Review: Dragons of Darkness ed. by Orson Scott Card

Synopsis: Balancing out a previous collection called Dragons of Light, this collection is, as the name suggests, darker. Dragons here are dangerous, evil or deadly, or just - dragons, with not real moral compass other than their own dark natures.

Stories included are as follows:

Filed Teeth by Glen Cook
Vince's Dragon by Ben Bova
The Thermals of August by Edward Bryant
The Dragon's Clubs by Stephen Kimmel
Negwenya by Janet Gluckman
Middle Woman by Byron Walley
The Storm King by Joan D. Vinge
My Bones Waxed Old by Robert Frazier
Soldatenmangel by Victor Milan
Alas, My Love, You Do Me Wrong by James Tucker
Fear of Fly by Lynn Mims
Though All the Mountains Lie Between by Jeffrey A. Carver
The Lady of the Purple Forest by Allan Bruton
A Dragon in the Man by Kevin Christensen
A Plague of Butterflies by Orson Scott Card

Review: This is a wild collection, all over the place as far as theme, feel, tone, and subject. The only connection is the concept of the Dragon, but even that is loose. For example, the dragon in Middle Woman is more like a genie in a bottle, while the Negwenya is an African spirit who is dangers, while dragon of The Lady of the Purple Forest is the classic treasure-hoarding, princess-stealing sort.

Some of these stories are humorous and amusing, but most are darker and horror-toned; In particular, Filed Teeth and Alas, My Love, You Do Me Wrong. They also span genres. Many are fantasy or dark-fantasy, but at least three were science fiction, and several had the fairy tale or folk tale formula.

This anthology is a fine edition of any collection of Dragon stories. While I did not enjoy all of them, I recognized them for being excellent examples of short stories and fine example of dragon mythos. 

Bookmarks: 3.5 / 5

Awards: None

ISBN: 0-441-16664-4
Year Published: 1981
Date Finished: 7-31-2018
Pages: 286