Review: A nice anthology with tons of good stories
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 8, 2013
Originally posted here: [...]Dragonthology is, as the name clearly suggests, an anthology in which the protagonists are dragons. Actually, I haven't read many stories with dragons as the main characters (the only one that comes to my mind right now is Eragon by Paolini) and when I heard about this I thought it would have been nice to try something out of my 'comfort zone' to see if I might like it. Also, since it wasn't a full-length novel, I thought I could do it. I consider this experiment a good one!The collection has seven short stories by different authors and each story features dragons in different worlds, settings and periods. We range from semi-human dragons acting like a femme fatale to the wonderful dragons flying in the sky. There is something for everyone, even a story with sci-fi elements.I didn't like all the stories, obviously, but there were some that I found really nice and were perfect for me. The first one, The Case of the Bloodstone Dragon, has a private investigator as the main character. He's about to be broke, smokes a lot and has a past with a gang of dragons but he's willing to take risks to help a female dragon retrieving a stone. The atmosphere made me think about the 'hard boiled' stories I like (it's a genre I really adore, but probably won't see that often on this blog) and I liked how these dragons were very human. The narration perfectly fitted the genre and I also loved the plot.The other one that I caught my attention is Darkness Taken, where dragons and unicorns live in harmony with human kids but are threatened by Dark, which takes their children. Thought the story is very short, the world building was really interesting and I would have loved to know more. The ending was a killer!I also liked Dragon Seeks a Wife; it is clearly a story with a message, but I loved the blends of dragons, imaginary world and Mexican elements.Overall, I am happy about having tried this anthology. I liked these dragons. Though they will never make it to my favorite mythological animals, I actually changed my opinion and I really enjoyed seeing how differently they were portrayed by the various authors.My favourite quote:Both of use smoked, but only once of us was likely to die of lung cancer and it wasn't going to be the dragon.