Here be Dragons...

Without going too much into what my job involves, my mind does wander an awful lot at work and more often than not it’s about what I’m currently reading. More often than not I’m reading fantasy! A few weeks ago I posted something about how I’d like to see more elves and dwarves in fantasy literature, I miss those guys… I mentioned this on a few forums and a lot of people said that if they never saw another elf or dwarf it would be too soon! A lot people also told me that I wasn’t reading the right books, fair point guys ;o) The discussion, along with some other threads, became one about how certain fantasy clichés have been done to death in the genre, I agree with some points but not with others. As a matter of personal taste, I like elves and dwarves but only really if the author at least tries to do something different with them. However, if I see one more prince who has been raised in secret as a farmboy then I will probably gut him with his own ‘magic sword of destiny’ ™…
There’s a lot of fantasy cliché out there a lot of which is trite and shoe-horned into a book in order to sell more copies, a lot of us realise this and try and be a bit more discerning when we buy our books. Unless I’ve missed something though, there’s one fantasy staple that I haven’t seen anyone moan about… yet. I’m talking about dragons.
Dragons have been around just as long as any of the other fantasy stereotypes (if not longer) but we don’t seem to mind if one or more turn up in the book we’re reading. Martin’s got them but only three at the moment. Erikson seems to have hundreds and will quite happily squeeze a few more in at the drop of a hat. R. Scott Bakker has at least one who’s a real nasty piece of work and Naomi Novik, well… I don’t really need to say anymore do I? The list goes on (Williams, Hobb and Barclay for starters) and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the newer, genre re-defining, authors out there sneak a few dragons into their books as well.
So what is it about dragons that we like so much (if we all do, tell me if I’m wrong)? For me it’s that the action (and story) will always kick up about three notches if a dragon gets involved. I mean, it has to as dragons are just so big and powerful, things just happen! Being at the top of the food chain also lends dragons an arrogance that I find compelling, especially in the ones that can talk. Despite some great fantasy out there with no dragons in it, I’ll always have a soft spot for anything that involves one of these big scaly monsters…
What about you though? Do you like to see dragons in fantasy or are they just another over-used cliché? Or have you taken a wrong turn somewhere and are wondering why this blog doesn’t have Dan Brown in it? (Hint: Try Google!)