History OurDragonsAreDifferent / Literature

* In G. Derek Adams's ''Asteroid made of Dragons'', {{Precursors}} had banished an army of malevolent dragons into a {{Magitek}} spaceship known as the "Shame" where they were held in stasis. An evil cult of dragon worshippers was able to awaken one of the dragons. This dragon, "The Messenger", would survive by absorbing the life-force of other dragons until it could pilot the Shame back to the homeworld. The Messenger could breathe out a magical blast that was a combination of all the various BreathWeapon from dragons he fed on. Additionally all the dragons are telepathic.

* The Korean fantasy series ''The Bird that Drinks Tears'' has dragons as ''plant-based'' - they're the roots of a flower. The environment they flower in influences what they become: dragons surrounded by horses can become horse-like, whereas ones in the sea gain webbed feet. They also can shift into a humanoid form.

* ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'': In "Red Nails", Valeria and Conan are treed by a dragon that's implied to be a ''[[DinosaursAreDragons Stegosaurus]]''.
* In ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'', a propane-fueled dragon on roller skates is used to burn down the walls of Minas Troney.

* Creator/ENesbit's "The Dragon Tamers" includes a Western style dragon covered nose to tail in rusty armor plating; after a set of adventures (including a fight with a giant), he ends up befriending the blacksmith's son and the other children in the village, after which the armor falls off and the dragon turns out to be the world's first cat. [[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700681h.html Check it out here]].

* ''Dragons Can Only Rust'' and ''Dragon Reforged'' by Chrys Cymri are about a robot dragon on a quest to learn [[DoAndroidsDream whether or not he has a soul.]]

* ''Literature/DragonsWinter'' and ''Dragon's Treasure'' feature were-dragons who are born human (mostly) and ascend into their powers as adults with the aid of a personal talisman. They can't transform without the talisman, but ''can'' summon fire. They're rare nowadays, and considered lords over the other [[VoluntaryShapeshifter shapeshifters]]. They also tend towards violent, short lives with a hint of madness in their veins.
* ''Dragon Temple Saga'' is set in a Southeast Asia-like world and dragons are like overgrown monitor lizards and are seen as sacred beasts (when they're not crippled and used as beast of burden). A squicky aspect of the series is that venom from these dragons is a hallucinogenic, narcotic aphrodisiac and [[spoiler:many of the women in the books end up getting oral sex from the dragons and go into orgasm frenzies]].

* Creator/LordDunsany: In ''The Fortress Unvanquishable Save for Sacnoth'', the dragon Tharagavverug is unique. He is a NighInvulnerable dragon-crocodile that has hide of steel on all over its body while the underbelly is made of iron. It's spine is a strip of unearthly steel that can be made into the unrivalled sword Sacnoth. Tharagavverug's only weak spot is a nose made of lead. Tharagavverug is slain when the warrior prince Leothric keeps poking its nose and kept it from eating for 3 days which causes the dragon to starve to death. After death, its eyes still work and one was mounted on Sacnoth to give its wielder warning against danger.

* In David Barnett's ''Gideon Smith'' novels, Apep is clockwork dragon made from brass. It's a {{Magitek}} ultimate weapon from ancient Egypt made under the historical Akhenaten's bidding. Apep's brass body makes it resistant to most weapons in the British army, it can fly at 100 miles per hour (and likely can exceed that speed), and it does not appear to have an upper limit to the height it can fly. It has an unlimited supply of fireballs that are 1949 Celsius and never diminish in intensity until they strike their target. The British would dearly love to copy and mass produce Apep, but they can't replicate the supernatural forces that power it.

* ''[[Literature/HomecomingWalsh Homecoming]]'' has the ''mazor'', one of the three races of Trycanta. They are roughly human-sized and bipedal, with wings and dextrous forelimbs. Females have a different color of scales around their face than on the rest of their body, while males have scales and their wings are further apart. They can use elemental magic like all the races of Trycanta, but they also have the racial gift of Sight: seeing that which is happening a long way off or with a more powerful gift seeing the past or even the future. They are capable of speech, but find spoken language vulgar and communicate amongs themselves with gestures. Mazor can also assume human form with powerful magic, but a maze in human form will suffer severe leg pains that make it very hard to walk. A maze in human form can cross-breed with humans, the hybrid offspring can assume either form without a dedicated spell.

* Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}: The tirular monster is a giant bipedal dragon with ratlike buck teeth, tendrils on its head, and long hairy fingers. It also has a wastecoat in John Tenniel's illustration.

* James Maxley's "Bitterwood" represents an combination of traditional and quite different draconic designs. While the books have traditional western-style dragons as the ruling sun dragons, there is also the agile, wyvern-like sky dragons, and the anthropomorphic turtle-like earth dragons. These are implied to be [[spoiler: an set of geneticly engineered game-races, which eventually out-hunted humanity over most the world, driving humans into a slave-caste]]

* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'': Western-type dragons in the myths of the world are based on a creature called a Draccus, which is more like a giant iron-scaled, fire-breathing, herbivorous lizard-cow. The iron comes from the absorption of minerals into the draccus's body from ground up gizzard stones, and the fire is caused by a buildup of methane gas that the draccus ignites as a mating display. They are normally harmless, though [[spoiler: the one in the book isn't because it went crazy after swallowing some narcotic trees.]] (ItMakesSenseInContext)

** ''Dragon Magic'' has only two actual dragons, featured in different short stories: Fafnir (see Myth/NorseMythology below) and sirrush-lau (a swamp monster captured by the men of Meroe). The latter is nocturnal, has to be kept in water, and eats only plants (although it kills in a scary way when startled or angry).
** ''Quag Keep'' is a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' novel set in the world of Greyhawk; the Golden Dragon Lichis appears briefly, acting as a consultant to the adventurer protagonists.

**

* The dragons in Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/TheTaleOfTheFive'' are essentially highly intelligent immigrants from outer space, having left their dying homeworld for greener pastures long ago (and apparently under their own power rather than via ships). They also practice a form of racial immortality by letting the spirits of their departed coinhabit the bodies of the living -- which is a major plot point in ''The Door into Shadow'' when [[spoiler:a dying dragon ''and all his ancestors'' end up in the body of the main human protagonist]].
* ''Literature/TeaWithTheBlackDragon'' by Creator/RAMacAvoy: He's a 2,000 year old Chinese Black Dragon who, after a discussion with a holy man in Taipei, finds himself in the body of an old human. He forms a relationship with a middle-aged woman and becomes involved in her search for her daughter. By the way, don't let the fact that he doesn't have wings or scales fool you. There's no "crouching moron" but there is certainly a "hidden badass!"
* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' involves an AlternateHistory version of the Napoleanic Wars in which Western dragons are real and have been domesticated since Roman times. Also contains variations on East and West, in that many Chinese dragons are shown to be markedly more powerful than their Western counterparts -- it's hinted that modern dragon breeding techniques originated in China -- and are treated as citizens equal to humans. The ''really'' valuable dragons, of course, are the rarest; the elite class, the Chinese-bred Celestials [[spoiler:which the title dragon is discovered to be]], can't even breed true.

* Jack Kent's Literature/TheresNoSuchThingAsADragon children's book, has a small boy called Billy wake up one morning to find a cute little dragon, the size of a cat, in his room. He shows his new pet to his mother, but [[FlatEarthAtheist she and no one else wants to believe it]]. In response to being ignored, the dragon [[BigEater starts eating everything]] and keeps growing and growing [[SizeShifter until it's so massive]] it's wearing their house [[{{Kaiju}} like an item of clothing]]. Eventually [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom Billy's mother and everyone is forced to notice it]]. The dragon happily shrinks back down to cat-size.

* ''Literature/ThereIsNoEpicLootHereOnlyPuns'': They've been mentioned a few times in passing, like in the second chapter, [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns-dungeon.590739/post-41665593 "Take off"]], where it's described as "big fire lizard", and from there Delta extrapolates that [[TheDragonslayer dragon-slayers]] exist. Another mention is in [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns-dungeon.590739/post-44138327 "Interlude: Cheesecake"]].

* ''Literature/TalesFromVerania'': Dragons are created from magic whenever the gods/universe senses that one should exist. There are five in Verania, and they have no uniform physical appearance. One is a bat-winged snake, two are feathered quadropeds, and two are more akin to the standard western dragon. The eldest and most powerful of the five isreffered to as being a PhysicalGod as old as the planet itself.

** Dragons are (mostly) emotionless, overly logical geniuses that can transform into humans and interbreed with them. The title character herself is half-human, half-dragon. Because of the perceived negative effects of intense human emotions, an group called the Censors monitor dragons living as humans and cut out their memories if they become too emotional.
** Quigutl are a much smaller subspecies of dragon. They are scavengers, and rather more emotionally volatile than full-sized dragons. They have a cylindrical tongue out of which they can shoot a controlled jet of flame that works like a welding torch. This means most Quigutl are [[GadgeteerGenius highly gifted and inventive artisans]]. All Quigutl are intersex and actually undergo several sex changes throughout their lifetimes. For various reasons, Quigutl are mistrusted and marginalized by both full-size dragons and humans.

** There's one final category of dragons that only gets the briefest of mention in the Legendarium; Stone Dragons, created by the Valar to guard the Doors of Night, a portal which leads out into the void where [[PredecessorVillain Morgoth]] is imprisoned. The dragons are described as being carved from black stone and have black smoke leaking from their jaws. It's ambiguous whether or not these things are alive or if they're just statues but it's vague enough to warrant mentioning.

* ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'': There's only one dragon, a female, who's all that's left after the two males killed each other during their first mating season. The dragon in that series is stupid, animalistic and has burning blood, but besides the blood is more of a shot at the Smaug-dragons of the twentieth century.

** There are three kinds of dragons in Middle-earth -- fire drakes or Urulóki, which can breathe fire; winged fire drakes, like Smaug; and cold drakes, which can neither fly nor breathe fire. All dragons are descended from the ancient fire drake Glaurung, whose origin is never totally revealed, save that it's connected to Morgoth. All the dragons seen on page are evil and also highly intelligent and magically powerful, to the extent that they might be said to have MagnificentBastard as their [[PlanetOfHats hat]]. Glaurung and Smaug are especially intelligent. Glaurung is also described as having hypnotic eyes and is accompanied by a great stench. No other dragons are described as having these qualities (though Smaug is hinted at having them; specifically, he's implied to leave a lingering odor behind, his soft belly had become encrusted with melted treasure which may partly mask his scent, and Bilbo mentions not wanting to get caught in his gaze, even if he is invisible).

* Jack Kent's ''There's No Such Thing as a Dragon'' children's book, has a small boy called Billy wake up one morning to find a cute little dragon, the size of a cat, in his room. He shows his new pet to his mother, but she and no one else wants to believe it. In response, the dragon [[BigEater starts eating everything]] and keeps growing and growing [[SizeShifter until it's so massive]] it's wearing their house [[{{Kaiju}} like an item of clothing]]. Eventually [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom Billy's mother and everyone is forced to notice it]]. The dragon happily shrinks back down to cat-size.

* ''Literature/AMemoryOfFlames'': In Stephen Deas' universe, dragons are at least fifty feet tall -- being either the smaller but agile Hunting Dragon or the far more powerful War Dragon which are twice that size. They were apparently created by magic, don't need to breathe, are capable of mind-raping humans, have immortal souls that [[ResurrectiveImmortality simply recycle bodies]] (which burst into flame when they die), are highly anti-magical and think of humans as nothing more than amusing food. Did we mention they used to rule the world? Did we mention that humans have been keeping them as pets? And it turns out, [[spoiler: the dragons are actually half-gods who were victims of a BalefulPolymorph by one of their ambitious brothers.]]

* ''Literature/TheCosmere'': Creator/BrandonSanderson is very fond of dragons - they are the only "classic" fantasy species which exists within his SharedUniverse, though he still puts a somewhat unique spin on them. Within the Cosmere, dragons are an ancient, sentient species originating from the same world as humanity and the Cosmere's CreatorDeity, Adonalsium, a now desolate world named Yolen. They are ageless creatures that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, not least due to being potent shapeshifters and sorcerers. Their true form is a fairly standard Occidental design - reptillian body, large leathery wings and horns - though they can grow manes and beards akin to those of Oriental longs. Most notably, their bodies are always covered in [[FantasyMetals dragonsteel]], a mysterious, silvery metal of currently unknown properties and immense value to collectors of the arcane. The dragons introducedin the various books tend towards isolationism and neutrality, content to leave mankindand other races to their own devices in pursuit of their own, often nebulous goals - however, whenever they do take an interest in current affairs, they invariably become highly important players in their own right.

* ''Literature/DragonFall'' has the dragons designed as bipedal in order to make them more relatable.