From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Wearle comes the next adventure about loyalty and bravery, set against the clash of dragons and humankind.The dragon Wearle is in A human boy named Ren has bonded with a pair of baby dragons, and their connection has given him shocking and extraordinary new powers. Though some of the dragons suspect he is plotting against the Wearle, his dragon allies will do anything to save him. But Ren has an agenda of his own.Meanwhile, after the devastating war with the dragons, the humans, or Kaal, have accepted the leadership of a mysterious stranger. The man, who calls himself Tywyll, has an affinity for crows and rides a remarkable unicorn. The band of followers that accompanies him into dragon territory has no idea the danger they’re inviting.Though the dragons and the Kaal are dead set against each other, both will face down an ancient power stronger than any of them can imagine.“This second book in the Erth Dragons series offers readers more of the same high fantasy, rich language, and compelling action scenes.” —Booklist
He was born in Valetta, Malta, but as a child moved first to Leicester and then to Bolton. After gaining a degree in biology from the University of York, he returned to Leicester and got a job at the University of Leicester in their Pre-Clinical Sciences department. Originally his writing was confined to songs and he didn't turn to fiction until he was 32. His first piece of work was a 250,000 word story about polar bears for his wife, Jay, to accompany a stuffed polar bear he had bought her as a Christmas present. He didn't write another story for seven years, until he heard about a competition to write a story for young children with a prize of £2,000. The resulting book, A Hole at the Pole, also about polar bears, didn't win - but he sent it off to a publisher, who accepted it. His first children's novel, Fly, Cherokee, Fly, was published in 1998 and subsequently shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It was inspired by the time he found an injured pigeon in Victoria Park and nursed it back to health at home. It became a family pet and lived for 14 years in a birdbox attached to the back of the house. All of its offspring were given the names of different Native American tribes, which is where the title of the book comes from.) He has since written over twenty children's books, including Pawnee Warrior (a sequel to Fly, Cherokee, Fly), a collaborative novel with fellow children's author Linda Newbery (From E To You), and the best-selling, award-winning The Last Dragon Chronicles. His books often contain environmental themes, and events based on things that have happened to him. In July 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leicester for his contributions to children's literature. Although writing is now his main source of income, he still works at the university as the operator of the confocal microscope. His favourite children's books are the Paddington Bear series and The Hobbit, and his favourite children's authors are Allan Ahlberg and Roald Dahl. Chris D'Lacey has written many books like Ice Fire and Fire Star, but his most famous book was Dark Fire, the fifth book in The Last Dragon Chronicles.
The theme of this story was: There are people who want help, people who will refuse it, and people who will go to such lengths to prove that they can do anything on their own
I'm pretty I read the summary for this one before the first book and immediately needed to know more about the character Ren, in all his liminality, between skalar/dragon and Hom, his drake and the rest of the Wearle.
Hoo boy, what a ride.
D'lacey's really cool and thoughtful mythology continues... and shit is getting real. Most importantly, there's a type of possession happening, which is pretty much one of my literary kinks.
I read Earth dragons Dark Wyng by Chris D’layce. This book changed me by showing how to push through even when things seem bad or impossible, which is a trait that I think is very important for life and everything that you do in it. I would definitely recommend this book to middle school students and everyone who thinks that they are able to understand it and follow along with the complicated words that the author frequently uses throughout the book.
Also I would recommend it to anyone who thinks that challenging means impossible because there is a big difference but people still get them mixed including me, but this book is a good representation of how to keep going. The author of this book is a very experienced writer because he has written over 20 books in his career. He has won an award for a book in this series. He is 70 years old so that is even an example of pushing through. His first book The Fire Within was published in 2001 and finished writing the series in 2011 with Fire World and is still writing today. It was an extremely interesting book because it had an amazing twist at the end and it was filled with mystery and action.
This book was about a boy who had been bitten by a special kind of dragon that gave him the power to make fire come out of his hands, communicate with the dragons, and phase, an ability that is basically teleportation, a technique that the dragons have mastered. He had befriended the dragon colony that the dragon that bitten him was from. Also before the mother of that dragon died she put her consciousness into the boy and then was able to speak to her through his mind when he needed it most.
The antagonist of the story was a dragon named Tywall, a dragon in the form of a human. He was the son of the deity-like dragon named Godith. He was turned to the dark side by a unique kind of dried up dragon blood called Fhosforent. He was trying to steal a hardened dragon heart that was left from a dead dragon named Per-Gordrdon. If Tywall succeeded in stealing and opening the heart then he would have had the ability to turn back into a dragon. In the end he succeeded in doing so, but the boy and the rest of the dragon colony had found a secret that revealed a way to defeat the evil dragon Tywall.
The twist was that the leader of the dragon colony was the one who had helped Tywall steal the heart that gave him the ability to turn back into a dragon, but the leader was possessed by Godith the god dragon as a test to see if the whole colony was worth the name Dark Wyng, a title that means that they have the strength of Star Fallen a legendary dragon who is supposedly related to Godith. This is one of the best books I have ever read and I hope that everyone that reads this book likes it as much as me.
A time long ago on the planet Erth, the surviving members of a group of dragons, called a Wearle, are recovering from heavy losses. The dragon Wearle went to explore Erth with aspirations of hosting a permanent colony of dragons, but ended up in a horrible battle against the mutated dragons already occupying Erth. During the battle, the Wearle discovered that the mutation came from eating a mysterious mineral found in the rocks. The mineral improved the dragons’ fire, strength, and endurance, but ultimately made them insane. Why the mineral would cause insanity was unknown. The Wearle’s leader, the Prime, decides to fetch help from their home, the planet of Ki:mera. The dragon that came to assist makes an astonishing discovery leading to rumors of the existence of a dark dragon on Erth. Meanwhile, a human boy who lives on Erth, Ren, has created an uneasy truce with the dragon Wearle on behalf of his people, the Hom, but one that may be short lived. When the dragons find one of their own lying dead, the brittle truce breaks and bloodshed starts anew. Because of their squabbling, both sides fail to see the new threat that rises from the ashes of the old one. Ren and Gabrial, the young dragon that befriends Ren and takes him into his den, must grow out of their childhoods if they are to save their species. Much like the first book of this fantasy series, I found this second book to have the typical subject of dragons and humans, but spun in an amazing new way that is extremely engaging. The author is not afraid to alter the characters in shocking new ways, and I never knew what would happen next. I would recommend this book to mature elementary school children or middle schoolers and older as there is some intense action and dialogue (though no swearing) that may be too much for a younger reader. Reviewed By Alex F., age 15, Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa
What is with the cover????? How tacky looking Mr D'Lacey ought to find a better cover artist.
A great second book to the Erth Dragon series, where characters begin to take charge and tings become complicated between the world of dragons, goyles and humans. Blood is shed and monsters and awakened.
I love how D' Lacey keeps his rules in the series to the last dragon chronicles within these books, all dragons names begin with 'G' and Godith is their creator, and fire tears are the dragons essence of life etc.
I was hit by a van the day after I started reading this and so....I read this in a day sat like a cripple (in my wheelchair) in front of my rats cage feet up on their food box, with fizzy drinks and chocolate at hand... this book was gripping enough to leave me wanting more. Glad I had time off work to finish it so quickly. ;)
But the covers though..... seriously... I will be buying these books but not until they have a second edition cover for the series lolz!
Sigh. I had high hopes for this book, and it didn't really deliver. There were some good parts though, so at least it wasn't completely terrible. I'm starting to get tired of G names, honestly. I mean, I know it's because of Godith, but really. Come on. I'm getting confused at this point. I think one of the main things wrong with this book was that too much time was spent in unimportant scenes, and not enough was spent in the important parts. The part where Rolan and Tywyll fought was anticlimactic, and people just keep getting dragon superpowers. At this point it's getting unrealistic. I need a list of people's powers, because it's starting to feel like they are overpowered, and, again, I'm confused. I need set guidelines for this kind of thing! The characters were still okay though, and that was basically the high point of this book. Well, I'm going to continue on to the last book and see if it gets any better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
D’Lacey is a good author with descriptive scenes and strong characters. I picked up this series for my son and read the first one as he did. I enjoyed the first book quite a lot, but I’m glad I read this one first before my son (he’s 11). This is rated for middle grade and it might be ok for some. There’s no bad language or sex in it, the violence is kept to middle grade level I think, but there really are some darker themes some parents might want to be aware of. Suicide, “demon” possession, necromancy etc. As a Christian there are quite a lot of spiritual parallels I appreciated though that could be discussed. I’m unsure of d’Lacey’s religious beliefs, but it’s clear he took quite a bit from Christianity in this series. This particular book seems a bit chaotic and bizarre for most of it, but it does come together in the end.
Great beginning, great ending; unfortunately, everything in between feels kind of . . . hollow. I can only assume this is because of middle-book (or rather, final-book-setup) syndrome. Lots of running around, characters swapping sides and places and allegiances. Once I reached part 5, though . . . I was rewarded with glorious strangeness that I haven't seen since the Last Dragon Chronicles. Worth reading for that alone. And of course there's the deepening mythology (which may or may not be related to LDC and the UFiles), which remains as interesting as ever. Just not as cohesive or compelling as book 1.
Kid's Review: I think this book is very good. It has lots of excitement, and it is well written. The book makes it so that you can't skip anything, or you won't know what is going on. It has some humor, which is nice, and there isn't too much killing (although a few people, dragons, and animals do die). One of the best parts is when I realized that Ren was turning evil, and then I just wanted him to fall into the jaws of a hungry dragon. Overall, I think this is a good book for anyone. I can't wait until A New Age comes out!!!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
THIS WAS DARK. I loved every second of it but man.... You know that dazed feeling you get when you just finish a good book and you're like "ok...I just need to sit here for a second and process that...". That's how I feel right now. Wow. I definitely recommend this to everyone 12 and up. Do not give this book to an eight year old because you think "hmm thats a cool dragon". It took me 15 minutes to write this review because I kept pausing to think about this guy whose eyes had been pecked out or when Pine was possessed by a goyle. Again...Wow.
I guess I had forgotten how D'Lacey writes. I understand what is happening but at the same time there is so much left unknown that I feel confused. So is Ren becoming Graven? What happened to Grystina? Are the Wearlings going to eat Pine? What happened to Grogan? So so so much stuff. D'Lacey, you just gotta twist minds don't you? Goodness, I guess I'll look forward to the third book next year. Hopefully there will be an extensive recap...
I enjoyed the continuation of this story, with the ending making me look forward to the next book in the series. What frustrates me however is, what it feels like, the needless aggression that progresses the story. While the logic is sound, I didn’t see the need for all the anger and spite that constantly filled the characters. However, it may just be that I’m missing an obvious explanation, and I look forward to the next book,
A good follow up to the gripping first book, but it took a while for the story to unfold. Granted, this book seems like it is setting up big events in the next book, but it did frustrate me how much time was spent focusing on the dragons arguing among themselves. I enjoyed Ren's developing character and his journey towards being his own hero. I also love some of the new dragons they introduce because, let's be honest, dragons are the whole reason I picked up this book!
So this is where the series fell for me. The first book showed promise compared to this book. It was bit everywhere and it was hard to follow. After a while you didn’t like any of the characters that you were suppose to like. After loving his other series “The Last Dragon chronicles” I had high hopes for this series, but after going through book one, reading other book in the series is a low possibility for me
The second in the series. The audio book version was very well done. The author is great at moving the plot along at break neck speed and is entirely unafraid to kill off characters. I really enjoy the world the author has created. I like how the Dragon society has different roles, like guards, healers, and scientists that you would normally associate with humans.
I felt there were many different new viens to the plot that was opened and left dangling. The leader of the dragons seem like idiots to never listen and the characters I felt were always kept behind bars. Ren's character also seemed to change (from what we learned from his personality in the first book) and I wasn't as impressed with this than I had been with the first.
A good installment in the Erth Dragon series! Many of the plot points surprised me. There are some dark themes; the villain puts a dragon stone into a character after killing her, which makes her into a dragon hybrid. It is portrayed as very evil. There is also some violence. The religious aspect found in the first book is significantly less in this one.
Took too long to get where it was going and sped through parts that should have taken longer. Decent enough, though anti-climatic at parts. If the next book ends up on a shelf at eye level in my library I may read it, but I won't go out of my way to find it.