Smocze proroctwo

Wings of Fire #1

by Tui T. Sutherland, Małgorzata Strzelec (Translator)

„Smocze proroctwo” to pierwszy tom serii „Skrzydła ognia”.
Łupek dorastał z przyjaciółmi pod górą. Zostali wychowani w tajemnicy przez Szpony Pokoju, aby wypełnić tajemniczą przepowiednię. Piątce małych smocząt pisane jest zakończyć wojnę, która rozszalała się między plemionami zamieszkującymi Pyrrię. Niestety, nikt nie wie, w jaki sposób mają tego dokonać.
Nie każde smoczę marzy o wielkim przeznaczeniu. Kiedy jednemu z piątki grozi niebezpieczeństwo, Łupek i jego przyjaciele postanawiają uciec. Może zdołają odzyskać wolność i zarazem zakończyć wojnę… A może wręcz przeciwnie: zawiodą wszystkie pokładane w nich nadzieje…

Skrzydła ognia
Siedem smoczych plemion walczy ze sobą od wielu pokoleń, tocząc wojnę o utracony starodawny skarb. Tajny ruch zwany Szponami Pokoju poprzysiągł położyć kres walkom za pomocą proroctwa – przepowiedni, która wymaga ogromnej ofiary.
Zebrano pięć smocząt, aby wypełniły proroctwo. Dla zakończenia straszliwej wojny zostały zwerbowane wbrew swojej woli i wychowane w ukrytej jaskini.

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Adventure

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2012

About the author

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Tui? What kind of name is that? Is it short for something?

Nope. Among the many great things to come out of New Zealand (the Lord of the Rings movies, cats that paint, my mom) is a bird called the tui—not as well known as the kiwi, but a heck of a lot noisier!

I was born July 31 (same birthday as Harry Potter!) in Caracas, Venezuela, and lived in Asuncion, Paraguay; Miami, Florida; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before moving to New Jersey in high school, where I started doing theatre—mostly backstage work, because (a) it was fun, and (b) you got to hang out in the dark with cute boys. (Er, I mean . . . because it was artistically fulfilling, yes.)

I graduated from Williams College in ’98 and I currently live in Boston with my husband, my perfect new baby, and my adorable yoodle Sunshine (what’s a yoodle? A puppy that’s three-quarters poodle and one-quarter Yorkshire terrier, of course!).

Much to my parents’ relief, I abandoned my theatrical aspirations after college for the far more stable and lucrative career of fiction writing.

My first two official books were beginning readers, part of Grosset & Dunlap’s “First Friends” series for kids learning to read. MEET MO AND ELLA is tough to find now, but FUN WITH MO AND ELLA should still be out there somewhere.

My first novel for teenagers was THIS MUST BE LOVE, which retells Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a modern-day high school, from the POV of the two heroines, Hermia and Helena.

And now I'm writing in a new project called SEEKERS! It's a children's book series that I'm writing with Erin Hunter. Check out my blog to find out more!

Reviews

[zuza_zaksiazkowane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Najlepsza książka dziecięca od czasu Zwiadowców 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 9 year old grandson and I are reading this series together, and I just finished this first one. He LOVES dragons, so I was a bit worried when I read the prologue and learned the series deals with wars among the dragons! However, as soon as I met Clay, the Mudwing, I knew why he is enjoying this series so much.

A prophecy has said that five dragonets will save the world from this war, so their protectors, the Talons of Peace, begin to gather the eggs. The dragon descriptions at the start of the book are really interesting; Sandwings, Mudwings, Skywings, Seawings, Icewings, Rainwings--and the mysterious Nightwings. The five dragonets are supposed to come from the Sky, Sea (Tsunami), Mud (Clay), Sand (Sunny), and Night (Starflight). However, the Skywing egg is destroyed, so enter my favorite, the Rainwing named Glory. She is from the rainforest and has beautiful, changing colors.

The book is filled with conflict but also shows great friendship and loyalty and sacrifice--and Clay is both funny and caring and fierce (sort of like my grandson!) :-) And I love the poem that starts each book (he read it to me over the phone, he liked it so much).

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy
OR
Abused Dragon Children Muddle Around in Politics

I had forgotten how much I love this kind of young adult literature. All of the classic cliches are alive and well(a needlessly complex fantasy world where a team of kids destined with prophecy and imbued with special powers all their own take on the whole adult world!). And yet it works, because its done with such sincerity, played straight and with enough heart that the cliche doesn't grate, but instead reminds you why this is a cliche in the first place. Because you (or at least I) kind of really enjoy the crap out of this particular cliche.

This one is still a great read for adults. In fact, the amount of violence and secondaries who die surprised me in a book for kids. Some of them felt needlessly gratuitous to me, which annoyed me, especially the very last death we see. Otherwise, really enjoyed this one, with its slightly dopey but inspiring leader character, who even gives dramatic speeches that so work because he's so sincere (and then they also get lampooned to good effect), his clan of adopted siblings each with their own strengths and failings, and the classic world at war where only a handful of kids can save the day.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me say right up front that I have not read this book, nor do I plan to. BUT. I have a nine-year-old son with a very high reading level who, until this book, only voluntarily read comics and graphic novels. He reads what's assigned for school, but any chapter book I've tried to get him interested in, any length, any genre, has been abandoned within a chapter or two. Until Wings of Fire. It was recommended to my son by his best friend, so maybe that helped, but once he picked up this book he wouldn't put it down. He flew through all five books in the series with an enthusiasm he'd never shown about books before. So even though I haven't read this book, I believe it deserves every one of those five stars and more for igniting that spark in my reluctant reader.

[Nikola · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading with my niece and nephew is getting to be fun. This is one of the first series after Harry Potter that they are reading. Both of them love this series so far and they wanted me to read this to talk about with them and how could I say no. I think they are on book 4. They are reading a lot of stuff, mostly graphic novels and books like Dairy of a wimpy kid and other funny books, so I'm going to need to read those things to keep up with their book love. I started this in my reading slump and finally my nephew threatened me if I didn't read the book, so I did and it took me 3 days once I got into it.

Also, my best friend, also my age, read these on her nephew's recommendation and she loves the whole series. She read all 15. Needless to say, this book has been on my radar for awhile and now I have read it.

There is a prophecy, isn't there always a prophecy. There is a kingdom of dragons and they have been at a bloody war for 10 years or so. These 5 dragons from different races of the dragons will come together and somehow stop the war. There are dragons who hope this is true and as many dragons who want the war to go on.

We meet these 5 dragons living under a mountain in a secret cave and they are learning and training for their futures. Our protagonist is Clay, a mudwing dragon. We follow the story from his perspective. The 5 dragons are close friends and they want to see the world.

There are great characters in this story and plenty of action to keep people turning pages. I enjoyed reading this and I wanted to know what happened as much as any one else reading this.

Another dragon we meet is Peril. She is the same age as Clay and the gang, but she has grown up being manipulated and she sees herself as a killer. She is such an interesting character. I can't predict what she will do and she scares me a bit too, but she is probably my favorite character in the book just because she is sort of a gray character here and she is so unpredictable. That was my favorite part of the story.

I thought there was a climax and it was a good place for the book to end and then the book keeps going with some plot and it seems a bit weird to me. It's a great ending, but it was an interesting choice.

Tui, the author, put her dragons in some impossible positions at times and I couldn't figure out how they would get out of it, I knew they would, but she did great with the suspense.

I think this is an awesome middle grade series that anyone can enjoy reading if you like fantasy and dragons. There is a scene about the aftermath of war and I thought it was pretty intense for middle grade.

[shania · Rating 3 out of 5]

13 years too late but let's do this😋

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When the war has lasted twenty years...
the dragonets will come.
When the land is soaked in blood and tears...
the dragonets will come."

I completely forgot that I read this series. Granted it was a while ago, so I'm fuzzy on a lot of the details, and I don't remember everything that happened. I do recall that it was fairly graphic for a middle grade, and was very descriptive in the death scenes: "(She) clutched at the blood pouring from her neck and staggered back, pummeled by the wind...(She) collapsed to the rocks, thrashing in agony. Her mouth opened to scream curses or breathe fire at her murderers, but only dark red blood bubbled out.” "

This book doesn't exactly seem suited for a younger audience, in my personal opinion. I'd say maybe 11ish and up, just to be safe. I don't want any nine-year-olds reading this and getting scarred for life from all the "clutched at the blood pouring from her neck" kind of lines.

What else do I remember besides the Hunger-Games-level gore? Well, not much. The characters were fun, and the world-building was quite good, but I don't think I can elaborate much more than that. Full review to possibly come if I ever get around to re-reading these books.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

2022 Update: My thoughts are pretty much the same that are indicated in the blog post below.

Update! Here’s my full review: https://bookishrealmreviews.blogspot....


This was a pretty interesting book. I thought it was a bit dark and gore filled for a children's book but as an adult I really enjoyed it. What was really interesting to me was the use of dragons as the main characters instead of humans. I often have trouble visualizing animals as the main characters of stories. The different types of dragons were amazing, yet I did have to take notes because I was constantly getting confused. I'm sure once I read more of the stories everything will begin to make more sense. My favorite character was definitely Tsunami. She was confident and completely bad ass. I will say that I think that humans will play a larger role in the rest of the series. Right now they are just referred to as scavengers by Clay and the rest of the dragons, but I definitely see that changing. The ending of this book was a surprise for me so my only thing I can say to readers is definitely make sure you don't get too attached to anyone. It doesn't seem to work out for anyone when you do lol. Overall, I enjoyed it and I will be continuing with the series.

[Dakota★Magic in Every Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book first caught my attention when I was at a Barnes and Nobles and the series had it's own pretty display. The covers have gorgeous art work that caught my eye and I picked it up. It's a series aimed for, what I estimate, 4th to 8th graders. But the synopsis sounded good and the art irresistible, with an overwhelmingly popular response on Goodreads. And holy hell, batman, was this a phenomenal purchase.

These series truly surprised me. I expected something more childish, but while it's written for a younger demographic, it is a book everyone can appreciate. It deals with very adult themes such as murder, war, death and the cruelty we're all capable of. Concepts we often shield children from. But children will surprise you, they understand much more than you think. There are more child-friendly themes too, however. Things we'mre all familiar with such as "Why is my body doing weird stuff?" or "How do I tell my friends I would die to protect them without sounding clingy?". Themes of friendship,empathy, individuality and unity tie together to make an incredible first novel.

The series keeps you guessing, is never predictable or fits into a child's series outline. The characters are in depth, developed, and unique and the plot line is fun, heart-breaking, cruel, and witty. A children's series in the spirit of Harry Potter of Percy Jackson, where it may be aimed at children, but can speak to us all

[give me books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jest to z pewnością coś nowego, ale jeszcze nie wiem czy mi się to podoba oraz czy będę kontynuować

[Sisters Three · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, this is a hard one for us because we hate to say anything bad about someone else’s work. But we think someone needs to say it, so we will. We couldn't finish the book. Yeah, we’re teenage girls who couldn’t finish a middle-grade book, let’s see why we couldn’t finish it…
We thought it was interesting and well written, at first, but then we found out otherwise. Tui T. Sutherland has a unique writing style and we really enjoyed the first few chapters. But as the story went on the gory details became too much for us. Later on, in the book, she brings in people which the dragons eat!!! Enough said right there, it gives one this sick feeling because something with that picture is just wrong. It mentions blood, heads being cut off, and dragons being burned to death. It was so bad we didn't even finish it; we think we might have got halfway through. It starts out okay, as we said, but as the book goes on it seemed to be getting worse and worse! The storyline would have been interesting and even enjoyable if all the gory details had been left out, they seriously added nothing at all to the story.
We would not recommend this book for children, even though it’s supposed to be a middle-grade book. We were horrified and disgusted to think that people actually write this kind of stuff for kids and that they let kids read it. If you don't agree with our opinion of this book that's okay. But as lovers of middle-grade children's books ourselves, we found this book to be very disappointing. We think it lets parents down because when you get a children's book you think it will be safe for children to read, but this one is not.

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually having a hard time rating this one. On one hand, the story is quite entertaining, fast paced with short chapters, and action driven. On the other though (keeping in mind this is a children's book) the book is waaay violent with loads of graphic killings and murders and war scenes as well as just things I wouldn't deem appropriate for young readers. I'm actually shocked my younger brother was allowed to read this at the age he was (9 or 10). The concept of the scavengers being humans was fine except the first time you meet one, its head is snapped off and blood gushes out and pools on the ground. I guess those things in a kid's book just don't sit quite right. But I, being older, enjoyed the novel. As a personal rating I'd probably give it a 5/5, but as it's supposed to be a kid's book, I'd give it a 4.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

You've been raised, along with 4 other dragonets, your whole life. It is the only thing you've ever known. Your keepers are not your parents, but other, more gruff dragons - they teach you to fight and that someday you will have a destiny to fulfill as part of a prophecy. You never see the sky, and your keepers are harsh - and sometimes even cruel. After learning that one of you is considered less-than-worthy for the prophecy and is to be killed, you band together with the other four dragonets - the only true family you have ever known - and plot an escape. Problem is, you have escaped from the frying pan into the fire of war in the outer world. Survival will be a test of all you've learned and all you want to be.

I got this book to read, because I generally enjoy books about dragons, even though I'm far from the target audience. I was also hoping that it might appeal to my 11-year-old son, who enjoys reading but can be finicky about *what* he reads. He got to it first, finished it in a couple of days, and was anxious to re-read it. I told him I needed to read it first, and he asked every couple of days if I had finished it yet. He was fascinated with the guide in the front of the book that has drawings of each different kind of dragon, as well as information about them - he says that was one of his favorite things. He also said he really liked the book because of how the story all fit together. The story might start off a little bit slow, but it picks up speed fairly quickly.

Wings of Fire appears to be the first book in a series for middle-graders. It's a little young to be considered Young Adult, and is certainly not elementary. While it would be good for reading out loud, there is some violence and a few descriptions of the aftermath of war that might bother the younger set. There is a definite resolution, while still being apparent that there is more to come.

I would have given the book 4 stars, while my son said that he would give it 10 if he could. Since he fits squarely within the target audience, I bowed to his decision and gave it 5. I'm certain that he will be looking forward to reading the sequel!

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!! I'll admit that I am a superfan of dragon books, so I knew I'd probably like this book, but I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it!!! My son purchased it from a bookfair and told me that it was really good, so I started to read it. I purchased it and the next in the series for my KindleFire so that we could share it at our house. Well, I began reading and read into the middle of the night. Then my KindleFire needed to be charged, so I plugged it in for an hour and finished the book. Yeah, it was THAT good! After sleeping two hours, I started the next book in the series and finished it before the end of the day! It is just as good!

Look, this is a great story (...and not just because it is about dragons, but they do make it AWESOME!). I found the book to be humorous, action-packed, and surprising. Not many junior fiction novels surprise me, but this one did! I'm so frustrated that I have to wait until June for the next one!!! I do a lot of booktalks, and I'm thrilled to tell all of my kids about this one.

Also, one of my teens at the library came in talking about this book and how great it was too! How cool is that? A junior in high school that was promoting a junior fiction book! THAT'S HOW AWESOME IT IS!!!

Thank you Tui T. Sutherland!!! You are one of my new favorite authors!!!

[RM(Alwaysdaddygirl) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reasons for 5 stars:

- All the characters are dragons! The dragonets remind me of teenagers.
- I love the artwork on the cover!
-Recommend this book to dragons lovers and fantasy lovers.
-It is a young adult book. I will be reading the rest of the series. Probably reread this one.


🇺🇸🐉

Whoops-Edit done on 12-18-19 at 6:12 pm
-Most of the characters are dragons.
-Dragonets are dragons. They are different (one reason) from other dragons because they are part of a prophecy.

[April (Aprilius Maximus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"“We’ll be like the MudWings,” Clay said proudly. “We stick together. No matter what happens. We’re a team, and we look after one another."

representation: ummm the characters are dragons sooooo

[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]

★★★★.5

THIS WAS SO AWESOME! I seriously want to just binge read the whole series!!! the mc clay was such a himbo... what a precious bean. 100% would protect.

trigger warnings: fantasy violence, murder, child abandonment, being in a confined space underwater with no knowing when you'll be able to come up for air (is there a word for this? lol).

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

My nine year old is obsessed with these books and I can see why they're a hit, though they were definitely more violent than I was expecting for the age. It's got friendship, found family, and lots of peril. Five dragonets were stolen as eggs, supposedly to fulfill a war-ending prophecy. They've lived all their lives in an underground cave by abusive adults and now they want to escape. Each dragonet has a different personality and this book is from the perspective of Clay- a mudwing who thinks he's destined to be a killer but doesn't want to be. It's pretty brutal at times with fighting to the death, depictions of war, and sadistic adults. But the five dragonets are loyal to each other and Clay will do whatever it takes to save them. I think for the age group the fact that it's dragons instead of people offers a little more distance from the violence and it's a propulsive read, but definitely more intense than I was expecting.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I am 27 years old. I have always loved fantasy stuff and this young girl I know from my church recommended this series to me. As a kid I loved scholastic books but as an adult I put off reading this series for months as I do enjoy more of an adult reading experience. So last month in Aug. 2019 I finally picked up the first book on Kindle and decided to give it a try. My only regret that is that I didn't start sooner. These books may be aimed at young adults/teenagers but they are very well written and full of scenarios and conflicts that can appease older audiences. While the characters are supposed to be younger, even as an adult I found a lot of them to be extremely relatable. The author’s ability to create characters with such vastly different personalities and to be able to write from so many perspectives is astonishing. It really adds a sense of uniqueness to each book and makes the series super exciting to read. I managed to read through all 13 books currently in the main series in a matter of weeks. I highly recommend this series and would love to go into detail about what I like from each book but I also don't want to risk letting off spoilers. Again I highly recommend reading these books for yourself. If you like fantasy, action, adventure, overarching stories, romance, suspense and of course Dragons. These books are for you!

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can definitely see how this would be a crowd pleaser for many readers- it's got a very fun premise within conventional middle grade fantasy tropes (the chosen ones are DRAGONS and they are trying to help win a DRAGON WAR) and it's quite well executed. And when we found out about what big wings are? OMG, my heart melted for Clay. But this just didn't connect with me in a way that MG fantasies I love do... I think it was in part due to how violent the action is and how graphically that violence is described. It kept pulling me out of the story. I won't continue in the series, but I can definitely see the appeal & would recommend to folks interested in it

[seak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually pretty surprised and impressed with this book. My 9-year-old's been obsessed with the series and actually just started the final book currently out yesterday (and is already halfway cause he actually reads and doesn't get distracted by everything in the world). Of course, he's recommended the series to me and what is a dad to do but read.

Luckily I found this on my OverDrive library app so it was just a matter of waiting.

I really enjoyed this fun book that was completely from the dragons' perspective. They obviously have a healthy amount of personification, but I liked the different types of dragons with different skills and abilities which can even go deeper than simply the type of dragon.

The story itself is pretty straight-forward at this point. My 9-year-old did not seem to care about spoilers so I apparently already know about some twists that take it a bit out of the straight-forwardness.

As the name suggests, there's a prophecy like many fantasy books, but this one starts with the subjects of the prophecy essentially locked away from the world to protect them. But it's hard to care about the world you're supposed to save when you have no skin in the game as they say, no experience with the world itself.

3.5 out of 5 stars (recommended!)

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was way better than I expected!
My friend begged me to read it for months and months and I finally did and it was definitely worth my time!
I love Peril,Glory, and Tsunami soooo much!

[Asheley T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the (near-constant) urging of my kids - this is their favorite series. I completely enjoyed getting lost in this book although I have to admit that the first was a little slow-going for me because there are quite a few dragon-characters to learn. Once I figured out everything, I was fully invested and it was pretty riveting.

This world is fun: mostly dragons with a few humans scattered here and there. There is a war going on for leadership. The main characters are five dragonets that are supposed to fulfill a prophecy to end the war. These dragonets have been held underground since they hatched "for their safety" but once they work together to escape, they realize that they have things they would like to do in addition to fulfill the prophecy - things like see the world above ground, find their families, and explore their new-found dragon powers.

I can see why my kids love this series so much. Dragons are cool in any story, but these are really neat. There are several different types of dragons (Mudwings, Skywings, Rainwings, etc) that live in different areas of the world; they all have different looks and characteristics. The five dragonets that are set to fulfill this prophecy are extra-cool in my opinion because they otherwise would never be the best of friends, and yet in this book they are extremely loyal to one another with a true affection for one another that comes with true friendship. The story is fun, with action and adventure, friendship and teamwork, betrayal and war. The villainous dragons are also quite fun to read.

I love that this book did not spare hard things. In the action sequences, some characters get hurt and not all of them make it. It isn't too harsh for young readers, but the dragonets have to make some tough choices and do hard things. I love this, and I loved discussing these plot points with my girls. My girls have read the entire series, including the novellas, so it is very likely that I will also continue with the series and see what happens to these characters.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderfully entertaining book!

It's hard to review this without comparing it to Warriors. Tui is an Erin, so the writing style of her books is very similar to that of Warriors.

I felt like this was Warriors slightly more complex, edgier cousin. Tui did a great job taking a simple middle grade book formula (group of kids find out they're part of prophecy in which they save the world) and twisted it into a very intriguing and original story.

I loved the violence in this. I'm not evil or anything but it's a good way to show that middle grade books don't have to be completely tame. There can be stakes involved.

This book would be a great way to transition into YA for younger readers. I know Warriors fans will simply fall in love with this series.

As far as plot, characters, and writing went, I thought all of those aspects were done very well. The plot kept me entertained, the writing was not amazing, but good and easy to read. There are a a lot of characters, and I found the majority of them to be very compelling and found myself wanting to learn more about them.

If I had to say one thing I didn't love, it would be the romance subplot. I felt like this book was strong enough without it and it seemed to take away from what was very interesting story.

This book goes by quite quickly. If you're a warriors fan looking for a new series, I would definitely give this a try!

[Art3mis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a book but before you see this review it does contain spoilers so be careful.... WOW this book grabbed right on to me I could not believe it when I got past part 1 let’s catch you up... Clay, a mudwing is one of the dragonets of destiny and there guardians who are supposed to keep them safe trap them in a cave where the dragons dream of escape... when a nightwing comes he wants to kill one of the dragons and the dragons need to escape... Clay and his seawing friend Tsunami escape but come face to face with Queen Scarlet, a queen in the war that the dragonets are destined to stop SPOILER, they get caught and give away there location, Part 2 was even better then Part 1 but my fav part was in the middle.... the dragonets are held as slaves with there helpers and once again they need to escape let’s get this moving quick Clay meets a Skywing named Peril she helps them escape then the dragonets free the others and go search for there parents then they go and they figure out that Clay was sold he didn’t have a dad AND finally the last thing I will tell you.... Tsunamis, THE LOST HEIR! Thanks for reading and bye guys see you next time!!!!

[Hannah]

My goddaughter told me this series was one of her favorites at my niece's age. Another fail for me though, because I could tell from just the first couple of pages that this is outside my niece's interest. I fear I will have to visit her without a book in hand to give her 😟

[Tom Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded down because crotchety old men will do that.

This seems to me a stellar book for readers ages 11-14.

[Jan Agaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

still better than the 5 chapters of Fourth Wing that I read so far

[Ashley G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars rounded up.

Solid middle grade storyline, but it got a bit dark at times and there was more violence and death than I prefer in my fiction. Felt like GOT (which I haven't watched cause of the violence lol) for middle schoolers. I will continue with the series.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) The Dragonet Prophecy is the first in the new series WINGS OF FIRE, by Tui T. Sutherland. It’s set in a world where dragons are the dominant species; humans are present but are called “scavengers” and seen as an occasionally dangerous nuisance. The prophecy concerns five young dragons who, it is foretold, will end a long and ruinous war. The five are hidden away and raised by a small rebel underground.

Sutherland quickly takes this plot in a couple of unexpected directions that hooked me right away. The rebels are not particularly good people — er, dragons — and don’t necessarily have the dragonets’ best interests at heart. And one of the five dragonets thought to be mentioned in the prophecy was killed in the egg, so another was substituted: Glory, who comes from the much-despised RainWing tribe. These two factors come together to pose a deadly threat to Glory.

It’s this threat to Glory that inspires the dragonets to defy their guardians for the first time, and sparks the coming-of-age adventure of Clay, the MudWing who is our point-of-view character and protagonist. The dragonets must escape and save Glory — and if they manage that, they will find themselves in the outside world and in the midst of the dragon war.

The Dragonet Prophecy is pretty violent for a middle-grade book; it depicts war and gladiatorial combat without pulling a lot of punches. For this reason, I think it’s best suited for the upper end of the middle-grade range. However, the dialogue and humor feel “young” in a way I’m hard-pressed to put my finger on, and so I don’t think WINGS OF FIRE is going to be one of those kids’ series that gains a huge cult following among adults.

Which is kind of a shame, actually, because Sutherland spins a good plot with lots of twists and betrayals and shades-of-gray morality. It felt kind of like reading A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE for kids, though of course much shorter and with dragons in the speaking roles. So far I’m really intrigued, and I plan to look up the second book, The Last Heir, when it comes out in January.

www.fantasyliterature.com