Wings of Fire

Wings of Fire is a dragon anthology. As such, its difficult to rate the book as a whole. Instead, I'll give a brief review of each entry in the collection.

Stable of Dragons: A poem that includes dragon sex. Creepy but enjoyable.
The Rule of Names: Earthsea story. Satisfying read, if a reprint.
The Ice Dragon: Simple, sweet, and solid.
Sobek: Urban fantasy dragon. Dark YA style, enjoyable but hard to suspend belief at times.
King Dragon: This motherfucking story. This fucking short story is reason enough to buy the collection. It is perfect. It is flavorful and gripping, with unique dragons that are an amalgamation of organic beast and manufactured bomber jet. You will read this goddamned dragon tale.
The Laily Worm: Standard fairy tale show more fare.
The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath: Well-written, with a good twist on the standard dragon.
The Bully and the Beast: Card's entry has the dragon as a minor plot point, but that doesn't diminish the enjoyment of this, essentially, morality story.
Concerto Academico: A metaphysical dragon enjoys music, meh.
The Dragon's Boy: I felt a little cheated by this one. The dragon is fake, a metaphor. The story is a bit too predictable. In the book where the back cover talks about "Fearsome firebreathing foes, scaled adversaries, legendary lizards, ancient hoarders" having no real dragon seems like a cop-out.
The Miracle Aquilina: The dragon is minor plot point in a story about a jesus allegory.
Orm the Beautiful: I loved this story. Urban fantasy with very memorable dragons, brought a tear to my eye.
Weyr Search: Is there a dragon fan that hasn't read this one yet? Its the most ubiquitous dragon story out there.
Paper Dragons: Bland and slow, mediocre.
Dragon's Gate: The story warns you that it meanders, so I suppose I shouldn't hold that against it, but I do.
In Autumn, A White Dragon Looks Over the Wide River: Temeraire story following Lien. I appreciated the unique perspective to this one, both as far as being from the dragon's viewpoint but also being a Temeraire story not narrated by Lawrence or Temeraire himself.
St. Dragon and the George: Another classic. I've always felt it was a little ponderous and over-rated, but it has charm.
The Silver Dragon: Romantic traditional fantasy. Pretty good, reminded me of the Lanen Kaelar trilogy.
The Dragon's of Summer Gulch: Dragon cults and paleontology is always a fun mix.
Berlin: Another good twist on dragons: elemental guardians who patrol the streets of Dragontown like massive police officers. Again, though, the dragons weren't the focus.
Draco, Draco: Explores the tradition of virgin sacrifice. Fun, if ultimately forgettable.
The Dragon on the Bookshelf: So very, very depressing. So very, very good.
Gwydion and the Dragon: Nothing special, meh.
The George Business: I enjoy the Zelazny version of this to the very similar St. Dragon and the George. Its just so lighthearted and delightful.
Dragon's Fin Soup: The only story that could be said to feature an Eastern-style dragon. It is dream-like and odd but decidedly draconic.
The Man Who Painted The Dragon Griaule: A massive dragon so large it's part of the landscape, complete with trees and waterfalls, that holds a town in mental thrall (or does it?). There was a Tommyknockers feel to this story, and I loved it.

There's many solid contributions in this book. Like any anthology, there are hits and misses, and I can't help but think about other authors I would have liked to have in it (Terry Pratchet, Jaida Jones, Jo Walton). Overall I enjoyed more than I didn't, so I suppose it succeeds there; the sheer NUMBER of stories is impressive. I felt some stories stretched the 'dragon' premise a bit....is it like Chopped, where the dragon can appear in a teeny, tiny amount and its still 'dragony' enough to work? Other Anthologies such as The Dragons of Chaos, The Dragons of Krynn, and The Dragon Quintet all have better focus on the dragons in the short stories.

TL;DR Lots of re-prints for dragon veterans, but a few new commissions add brilliant stories to balance out the chaff. Worth checking out, but don't feel the need to rush to do so. show less

First off, let me say that I have neither a great liking for nor a strong antipathy towards dragons. No, the reason I picked up the Wings of Fire anthology was because it featured stories by two of my favorite authors, Patricia A. McKillip and Jane Yolen, as well as others by writers who I was excited to encounter for the first time: namely, Naomi Novik, Peter S. Beagle, Ursula K. LeGuin, and George RR Martin. (What is it with fantasy authors and middle initials?)

As I look back over these stories, very few jump out at me as being either good or bad. McKillip’s and Yolen’s were a bit disappointing, the first being beautifully written but underdeveloped, the second lacking in emotional resonance. The one poem (by Beagle) was just show more gross, and several of the prose pieces were unintelligible. Anne McCaffery obviously relied on background for her Pern novels in writing “Weyr Search;” moreover, she seems to be one of those authors who inserts odd punctuation marks into her characters’ names … just to make them look cool. Martin’s “The Ice Dragon” was haunting enough, and Novik’s “In Autumn, A White Dragon Looks over the Wide River” was the one series-based story that worked on its own. Finally, I thought that when it came to exploring the themes of the dragon mythos, the best by far was “Dragon’s Gate” by Pat Murphy … although I cannot remember even that very clearly at the moment. It’s incredible how very forgettable this anthology was.

Of course, I’ve been known to pooh-pooh books before, and then to find that my opinion changes in retrospection. This seems to be particularly the case with short stories. But for now, Wings of Fire gets no recommendation from me. show less