Books like Dragon Queen — picked by fans

This book is horrifying, weird as shit, and absolutely beautiful, from China Mieville’s stunning prose to the grotesque splendor of his imagery.

Mieville’s follow-up to Perdido Street Station is a Melvillian Gothic that takes its characters on a sprawling, twisted naval journey that incorporates such horrors as giant mosquito monsters, a symbiotic pair of dictators known as the Lovers, and a Frankensteinian punishment system where bio-thaumaturgists graft foreign limbs or organs onto their victims’ bodies.

The Scar blew my mind when I first read it in college, and made me rethink what a novel could be. Its creativity and depth feel endless, with layers of philosophical and thematic depth. It’s the kind of book that makes you feel like you could read it a hundred times, and still find fresh meaning.

The Scar’s final act also perfectly captures the feeling that you’re beholding something beyond your capacity to fathom—and… show more.

Of Bees and Mist is a mix between fable and fairy-tale. It tells the story of Meridia, whose home is infested with perpetual mist, and her marriage to a young man that puts her in the sights of Eva, her new mother-in-law, who whispers to bees and is quite evil.

The juxtaposition between the two women is what makes this book so fascinating. I love books about family secrets, and the setting of crumbling houses and collapsing dynasties is what drew me into this story, but what kept me reading was the delicious conflict between Meridia and Eva. I had no idea where this story was going to take me, but I loved every second of it.

This is the story of four teenagers and their journey to cope with the anxieties of being a teenager, mixed with recovering from traumatic events. 

It is such an unusual book that it defies explanation. The best thing to do is to pick it up and read it for yourself. I found it confusing in a delightful way – the mixture of reality and dreamscape is captivating and leaves you wondering what is real and what is imaginary.

This book is chaotic and intense and left me feeling a bit dizzy, but I think if I had read it when I was a teenager it would have accurately reflected how I felt and dealt with the world!

Pixel Juice is a collection of short stories, all set in the near future. Some of the stories are linked and have a continuing thread and some are standalone, but all of them are enthralling.

Jeff Noon belongs primarily to the “cyberpunk” subgenre of science fiction, and an ironic prescience runs through these stories in the manner of Dark Mirror, testing your acceptance of the advances of technology, consumer culture, and mass media.

I came away from reading this book the first time feeling quite emotional about how well he evoked the uncanny weirdness we take for granted living in a world dominated by data and screens. 

Was there ever a less heroic leading character than Prince Jalan? Apparently a vain, selfish coward, he would not even be likable if he was not also funny and honest. Well, he is honest some of the time, in his inside voice, even while being a liar to almost everyone else. So, when Jalan gets unwillingly and unwittingly caught up with an enormous Viking to go on a quest to save the world, I had to wonder how this one was going to work out. But it turns out that Jalan may have been lying to himself more than the reader, or himself, even realized, and he may not be quite the coward that he says he is.

The second book in The Thief series, The Queen of Attolia is also, IMO, the most romantic.

It starts with a bang, Eugenides of Edis, the thief who can steal anything, is caught spying on the queen of Attolia, the sworn enemy of his own queen. Attolia’s brutal punishment of her rival’s cousin sends Eugenides into a downward spiral of regret and self-loathing.

Yet, when his cunning and skills are the only thing that stands between victory and defeat, Eugenides once more must rise to the call and try to steal the most precious prize of all, the queen’s heart.

An impressive world building, a lovable, if irritating, protagonist, and a most inventive and clever plot make for an unforgettable read.

This book was one of the first romantic fantasy books I picked up and it completely captivated me from the very first page. You are immediately thrown into an incredible world, right at the same time the two main characters meet. It’s fast-paced, steamy, and perfect for anyone who loves that enemies-to-lovers vibe (me, I’m anyone). Kat and Griffin are amazing together and it’s so much fun to watch them figure that out.

This is the hilarious account of an official biographer tracking down European royalty. They were the extended family of Queen Mary, the current queen’s grandmother. Pope-Hennessey had been commissioned to write the official biography of Mary, the wife of King George V. He talked to a full range of eccentrics who were either relations of Queen Mary, or knew her well. The behind-the-scenes gossip he was given, as well as the insight into the absurdities of having a royal family in a democratic country, are both priceless.

Back to pure history! At one point, I was the founder and publisher—the Head Goose—of Goosebottom Books. Of all the books we published, this title is my favorite. Gretchen Maurer, the author, did a great job of presenting a very complex and nuanced story in a way that makes it human and understandable to young readers, without side-stepping the facts. The book design and illustration are remarkable and evoke the rich Tudor aesthetic. But what I love most about this book is that it presents the antihero to my childhood hero, Elizabeth I of England, and raises the question: just how fair was history? One of these two sisters became known as Bloody Mary, the other as Good Queen Bess. Did they fully deserve those reputations?

I love David Starkey’s style of writing and can hear his voice come through as I read it.

What I like is that book covers all the wives of King Henry in one volume, and it’s great to have all the information in one place. It’s a good starter book for anyone wishing to get a feel for the whole period, too. It’s a big volume but not dull and dusty. Each wife is dealt with separately and so it’s an easy book to pick up where you left off.