I love reading books about dragons, but now that I am older I find it hard to find good ones that are not in young adult or childrens. I love dragon books where the dragons are the good guys. No killing dragons off.

I have read the Dragons of Pearn, Mercedes Lackey. But I can't find any more.

Does any one have any suggestions?

Hm...

You know, I never realized until just now how many young adult dragon series there are and how few adult.

One that has been mentioned around here a lot lately but that I haven't read yet is Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton.  In that one, there aren't any humans, from what I understand.  All of society is dragons.

I haven't read it, but there's His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik.  It's an alternative history where they use dragons as an air force during the Napoleonic Wars.

Irene Radford and Melanie Rawn each wrote a series about dragons, though I know nothing about them. 

I'm sure I've read others, but any I can think of at the moment are all YA, Lackey, or Pern.

Chris Bunch wrote the DragonMaster trilogy.  I think the first book is Storm of Wings -alternate world dragons are used as intelligent mounts in  war -people bond with them.   Gordon Dickson wrote a mess of books about dragons.  The older ones were written with a bit with more care than the newer -It seems to me.  The first one is The Dragon and the George -a girl is sort of kidnapped out of our world and her boyfriend goes to get her -ends up sharing a dragons body  in a parallel medieval world with magic & dragons.  Steven Brust has a series of books that involve a small lizard dragon thing.  They are Jehreg (spelling I don't have the book here) and go on from there.  The guy is an assassin and he has a lizardy type conpanion that he can talk to telepathically.  Don't know if that counts.  And there's one series with a book in it called Pigs Don't Fly -it involves dragons-  by Mary Brown.  I think that's the second book.

I second the suggestion of Naomi Novik.  Her Temeraire books are exactly what you asked for.

You might also want to take a look at Robin Hobb's new novel, The Dragon Keeper.

Second Tooth and Claw, though it's not as much about dragons as the others -- it's an ingenius play on a Victorian comedy of manners like Jane Austen's works, where Victorian mores are dictated by dragon biology. But it really is fantastic.

 

I also would third Naomi Novik. . . the Temeraire books started to pall for me (I've only read the first three because I lost interest) but the first one is fresh and enjoyable. It's Horatio Hornblower where the ships are dragons -- and the nautical lingo is pretty funny. They're kind of lightweight, but not geared towards juveniles like most dragon books are.

 

Naamah's Kiss, by Jacqueline Carey, isn't a dragon book per se, but there is a dragon character that plays a fairly large role in the second half of the novel, and that dragon may or may not be around for the next two books in the trilogy. It's technically the seventh in her major series, but it's a good jumping on point for people who haven't read the other six, because the plot is completely unrelated to the books that have come before. It does have adult content however -- there's quite a bit of sex, because the main religious tenet of Carey's fantasy country is to "love as thou wilt." But I really think Carey is one of the finest writers of high fantasy out there today.

 

You could also try Carol Berg's Song of the Beast -- it was a little forgettable, but I enjoyed it at the time. It combines both dragons and music and a motif, something I have always enjoyed. :)

 

And that's about all that I've read. . .

Dragon's Bones and Dragon's Blood by Patty Briggs.

Bones #1

Blood #2

I've read the novik books, and did not care for the writing style at all. Thank you though :)

Sarah A Hoyt has dragons.

G A Aiken has a very funny dragon family.  Definitely not G rated.

Robin McKinley has several dragons.  While her books are often catagorized as YA, she is wonderful.

Another wonderful YA dragon book is Jane Lindskold's Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls

Tea with the Black Dragon by R A MacAvoy

McKinley's major dragon book (Dragonhaven) is my least favorite of all her books. . . while I admired the technical skill, I had no desire to be totally immersed into the mindset of a teenage boy. And in her other books, the dragons are evil. . . but for non-dragon books I love her dearly! I would definitely recommend her, despite the YA packaging, to most lovers of fantasy.

Yeah, I have read all of Robin McKinley's books. I love her.

Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy is one of my all-time favorite books, although it may not be the kind of dragon book you're thinking of.  The sequel was disappointing, though.  MacAvoy's third book in the excellent Damiano trilogy, Raphael,  features the same dragon as a secondary character, centuries before the Tea with the Black Dragon.

I too loved Tea with Black Dragon.  I have the sequel here and I've tried to read it a few times and haven't gotten too far.  I keep hoping I'll be in the right mood to enjoy it  of these days.  I didn't know that Damiano trilogy had the black dragon in it.  I just gave it away to operation paperback without reading it *dang* I kept the lens of the world trilogy.  Have you read that one?  what did you think?

Allyson James has a Dragon series, definitely not YA, love the chocolate scenes, LOL  Dragon Heat, Black Dragon and Dragon Master.

Deborah Cooke has a dragon series, the Pyre are a race of dragons that were created to protect the treasures of the earth, and humans are one of those treasures.  Some dragons don't agree with it and have turned, becoming Slayers, who attack and kill the Pyre and humans.

Each book is about a member of the Pyrehis finding his mate.  Kiss of Fire, Kiss of Fury, Kiss of Fate, Winter Kiss, Whisper Kiss is next in the series. 

In a series by Angela Knight (paranormal) it has a different take on King Arthur.  Knight's of the Round Table drank from a Grail, but what Merlin had in it  was a potion that made the men (knights) turn into vampires and the women into magi.  Their job, to protect mankind from itself.  Arthur and the knights now live in the Mageverse world, where magic is easily acquired.  There the mage see visions where the knights need to go to help humanity.  Definitely not for young adults.  It has fae and weres as mainly good guys and demons and some vamps as bad guys.   In it and the Fae's god is a dragon who gave the fae immortality.  You will meet that dragon in the book Master of the Moon.    In Master of Swords you meet Kel, a dragon imprisoned in a sword and in Master of Dragons he has his own story. 

Check in the paranormal forum and you may find lots of suggestions for dragons.  I know that in the Paranormal community dragons has been a topic several times; you could go there and do a search.   

Hope that helps

Janette

Age of Fire Series by E.E. Knight is pretty good where a Dragon in the main character. I've only read the first book so far though..

Age of Fire is a good series - it follows the surviving siblings of a clutch of dragon eggs (one each per book) as they make their way in a land in which dragons are few & feared. I loved the first book, second was OK, third/fourth I haven't gotten to!

Yeah I read the Age Of Fire series... I stopped though at the second cause it wasn't good.. the books had potential I just don't like the author's writing style.

Someone mentioned Robin Hobb's new series, but also her Liveship Traders trilogy has dragons.  Another series to try is the Dragonkeeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul.  And I know I read about a recently released or soon to be released book about dragons, but I can't remember what the title was.  If I find it, I'll come back and post.

This has a guy and his girl going into an alternate dimension where magic works.  He shows up there as a Dragon.  He befriends a couple of dragons along the way to rescuing his girlfriend.  He ultimately is able to turn himself back into a human but retains the ability to turn himself into a dragon.  Several books in the series.  Lots of fun, especially dealing with the "Accounting Office" since magic isn't free.

>>> I kept the lens of the world trilogy.  Have you read that one?  what did you think?

I tried reading it several times, because I love most of R.A MacAvoy's books, but just couldn't get into it.

Some of my favorites of hers (in addition to Tea with the Black Dragon) are The Book of Kells (time portal to ancient Ireland) and The Grey Horse (story of a puka who falls for a human woman).

The Age of Fire series will finish with Book 6.  Five are out now.  He has a very unsentimental approach to dragons and it really does not sit well with many readers.  That series definitely does not show characters and dragons as "romantic" (not in the genre romantic but a romantic rose-colored glasses sort of romantic).  The POV is from each of the 3 dragons' POV.  And in the first 3 books each book is about one dragon.  I have books 4 and 5, but now I wait until the last one is out before I finish these.  They definitely show dragons as carnivores who don't see the point in not eating dead people or dragons - they see that it is a waste of a good dinner to not eat them.

Ruth

Not sure if it's YA or Adult but I really enjoyed the Dragon Quartet by Marjorie Kellogg

The Book of Earth
The Book of Water
The Book of Fire
The Book of Air

George RR Martin's "Song of Ice & Fire" series is pretty good, and has both strong female characters and great dragon lore in it.  A bit long-winded though - if you're not up for some seriously thick books, you might not want to start there.  Plus, he has a habit of killing off mass amounts of main characters without warning.  Keeps you on your toes, I guess.

For lighter reading, try Sarah Ash's "Tears of Artemon" trilogy...dragons, half-dragon like humanoids, song magic, hyper-intelligent owls - lots of good stuff there.

Here's a couple opening books in series that are about dragons:

• Bitterwood by James Maxey.
• Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

Lords of the Sky by Angus Wells , one of my favorite fantasy authors. Lords is a stand alone novel and a top ten book on my list.

Have you considered Irene Radford?  I know she has a couple of interconnected trilogies:  the Dragon Nimbus trilogy, the Dragon Nimbus History trilogy, and the Stargods trilogy.  

Also, Graham Edwards' Ultimate Dragon Saga (cheesy name for the trilogy, but I've read the first one, and it wasn't too shabby) might be worth checking out if you haven't already.