63 Books Like The Dragonbards Trilogy

What truly is there left to say about this masterpiece of classic fantasy that hasn’t been said a million times already?

After devouring the light appetizer that is The Hobbit, my teenage imagination was utterly blown away by what I only later understood to be the quintessential blueprint for nearly everything that’s followed throughout the years in this genre.

The sheer level of minute detail and painstakingly developed mythos is nothing short of a masterclass in world-building—a must-have skill for writing this kind of epic tale—but it was the story itself, with its core principles of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice, that resonated so deeply with me.

I love this series of three short novels enough to have read it more times than I can count. The language of the novel is simple and evocative. I love the main character, a young wizard who starts out as proud, angry and arrogant, but becomes deeply compassionate when his hubris leads him to make a tragic and evil use of magic.

I could feel myself grabbed by the world of the novel, a world of men and dragons, of islands dotted in an endless sea, of powerful mages who interfere at their peril with the precarious balance of the world between good and evil. 

All of Robert Heinlein's YA novels are good (better, in my opinion, than his adult novels), but this one has special meaning for me because it was the first book I ever read about colonizing an uninhabited world. At the time it was published in 1950 I was sixteen and had been enthusiastic about the possibility of space travel for four years, since long before the general public was familiar with it; but all the space fiction I knew of was about mere adventure, usually adventure focused on fighting. The idea that families could someday settle a new planet--and, despite danger and hardship, accomplish something of immense importance to the future of humankind--made a strong impression on me and became one of my deepest convictions.

This is the first book in a series for adults that can also be enjoyed by teens. Unlike most space fiction, it's not about heroic exploits but about an ordinary young man coming of age while doing an ordinary job aboard a merchant starship. I like its portrayal of the human-settled part of the universe in the era of travel between stars. No aliens, no space battles–just a culture much like our own offering freedom and opportunity for personal achievement. The specific lifestyle described is anachronistic because cultures change over time; yet it's no further from realism than wildly-imagined changes would be. I believe fiction that shows significant future developments should let readers identify with its characters' experiences rather than depict differences merely for the sake of difference.

Only a real genius of a bard could give justice to the heroes who saved the village city of Skendrick from Dragonia the Dragon. Due to a sudden shortage of geniuses Heloise the Bard, who’s never met a run-on sentence she didn’t like, tells you (mostly) all about herself the battles, the riddles, Heloise, the magic, pooping in swamps, Heloise, the flatulent minotaur… oh yes, the dragon! Almost forgot. And if there’s one thing she knows, it’s that facts will ruin the truth every. Single. Time.

Black’s ‘Friday’ is a song so infinitely horrible it creates a space-inverting portal that makes it an eternal classic. So is this book. Read it with your eyes closed. In hiding. With mushroom powder at hand.

The Pern books spoke to my yearning for deep and unbreakable connections. After all, what teen wouldn’t wish to be chosen by a dragon? But Menolly was a bit like looking in a mirror. Uncomfortable in the surroundings of home and happiest on some path leading away from the expectations of family. Even if that path led to a cave in the wilderness. Actually, for me, especially if that path led to a cave in the wilderness.

The shorelines of Menolly’s world, rocky inlets and coastal cliffs, are not much like the shorelines I’ve explored in Virginia. But the salt marshes? There, every detail is echoed. I’ve read the Pern trilogies multiple times, and this is the book I return to when I’m craving solitude.

The reason I fell in love with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire goes hand in hand with why I love J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. GRRM’s series builds upon the work of his classic contemporary, layering a darker, grittier veil over the genre of epic fantasy. A Dance with Dragons, in my opinion, further builds upon the subject of power and politics as well as duty and honour. The “relativity of evil” is something that particularly stands out in this fifth installment, which is constructed so brilliantly and so effectively, it has completely changed the way I build grey and morally ambiguous characters. Its soft magic system, featuring things such as “greensight”, “shadow-binding” and “face-changing” is one of my favourite magic systems in ages.

Adventure Quest, and Artix Entertainment’s games as a whole, were a formative part of my childhood and play a big role in what I write now. When I found out that a novel was made in that series, I had to check it out. Set in Adventure Quest, this novel follows the tale of a character who loses his home to a dragon attack, and sets out on a quest to find the dragon in question, while learning how to wield the magic that he is capable of using. It puts a fun spin on an old kind of story if you ask me!

A deep dive into a new kind of anti-heroin. The first book in the Gyenona's Children duology delivers readers into a new kind of dark fantasy world that has enough to feel familiar yet is innovative and fresh. Any fans of fiction that is brutal and bloody as well as features strong minority demographic representation will enjoy this book as well as Hutson’s work as a whole.

A group of dragons is desperate for a break from their day-to-day, pondering where they could go for a vacation. Should they go to the clouds? To a waterfall? To the ocean?

This book is just bursting with colorful characters and every kind of dragon there is. Told in verse, this is wonderful for a read-aloud at circle time. The art is cute and very appealing, and it is definitely one of my favorite dragon books to share with the kids in my class.