Dragon Companion Fantasy Books

The dragon companion trope is one of fantasy's most enduring fantasies. A protagonist bonded to a dragon — for life, mind to mind, with one of the most powerful creatures in any conceivable cosmology — gets to be part of something both intimate and immense. The bond does the emotional work of a love story, a friendship, and a found family all at once. Readers come for the wings and stay for the relationship.

Dragon companion fantasy runs from middle-grade adventure to YA dragon rider academies to adult military and romantasy series with significant heat and violence. Content levels swing hard depending on the corner of the trope. If you want gentle dragon-and-rider bonding, you'll find it; if you want bonded dragons hauling their riders into wars that hurt, that's down there too.

• Iconic mind-bond intimacy
• Aerial action and stakes
• Companion as character
• Wish-fulfillment with weight