What do you think?
Sins of the Past
On a faraway world, dragons rule the land. Ten empires stretch across the continent known as Zurra. For over four millennia, these ten races coexisted in periods of both peace and dissent.Young Thorn had everything he could ever someone to love and protect him, a full belly, the sand under his talons, and the sun on his back. Life in the desert couldn’t get any better. However, when his mother mysteriously disappears one morning, his life is flipped upside down. He’s left stranded, patiently awaiting her return. He knows she’ll come back for him....
Hurricane, nephew to the emperor of the Stormfliers, is suffering from a recent betrayal. Struggling in the pits of despair, he believes that he'll never recover from the pain. He spirals further and further into anguish and depression, isolating himself from those around him. He wishes he had never been hatched on those traitorous mountains with those treasonous dragons. If only he could fly away from his agony, escape the haunting, never-ending misery.
Fate cares little for the lives and struggles of those called to serve. Destiny has a certain reputation of stinging those who carry it. Hurricane and Thorn might have problems of their own, but time has now ebbed into a new era of war. Three of the ten races have seemingly vanished. With the rise of this new conflict come seven dragons destined to find the missing souls and bring balance back to Zurra...but are their mysterious powers and the prophecy going to be enough?
Hurricane, nephew to the emperor of the Stormfliers, is suffering from a recent betrayal. Struggling in the pits of despair, he believes that he'll never recover from the pain. He spirals further and further into anguish and depression, isolating himself from those around him. He wishes he had never been hatched on those traitorous mountains with those treasonous dragons. If only he could fly away from his agony, escape the haunting, never-ending misery.
Fate cares little for the lives and struggles of those called to serve. Destiny has a certain reputation of stinging those who carry it. Hurricane and Thorn might have problems of their own, but time has now ebbed into a new era of war. Three of the ten races have seemingly vanished. With the rise of this new conflict come seven dragons destined to find the missing souls and bring balance back to Zurra...but are their mysterious powers and the prophecy going to be enough?
401 pages, Hardcover
Published July 25, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 15, 2025
What if Wings of Fire was Slightly Grittier?
This book dares to ask the question: what if in Wings of Fire, the dragons were allowed to swear, but not too much? The only reason this book exists, I'm convinced, is that the author has some sort of grievance with the popular series, but I really can't tell you what. This is a grittier take on a very distinctly Sutherlandian sort of dragon world with distinct Tribes and Rare Magic and a Prophecy. But did they do it well? Kinda.
This book has two protagonists. First is Thorn. He's so very sweet and so very stupid. Naturally, he goes through The Horrors. Second is Hurricane. He is a guy who sucks so so so bad. He has the emotional tolerance of tissue paper and he makes it everyone's problem. They become Chosen Ones, tasked with investigating the disappearance of, oh, checks notes, three dragon empires.
The actual plot of the book is not where it shines. This is a pretty good example of what the kids call an "idiot plot". Nobody talks to anyone else and this causes no end to the grief. . The entire series of events would unravel if our heroic young dragons thought to ask anyone a question at any point ever. The events make little sense, and few questions are answered.
Where this book shines are its characters. Our two protagonists have very strong and sometimes funny personalities that clash so well. They experience generally satisfying character arcs as well. Okay, maybe some arcs were more satisfying than others. But I liked these characters and their personalities! All the way! The book did character writing well.
So, did we escape the grips of Wings of Fire's many foibles? It's a mixed bag. The worldbuilding takes care to mention things like trading crafting and industry, something WoF always leaves conspicuously absent, but falls just a tiny little bit short of really selling to you that this is a living world. The world is still the size of a postage stamp; don't get me started on calling the empires "empires"! Empire implies conquest, but they're all one people! These are kingdoms! Some of them are city-states! Anyways, the magic has been fixed by making it boring. Think of the most generic elemental magic system possible. It's that. The expressions and changes needed to accommodate physically being a quadrupedal dragon, the "dragon ergonomics" as I call them, are still at the "dragons wielding spears with foreclaws on the ground makes sense" stage of though, so they're not good. Finally, the biggest difference between the two: While WoF isn't afraid to brutally murder dragons in front of the kids, in Sins of the Past we get a lot of gritty murder stuff too, but the characters are given more Gritty and Realistic responses to trauma. It's not enough to make the book feel truly mature, but it's enough to give it some depth and texture WoF needed more of in its later books, so I can appreciate it.
The book is on the shorter side, but that's okay. Regardless, the ending is rushed and opens too many questions without solving any big ones. I feel like the protagonists didn't accomplish enough for the climax of the book to feel "worth it". This might be one of those "two or more books should have been a single book" situation. Too early to tell.
In conclusion, this book is an interesting one. A self published title without an ebook available for purchase! That's right, I bought it physically. As of the time of this writing, zero other (non-AI) reviews have been made for this. I'm the first! What an honor. Unfortunately, I can't give this a glowing five star review. It's better than some others I've read, but... The author still has a ways to go. Still, I might pick up the next book, see if the author improves or pulls everything together. It could get good!
This book dares to ask the question: what if in Wings of Fire, the dragons were allowed to swear, but not too much? The only reason this book exists, I'm convinced, is that the author has some sort of grievance with the popular series, but I really can't tell you what. This is a grittier take on a very distinctly Sutherlandian sort of dragon world with distinct Tribes and Rare Magic and a Prophecy. But did they do it well? Kinda.
This book has two protagonists. First is Thorn. He's so very sweet and so very stupid. Naturally, he goes through The Horrors. Second is Hurricane. He is a guy who sucks so so so bad. He has the emotional tolerance of tissue paper and he makes it everyone's problem. They become Chosen Ones, tasked with investigating the disappearance of, oh, checks notes, three dragon empires.
The actual plot of the book is not where it shines. This is a pretty good example of what the kids call an "idiot plot". Nobody talks to anyone else and this causes no end to the grief. . The entire series of events would unravel if our heroic young dragons thought to ask anyone a question at any point ever. The events make little sense, and few questions are answered.
Where this book shines are its characters. Our two protagonists have very strong and sometimes funny personalities that clash so well. They experience generally satisfying character arcs as well. Okay, maybe some arcs were more satisfying than others. But I liked these characters and their personalities! All the way! The book did character writing well.
So, did we escape the grips of Wings of Fire's many foibles? It's a mixed bag. The worldbuilding takes care to mention things like trading crafting and industry, something WoF always leaves conspicuously absent, but falls just a tiny little bit short of really selling to you that this is a living world. The world is still the size of a postage stamp; don't get me started on calling the empires "empires"! Empire implies conquest, but they're all one people! These are kingdoms! Some of them are city-states! Anyways, the magic has been fixed by making it boring. Think of the most generic elemental magic system possible. It's that. The expressions and changes needed to accommodate physically being a quadrupedal dragon, the "dragon ergonomics" as I call them, are still at the "dragons wielding spears with foreclaws on the ground makes sense" stage of though, so they're not good. Finally, the biggest difference between the two: While WoF isn't afraid to brutally murder dragons in front of the kids, in Sins of the Past we get a lot of gritty murder stuff too, but the characters are given more Gritty and Realistic responses to trauma. It's not enough to make the book feel truly mature, but it's enough to give it some depth and texture WoF needed more of in its later books, so I can appreciate it.
The book is on the shorter side, but that's okay. Regardless, the ending is rushed and opens too many questions without solving any big ones. I feel like the protagonists didn't accomplish enough for the climax of the book to feel "worth it". This might be one of those "two or more books should have been a single book" situation. Too early to tell.
In conclusion, this book is an interesting one. A self published title without an ebook available for purchase! That's right, I bought it physically. As of the time of this writing, zero other (non-AI) reviews have been made for this. I'm the first! What an honor. Unfortunately, I can't give this a glowing five star review. It's better than some others I've read, but... The author still has a ways to go. Still, I might pick up the next book, see if the author improves or pulls everything together. It could get good!
August 25, 2026
Omg i dont know where to begin. This book was AMAZING!!!!! I will first say that the way Hurricane was written is absolutely amazing. I love how he is in a dark place and people trying to reach out to him, and how he is refusing to get help is amazing representation for people being in a dark place, and having a hard time to get out. And how he slowly gets better and nicer when he meets Thorn and the rest of the seven is so nicely done. I too love how grief is handled in this book specially the last chapter. I love how hurricane talks to Thorn. I really love the rest of the world as well. Like the floating city that only cloudwalkers can live there. It kinda reminds of mlp lol. This is one of the best books I have read from a “little author/ inde?” I was surprised by the writing and how good it was.
I am so happy that I found your TikTok and got the book. And I am super happy having my fanart featured in your website.
Never stop writing❤️❤️💙
Best regards Wilma
I am so happy that I found your TikTok and got the book. And I am super happy having my fanart featured in your website.
Never stop writing❤️❤️💙
Best regards Wilma
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews