The Book of Dragons: An Anthology (edición 2020)

The Book of Dragons is an anthology containing diverse short stories and poems about dragons, depicting them in a wide variety of fearsome and remarkable mythical creatures. My favorite stories were Matriculation by Elle Katharine White, picturing dragons as some sort of magical technical invention and the poem The Wyrm of Lirr by C. S. E. Cooney about the release of a captive dragon. I especially liked the diversity of the included stories and their different views on dragons.

These are my ratings for every short story (on a scale of one to five stars):
What Heroism Tells Us by Jane Yolen (3/5)
Matriculation by Elle Katharine White (5/5)
Hikayat Sri Bujang, or, The Tale of the Naga Sage by Zen Cho (4/5)
Yuli by Daniel Abraham (3.5/5)
A Whisper of Blue by Ken Liu (4.5/5)
Nidhog by Jo Walton (2.5/5)
Where the River Turns to Concrete by Brooke Bolander (4/5)
Habitat by K. J. Parker (3/5)
Pox by Ellen Klages (4/5)
The Nine Curves River by R. F. Kuang (4.5/5)
Lucky’s Dragon by Kelly Barnhill (4.5/5)
I Make Myself a Dragon by Beth Cato (2.5/5)
The Exile by JY Yang (3.5)
Except on Saturdays by Peter S. Beagle (3.5)
La Vitesse by Kelly Robson (3)
A Final Knight to Her Love and Foe by Amal El-Mohtar (3.5)
The Long Walk by Kate Elliott (3.5/5)
Cut Me Another Quill, Mister Fitz by Garth Nix (3.5/5)
Hoard by Seanan McGuire (4/5)
The Wyrm of Lirr by C. S. E. Cooney (5/5)
The Last Hunt by Aliette de Bodard (2.5/5)
We Continue by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky (3/5)
Small Bird’s Plea by Todd McCaffrey (2.5/5)
The Dragons by Theodora Goss (3.5/5)
Dragon Slayer by Michael Swanwick (3/5)
Camouflage by Patricia A. McKillip (4.5/5)
We Don’t Talk About the Dragon by Sarah Gailey (4.5/5)
Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It by Scott Lynch (3/5)
A Nice Cuppa by Jane Yolen (3/5) ( )

A large number of interesting well told stories, full of imagination, many very good and no bad ones. The poetry could be worse. Unless you met variants I missed during the deluge of dragon books of first decade of the 21st century, you may find some unique and delightful depictions in these stories, and where the dragons are closer to tradition, well the dragon hunters show variations as well as the circumstances of the encounters. A dragon poses two riddles in the last story and I'm only satisfied with my answer to one of them - afaik no answers are given. ( )

Anthologies are just not something that I seem to enjoy. I nabbed this as an audiobook.

While I appreciate the diversity of stories and types of dragons, overall I was just really bored. Each story is about an hour or shorter and if you can’t pull me into your story within 5-15 minutes, then I’m not gonna finish it. I skipped over quite a few stories and out of the ones I did listen to fully I only really enjoyed “Where the River Turns to Concrete” by Brooke Bolander, as well as most of the poems.

Pretty lack luster overall for me though, which is rough for me to admit as I love dragons, these just didn’t do it for me. ( )

There were only four or five stories I found just okay or worse--most of those were in the last 150 pages or so, weirdly--and the rest were more than good enough to make up for the occasional dip in quality. Wow! I don't read many anthologies, but I sure do love dragons, and this book does them justice. I had a great few days reading it. I'm so glad I gave it a chance. ( )

Not a review. Includes my poem "I Make Myself a Dragon."