Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series is the current dragon runaway bestseller. The first book, “Fourth Wing,” (just out in paperback) has been on the New York Times bestseller list for an amazing 72 weeks. Winner of multiple book awards and currently in development as a television series, “Fourth Wing” introduces Violet Sorrengail, an unwilling candidate for the elite position of dragon-rider. The second book in the series, “Iron Flame,” has been on the NYT bestseller list for 46 weeks, and continues Violet’s dragon-rider training — and love story. The final book in this thrilling trilogy, “Onyx Storm,” has a publication date of Jan. 21, 2025.
Naomi Novik, another well-known name in sci-fi and fantasy, has won numerous awards and nominations for her writing, including “Temeraire,” which also appears under the title “His Majesty’s Dragon.” The nine books in this series (known as the Temeraire series) follow Captain Laurence through an alternative history of the Napoleonic Wars as he bonds with a dragonet and becomes a part of England’s dragon fleet.
Christopher Paolini wrote “Eragon,” the first book in his Inheritance Cycle series, when he was a teenager. Published in 2001, “Eragon” is a classic dragon book, complete with epic quests and other classic fantasy elements. Paolini went on to write five more books in this series, which has also spawned a movie and a video game. Like Yarros’ series, this series features a young protagonist and crosses the boundary line between adult and young adult fiction, in the area sometimes referred to as “new adult.”
In 2009, “Seraphina” by Rachel Hartman won the William C. Morris Award for first-time authors writing for teens. The title character, Seraphina, is a court musician who harbors a secret that may unbalance the uneasy peace existing between humans and dragons. Hartman followed “Seraphina” with “Shadow Scale” and then two more dragon-related books in the same universe but with different main characters, “Tess of the Road” and “In the Serpent’s Wake.”
