The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy

Editorial Reviews Cecelia Holland weighs in with a heroine reminiscent of Scheherazade, but here, it's a dragon demanding the stories. In Jonathan Stroud's "Bob Choi's Last Job," a dragon hunter comes up against a voracious shape-shifter. Liz Williams offers a mannered story in which a mage, summoned to vanquish a worm, encounters the unexpected. Nix depicts a radioactive man/dragon. In case you're wondering what a police officer is to do when a large dragon plops down in a busy Oakland intersection, Peter S. Beagle has the answer. Tad Williams' dragon tells her children the story of how in days of yore, when dragon-slayers existed, a "stark and wormy knight" came to slay her ancestor and rescue a damsel. All in all, an enticing collection for genre fans. --Sally Estes Product DescriptionNever before published stories by New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Stroud, Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Diana Gabaldon, and others.Whether portrayed as fire-breathing reptilian beasts at war with humanity or as noble creatures capable of speech and mystically bonded to the warriors who ride them, dragons have been found in nearly every culture's mythology. In modern times, they can be found far from their medieval settings in locales as mundane as suburbia or as barren as post-apocalyptic landscapes-and in The Dragon Book, today's greatest fantasists reignite the fire with legendary tales that will consume readers' imaginations. With original stories by New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Stroud, Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Diana Gabaldon, Tamora Pierce, Harry Turtledove, Sean Williams, and Tad Williams as well as tales by Naomi Novik, Peter Beagle, Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, Cecelia Holland, Kage Baker, Samuel Sykes, Diana Wynne Jones, Mary Rosenblum, Tanith Lee, Andy Duncan, and Bruce Coville.