Book Review: Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy · 10:06pm Sep 24th, 2014
Maybe it's just because I've started writing a book of my own, or maybe it's because I'm more attuned to creativity after years of watching MLP, but I'm really paying a lot more attention to what's going on in the world of books nowadays. Most recently, just for the heck of it, I picked up this.
It's a young adult book aimed at the 10-16 crowd, but, hey, I figured if I'm watching My Little Pony why not branch out a little bit? This is the first of five books currently released of a planned ten-book series. The author, Tui T. Sutherland, is rather prolific and has written a few books for the Warriors series, about tribes of warring mystical cats. This new outing, The Dragonet Prophecy, is all their creation, set in a fantasy world called Pyrrhia ruled by intelligent dragons. I'm only up to chapter 12, but I have to say I've been reading it pretty hard since I got it a couple days ago. In any case, I figure this will be more productive than random blogs at one in the morning, so here we go!
First, the setting and what the book is actually about. In spite of the young adult audience, the dragon world of Pyrrhia is a dark, violent, and torn apart by war. Queen Oasis of the dragon tribe known as the SandWings was killed in an incident with scavengers—this world's version of humans—stealing her treasure. Her three daughters Blaze, Blister, and Burn each declared themselves queen and allied with different dragon tribes, and for years dragons have slaughtered each other over the throne. But there is a prophecy that five dragonets—young dragons—will be born who will stop the war. The first book, Wings of Fire, is from the perspective of the dragonet Clay, who is from the MudWing tribe and therefore the bulkiest of the group, and is of a sweet, loyal, and somewhat simple disposition.
A fair warning before we go further: in spite of humans being indirectly responsible for the war, this story isn't about them. It is mentioned once that dragons took over the world long, long ago, and now humans are an endangered species living on the edge of dragon society, doing nothing of any importance except stealing treasure. They are not called humans, but scavengers, because that is what they do. Yeah, it's not exactly what I'd call child-friendly, but hell if it isn't an interesting idea.
Anywho, Clay lives with the other dragonets in a cave in the middle of nowhere, guarded by agents of the Talons of Peace—dragons trying to stop the war. They were each found as eggs by the Talons under circumstances that seemed in line with the prophecy, but not necessarily fulfilling it. This is where the book took its first divergence from standard fantasy fare: nobody is actually sure if the kids here are capable of being the Chosen Ones. All five of the dragonets are scared, limited, flawed, and though decent dragons at heart, there are no easy roads to what they want to become. In fact the opening pages of the book has one of the antagonists, the would-be queen Burn, trying to disrupt the prophecy by destroying one of the prophesied eggs and killing the dragon who tried to take it from her. She does this in exceptionally brutal fashion:
With an exaggerated lunge, Burn pretended the wet egg was slipping through her talons... and then she let it fall over the side of the cliff into the rocky darkness below.
"No!" Hvitur shrieked. He threw off the two soldiers and flung himself toward the edge. Burn slammed her massive claws down on his neck.
"So much for destiny," she smirked. "So much for your tragic little movement."
"You're a monster," the IceWing gasped, writhing under her talons. His voice cracked with despair. "We'll never give up. The dragonets—the dragonets will come and stop this war."
Burn leaned down to hiss into his ear. "Even if they do—it'll be far too late for you." Her claws ripped through the silver dragon's wings, shredding them as Hvitur shrieked in agony. With a swift movement, she stabbed her poisonous tail through his skull and flung the long, silver body over the edge of the cliff.
This is another thing I found interesting about the story. It's apparently a bestseller with many glowing reviews on Amazon, yet the only quibble seems to be that it's not entirely kid-friendly. Sure, I'd probably worry about my seven-year-old getting nightmares of evil dragon queens stabbing him in the face, but I doubt anybody over the age of twelve would be particularly bothered. There are no extreme descriptions of gore, and I didn't find it too objectionable given the age group they're shooting for.
So this killing of one of the prophesied kiddies prompts the Talons of Peace to find a replacement—what should have been a SkyWing dragon, fearsome fighter and expert flier—is instead a RainWing named Glory, jungle-dwelling color-changing dragons who stayed neutral in the war by hiding in their rainforest kingdom. She is not the focus of this book, but she is important, and has her own character arc that won't be finished until much further into the series. This is one of the strengths of the book: that all of the characters involved each have their own distinct flaws and personalities and each has their own role to play, even if the book isn't about them. It reminded me a lot of My Little Pony, in that none of the characters are quite sure what they're supposed to be doing, but they rely on each other to shore up their weaknesses.
Speaking of weakness... their caretakers are total assholes. The Talons of Peace set three dragons of theirs to guard these kids while they grew and ostensibly teach them how to fight and whatnot, but they are totally and utterly lacking in compassion. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gandalf, and Dumbledore are basically the exact opposite of this trio. Decades of war and disappointment have jaded them. Two of them constantly belittle their charges while the third is kind only in that he passively allows the abuse and doesn't add to it. They remind the dragonets of how weak they are and would never fulfill the prophecy, while also bitterly telling them they're supposed to save the world anyway. Glory the RainWing gets the brunt of it, since she is the outsider they're trying to stuff into a SkyWing shaped hole in the prophecy. It's a small but entertaining way of deviating from a typical Chosen One story—and importantly showing young readers that in a world full of hard knocks, not all adults are going to treat them as special snowflakes.
"Glory's not that bad," Webs argued. "She's smarter than she wants us to know."
"You overestimate her because you brought her here," Dune said. "She's lazy and worthless like the rest of their tribe."
"And she's not a SkyWing," Kestrel snapped. "We're supposed to have a SkyWing!"
+10 points for dragon racism.
Eventually a mind-reading, future-seeing NightWing called Morrowseer arrives and promptly and decisively tells the Talons that all the kids suck (except of course the fellow NightWing dragonet Starflight—more themes of race and favoritism). Glory especially sucks since she's a dirty RainWing, and while a few of them might do, they might have to kill one or two of them and find "proper" dragonets to fulfill the prophecy. You read that right; we're getting child murder, child abuse, regular murder, and racism thrown at us before the first act is even over... from the "good guys" of all things. Yet... this is what makes the dragons surprisingly human.
Chafing against this brutality, the kids develop a plan to escape the cave and save the world the way they want. Since they aren't full-grown and none of them are the best fighters, things predictably go horribly, horribly wrong and from there they must depend entirely on one another to survive a world war and fulfill a prophecy they don't fit. As I said, the writing won't blow anyone away, but it's not supposed to. Some of the description does reach up beyond what you might expect, such as these bits where Clay and fellow dragonet Tsunami stand outside for the first time:
Clay had to bite back a gasp. While the sun brought out his colors, it made Tsunami look bejeweled, like a dragon made of sapphires and emeralds or summer leaves and oceans.
The sky was everywhere, it just... went on and on and on, like nothing could ever fill it up. It was night, but the light of the three moons was dazzling after a lifetime of caves and sputtering torches. Craggy mountain peaks bit into the sky all around him. In the distance he thought he saw a glimmer of sea. And the stars! Clay had thought he knew stars from gazing out of the sky hole. He'd never known how many there were, or how they looked like a silver net cast across the dark.
Clay himself is an interesting character, and basically fills the role of the big, slow, yet kind and loyal archetype. His problem is that he came out of his egg first all spoiling for a fight, and tried to destroy the other dragonet eggs immediately after he hatched. Ever since then, he has been considerably more meek. He is not a pacifist, and in fact enjoys fighting when it's a fair challenge, but he is not the unstoppable killer beast Kestrel and the other Talons hope for. He is both frightened and disappointed in himself, scared to be a bloodthirsty warrior yet desperately longing to be since that might be the only way to protect his friends. He both wants and does not want to live peacefully, and wants to find a way through that tension.
The other dragonets aren't better off: aforementioned Glory isn't even in the prophecy and struggles with feeling inadequate but hides behind a mask of indifference, the little SandWing Sunny is a runt and considered too childish to trust, NightWing Starflight is arrogant and studious yet anxious and somewhat cowardly, and SeaWing Tsunami, the bossy ringleader, worries about whether she can keep all her friends together and alive. These conflicting traits are fertile ground for the rest of the series, and I hope it stays interesting. Best of all, these anxieties are both told and shown, which I congratulate the author for. They don't just tell you what's wrong with them but give us specific situations where these conflicts come up.
"Stop that," Tsunami snapped at her. "Acting like a martyr won't help right now."
Glory bristled. "I'm not acting like a martyr. I'm trying to make sure nobody gets killed for no reason."
"Besides you," Tsunami argued. "It's fine if it's you getting killed for no reason?"
"It just doesn't matter," Glory said. "I'm not even in the prophecy, so who cares what happens to me?"
"I swear I'm going to kill you myself," Tsunami growled.
"Glory, she's trying to say that we care," Clay interrupted. "In her usual gentle way."
In that little exchange we can tell who is what kind of character in a flash. I just wish the rest of the book was similarly brisk, as it is slowed down by moments of "now the author is telling you what's important" and "we couldn't fit the world-building in anywhere else." Speaking of worldbuilding, it's expansive, imaginative, and a little playful at times. The dragons use torches, but when they have none on hand those that can breathe fire just start breathing and use that as their light. They build kingdoms with castles carved out of mountain ranges and deserts but struggle to keep them together in the face of typical dragon vices: greed, vanity, and nigh-sociopathic arrogance. Most of them do hoard treasure as a symbol of prestige and power. All of the dragon tribes are unique, with their own abilities and powers, outlined helpfully at the beginning of the book.
While the writing isn't on the level of, say, David Mitchell or Stephen King, it does its job and does it admirably given what I was expecting when I went in. Who am I to judge even by that criteria though, when I'm a fan of a show for 7-12 year old girls? All I can say is that the book has been a very pleasant surprise so far, overturning a few tired tropes and giving its characters unexpected depth. I look forward to finishing it, which is saying a lot coming from me, and I recommend it to you all as well. I think many of you will like it if you don't mind a book series not written for us older guys, but like I said, if that alone chases us away, we haven't learned much by watching little ponies.
I give it seven out of ten classy Spikes.
