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Five Books Where Dragons Are Put In Their Place

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Five Books Where Dragons Are Put In Their Place

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Five Books Where Dragons Are Put In Their Place

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Published on February 8, 2016

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Dragons may be a trope of the epic fantasy genre, but they are a trope I suspect I will never tire of. My new book, Dragon Hunters, might just have one or two of the creatures lurking within its pages.

Whenever you encounter a dragon, it’s usually the apex predator of its world. But invincible? Certainly not. There’s a quote I recall from Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton) that goes: “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

In Dragon Hunters, the sea dragons are hunted for sport by a fellowship of water-mages known as the Storm Lords. That got me thinking about other fantasy books where dragons are put in their place. Here are five for your consideration. (Warning: spoilers abound!)

 

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Hobbit_coverThe Hobbit is top of my list, and I imagine it will be top of a lot of other people’s, too. The scene where Bilbo talks to Smaug in the Lonely Mountain is probably my favorite in the book. Bilbo plays on Smaug’s arrogance to make the dragon roll over and reveal his chest armor. “What do you say to that?” Smaug asks. “Dazzlingly marvelous!” Bilbo replies, while at the same time noticing a large patch in the hollow of Smaug’s left breast “as bare as a snail out of its shell.”

That information will prove useful to the bowman Bard later, when Smaug attacks Lake-town. Bard is carrying with him a black arrow—an arrow that originated in the Lonely Mountain, and has been passed down to him from his ancestors. “Black arrow!” he says. “I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and always I have recovered you.” We all know what happens next, when he shoots it at Smaug.

One thing always puzzled me, though. If Bard never missed with the black arrow, why didn’t he use it first, rather than last?

 

The Farthest Shore by Ursula Le Guin

farthest-shoreThe Farthest Shore is the final book in the Earthsea Quartet. This novel more than any other inspired my love of dragons. Le Guin describes the creatures beautifully and really captures their spirit—that elusive blend of wonder and danger. Near the start of the book, the main character, Ged, is described as the only living dragonlord, and he is asked what a dragonlord is. In reply he says: “Dragons have no masters. The question is always the same, with a dragon: will he talk with you or will he eat you? If you can count on his doing the former, and not doing the latter, why then you’re a dragonlord.”

The dragons, though, are about to meet their match. There is a striking moment in The Farthest Shore when Ged sails the Dragons’ Run, and finds that the creatures have been robbed of speech and thus “driven to the dumb terror of the beasts”. Previously, Orm Embar, the strongest of the dragons, had come to Ged to ask him for help, and admitted that the sorcerer Cob—their shared enemy—is more powerful than him. When Orm Embar finally clashes with Cob…

Well, I’ll leave you to find out what happens yourself.

 

House of Chains by Steven Erikson

house-chainsHouse of Chains is the fourth book in the Malazan series. The series features dragons galore, including one notable moment, as I recall, when it actually rains dragons. It also has my favorite dragon quote from any book: “He was not a modest man. Contemplating suicide, he summoned a dragon.”

Such is the array of powerful individuals in the Malazan world that dragons have to tread (fly?) as carefully as everyone else. As proof, in House of Chains, two characters are travelling through the Imperial Warren (think other dimension) when they take a tumble into a steeply sloped pit. They slide deep into darkness, then one of the characters summons up a magical light to reveal … a dragon crucified to an X-shaped cross as tall as a four-story building.

It’s yet another of those pick-your-jaw-off-the-floor moments that one encounters every few pages in Erikson’s books.

 

The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay

darkest-roadThe Darkest Road is the third book in the Fionavar Tapestry series. In the battle at the end, the Unraveller unleashes his dragon on the heroes, and the creature makes an impressive entrance. “The sun was bloated out, and half the sky… The armies of Light and Dark, both of them, were driven to their knees by the pounding force of the wind of the Dragon’s wings.”

It’s a great moment in the book, because one of the characters had an opportunity earlier to bind a different dragon to her service, but she refused for reasons of “her own imposed morality.” Now she understands that her decision will have a cost, because someone else on her side will have to fight the Unraveller’s dragon in its place. The sacrifice by another character that follows is one of the most poignant moments in a series that is filled with them.

 

Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

dragons-winter-nightI read Dragons of Winter Night twenty-five years ago. As I understand it, the Dragonlance Chronicles were based on an actual campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and those books got me into role-playing myself.

Towards the end of Dragons of Winter Night the protagonists are faced by three blue dragons at the vanguard of an approaching army. The dragons are demolishing the walls of the defenders’ fortress when one of the characters activates a magical dragon orb. The orb sends forth an irresistible call, drawing the dragons into a tower, where a trap awaits them similar to that used in the video RPG Skyrim. As the first dragon put its head through an arch, a modified portcullis slams down, pinning the creature in place. Then knights emerge from hiding places, armed with dragonlances.

 

What are your favorite books in which dragons have the tables turned on them? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Top image from the cover of Dragon Hunters, illustrated by Gregory Manchess.

Marc Turner was born in Toronto, Canada, but grew up in England. He graduated from Lincoln College, Oxford University, in 1996 with a BA (Hons) in Law, and subsequently worked at a top-ten law firm in London. After more than ten years in the legal profession he gave in to his lifelong writing addiction and now works full time as a writer. Dragon Hunters, the second novel in his Chronicles of the Exile series, is out tomorrow, February 9th.

About the Author

Marc Turner

Author

Marc Turner was born in Toronto, Canada, but grew up in England. He graduated from Lincoln College, Oxford University, in 1996 with a BA (Hons) in Law, and subsequently worked at a top-ten law firm in London. After more than ten years in the legal profession he gave in to his lifelong writing addiction and now works full time as a writer. Dragon Hunters, the second novel in his Chronicles of the Exile series, is out tomorrow, February 9th.
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9 years ago

Perhaps Anne McCaffrey should get a spot here, above Weis and Hickman…

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9 years ago

The Dragons in Pern are not hunted. They don’t belong on this list.

Mayhem
9 years ago

Definitely Erikson.  The crucified dragon is pretty iconic, but I think the book where they really get put in their place is Reaper’s Gale, scenes 37-40.  “Fucking Dragon”.

http://www.tor.com/2012/10/26/malazan-re-read-of-the-fallen-reapers-gale-chapter-twenty-four-part-two/

Actually Erikson generally is pretty rough on all his characters, the finale of The Crippled God features the sky literally raining dying dragons.

 

On a completely different interpretation, how about the dragons of Jane Yolen’s Pit Dragon trilogy, where the dragons are objects of pity rather than fear.

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9 years ago

@3: the dragons of Pern are used in a very dangerous enterprise to preserve the lives of human beings. Are we sure they don’t belong? :D

Spriggana
9 years ago

The Farthest Shore is the final book in the Earthsea Quartet

It is not, no matter how you count the books…

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Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
9 years ago

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.

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Em
9 years ago

I would vote for an Anne McCaffrey novel, such as Dragonsong, even if it’s mostly about mini-dragons. And His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik.

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9 years ago

Seraphina, by Rachel Hart– human-dragon wars, with musical accompaniment.

 

And if we have Tolkien’s dragon, let’s not forget Beowulf’s:

Never again would he glitter and glide

And show himself off in midnight air,

Exulting in his riches: he fell to earth

Through the battle-strength in Beowulf’s arm.

(from the Heaney translation)

terngirl
9 years ago

What about the dragon ships in the Midshipwizard/Dragonfrigate wizard Halcyon Blithe series? They sure are put in their place, rather gruesomely with equipment to keep their hearts exposed so they can’t submerge, and a ship built in and around their body. Imagine the persecution they are under as a species…

http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312028201l/716351.jpghttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ym4YnZ4IL._AC_UL320_SR198,320_.jpg

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9 years ago

@10: that is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.

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EmmaPease
9 years ago

Well there is also Tolkien’s Glaurung the golden, finally slain by Turin but not before causing much death and destruction, some even after receiving his death wound. 

 

peanut
9 years ago

Daniel Abraham’s Dragon and Coin series contains a dragon, probably the last one. The last book in the series is due this year and should Explain All.   In the last book we discover some vicious weapons created to fight the dragons, so maybe humankind had a role in their extinction.

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Brenda A.
9 years ago

Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons involves hunting, preserving and recording new species of dragons – a very painstaking historical fantasy.

Elizabeth Kerner’s Song in the Silence trilogy has dragons in a self-imposed exile after a human wizard used demon power to destroy a large number of them. They are vulnerable in other ways too.

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9 years ago

“The Liveship Traders” trilogy by Robin Hobb

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9 years ago

Liveship, yes. And then the Rain Wilds quartet put dragons in their place…as arrogant acid-spitting overlords happy to eat any human who tries to dominate them. Mind you, this is a beautiful thing when the human in question is a boneheaded jerkass and the dragon gives plenty of unheeded warnings.

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9 years ago

yes! Especially when Lord Arthur Wellesley  (I don’t remember if he was already Duke of Wellimgton) gives Temeraire a dressing-down over Iskierka’s behavior and Temeraire’s (not) keeping discipline. 

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9 years ago

@10 oh dear gods…

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Joel Anderson (@MrKlingon)
9 years ago

Or for SF dragons (good and bad) with a fantasy edge, Jeffrey Carver’s Dragons in the Stars and Dragon Rigger… http://www.starrigger.net/books/rigger/dragon-space/

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9 years ago

While I love Novik’s Dragon books, I’m not sure they qualify here, as much of the series backdrop is about …

 

 

MINOR SPOILER

 

 

 

… determining what place in society dragons should hold.  The various societies our protagonists visit (and alter, in both the this-is-why-we-have-a-Prime-Directive and a Nietzschean when-you-gaze-into-the-abyss-the-abyss-gazes-into-you) depict very different pictures of how dragons are treated.  The ongoing plot struggle is mirrored in that backdrop.

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9 years ago

How about Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly? The dragon gets put into his place without dying, too. So it’s win-win.

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jimbobborg
9 years ago

Gate: So the JSDF Fought There.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_%28novel_series%29  It’s also in its second season as an anime series.

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4Ds
9 years ago

Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame trilogy gets a “put in their place” somewhere shy of the killing or horrendous slavery mentioned in 10: Ellegon the dragon is first encountered chained in a pit below the sewage outlet–he’s a living garbage incinerator who has to keep burning the sewage away so he doesn’t get submerged into it. 

He gets freed by the heroes and becomes a major continuing character/rescuing cavalry/artillery piece, but there are enough anti-dragon measures in the world to keep him from being a simple deus ex machina.

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William Byrd
9 years ago

Can we count Avatar: The last Airbender? The dragons were hunted to near extinction, the only two remaining were the fire bending “Masters”

What about Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. The Tales of the dragon skulls that adorned the throne room. but they were thought to have been hunted to extinction before Denyreas’s 3 hatched. 

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wrog
9 years ago

Don’t forget Patricia Wrede:

Dealing with Dragons (1990)
Searching for Dragons (1991)
Calling on Dragons (1993)
Talking to Dragons (1985, revised 1995)

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Lila
9 years ago

I’d rather read books where the dragons are characters, with their own agendas, rather than obstacles. This includes the Earthsea books and the Temeraire series as well as Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest chronicles. And Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown involves a certain amount of dragonicity which deserves to remain unspoiled.

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Mike
9 years ago

I immediately though of Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (and Dragons of Babel). The dragons there certainly face unique struggles compared to other novels.. Two of my favorite fantasy novels. In fact, I think it is time for a re-read.

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9 years ago

@22 “How about Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly? The dragon gets put into his place without dying, too. So it’s win-win.”

You beat me to it. But I was thinking of the scene early on, when the idealistic young man is crushed to learn that his hero, the famous dragon slayer, poisoned and ambushed the dragon rather than charge it head on in glorious, suicidal battle. The quest to kill the second dragon again departs from the usual script, which is the part you referred to.

I love when Hambly plays with fantasy tropes and reader expectations. I started rereading her recently and her books hold up well.

 

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David88
9 years ago

@16 That’s a bit of a spoiler, but I’m too delighted to hear it to care.

 

I’m not sure there’s really a comparison between killing Smaug and other dragons who are killing hundreds or thousands of people and killing dragons for sport.

Secondly, and more personally, “put in their place” is a term I’d prefer only seeing used by abusive husbands on daytime television. I’ll admit that I could be taking an article about killing make-believe creatures too seriously, but its often a hateful phrase used to excuse horrible acts, as if they were just correcting matters.

Not trying to make a fuss, just saying.

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LogicMouse
9 years ago

The Halfblood Chronicles, by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, have dragons living in hiding from the evil elves who invaded and conquered their world. Several dragons are major characters in the books.

But the first thought that came to my mind already got mentioned: the much more traditionally horrid Maur from The Hero and The Crown. I mean, his fleshless and decapitated skull nearly finished the heroes!

Jorge Jaramillo Villarruel
Jorge Jaramillo Villarruel
9 years ago

I read the first two books of the Fionavar series, but I got bored and didn’t read the last. The D&D books (this trilogy) are my favorite fantasy trilogy.

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Chance
9 years ago

Melanie Rhawn’s Dragon Prince is another series that belongs on this list… Apex predators that are hunted, and a lot more…

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9 years ago

Tanith Lee’s “Draco, Draco”, which is in her The Gorgon and Other Beastly Tales, features an apocathary who has the terrible misfortune to get sucked into the wake of a Hero! who has just learned there is a dragon in the region.

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GG
9 years ago

I can’t believe The Story of Owen, Dragonslayer of Trondheim isn’t on this list. [SPOILERS, HIGHLIGHT TO READ: In what other book do a pair of high school students armed with swords and flamethrower-backpacks take out an entire man-eating dragon hatchery?] It’s a fabulous bit of dragon-fantasy subversion.

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Diona the Lurker
9 years ago

In the first book of Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series, So You Want To Be A Wizard, the protagonists, while travelling through the subway of a dark alternate New York, encounter a dragon, the Eldest. While still dangerous, it’s suffering from a form of dementia. It has a huge hoard of “treasure” – everything from gold bars and costume jewellery to old beer bottles and rotting kitchen scraps – and it is compelled to count every bit of it, terrified that thieves have taken something. Except its memory is going, so it keeps losing count, and has to start again… Kit and Nina get what they’re looking for from the Eldest by swapping it for a spell which stops anyone from ever finding the dragon again, and thus hopefully gives it a measure of peace.