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Mating Flight #1
Mating Flight: A Non-Romance of Dragons
It's finally time for Jyothky and eight other misfit adolescent dragons to go off to an unexplored, dragon-free universe and decide who will marry whom. They're astral dragons, mighty and arrogant, with devastating breath weapons and vast magical powers, and they're not even there to conquer the place. What kind of trouble could the natives possibly be — even civilized and technologically sophisticated natives? Or the mind-controlling parasite worms, or the undead god, or any of Hove's other surprises?…Maybe quite a lot of trouble, but not as much as they will bring upon themselves.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 4, 2015
15 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 4, 2022
Mating Flight is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, in the best possible way. The book and its sequel (which read more a single book split into two) are about powerful dragons competing with each other in order to choose who marries whom, a competition lasting the course of a duodecade (12 years). However, they quickly find that they have too much time on their claws, and decide to “explore” with the alien world their competition takes place on, often at the expense of the native residents. A quick warning that though there’s nothing resembling erotica or smut in the book (the main character doesn’t have any sense of touch), it doesn’t hold back in giving descriptions of the unusual ways dragons mate!
Bard Bloom is excellent at writing strange cultures and species which manage to both be relatable while alien, and the astral dragons of Mating Flight might be best described as eldritch. Even the adolescents of the species are more powerful than even gods, world-conquerers seeing themselves far above “small people.” However, their extreme powers and additional senses, both interesting and creative, don’t detract from the suspense of the book, instead adding to it. It’s quickly apparent that not all problems can be solved with astral magic, and it often times creates more issues than it solves.
Mating Flight isn’t an epic adventure, but it’s fun and silly, Bloom’s humor and writing style making the book a relaxing read. It’s interesting to see how the dragons explore the alien world they’ve landed on, with plenty of misunderstandings and new experiences for them. The voice of the narrator and main character, Jyothky, is very strongly present and provides a lot to the book.
The books are a good work of xenofiction, the characters providing a decidedly non-human point of view with different morals, culture, and biology than humans. These aren’t your peaceful and good dragons, and many of their actions can be seen as outright evil from a human point of view. Even with the large (and somewhat confusingly named cast), Bard Bloom makes the characters distinct and enjoyable, their interactions with each other both dramatic and wholesome at points.
It should be noted that the main character begins the book as homophobic, which might turn some readers off — the book (the author of it non-binary) itself denounces this as bad, and much of the character development is devoted to how they question the norms and ethics they had been raised in.
I found that the second book was a bit less enjoyable than the first and didn’t have quite so much of the same charm, though the conclusion to the duology was holistic and extremely satisfying with the development the characters went through. The pacing of it was somewhat strange with the time-skips needed for the books to span the full 12 years of the mating flight.
Altogether, I would recommend Mating Flight to any dragon lovers who want to see a very different take on dragons than any other book they’ve seen before. The book combines powerful dragons doing whatever they want while facing the consequence with a humorous slice-of-life (like one of Bloom’s other series, Sythyry’s Journal).
Mating Flight: 5/5
World in My Claws: 4.5/5
Bard Bloom is excellent at writing strange cultures and species which manage to both be relatable while alien, and the astral dragons of Mating Flight might be best described as eldritch. Even the adolescents of the species are more powerful than even gods, world-conquerers seeing themselves far above “small people.” However, their extreme powers and additional senses, both interesting and creative, don’t detract from the suspense of the book, instead adding to it. It’s quickly apparent that not all problems can be solved with astral magic, and it often times creates more issues than it solves.
Mating Flight isn’t an epic adventure, but it’s fun and silly, Bloom’s humor and writing style making the book a relaxing read. It’s interesting to see how the dragons explore the alien world they’ve landed on, with plenty of misunderstandings and new experiences for them. The voice of the narrator and main character, Jyothky, is very strongly present and provides a lot to the book.
The books are a good work of xenofiction, the characters providing a decidedly non-human point of view with different morals, culture, and biology than humans. These aren’t your peaceful and good dragons, and many of their actions can be seen as outright evil from a human point of view. Even with the large (and somewhat confusingly named cast), Bard Bloom makes the characters distinct and enjoyable, their interactions with each other both dramatic and wholesome at points.
It should be noted that the main character begins the book as homophobic, which might turn some readers off — the book (the author of it non-binary) itself denounces this as bad, and much of the character development is devoted to how they question the norms and ethics they had been raised in.
I found that the second book was a bit less enjoyable than the first and didn’t have quite so much of the same charm, though the conclusion to the duology was holistic and extremely satisfying with the development the characters went through. The pacing of it was somewhat strange with the time-skips needed for the books to span the full 12 years of the mating flight.
Altogether, I would recommend Mating Flight to any dragon lovers who want to see a very different take on dragons than any other book they’ve seen before. The book combines powerful dragons doing whatever they want while facing the consequence with a humorous slice-of-life (like one of Bloom’s other series, Sythyry’s Journal).
Mating Flight: 5/5
World in My Claws: 4.5/5
March 21, 2022
Hilariously weird or weirdly hilarious? I don´t know, but it was fun read with lot of humour.
August 11, 2017
[Note: I am a long-time fan of Bard's work and was a beta reader on this project.]
The Mating Flight duology is my favorite of Bard Bloom's published works to date.
Bard's dragons are creatures of breathtaking power and vast talents. They are also rife with ordinary, petty problems as they struggle to cope with their greatest allies and enemies: one another. Their culture is both alien and perfectly understandable from their perspective. Jyothky makes a splendid guide to this culture, despite -- or perhaps because -- she is frequently blind to its faults. When the book opens, Jyothky is a whiny, self-involved youth whose concerns revolve almost entirely around how she is perceived by her peers. Her growth from this point is slow and fitful and delightfully plausible.
The early part of the book is engaging, as Bard sets the stage for "how a mating flight is supposed to go". The need for this context won't become clear until later, as Jyothky's own mating flight goes off the rails in ways she could not even imagine at the start. And then gets further and further from the "normal" course as the story unfolds. While I enjoyed the scene-setting as well, I especially like the later part of the book and its sequel, as Jyothky and her fiancés are forced to grow and consider what they truly want for their lives, and what kind of dragons they want to be.
I also adore the themes of the book. Jyothky is a dragoness wielding immense personal power: she can melt mountains, casually shrug off the effects of heavy weaponry, destroy weapons of mass destruction, heal herself and others of mortal wounds, and far more. Yet for all this, she is also crippled: she has no sense of touch. The spells that tell her when she's been damaged are no subsitute for a sense of pain, or for feeling warmth, cold, a caress, a hug, or anything else. Neither her power nor her disability are downplayed in the story, even though she takes the former for granted and whinges frequently about the latter. The book explores how vast power may not be sufficient to achieve personal goals, and for that matter that getting what you want might be one of the worst outcomes. One sees the devastation wrought by overconfidence and carelessness, and how people of all kinds can do terrible things in the name of pride. Everything that happens in this book follows sensibly from the choices characters make, from their worst blunders to their greatest triumphs. (Arguably the same event, in certain cases.)
I love this duology. Go. Buy it. Encourage Bard Bloom to write more.
The Mating Flight duology is my favorite of Bard Bloom's published works to date.
Bard's dragons are creatures of breathtaking power and vast talents. They are also rife with ordinary, petty problems as they struggle to cope with their greatest allies and enemies: one another. Their culture is both alien and perfectly understandable from their perspective. Jyothky makes a splendid guide to this culture, despite -- or perhaps because -- she is frequently blind to its faults. When the book opens, Jyothky is a whiny, self-involved youth whose concerns revolve almost entirely around how she is perceived by her peers. Her growth from this point is slow and fitful and delightfully plausible.
The early part of the book is engaging, as Bard sets the stage for "how a mating flight is supposed to go". The need for this context won't become clear until later, as Jyothky's own mating flight goes off the rails in ways she could not even imagine at the start. And then gets further and further from the "normal" course as the story unfolds. While I enjoyed the scene-setting as well, I especially like the later part of the book and its sequel, as Jyothky and her fiancés are forced to grow and consider what they truly want for their lives, and what kind of dragons they want to be.
I also adore the themes of the book. Jyothky is a dragoness wielding immense personal power: she can melt mountains, casually shrug off the effects of heavy weaponry, destroy weapons of mass destruction, heal herself and others of mortal wounds, and far more. Yet for all this, she is also crippled: she has no sense of touch. The spells that tell her when she's been damaged are no subsitute for a sense of pain, or for feeling warmth, cold, a caress, a hug, or anything else. Neither her power nor her disability are downplayed in the story, even though she takes the former for granted and whinges frequently about the latter. The book explores how vast power may not be sufficient to achieve personal goals, and for that matter that getting what you want might be one of the worst outcomes. One sees the devastation wrought by overconfidence and carelessness, and how people of all kinds can do terrible things in the name of pride. Everything that happens in this book follows sensibly from the choices characters make, from their worst blunders to their greatest triumphs. (Arguably the same event, in certain cases.)
I love this duology. Go. Buy it. Encourage Bard Bloom to write more.
May 13, 2023
The extravagantly hilarious adventures of an unlikely gang of young dragons touring (wrecking ?) an unsuspecting (doomed ?) world. The whole is spiced with their witty bickering as they sort out their sentimental (or much less sentimental) issues in manners both hilarious and outrageous. Epic battles (or not so epic, ok, sometimes plain lousy), petty revenges, street neurosurgery... you'll get that and much more besides.
As for the style, the reader is immersed in the perception and world of the narrator in the style of a diary which lets one figure out a few things things as they go.
Also, if you had not been guessing, everything you wanted to know about dragon intimate physiology and customs, without ever daring to ask. Duh... maybe one was better off ignoring a few things, well, too late ! Some stuff cannot be unlearnt :-)
As for the style, the reader is immersed in the perception and world of the narrator in the style of a diary which lets one figure out a few things things as they go.
Also, if you had not been guessing, everything you wanted to know about dragon intimate physiology and customs, without ever daring to ask. Duh... maybe one was better off ignoring a few things, well, too late ! Some stuff cannot be unlearnt :-)
November 11, 2023
En krass, fantasifull och ovanlig bok var detta. Vilken hierarkisk ordning bland drakarna. Där fanns upplyftare individer och nedkrossande individer. Resan till munkplaneten var spännande. Kan inte låta bli att känna sorg för vissa drakar som aldrig lyckades skrapa hem poäng i spelen. Tack för tipset David.
February 19, 2016
This book is very entertaining and it's a page turner reading. I read this book in three days because I didn't manage to put it down. I like the main character, a fiery tempered dragoness and all the witty dialogues and funny situations with the other dragons. I'll be reading the next book to see how this adventure ends.
June 3, 2023
Mating flight was a book that I immediately knew from the start was different from most, it was recommended by many, but was talked about very, very little. I was surprised when a game developer I am acquainted with recommended to me, and I knew then that it was time that I read it
Mating Flight tells the tale of Jyothky (Otherwise known as ‘Spotty’) and a group of misfits who travel to a world free of dragons for their ‘mating flight,’ a period of twelve years where she will compete for the choice of five other dragons to marry. This can only end as well as you might expect. As time goes on, conflicts arise, feelings come to light, adventures are had, and mating occurs combined with a LOT of fighting.
Mating Flight, while sometimes very silly, is a brilliant story that had me hooked from start to finish, with the creative concepts and fun characters, it’s certainly a book I wish was talked about more. If you haven’t read this book, you simply must - If you’re looking for a fantasy story with intense moments and even some romance, All told in the eyes of a dragoness, look no further than Mating Flight. The story is long and it’s worldbuilding is phenomenal, and when you finish, there’s a whole other book to read that goes along with it.
Now on that note, I’m off to order that book on Amazon. The adventures of Jyothky and her dragon fiancé’s are simply too good to miss and I am very happy to have read this book, Bard Bloom’s writing is the stuff of legends. Now with that said…
Good night
Mating Flight tells the tale of Jyothky (Otherwise known as ‘Spotty’) and a group of misfits who travel to a world free of dragons for their ‘mating flight,’ a period of twelve years where she will compete for the choice of five other dragons to marry. This can only end as well as you might expect. As time goes on, conflicts arise, feelings come to light, adventures are had, and mating occurs combined with a LOT of fighting.
Mating Flight, while sometimes very silly, is a brilliant story that had me hooked from start to finish, with the creative concepts and fun characters, it’s certainly a book I wish was talked about more. If you haven’t read this book, you simply must - If you’re looking for a fantasy story with intense moments and even some romance, All told in the eyes of a dragoness, look no further than Mating Flight. The story is long and it’s worldbuilding is phenomenal, and when you finish, there’s a whole other book to read that goes along with it.
Now on that note, I’m off to order that book on Amazon. The adventures of Jyothky and her dragon fiancé’s are simply too good to miss and I am very happy to have read this book, Bard Bloom’s writing is the stuff of legends. Now with that said…
Good night
June 21, 2018
What an odd book. Definitely half of a story. A great deal of in-character homophobia and internalized homophobia, which was hard to read even though it's portrayed as a bad thing. And tons of biological details of dragon sex. I'll never look at the word "cloaca" the same again.
March 27, 2021
The dragons in this book are absolutely eldritch, the characters are fantastic and the humour is on point. I love it
November 20, 2024
Really really engaging take on dragons as other worldy imperialists. I loved out main character, and was totally invested in her coming-of-age drama.
Read
May 23, 2025What an odd book! It was pretty dryly funny, especially in the second half, but getting there was a bit of a slog. Still, I'm definitely going to read the next book to find out what happens!
July 30, 2025
Dr Bloom puts his staggering wit upon every page, rendering each an absolute joy to read. Never have I read a book that had me laughing start to finish.
Rest easy, you legend.
Rest easy, you legend.
April 19, 2025
Okay, with the title and subtitle, my original thought that this would be a look at draconic culture where power politics flows around and through the aspects of mating, and you know, not getting killed in the world.
I was a bit off. The titular mating flight is supposed to be more about picking a good mate, and hopefully love will come later. But it's not supposed to all power and practicality either. There's twelve years for the dragons to figure out where their lives are going. Since there's always more males than females, a flight is normally three females and six males who have recently hit sexual maturity, and they go off away from parents to find who the females will choose, and have a bit of debauchery along the way, as fertilizing eggs is actually an involved process. So... nine very large and powerful adolescents on spring break for twelve years.
And in this case, nothing typical happens
There's a large multiverse of worlds out there, some of which are ruled by dragons, some of which they haven't gotten to. And nowhere, apparently, has been able to stand up to dragons who decide they want a place. The plan is to go to Hove, a "basic torroid" world (i.e., in the interior of a donut-shaped space), hang out for a duo-decade to figure things out, but not actually take over or anything inconvenient like that. That doesn't go well.
Our viewpoint character is Jyothky, who hits sexual maturity a bit late at the start of the book, setting all this in motion, and keeps a diary of what's going on. She is in a technical sense, disabled; she has no sense of touch. There are spells that let her monitor if anything has happened to her body, but it's not the same thing. This also means that while she's on a mating flight, she's basically ace, there's no feedback from the act, no endorphins, or any other positive feedback from the act, just the general sense/duty of wanting to have kids at some point.
By the end of the book, we've seen just how misfit all the dragons are even as they cause mayhem for the poor world that has ended up playing host to them, and trouble spreads in their wake over the course of a mere hundred days.
This is really just part one of two, so be ready to dive right into the second book if you read this. It is quite enjoyable, with Jyothky being a great sympathetic narrator, even with the amount of devastation that happens in Hove as it was struggling with it's own version uni-polar politics.
I was a bit off. The titular mating flight is supposed to be more about picking a good mate, and hopefully love will come later. But it's not supposed to all power and practicality either. There's twelve years for the dragons to figure out where their lives are going. Since there's always more males than females, a flight is normally three females and six males who have recently hit sexual maturity, and they go off away from parents to find who the females will choose, and have a bit of debauchery along the way, as fertilizing eggs is actually an involved process. So... nine very large and powerful adolescents on spring break for twelve years.
And in this case, nothing typical happens
There's a large multiverse of worlds out there, some of which are ruled by dragons, some of which they haven't gotten to. And nowhere, apparently, has been able to stand up to dragons who decide they want a place. The plan is to go to Hove, a "basic torroid" world (i.e., in the interior of a donut-shaped space), hang out for a duo-decade to figure things out, but not actually take over or anything inconvenient like that. That doesn't go well.
Our viewpoint character is Jyothky, who hits sexual maturity a bit late at the start of the book, setting all this in motion, and keeps a diary of what's going on. She is in a technical sense, disabled; she has no sense of touch. There are spells that let her monitor if anything has happened to her body, but it's not the same thing. This also means that while she's on a mating flight, she's basically ace, there's no feedback from the act, no endorphins, or any other positive feedback from the act, just the general sense/duty of wanting to have kids at some point.
By the end of the book, we've seen just how misfit all the dragons are even as they cause mayhem for the poor world that has ended up playing host to them, and trouble spreads in their wake over the course of a mere hundred days.
This is really just part one of two, so be ready to dive right into the second book if you read this. It is quite enjoyable, with Jyothky being a great sympathetic narrator, even with the amount of devastation that happens in Hove as it was struggling with it's own version uni-polar politics.
October 3, 2025
This duology is one of the best dragon books I have ever read. The only real problem I have with them is that the two books start and end at an awkward spot, and really should have been sold as one larger book. Aside from that, you have incredible pieces that really sell you on the varied and powerful feelings behind them, while being so incredibly dry and funny, all without taking away from the well-handled themes of the work. I'm going back to write this review now, after months of being away from it, just to make sure people read this. It's worth it.
If you're curious, the general structure of this duology can be summarized in four arcs it most generally follows:
1. The Crushing Melancholy of Living In A Society
2. The 1990 Film "Pretty Woman"
3. Oh My God. What The Fuck
4. Being Gay Is Awesome, Actually
And I was completely sold the whole time. The characters are just so delightfully eccentric, and the worldbuilding is engaging in all aspects. And it's just so damn touching, even while it's being funny. It understands what it's saying, and serious matters are given just enough due seriousness (but no more than that, of course). I could absolutely use more books in this setting. This was a masterpiece in how to write dragons.
If you're curious, the general structure of this duology can be summarized in four arcs it most generally follows:
1. The Crushing Melancholy of Living In A Society
2. The 1990 Film "Pretty Woman"
3. Oh My God. What The Fuck
4. Being Gay Is Awesome, Actually
And I was completely sold the whole time. The characters are just so delightfully eccentric, and the worldbuilding is engaging in all aspects. And it's just so damn touching, even while it's being funny. It understands what it's saying, and serious matters are given just enough due seriousness (but no more than that, of course). I could absolutely use more books in this setting. This was a masterpiece in how to write dragons.
January 26, 2025
My favorite book of all time. The dragons are riveting characters and the universe is vast and interesting. The dragons are both people you can understand and inhuman creatures who value and view things utterly differently from us. The tone is wonderful and the story itself is engaging as is the character interplay.
August 19, 2015
Nooooooooooo cliffhanger!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews