I've exhausted my current reading list, (mostly because I can't stand Sarah J Maas) and I'm looking for some unconventional fantasy-even if it's the magic system or political system, I need something different from mainstream fantasy.
I just finished reading The Priory of the Orange Tree (all three books in published order), and I've recently been reading some sci fi (trying to get into it-its not working) but I'm a sucker for dragons and romance.
Any suggestions are welcome!
by DragonParty67
8 Comments
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Swanwick
Unconventional fantasy with dragon romance, you say?
*In the Vanishers’ Palace* by Aliette de Bodard
The Incryptid series by Seanan McGuire is great. The first book is Discount Armageddon. It’s an urban fantasy series that has dragons but done in a unique way. The series is broken into duologies and trilogies based on characters. I will say it’s more of a humorous series than you might be looking for.
This Princess Kills Monsters. Mages of the Wheel.
The Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews is urban romantasy. Not my usual genre and I rated them all a rare 5-stars last year. The first one is Burn For Me.
Have you tried Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series? Dragons in the Napoleonic Wars
Marie Brennan’s *Lady Trent Memoirs* are about a naturalist studying dragons in a world not altogether unlike ours in the late 19th century
I would venture to suggest that Rachel Aaron’s *Heartstrikers* series is pretty unconventional, being a cyberpunk dragon wizard romance.
Anne McCaffery’s *Dragonriders of Pern* has got dragons, intermittent romance, and is sci-fi too!
Jane Yolen has sci-fi dragons in her *Pit Dragon* series, and of course Timothy Zahn’s *Dragonback*, where an alien dragon symbiote teams up with a tramp freighter operator to save their species
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is quite unconventional and a bit steampunk. Magical alternate history, in a North America colonized by Vikings. Protagonist is Indigenous. Very fun!
Masks Worn By Magical Wives by Hiyodori – this is a surreal and whimsical sapphic fantasy romance that I found very compelling. It’s has layers I never expected that kept revealing themselves up until the end.
Witch King by Martha Wells – a very unique magic system and hero, in unity and strange setting.