Read these 15 epic fantasy series about dragons

13. The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick

Stepping aside from long series, the stand-alone novel The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick takes all the familiar things we know about fantasy and dragons and mixes them up into something fascinating, intriguing and fresh; the story seems as new today as it did when it was published almost 30 years ago.

Jane is a changeling, forced to work as a child laborer in a factory that makes creatures. She lives in is a dark, dystopian fantasy world called Faerie, and the creatures she labors over on the assembly line are half-magical, half-mechanical monsters. When she comes across a dragon, Jane and her new companion decide to make a daring escape.

And that’s just the beginning. The Iron Dragon’s Daughter follows Jane as she grows up, with the dragon Melanchthon an ever-present force that pulls her life this way and that. It’s a dark tale, and Swanwick has gone on the record as saying that he was actively trying to subvert some of the tropes that Tolkien used so well in his work. The result is one of the most unique novels involving a dragon you’ll ever read. But if you read it, be ready for more one than one emotional gut punch.

There are two other novels set in the world of The Iron Dragon’s Daughter: The Dragons of Babel and The Iron Dragon’s Mother. All of them stand alone, so if you don’t want to commit to a long series, these could be perfect.