Tag: Wings of Fire

Caramel reviewed the graphic novel versions of the first five books of Tui Sutherland’s Wings of Fire series: you can see these reviews here: The Dragonet Prophecy,  The Lost Heir,  The Hidden Kingdom, The Dark Secret, and The Brightest Night. He also reviewed the original version of the first book (The Dragonet Prophecy). Then he jumped ahead a bit and reviewed Book Eleven: The Lost Continent. At first this made some sense as the eleventh book starts a new story arc, the Lost Continent Prophecy arc. But it seemed very likely that skipping the second story arc (the Jade Mountain Prophecy arc) all together might lead to some difficulties. So he finally decided to go back and read the Jade Mountain books from the beginning. This is the review of the first book of that series: Moon Rising. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, we are back in Pyrrhia, the continent of the dragons in the Dragonet Prophecy books, right?

Caramel: Yes.

S: Are any of the characters from the first five books in this sixth one?

C: Yes, in fact Tsunami is more or less the principal of Jade Academy. Remember that she was the main character in The Lost Heir, the second book of the series. Now she is the headmistress of the new school they founded in Pyrrhia, to protect the peace they built in the first five books. And apparently she has thirty-two brothers. That is a lot of siblings!

S: I see. And I agree that is a lot of siblings!

C: But the main characters are actually new dragonets, who we have not met before. And the real main character of this book is Moonwatcher. She is a NightWing and she does not want to go to school.

S: Wait, so the “Moon” in the title “Moon Rising”, is that this dragonet?

C: Yes. I think so. The book is definitely about her, and she has some powers that she is trying to keep hidden.

S: That sounds intriguing.

C: There is an attempted murder which ends up killing someone else and Moon tries to help find the killer. And she is the one who receives the new prophecy: The Jade Mountain Prophecy.

S: Ooh, of course this is a new story arc, and there’s got to be a new prophecy. Can you tell us what it is?

C: Sure. Here you go:

Beware the darkness of dragons,
Beware the stalker of dreams,
Beware the talons of power and fire,
Beware one who is not what she seems.

Something is coming to shake the earth,
Something is coming to scorch the ground.
Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice
Unless the lost city of night can be found.

S: Oooh, that is kind of creepy!

C: Yes, I’m not sure about what any of this means.

S: I am really curious to see how the author will make these things happen. Do you think Moonwatcher is the one who is not what she seems?

C: I don’t think so. I think it is probably someone else, because I think the person who is not what she seems is probably not a good person. And I think Moon is a good person.

S: Hmm, that is an interesting conjecture Caramel. So tell me, was this book as exciting as you hoped it to be?

C: Yes. I can’t wait to read the next one.

S: Okay, then let us wrap up this review so you can dive right into Book Seven. But before that, tell me three words you’d use to describe this book.

C: It is exciting, and thought-full.

S: What do you mean by “thoughtful”? How can a book like this be thoughtful?

C: Well, it is full of all kinds of thoughts of all kinds of dragonets, and Moon can hear all of them! So thought-full, you see?

S: I see. I’m not sure I’d call that thoughtful, but okay. What is your third word then?

C: It’s funny too.

S: Okay, that is cool. Alright, maybe it is time to say your usual closing words then.

C: Yay! Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel has been infatuated with the Wings of Fire series for a while now. He has already reviewed the graphic novelizations of the first five books for the book bunnies blog. You can check out his reviews of The Dragonet Prophecy,  The Lost Heir,  The Hidden Kingdom, The Dark Secret, and The Brightest Night. But then he could not stop himself from wanting to read more. As the rest of the series has not been published in graphic novel form just yet, Caramel has been looking into the original series more carefully these days. Earlier this year he reviewed the first book The Dragonet Prophecy. And today he jumps ahead and talks about Book Eleven: The Lost Continent. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel I know you really wanted to talk about this book. So let us do that.

Caramel: Okay. This is about a new continent on the same world that we were in in the first five books. That continent was called Pyrrhia. Apparently the first ten books are there. But this eleventh book takes us somewhere new. A new continent named Pantala.

S: So is Pantala the lost continent in the title?

C: Yes.

S: How is it lost?

C: Dragons in Pyrrhia and dragons from Pantala have not seen each other for thousands of years. So Pantala is kind of lost to Pyrrhia.

S: I see.

C: The dragons in Pantala are different. They have four wings instead of two, like the ones in Pyrrhia. They also don’t breathe fire or venom or ice, unlike the dragons in Pyrrhia. There are seven tribes of dragons in Pyrrhia: MudWings, SandWings, RainWings, SkyWings, IceWings, SeaWings, and NightWings. But in Pantala, there are only three: HiveWings, SilkWings, and LeafWings.

S: I see. Now I understand why you could jump right ahead and start reading this book before reading books 6-10.

C: Yes. But I do want to read those too. Some time. It’s just that it was easier to get my paws on this book. My school library had a copy.

S: I know. Aren’t school libraries awesome?

C: YES!!!

S: Okay, so Wikipedia tells me that there are three different story arcs in the Wings of Fire series. The Dragonet Prophecy was the one involving the first five books. That ended with a view towards Jade Mountain, and the next five books belong to the Jade Mountain Prophecy arc. And then this book, The Lost Continent, starts a third arc, around the Lost Continent Prophecy. You told us what the Dragonet Prophecy was in your review of the very first book. Can you tell us what the Lost Continent Prophecy is?

C: Sure. Let me read it to you:

Turn your eyes, your wings, your fire
To the land across the sea
Where dragons are poisoned and dragons are dying
And no one can ever be free.

A secret lurks inside their eggs.
A secret hides within their book.
A secret buried far below
May save those brave enough to look.

Open your hearts, your minds, your wings
To the dragons who flee from the Hive.
Face a great evil with talons united
Or none of the tribes will survive.

The Lost Continent Prophecy

S: Oooh, that is interesting! What do you think it means?

C: I don’t know really. But I’m pretty sure the Hive and the talons united are talking about the HiveWings. They enslaved the SilkWing and most likely killed off the LeafWings. And it seems like the prophecy is telling the dragons of Pyrrhia to come save the oppressed dragons of Pantala.

S: Hmm, that will be neat. I can see why you might be so intrigued by these books. Okay, so tell me about some of the dragons in The Lost Continent. Are there some that you liked?

C: Yes. I liked Cricket and Luna. Cricket is a HiveWing, and Luna is a SilkWing. I also like Blue and SwordTail. They are both SilkWings. They are all friends. There is a queen, Queen Wasp, and she is the leader of all dragons of Pantala, and the four friends want to get rid of her, because she is evil. She can control the minds of all HiveWings, except for Cricket, and I don’t know why. But that is why I like Cricket.

S: That is interesting.

C: Also I want to explain something about SilkWings called flamesilk. SilkWing can make silk webs and even clothing and bridges with their silk. And some of them are mutated and their silk is red and glows and can sometimes burns things. That is called flamesilk. Queen Wasp uses their flamesilk to create light bulbs.

S: Very creative! This was a pretty big book too, and yet you read it twice already and are itching to read the next ones in the series. But I think it might be a good idea to slow down a bit and go back to the second arc before diving into the twelfth book. At least it seems like that might be prudent, from the things I am reading online.

C: I know. It seems that some dragons in Pyrrhia know about Pantala and that comes up in those books. But I am not sure I can wait!

S: You might have to. We will see. So coming back to The Lost Continent, what three words would you use if you wanted to describe the book?

C: Exciting, suspenseful, and intriguing.

S: Three good words Caramel. I can see you really liked this book. So let us wrap up this review so you can continue rereading it. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel got into the Wings of Fire series through the graphic novels path. He has already read and reviewed for the book bunnies blog the four books published as graphic novels: see his reviews of  The Dragonet Prophecy, The Lost Heir, The Hidden Kingdom, and The Dark Secret. However, the graphic novels did not go far enough, and Caramel already knew there were a lot more books in the series. So this week he finally took the plunge and read The Dragonet Prophecy, the book that started the whole series. Below he shares his thoughts on this book with Sprinkles, who is asking questions and taking notes.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, I see you finally took the plunge and began to read the actual Wings of Fire books.

Caramel: Yes.

S: Why did you do that?

C: Because they did not yet publish them all as graphic novels. I am still waiting on my copy of the fifth book in the series. But there are actually at least fourteen books and I can’t wait that long for all of them to be made into graphic novels!

S: Hmm, so you are an impatient little one.

C: Yes.

S: So I know you already had read this book as a graphic novel. What was it like to revisit the same story, this time written as a standard novel?

C: It was interesting. It is practically the same story, which makes sense of course, but there are some differences.

S: What kind of differences?

C: In the novel, Dune has only three legs, and in the graphic novels he has four. And in the graphic novel version he does not have a scar on his wing. Also there are some more events in this one. In the graphic novel they do not go behind the waterfall, but here they do.

S: Hmm, so these seem like not too big a deal to me. The story was generally the same then, right?

C: Practically the same.

S: So tell our readers briefly what the story is so if they have not read the graphic novel or your review of it yet, they can still get something out of this review.

C: Well, I’d assume they could just read my review of the graphic novel, but here you go: there are five young dragons, called dragonets, dragonets of destiny, are captured by Queen Scarlet, and .. hmm I should not spoil that.

S: So what is the prophecy again?

C: The prophecy is a long poem at the very beginning of the book. Here it is:

When the war has lasted 20 years …
the dragonets will come.
When the land is soaked with blood and tears…
the dragonets will come.

Find the SeaWing egg of deepest blue.
Wings of night will come to you.
The largest egg in mountains high
will give to you the wings of sky.
For wings of earth, search through the mud,
for an egg the color of dragon blood.
And hidden alone from the rival queens,
the SandWing egg waits unseen.

Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn,
two shall die and one shall learn
if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher,
she’ll have the powers of wings of fire.

Five eggs to hatch on brightest night,
Five dragons born to end the fight.
Darkness will rise to bring the light.
The dragonets are coming ….

The Dragonet Prophecy

S: That is a neat poem Caramel. So the story is about those five young dragons who are expected to “end the fight”?

C: Yes exactly. This is a really cool series. In fact while we were talking, we found that short trailer about the whole series. Maybe we can embed that video here.

S: Okay, let us give that a try:

S: That does look neat Caramel. So would you recommend this book to anyone who only read the graphic novels?

C: Yes. I think it is really a good way to meet our old friends in this new way. And then I am looking forward to reading all the books in the series. I am not going to have to wait for all the graphic novels.

S: But I have a feeling you will still want to read the graphic novel versions as those come out.

C: Of course! I love looking at the pictures in the graphic novels. They are so cool!

S: It seems this book also has some illustrations.

C: Yes. They are all black and white, but there are sketches of all the different dragons.

S: Is it kind of like the sketches in How to Train Your Dragon series?

C: Not quite. In the How to Train Your Dragon series, the illustrations are a bit funnier, they are sort of obviously hand-drawn. These ones on the other hand look a lot more realistic, kind of like you were reading a book about dinosaurs, but about dragons instead.

S: I see. And there are some decorations and maps at the beginning. It does indeed look neat. I read that there is a bit more violence in these original books than there was in the graphic novels. Did you think so?

C: Yeah I guess. I guess the fights are more vicious in the original story.

S: I see. But you do not see the gore, you read about it.

C: Yeah, thankfully. And I still like the book. The story is still awesome. And if it gets a bit too much, I can always skip that part.

S: Did you need to skip a lot of parts?

C: No, actually I read all of it, except there is one violent scene, where Queen Scarlet… Wait, I am not telling. But in any case, I skipped that paragraph.

S: I see. Would you recommend this book to little bunnies like yourself then?

C: Yes but maybe their parents or other adults might want to look at it too to see if the little ones can handle things.

S: Thanks for that warning Caramel. I think you are ready to dive right into the next book. Aren’t you?

C: Yep.

S: Then what would you like to tell our readers as we wrap up this review?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!