Book recommendations: Dragons revisited

When it comes to the topic of dragons in fantasy literature, there's often this feeling of "the stories are told". People mention "Pern" (and probably the Dragonlord-Saga by Joanne Bertin) and a couple of shortstories and consider the topic closed. Truth be told, I'm not a fan of the Pern books, though I'm a fan of dragons -- of the bloodthirsty Western ones à la Fafnir a tad more than of the wise Eastern version. But that's a matter of taste. And action.

Then I realized that in the last few weeks I read two books which both shed a very different - and diametrically opposing - view on the dragons in fantasy literature. Both books are still on my mind after weeks have passed and I'm tempted to reread both of them (and the sequels to the second one); enough to warrant a book recommendation for them!

( Markus Heitz: Die Mächte des Feuers )

( Naomi Novik: His Majesty's Dragon )