'Dragonlance' books. The David Drake; I also found to be kind of unmemorable.
Orson Scott Card - much as I'd like to dislike Card's writing, I don't. 'A Plague of Butterflies' is weird, disturbing, creepy and beautiful.
eluki bes shahar - A response to Moorcock's Elric/Eternal Champion stories? A woman hero deals with her dangerously magical sword...


Contents:

Introduction by Margaret Weis
Weyr Search [Pern] by Anne McCaffrey
Cockfight by Jane Yolen
The Storm King by Joan D. Vinge
The Fellowship of the Dragon by Patricia A. McKillip
The Champion of Dragons by Mickey Zucker Reichert
Two Yards of Dragon [Eudoric Dambertson] by L. Sprague de Camp
Saint Willibald’s Dragon by Esther M. Friesner
A Drama of Dragons [Ebenezum] by Craig Shaw Gardner
The George Business by Roger Zelazny
The Dragonbone Flute by Lois Tilton
The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin
The Hidden Dragon by Barbara Delaplace
Last Dragon by Steve Rasnic Tem
The Wizard’s Boy by Nancy Varian Berberick
A Hiss of Dragon by Gregory Benford & Marc Laidlaw
A Plague of Butterflies by Orson Scott Card
The Ever-After by eluki bes shahar
Dragons’ Teeth [Dama (& Vettius)] by David Drake
The Trials and Tribulations of Myron Blumberg, Dragon by Mike Resnick
St. Dragon and the George [Jim Eckert] by Gordon R. Dickson show less

As it turns out, this was an abridged version. I don't know that I'll seek out the book to read the rest of the stories, but it was fun.
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Listening to this on the walk to/from work. So far ok; as with all anthologies, some stories are better than others.

So far the Jane Yolen story was simple but nice; Orson Scott Card story was kind of whacked (dragons impregnating women? ewww); the Zelazny story was great (and led to a movie--Dragonheart); the McKillip story is slow but that's just how she writes so no surprise (not a criticism--I like how she writes!).

Read this in high school and might give it a re-read. Not my favorite dragon anthology, but worth it to pick up if you just have an itch only a dragon can scratch. It's kind of an agreed upon view that all readers of this book see it as a hit-and-miss, but that's basically all anthologies for you. There will be some good stories, and some mediocre ones- it's up to you to decide which you like best.

Loved some of the stories better than others. It was a good collection of short stories.

There are a couple really good stories in this collection that completely captured my imagination. Unfortunately, they are buried in a book full of mediocre stories. Still fun to read, though.

Good collection of stores from some of the big names in the Fantasy world!