Temperature aside, is there a cooler creature in the Chinese zodiac than the dragon? The world’s favorite mythical beast, which can be traced back several millennia to ancient China and Sumeria, is central not just to Asian folklore but human imagination across cultures and ages. Whether you’re thrilled by their freedom of flight, immense power, and fire-breathing fury, or their status as the ultimate exotic pet, there is no better time to celebrate dragons as stars of storytelling, from fantasy to kidlit to mythology. Here are some of our favorite listens to ring in the Year of the Dragon.
Part underdog story, part enemies-to-lovers, and all dragon-forward, Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing phenomenon combines the best of fantasy, romance, and dragons! Violet’s world has just been turned upside down. Forced by her mother to join hundreds of cadets striving to become dragon riders, Violet must not only overcome dangerous obstacles to become a dragon rider, she must also navigate a complex romantic relationship with Xaden, a rival rider. Its rebellious romance plot, ushered along by Rebecca Soler’s narration, makes it a truly unpausable listen.
An enrolled member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, Moniquill Blackgoose deftly weaves her culture and experiences into her debut novel, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath. Performed by Charley Flyte, the audiobook starts on the remote island of Masquapaug and follows Anequs, a 15-year-old girl who comes across a dragon’s egg. While her people are delighted, the Anglish colonizers have different views on how dragons should be raised. Anequs is then shipped off to an Anglish school where her beliefs are put to the test.
If you haven’t discovered this bestselling YA sensation yet, know that Eragon is the perfect next listen for fans of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, as are the ensuing audiobooks in the series. The story is about a young boy who discovers a dragon egg and thus begins a journey to overthrow a ruler oppressing a land full of magic, elves, and orc-like creatures. But Eragon especially stands out as a great example of a dragon novel mainstay: a person bonding with a newly born dragon, forming an intimate long-lasting friendship with them.
The novel that started it all. Here began the journey through thousands of pages (and dozens of TV hours) of betrayal, bloodshed, Machiavellian intrigue, and, of course, dragons. What an introduction A Game of Thrones gives its dragons, too: suckling a naked Daenerys who has emerged unscathed from the fire that hatched them. It leaves little doubt that George R. R. Martin knows dragons are cool, and knows how to show them off.
Voiced by the inimitable David Tennant (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), Cressida Cowell's award-winning children's series about a Viking clan with a love/hate relationship with dragons is the perfect way to prime your offspring to accept your Game of Thrones obsession. The 12-book series, the basis for the blockbuster film franchise, follows Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III on a heroic, dragon-filled journey set in the world of his Viking clan, the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans.
What if dragons existed during the Napoleonic Wars and were used as an aerial fleet to fight wars in the skies? That’s the ingenious premise of Naomi Novik’s alternate-history Temeraire series. There’s plenty of dragon action, nicely supplemented by Patrick O’Brian-like military detail, a touch of John le Carré intrigue, and a pinch of James Bond globetrotting. The compelling central relationship—between William Laurence, the novel’s human hero, and his dragon, Temeraire—is beautifully conveyed in narrator David Thorn’s pitch-perfect reading.
From the acclaimed author of the Bone Season trilogy, Samantha Shannon's fully fleshed out fantasy world is filled to the brim with dragons and complex characters. Both a classic epic fantasy and a breakout from the genre with its deep inclusion of diverse characters and abundance of female perspectives, The Priory of the Orange Tree follows a queen who refuses to marry, her secretly powerful lady-in-waiting, and a dragonrider faced with a life-changing choice. As the series continues with A Day of Fallen Night, expect more epic battles, political intrigue, and, oh yes, talking dragons.
This fiery feminist fantasy tale is set in an alternate 1950s America in which thousands of women spontaneously transform into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. Narrated by Kimberly Farr and Mark Bramhall, the debut adult novel of bestselling author Kelly Barnhill is an exhilarating imagining of a seminal event—the Mass Dragoning of 1955—and its transformative aftermath.
The first book in Molly Harper's uproariously funny, sinfully sexy series follows anthropologist Jillian Ramsay on a special mission to Louisiana. Hidden in the swamp is the tiny town of Mystic Bayou, where humans and supernatural residents have been living in harmony for generations. But the townsfolk are wary of outsiders, and Jillian can't get the gruff sheriff, Bael Boone, off her back or out of her mind. He's the finest specimen she's seen in a long time, even though he might not be human. Soon their flirtation is hotter than a dragon's breath, which Bael just might turn out to be...
The eighth novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and the first about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Guards! Guards! serves as a great intro to Discworld since you can listen to the books in any order. Captivatingly read by impressionist and actor Jon Culshaw, Guards! Guards! starts with the city of Ankh-Morpork in turmoil. A shadowy secret brotherhood has summoned a dragon to spread terror, intent on overthrowing the Patrician and ruling in his place, but the dragon has ideas of its own—and it's up to Captain Sam Vimes and the ramshackle Night Watch to stop it. If they can't bring down this fire-breathing tyrant and reinstate their own, slightly less dangerous one, Ankh-Morpork might be lost. Forever...
In this Hugo Award-winning listen, narrator JD Jackson and translator Maria Dahvana Headley breathe new life into the classic Old English epic poem, whose dragon inspired Smaug in Tolkien’s The Hobbit. With a radical new translation and a spellbinding audio performance, this new Beowulf recontextualizes the binary narrative of monsters and heroes in a tale in which the two categories often entwine, justice is rarely served, and dragons live among us.
Vainqueur Knightsbane is your average dragon: A giant, fire-breathing lizard who loves to take naps on his golden hoard, kidnap princesses for fun, and make the life of adventurers miserable. His only pleasure in life is to watch his treasure get bigger, one coin at a time. So when a would-be thief-turned-unwilling minion tells him about "classes," "levels," and "quests," Vainqueur wonders if maybe, just maybe, he should consider a career change. After all, why bother hunting monsters for free when you can get paid for it?
The first in Jenn Lyons's Chorus of Dragons series is an epic fantasy audiobook about a man who discovers his fate is tied to the future of an empire. Kihrin grew up in the slums of Quur, raised on tales of long-lost princes and magnificent quests. When he is claimed as the missing son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner of his new family's power plays and political ambitions, and he discovers that being a prince is nothing like he thought. The storybooks lied about a lot of other things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, and how the hero always wins.
The Dragonet Prophecy is the first installment in Wings of Fire, an exciting series from Tui T. Sutherland that's a must-listen for middle grade fantasy adventure lovers. In this audiobook, seven dragon tribes have been warring over a lost treasure for decades. A prophecy tells of a great sacrifice that will end the fighting, and the Talons of Peace is a secret organization working to make the prophecy come to fruition. And so, they collect five dragonets to fulfill the prophecy. This story is read by award-winning narrator Shannon McManus.
Don’t expect a typical dragon novel with Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight, the first in the Dragonriders of Pern series. The book not only ditches the common medieval or Renaissance-style settings of fantasy, it downplays fantasy altogether, instead nestling it into science fiction. Dragonflight takes place on a colonized planet called Pern where native dragon-like creatures have been genetically modified to be larger and telepathic. Oh, and there’s also time travel, forgotten old danger threatening to re-emerge, and a “Chosen One” storyline. In other words: McCaffrey’s novel is a wonderful genre mish-mash, perfectly complemented by Dick Hill’s narration and the range he brings to each character.
For years, the Trader cities valiantly battled their enemies, the Chalcedeans. But they could not have staved off invasion without the powerful dragon Tintaglia. In return, the Traders promised to help her serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River after a long exile at sea—to find a safe haven and restore Tintaglia's species. But too much time has passed, and the newly hatched dragons are damaged and weak. The few who survive cannot use their wings; earthbound, they are powerless to hunt and vulnerable to human predators willing to kill them for the fabled healing powers of dragon flesh.
If Jane Austen had written a book about Elizabeth Bennet being an aspiring scientist interested in dragons, it might have been something like A Natural History of Dragons. The novel begins with one Lady Trent in her later (and famous) years, promising to recall her younger days. From there, she leads listeners into an alternate Victorian era where she pursued not just a place in the boy’s club of the science community, but the study of dragons. Narrator Kate Reading brings a delightful spirit to the character, whether in her impish delight in jokes or the deep passion she has for dragons.
The most popular mythological creature in the human imagination, dragons have provoked fear and fascination for their lethal venom and crushing coils, and as avatars of the Antichrist, portents of disaster, and harbingers of the last days. In this compilation of millennia- and continent-spanning accounts, you'll hear about the dragon's origins in the deserts of Africa, the first dragon slayer in an ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns, the colossal sea monster Leviathan, the seven-headed “great red dragon” of the Book of Revelation, and many more that prove dragons are as full of surprises as they are of legend.
