Wings of Fire [Paperback]

Jonathan Strahan (Editor), Marianne S. Jablon (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2010

Dragons: Fearsome fire-breathing foes, scaled adversaries, legendary lizards, ancient hoarders of priceless treasures, serpentine sages with the ages' wisdom, and winged weapons of war... Wings of Fire brings you all these dragons, and more, seen clearly through the eyes of many of today's most popular authors, including Peter Beagle, Holly Black, Orson Scott Card, Charles De Lint, Diana Wynne Jones, Mercedes Lackey, Ursula K Le Guin, Dean R Koontz, George R. R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, Garth Nix, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up–Wings of Fire is a successful book on many levels. It celebrates dragons in all their infinite variety with vigor and enthusiasm, tenderness, and sympathy. The stories range from classic fantasy to science fiction to steampunk, and the contributors represent a who's who of extraordinary talent: Peter S. Beagle, Charles De Lint, Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, and on and on. Two original works by Holly Black and Margo Lanagan are included, along with stories tied to popular series like Anne McCaffrey's “Dragonriders of Pern” and Naomi Novik's “Temeraire.” Themes explored include sacrifice, honor, love, betrayal, family, etc. Many of the selections have adult language, violence, and sexual situations. The editors have pulled together an amazing work that does just what a great collection should do–it whets the appetite and makes readers ravenous for more.Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

The editors offer 26 dragon tales that are high in quality and diverse in writing style and characterization. With the exception of two written especially for this volume, the stories have been previously published but are more than worth reprising. The anthology leads off with Peter S. Beagle’s dark poem, “Stable of Dragons,” and includes a tale from McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series and a selection from Leguin’s Earthsea universe. In George R. R. Martin’s “The Ice Dragon,” does winter bring the dragon or vice versa? Michael Swanwick presents a mechanical warrior dragon that becomes king of a small village; Jane Yolen has an old dragon imparting wisdom to a boy; in Pat Murphy’s “Dragon’s Gate,” a 15-year-old girl must make the arduous trek to that gate in the hope of securing three drops of a dragon’s blood to save her mother’s life. Gordon R. Dickson’s well-loved “St. Dragon and the George” is among the offerings, and other writers include Orson Scott Card, Elizabeth Bear, Charles de Lint, and Tanith Lee, making this a treasure trove for dragon lovers. --Sally Estes

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books; Reprint edition (May 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597801879
• ISBN-13: 978-1597801874
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some great dragon stories., August 6, 2010

By 

Stefan "Stefan" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Wings of Fire (Paperback)

I don't like dragons.

This is probably not the first sentence you'd expect to find in a review of Wings of Fire, an anthology devoted exclusively to dragon stories, but I thought it best to get it out of the way right from the start.

There's nothing inherently wrong with dragons. They're just terribly overused, one of those tired genre mainstays that people who typically don't read a lot of fantasy will expect in a fantasy novel because they were practically unavoidable for a long time. To this day, I confess to having to suppress a mental groan whenever I encounter them.

For a long time, I actively avoided reading any fantasy novel with the word dragon in the title. Granted, I made several exceptions to this rule in the past, most notably The King's Dragon by Kate Elliott, Dragon by Steven Brust, and (back when I still read THE WHEEL OF TIME novels) The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan. However, the perceptive reader will note that none of the dragons in those titles actually refers to the traditional fire-breathing flying reptile (instead, they refer to an army unit, a Dragaeran noble house, and, well, some guy called Rand). So, I considered all of those exceptions perfectly allowable.

(I should also add here that, despite my dislike for dragons in general, I'm of course a big fan of Mettlestorm the Bookwyrm, seen on FanLit's logo, and designed by the multi-talented Janny Wurts.)

So, with all of this out of the way, I'm here to inform you that Wings of Fire, an anthology of short stories about dragons, is excellent. The line-up of authors is great. The stories deal with a huge variety of dragons, so there isn't too much repetition. Most of the stories are good, a few of them are stunning, and only one or two (out of 26) are disappointing. In short, this is a great anthology.

You may just want to avoid reading it cover to cover, and instead read a few stories here and there between other books, unless you 1) urgently need to turn in your review of the book, and/or 2) have a dragon phobia and are attempting to overcome it by applying prolonged exposure. (In which case, may we suggest one of the lovely tea mugs or t-shirts bearing the likeness of Mettlestorm the Bookwyrm? Just imagine the progress you'll make, seeing your entire family decked out in dragon-decorated gear!)

Listing the 27 authors included in Wings of Fire would lead to a list of names that's too long to read without having your eyes glaze over, but trimming the list down is almost impossible, because almost all of them are big names in the genre. I just wouldn't know who to leave out. So, at the risk of glazed eyes, and in order of appearance: Peter S. Beagle, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R.R. Martin, Holly Black, Michael Swanwick, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Patricia McKillip, Orson Scott Card, Barry N. Malzberg, Jane Yolen, Margo Lanagan, Elizabeth Bear, Anne McCaffrey, James Blaylock, Pat Murphy, Naomi Novik, Gordon Dickson, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Robert Reed, Charles de Lint, Tanith Lee, Harlan Ellison © and Robert Silverberg, C.J. Cherryh, Roger Zelazny, S.P. Somtow and Lucius Shepard. Only 2 of the 26 stories included here are originals (by Holly Black and Margo Lanagan), so there's a chance that you'll have encountered some of the other ones already, but as editors Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon set out to compile "the best and most widely loved stories" they could find, this is perfectly understandable and acceptable.

The variety of dragons included here is amazing (and likely to blow any reviewer's silly preconceived notions about dragons being a "tired mainstay" right out of the water). Fire-breathing dragons, ice dragons, mechanical dragons, dragons built in a garage in the suburbs. Inter-dimensional dragons, and dragons who appreciate classical music. Little dragons that fit on a bookshelf, and dragons so big that entire cities are built around them. Funny dragons and tragic ones. If the anthology has one possible weakness, it's that many people will have a specific idea of what constitutes a dragon (say, something similar to J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug), and Wings of Fire jumps from one idea to the next, some of them quite non-traditional. On the other hand, it's sure to expand those readers' horizons significantly.

The stories are likewise a mixed bag, from traditional high fantasy to urban fantasy, steampunk, YA, and even one poem. In an anthology that's this varied in terms of styles, almost everyone will have different favorites. Nevertheless, here are the five stories that made the biggest impression on me:

* Elizabeth Bear's "Orm the Beautiful" applies the economics concept of scarcity on dragons in a beautiful, melancholy way.

* Margo Lanagan's "The Miracle Aquilina" (one of the two stories originally commissioned for this anthology) is a powerful, feminist story of quiet strength and independence.

* Gordon Dickson's "St. Dragon and the George" is a funny, touching portal fantasy story that's plays on the legend of St. George, just like Roger Zelazny's hilarious "The George Business."

* S.P. Somtow's "Dragon's Fin Soup" somehow combines a powerful story of changing cultural values with one of the more memorable dragons in the anthology.

* Lucius Shepard's "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaulle" impressively closes out Wings of Fire with a layered and intriguing story that mixes art, politics and romance -- and like a few other stories in the anthology, it contains enough material to merit a full novel.

But again, other readers may have entirely different favorites, or prefer one of the stories set in established fantasy or SF universes, such as the PERN story by Anne MacCaffrey, the TEMERAIRE story by Naomi Novik, or the EARTHSEA story by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Most themed anthologies will have some armchair quarterbacks complaining that certain authors or stories are missing. I would have loved to see a Terry Pratchett story (his dragons, to be able to generate their fiery breath, have such a complex digestive system, involving a few dozen separate stomachs, that feeding them the wrong thing will occasionally cause one to explode tragically in mid-flight) and a Steven Erikson story (his "Eleint" dragons are simply one of the most powerful and mysterious representations in the genre). Then again, I perfectly understand why they weren't included here -- for one, I don't think there actually are any short stories featuring their dragons.

Just like all the best anthologies, there's something in Wings of Fire for everyone. It's a good stepping stone for readers looking for new authors or series to read, and a worthy attempt to show how varied the concept of dragons has become. It makes a good nightstand book, to dip into once in a while. Just don't read all the stories back to back, lest you end up seeing little dragons everywhere.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some great dragon stories, both old and new!, July 16, 2011

By 

David Roy (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wings of Fire (Paperback)

When you think of "fantasy," what is the first word you think of? For many, that word is "dragon." Throughout the long history of fantastical literature, dragons have been a mainstay of the genre. Millions of words have been written about them, and tons of short stories.

Wouldn't it be nice if a bunch of them were all collected in one book?

Now they have been. Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon, is full of dragon stories spanning the years, ranging from the classic "St. Dragon and the George" (Gordon Dickson, 1957) to "The Miracle Aquilina" (Margo Lanagan, 2010). Many of the greats are represented here, from Anne McCaffrey ("Weyr Search"), Roger Zelazny ("The George Business"), and more modern favorites like Naomi Novik.

The collection is excellent, with a broad variety of styles and genres, even a bit of urban fantasy from Charles de Lint ("Berlin"). Readers can see the genesis of classic series such as McCaffrey's "Pern," and get a feel for why the classics truly are classic. I had never read Dickson's story before, though it's always been brought up in dragon discussions as a great entry in the field. Now that I have read it, I must confirm its status as one of the best of the genre. It's funny, but also poignant.

Another strong story is de Lint's "Berlin," in which a town called "Elfland" appears in the middle of a big city, remaining separate but linked by a place where reality overlaps called "Bordertown." As in many big cities, gangs and drugs abound, and a girl named Berlin is part of a gang that tries to help people. When a high-born from Elfland introduces a potent new drug to the streets, Berlin gets involved and ends up with the entire city turning against her for a crime she didn't commit. Mixed in is an organization of dragon guardians who watch over the city, with an honor code straight out of old Japan.

The story is told in de Lint's trademark lyrical prose, and the plot is simply superb, containing a great blend of ancient and modern, fantasy and reality, and a charming musical theme. The two main protagonists - Berlin and a guardian named Stick - are accomplished musicians when they're not protecting the city. There's some action, but a lot of emotional resonance as well. I've always enjoyed de Lint's work, and this one (written in 1989) is one of his best.

Most short story collections contain a mixture of good and bad stories (or at least stories that don't necessarily impress every reader). Wings of Fire is the same, though Strahan does have years of stories to choose from, so there are fewer weak stories than in other anthologies.

I've never been a big fan of Lucius Shepard's work. Here, his "The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule" is the story of an ancient dragon whose heart has stopped - but due to a miscast spell many centuries ago, he still lives. His mental energies still terrorize the town, and the elders are willing to pay anybody who will come and kill it. A young painter comes up with the idea of painting the dragon (it doesn't move) to provide a colorful landmark for the countryside along with the added bonus of poisoning the dragon with the paint.

While many others will find that story a great addition to the book, it just didn't grip me like the other stories. The artist, Maric, is more annoying than anything else, even when he does start to develop a conscience. Shepard's prose style isn't among my favorites.

There isn't necessarily a "bad" story in the book; just stories that aren't my cup of tea. One can recognize the craft of a well-told story while still not really liking it that much. This book is full of stories that are on both sides.

Wings of Fire is an excellent anthology that must be read by fans of dragons everywhere. The mixture of old, not-so-old, and recent stories goes down like a cool summer drink in the hot sun.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book. © Dave Roy, 2011

5.0 out of 5 stars Wings of Fire, November 13, 2011

By 

J.Ray - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wings of Fire (Paperback)

This is an amazing book, don't hesitate, buy it! The stories capture your imagination, and the mix of authors create a fresh experience every time you pick it up.