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Tales of the Wendy #3
The Captain
There is a price to changing one’s destiny…
The Tales of the Wendy series concludes in this stunning sequel to The Wendy and The Navigator. Old friends and new allies join forces for an epic adventure that spans not only oceans, but time itself.
The Tales of the Wendy series concludes in this stunning sequel to The Wendy and The Navigator. Old friends and new allies join forces for an epic adventure that spans not only oceans, but time itself.
414 pages, Hardcover
Published March 25, 2025
16 people are currently reading
610 people want to read
About the author
Erin Michelle Sky
6 books355 followersErin Michelle Sky & Steven Brown, Dragon Authors
As a child, Erin fell in love with llamas and with the books of Anne McCaffrey, whose Dragonriders of Pern series inspired her to become a writer. When she finally met Anne McCaffrey at a fantasy convention some two decades later, she wept uncontrollably throughout the entire affair. She does significantly better with llamas.
Steven Brown spent his childhood reading anything he could get his hands on, sharing his favorite stories with his younger brothers and then acting them out, especially if this required sword fighting on horseback. When they ran out of books, he wrote his own, including his brothers as the main characters by sketching original illustrations on magazine clippings.
Together, they are Dragon Authors. You can find them online at https://DragonAuthors.com.
As a child, Erin fell in love with llamas and with the books of Anne McCaffrey, whose Dragonriders of Pern series inspired her to become a writer. When she finally met Anne McCaffrey at a fantasy convention some two decades later, she wept uncontrollably throughout the entire affair. She does significantly better with llamas.
Steven Brown spent his childhood reading anything he could get his hands on, sharing his favorite stories with his younger brothers and then acting them out, especially if this required sword fighting on horseback. When they ran out of books, he wrote his own, including his brothers as the main characters by sketching original illustrations on magazine clippings.
Together, they are Dragon Authors. You can find them online at https://DragonAuthors.com.
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January 14, 2021THIS COVER IS GORGEOUS AND I'M SO EXCITED!
May 1, 2025
Can you have too much Neverland?
The Captain is the final novel of Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown AKA Dragon Authors' trilogy Tales of the Wendy. I was a little disappointed by this one. It is truly full of wonderful stuff and brilliant ideas and nicely caps (without really finishing, which is a good thing) Wendy's story.
The problem is that there is JUST TOO MUCH. At 414 pages in kindle, The Captain is longer than The Wendy (294 pages) and The Navigator (350 pages), and it felt like it. I was eager to reach the end well before I got there.
Most of the action takes place in the Neverland. Now, in J.M. Barrie's original Peter Pan the Neverland is mostly left to the reader's imagination. One gets the impression that it is one small island inhabited by the Lost Boys, Tiger Lily's Indians, and the Pirates, with some mermaids in the lagoon. In The Captain the Neverland is a vast realm full of all kinds of fantastic peoples and beasts and diverse magics. The plot is complicated -- it holds together, but there is a LOT of story here.
I am not quite sure why this all overwhelmed me. Compared to, say, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Tales of the Wendy is brief, and there is less in Dragon Authors' Neverland than there is in Middle Earth. But not a lot less. Perhaps that's the problem. There is just more to the setting and the world than the story needs to carry it.
In the end, Dragon Authors' Neverland reminded me of the Ball Machines of the old West Edmonton Mall. I saw one of the Ball Machines in action at the Edmonton Mall in 1987 -- it was fascinating. But I would not want to read a book about it.
Blog review.
The Captain is the final novel of Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown AKA Dragon Authors' trilogy Tales of the Wendy. I was a little disappointed by this one. It is truly full of wonderful stuff and brilliant ideas and nicely caps (without really finishing, which is a good thing) Wendy's story.
The problem is that there is JUST TOO MUCH. At 414 pages in kindle, The Captain is longer than The Wendy (294 pages) and The Navigator (350 pages), and it felt like it. I was eager to reach the end well before I got there.
Most of the action takes place in the Neverland. Now, in J.M. Barrie's original Peter Pan the Neverland is mostly left to the reader's imagination. One gets the impression that it is one small island inhabited by the Lost Boys, Tiger Lily's Indians, and the Pirates, with some mermaids in the lagoon. In The Captain the Neverland is a vast realm full of all kinds of fantastic peoples and beasts and diverse magics. The plot is complicated -- it holds together, but there is a LOT of story here.
I am not quite sure why this all overwhelmed me. Compared to, say, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Tales of the Wendy is brief, and there is less in Dragon Authors' Neverland than there is in Middle Earth. But not a lot less. Perhaps that's the problem. There is just more to the setting and the world than the story needs to carry it.
In the end, Dragon Authors' Neverland reminded me of the Ball Machines of the old West Edmonton Mall. I saw one of the Ball Machines in action at the Edmonton Mall in 1987 -- it was fascinating. But I would not want to read a book about it.
Blog review.
July 8, 2025
Oh my goodness, it took me 80 days to finish this. My apologies to the author, who graciously sent me an ebook ARC after I reached out to inquire about whether or not book 3 was ever going to happen. It's here at last! At the time, I was actually getting through ebooks pretty well (nap trapped by a baby, with only my phone to keep me occupied), but almost immediately after getting my hands on this ebook....my time/will to read ebooks dried up. Hence: 80 days. NOT the fault of the author or the book.
That said, this IS a longer book than the others in the series, and I'll be very interested to read the final iteration of this book. It definitely felt a tad drawn out, and I don't think that was only because I was reading this very slowly.
The part that I had the biggest issue with was the introduction of Buri, a kind of evil god figure (referred to as Loki at one point, which I think was a typo, but maybe in a revealing "Dwigt" type of way, iykyk) who was trying to infiltrate Neverland and do bad stuff. He actually WAS infiltrating, through a portal from another world, but was basically a frozen statue sloooowwwllly pushing his way into Neverland. This meant that everyone knew he was coming, and had the entire book to prepare for his arrival. Periodically characters would go and have a look to say, "Yup, more of his torso is through now. We better hustle!" Something about this whole concept felt...kinda silly. It reminded me of a PC game (though I can't remember which one) where you know that you're going to have to fight the final boss at the end of the game, and you can literally SEE him growing in size and menace in the background while you're busy defeating lesser minions. But you can't attempt to defeat him earlier when he's weaker; nope, gotta wait for the contrived moment when he's ripe for fighting.
Anyway, besides that, the rest of the book was decent enough. I could stand to hear about Hook's "forget-me-not" eyes or Peter Pan's green pickle smell a bit less, but I appreciate that the author left that love triangle undecided right up until the end (and without spending too much time inserting an actual romantic plot, but instead just lightly hinting).
Like I said, I would like to read the final version of this book to see if the plot was tightened up a bit more. I'll also have to reread it on paper, since the ebook format turned out to be such a drag for me. Maybe the story only felt like it stalled a bit because *I* stalled out for personal reasons.
That said, this IS a longer book than the others in the series, and I'll be very interested to read the final iteration of this book. It definitely felt a tad drawn out, and I don't think that was only because I was reading this very slowly.
The part that I had the biggest issue with was the introduction of Buri, a kind of evil god figure (referred to as Loki at one point, which I think was a typo, but maybe in a revealing "Dwigt" type of way, iykyk) who was trying to infiltrate Neverland and do bad stuff. He actually WAS infiltrating, through a portal from another world, but was basically a frozen statue sloooowwwllly pushing his way into Neverland. This meant that everyone knew he was coming, and had the entire book to prepare for his arrival. Periodically characters would go and have a look to say, "Yup, more of his torso is through now. We better hustle!" Something about this whole concept felt...kinda silly. It reminded me of a PC game (though I can't remember which one) where you know that you're going to have to fight the final boss at the end of the game, and you can literally SEE him growing in size and menace in the background while you're busy defeating lesser minions. But you can't attempt to defeat him earlier when he's weaker; nope, gotta wait for the contrived moment when he's ripe for fighting.
Anyway, besides that, the rest of the book was decent enough. I could stand to hear about Hook's "forget-me-not" eyes or Peter Pan's green pickle smell a bit less, but I appreciate that the author left that love triangle undecided right up until the end (and without spending too much time inserting an actual romantic plot, but instead just lightly hinting).
Like I said, I would like to read the final version of this book to see if the plot was tightened up a bit more. I'll also have to reread it on paper, since the ebook format turned out to be such a drag for me. Maybe the story only felt like it stalled a bit because *I* stalled out for personal reasons.
March 16, 2025
After many years of eagerly awaiting the final book in this trilogy, I have to admit I was nervous about reading this one. The first two books were brilliant; would the conclusion meet this standard? Well, it does and it doesn't.
I think a lot of the whimsy and charm I loved in the first books got lost admist the seriousness of the situation as the characters fight to save Neverland. The stakes are higher than they have been before and it makes for a more tense atmosphere. As the cast of characters has expanded over the three books, more and more scenes are told from the point of view of different characters and with so many people now involved, some of the original characters from the first book tend to get lost. For example, there is little to no mention of John throughout the climatic final battle and you see Michael only occasionally while other characters step to the fore instead.
That said, there is still so much to love in this book, all the action and adventure, twists and turns, and a subtle hint of romance. The writing throughout remains as beautiful as in the previous books. Wendy is a great character, strong and determined, but still vunerable. The final battle is a nail-bitting affair with very high stakes and even when the battle is over, you still can't be certain exactly how the story will end.
Overall, it is a thrilling and very fitting conclusion to a wonderful series.
I received an ARC and leave an honest review.
I think a lot of the whimsy and charm I loved in the first books got lost admist the seriousness of the situation as the characters fight to save Neverland. The stakes are higher than they have been before and it makes for a more tense atmosphere. As the cast of characters has expanded over the three books, more and more scenes are told from the point of view of different characters and with so many people now involved, some of the original characters from the first book tend to get lost. For example, there is little to no mention of John throughout the climatic final battle and you see Michael only occasionally while other characters step to the fore instead.
That said, there is still so much to love in this book, all the action and adventure, twists and turns, and a subtle hint of romance. The writing throughout remains as beautiful as in the previous books. Wendy is a great character, strong and determined, but still vunerable. The final battle is a nail-bitting affair with very high stakes and even when the battle is over, you still can't be certain exactly how the story will end.
Overall, it is a thrilling and very fitting conclusion to a wonderful series.
I received an ARC and leave an honest review.
March 27, 2025
Omg it finally came out.
The stakes were high and the writing was as witty as ever but the magic of the first two was sort of lost to me in this one.
For one, they flitted all around Neverland for most of the book and while it was fun to see different landscapes and creatures some of it felt unnecessary.
John and Micheal were pretty much mia the whole book and the introduction of so many new pov's felt a little overwhelming for the last book.
I also felt like Wendy did a lot of observing during the final fight when she should have been in the thick of it.
The touch of romance with Peter seemed very abrupt in the end...idk it just didn't feel right to me. And I wish we would have gotten a more concrete answer regarding her mom and whether she was still alive and explored the idea of half human orphans abandoned all throughout the world. And how everyone has magic...it would honestly have been more impactful if Wendy had returned to England to explore these new developments instead of staying in Neverland where she doesn't have the possibility to implement social change.
Also ngl...kinda wished she'd ended up with Hook (the part where he confesses had me shrieking).
All in all, though, an enjoyable read even if my review seems like it was otherwise lol
The stakes were high and the writing was as witty as ever but the magic of the first two was sort of lost to me in this one.
For one, they flitted all around Neverland for most of the book and while it was fun to see different landscapes and creatures some of it felt unnecessary.
John and Micheal were pretty much mia the whole book and the introduction of so many new pov's felt a little overwhelming for the last book.
I also felt like Wendy did a lot of observing during the final fight when she should have been in the thick of it.
The touch of romance with Peter seemed very abrupt in the end...idk it just didn't feel right to me. And I wish we would have gotten a more concrete answer regarding her mom and whether she was still alive and explored the idea of half human orphans abandoned all throughout the world. And how everyone has magic...it would honestly have been more impactful if Wendy had returned to England to explore these new developments instead of staying in Neverland where she doesn't have the possibility to implement social change.
Also ngl...kinda wished she'd ended up with Hook (the part where he confesses had me shrieking).
All in all, though, an enjoyable read even if my review seems like it was otherwise lol
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2025
Okay, okay! So I was super excited about this one! The long-awaited final installment of The Wendy, and I was not disappointed!
The Captain maintained the delight and whimsy of the first two books, though with an edge of urgency. The battle for Neverland is afoot! And Wendy and her trusty crew must gather allies to defeat Blackheart and Buri, who are reaping all kinds of chaos.
My nerdy little brain got super excited every time any historical or mythical beings were introduced. We've got dragons and griffins and all manner of fey! God's and giants and even Jack Frost! And who could forget our clan of Vikings!
After three books, Wendy has finally achieved her dream of Captaining her own ship! And a flying ship to boot! Hook is there, once again keeping me on my toes about where his loyalties actually lie, and Peter Pan's arc finally comes full circle and yeah, I cried!
Several times!
And the ending? Perfect! Couldn't have asked for better!
So for fans of adventure and whimsical worlds, and obviously if you loved the first two installments, get on it!
The Captain maintained the delight and whimsy of the first two books, though with an edge of urgency. The battle for Neverland is afoot! And Wendy and her trusty crew must gather allies to defeat Blackheart and Buri, who are reaping all kinds of chaos.
My nerdy little brain got super excited every time any historical or mythical beings were introduced. We've got dragons and griffins and all manner of fey! God's and giants and even Jack Frost! And who could forget our clan of Vikings!
After three books, Wendy has finally achieved her dream of Captaining her own ship! And a flying ship to boot! Hook is there, once again keeping me on my toes about where his loyalties actually lie, and Peter Pan's arc finally comes full circle and yeah, I cried!
Several times!
And the ending? Perfect! Couldn't have asked for better!
So for fans of adventure and whimsical worlds, and obviously if you loved the first two installments, get on it!
May 25, 2025
Honestly. I found this to be quite a mess. It was excessively long, there were huge chunks where absolutely nothing happened, we went over the same conversations time and time again.
Other than wrapping up the story and sending everyone on their way, this hardly added anything to the series at all. There was a brand new big bad guy that we focused on rather than going down the same path with Pan and Hook again. This story felt like it really fir with the novella Tigerlilja, but neither of them really followed the original plot in the first two books in the series… they really went on a whole new tangent (aka Norse Gods?)
I really didn’t like Wendy from the get go so to be honest I wasn’t expecting to love this, but I also wasn’t expecting it to be as big of a let down as it was either.
Other than wrapping up the story and sending everyone on their way, this hardly added anything to the series at all. There was a brand new big bad guy that we focused on rather than going down the same path with Pan and Hook again. This story felt like it really fir with the novella Tigerlilja, but neither of them really followed the original plot in the first two books in the series… they really went on a whole new tangent (aka Norse Gods?)
I really didn’t like Wendy from the get go so to be honest I wasn’t expecting to love this, but I also wasn’t expecting it to be as big of a let down as it was either.
March 30, 2025
This is one of my favorite series, my feel good, go to book. The authors did not disappoint with this final book.
The pacing was great, always moving along and keeping my attention.
I enjoyed reading about familiar characters from other stories, this was a unique spin to a tale we've all heard many times.
I won't spoil the ending but I will say I was so satisfied with how it ended!
I will be reading this to my children when they're around 10/11 years old and I can't wait to share it with them.
The pacing was great, always moving along and keeping my attention.
I enjoyed reading about familiar characters from other stories, this was a unique spin to a tale we've all heard many times.
I won't spoil the ending but I will say I was so satisfied with how it ended!
I will be reading this to my children when they're around 10/11 years old and I can't wait to share it with them.
March 26, 2025
Stupid Peter. But I loved it anyway.
April 15, 2025
A rounded up 2.5. I found this finale to be a little over the top or off the rails a bit. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first two and found myself skimming through it at the end.
April 11, 2025
Is it worth the wait? ABSOLUTELY. Are there things left unresolved? Also yes. Was my OTP endgame? Basically no, but I'm still happy with the book.
The stakes were higher and the battle scenes were a lot darker than the last two books. I enjoyed this progression into the serious, climatic confrontations and but would have liked at least one longer comedic moment between all the characters. But I loved the new characters’ personalities and backstories! And of course, our lovable gang was back on flying ships and totally epic battles. Peter was more somber here but still his adventure seeking self. Hook, my favorite, as compelling as ever and I love Wendy and her independent, compassionate, but feisty persona.
However, I wish the action lasted longer. I would have loved to see at least a hundred pages more; the book is a little under 300 pages but I could easily see this book having just a few more chapters to resolve relationships between characters, or to answer lingering questions about Wendy’s roots to Neverland and the magic system itself. Plus (a mini spoiler ahead), I was a little sad at Wendy’s final decision; I think she could’ve made so much social change in London, while being a diplomat for Neverland, too.
I’m a Hook/Wendy shipper, but Peter and Wendy’s romance was expected, based on the first two books. Plus for any Hook and Wendy shippers out there, you’re in for a treat because some of their scenes are *gold*
The stakes were higher and the battle scenes were a lot darker than the last two books. I enjoyed this progression into the serious, climatic confrontations and but would have liked at least one longer comedic moment between all the characters. But I loved the new characters’ personalities and backstories! And of course, our lovable gang was back on flying ships and totally epic battles. Peter was more somber here but still his adventure seeking self. Hook, my favorite, as compelling as ever and I love Wendy and her independent, compassionate, but feisty persona.
However, I wish the action lasted longer. I would have loved to see at least a hundred pages more; the book is a little under 300 pages but I could easily see this book having just a few more chapters to resolve relationships between characters, or to answer lingering questions about Wendy’s roots to Neverland and the magic system itself. Plus (a mini spoiler ahead), I was a little sad at Wendy’s final decision; I think she could’ve made so much social change in London, while being a diplomat for Neverland, too.
I’m a Hook/Wendy shipper, but Peter and Wendy’s romance was expected, based on the first two books. Plus for any Hook and Wendy shippers out there, you’re in for a treat because some of their scenes are *gold*
March 26, 2025
This series is a fun retelling of the classic story.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews