WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:02.759 Wings of Fire is a wildly popular middle grade 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.080 fantasy series. But after listening to the first 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.780 book, I have questions. Questions like, why are 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:09.740 we talking about mating? Why are dragons flirting 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:11.419 like teenagers, even though they're like six 00:00:11.419 --> 00:00:13.259 or eight years old? Which I guess if they mature 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:14.660 differently, that's fine. Maybe. I don't know. 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.379 It's weird, though. And most of all, why is this 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:19.660 being marketed to kids? Again, kids who are like, 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:21.260 you know, eight years old or so, about the age 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:22.760 of the dragons, who are getting romantically 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:24.579 involved and having weird stuff happen with them. 00:00:24.899 --> 00:00:27.239 Look, I enjoyed the story. I really did. But 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.429 the farther I got... into it, the more I found 00:00:30.429 --> 00:00:33.750 myself thinking, this is a great YA book disguised 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:35.909 as a middle grade one, and I think that's a problem. 00:00:36.109 --> 00:00:39.590 So in this video, I'm diving into the fire. What 00:00:39.590 --> 00:00:41.490 works, what doesn't, and why this book might 00:00:41.490 --> 00:00:44.210 not be the right fit for every kid, even if it's 00:00:44.210 --> 00:00:46.170 wildly entertaining for adults, and, you know, 00:00:46.210 --> 00:00:48.409 obviously kids are enjoying it too. But as a 00:00:48.409 --> 00:00:51.729 kid, I was shown Robocop and Terminator and Alien 00:00:51.729 --> 00:00:53.270 and all sorts of things that I shouldn't have 00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:55.869 been watching, and, you know, here I am. I'm 00:00:55.869 --> 00:01:01.130 fine. Anyway, this is MJ. I'm an author. I'm 00:01:01.130 --> 00:01:02.530 an artist. I'm an analyzer. You can find all 00:01:02.530 --> 00:01:04.989 my work at mj1news .com. Prepare yourself for 00:01:04.989 --> 00:01:07.269 unbannable book analysis as I talk about whether 00:01:07.269 --> 00:01:10.370 or not this story holds a place of honor or scorn 00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:14.930 in the fortress fiction. So, yeah. Wings of Fire 00:01:14.930 --> 00:01:18.069 is really interesting. I think that... Gosh, 00:01:18.189 --> 00:01:19.650 there's a lot to talk about. So, first of all, 00:01:19.689 --> 00:01:21.450 I think it is a very competently written book. 00:01:21.629 --> 00:01:25.010 I think... Tui S. Sutherland is a great writer. 00:01:25.629 --> 00:01:27.409 Well, she's a good writer. She's a very good 00:01:27.409 --> 00:01:29.909 writer. There are problems, though. There are 00:01:29.909 --> 00:01:31.930 things in the book that I thought, like, it's 00:01:31.930 --> 00:01:34.049 kind of weak. There are things in the book that 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:37.549 I thought weren't so great and didn't really 00:01:37.549 --> 00:01:40.189 make sense to me. And actually, as a bonus in 00:01:40.189 --> 00:01:42.129 the Audible book, there was a recording of her 00:01:42.129 --> 00:01:43.950 saying, like, oh, like, talking about, like, 00:01:44.010 --> 00:01:46.650 how she came up with the idea for the book and 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:48.150 some of the things that she thought. And, like, 00:01:48.209 --> 00:01:51.480 I found this remarkably funny that... And I don't 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:52.920 know what she meant by this, but I'll just throw 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:54.700 it out here real quick as a little red meat for 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:57.939 people. She said that she wanted there to be 00:01:57.939 --> 00:02:00.599 these queens, very powerful dragon queens. She 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:01.700 thought it would be very cool for them to be 00:02:01.700 --> 00:02:04.120 a matriarchal society. But then the longer she 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:05.900 wrote it, the more and more she realized that 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.740 there were a bunch of bad women, bad female characters 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:10.860 in her story and how horrible that is. And I 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:12.539 just thought, well, lady, what do you expect? 00:02:12.740 --> 00:02:15.240 Like, if you want it to be female dominated, 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:18.930 then you have to have very heroic. you know female 00:02:18.930 --> 00:02:21.389 characters and you have to have very um evil 00:02:21.389 --> 00:02:23.909 female characters in order for it to work i mean 00:02:23.909 --> 00:02:26.330 you could have made it like i don't know like 00:02:26.330 --> 00:02:27.770 she's the author if she didn't want it to feel 00:02:27.770 --> 00:02:29.789 sexist or like feel like it's woman bashing or 00:02:29.789 --> 00:02:32.009 whatever by framing women as you know bad or 00:02:32.009 --> 00:02:33.569 intrinsically evil which i don't think it does 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:35.490 like it obviously does not do that even to kids 00:02:35.490 --> 00:02:38.629 um especially because like most of the cast it's 00:02:38.629 --> 00:02:41.639 like um i don't know I can't remember all their 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:43.879 names. Clay, for sure, is a guy. And I think, 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:45.699 like, Starwing or Star Knight or Black Knight 00:02:45.699 --> 00:02:47.680 or whatever his name is, he's also a male dragon. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:49.800 But the other four dragons that they have, or, 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.180 yeah, the other four dragons that are involved, 00:02:51.379 --> 00:02:54.120 because there's six total, are all female. And, 00:02:54.139 --> 00:02:56.849 like, if four out of your... six character cast 00:02:56.849 --> 00:02:59.090 is female and they're heroic then i think no 00:02:59.090 --> 00:03:00.349 matter how many villains you have in it that 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:02.090 are female it's not going to be a big deal and 00:03:02.090 --> 00:03:03.569 it's not going to make kids think like oh girls 00:03:03.569 --> 00:03:05.770 are gross women are evil or anything like that 00:03:05.770 --> 00:03:07.389 which is so i thought that was like a silly concern 00:03:07.389 --> 00:03:10.430 of hers um and like that kind of thinking that 00:03:10.430 --> 00:03:12.090 kind of like comment that she made as the author 00:03:12.090 --> 00:03:14.610 makes me wonder like hmm something else going 00:03:14.610 --> 00:03:17.210 on here i don't know and like can i fully trust 00:03:17.210 --> 00:03:19.729 everything that this lady's saying or doing which 00:03:19.729 --> 00:03:21.210 i feel really bad about but it just seems like 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:23.810 uh that's I don't know, like, that seemed to 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:27.870 betray something that I don't like. Like, it's 00:03:27.870 --> 00:03:29.210 like a red flag, but I don't know what it's warning 00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:34.110 me about. But it also gets into some of the other 00:03:34.110 --> 00:03:35.789 stuff that I didn't like or that I thought was, 00:03:35.789 --> 00:03:37.889 like, less than, you know, wonderfully written 00:03:37.889 --> 00:03:40.189 in the book. Like, I guess not being able to 00:03:40.189 --> 00:03:43.090 think through that implication makes me wonder 00:03:43.090 --> 00:03:45.330 about things like Clay has a hard time, like, 00:03:45.349 --> 00:03:48.479 he kills... humans who are scavengers uh no problem 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:50.500 he eats them every now and then uh as he's being 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:53.400 raised in this cave um he you know eats animals 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:56.500 for prey cows um and sheep and rabbits and stuff 00:03:56.500 --> 00:03:59.099 like that and that's fine you know i kind of 00:03:59.099 --> 00:04:00.680 have no issue with that but like after he sees 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.039 killing happen like he's like he doesn't if he 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:04.560 sees like a dragon killed or you know murdered 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:07.479 in a gladiatory arena uh like he doesn't want 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:09.240 to fight and he or he doesn't want to eat the 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:10.840 food and things like that which like doesn't 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:13.020 make sense because i would think what I don't 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:15.020 know, just, like, the idea of eating a dead animal 00:04:15.020 --> 00:04:16.740 is, like, horrible after having somebody be killed. 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:19.000 I've never watched somebody be killed. Not in 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.639 that way. Not, like, live in an arena or whatever. 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:25.040 So, I don't really know how to say, or, like, 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:26.579 how to process that. It just seemed like a weird 00:04:26.579 --> 00:04:29.019 thing. Like, it seemed incongruous with the, 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:34.720 like, hardcore veneer that the world has. And 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.519 there's other things, like, like what? Oh, gosh. 00:04:38.459 --> 00:04:40.120 Yeah, like, Clay's not sure he can be a killer. 00:04:40.180 --> 00:04:42.139 He thinks he's a killer, which is actually a 00:04:42.139 --> 00:04:43.879 pretty cool plot twist that's explained at the 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:45.740 end of the book, which was nice, other than that 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:48.399 got wrapped up and resolved. And I like that, 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:50.800 and I like what it means, and I like how it will 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.819 push things going forward, but it also kind of 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:55.259 detracts. No, it doesn't detract from anything. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:56.519 It was just, it was interesting. It was interesting 00:04:56.519 --> 00:04:58.459 the way that was played, but yeah. So, you know, 00:04:58.459 --> 00:05:00.079 they think that Clay's this killer, and he thinks 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:01.800 he has this monster inside of him, and he just 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:03.579 can't summon it, and he wants to be cooperative, 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:05.620 and he's, like, unsure of himself. And anyway, 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:08.310 he's like, it's... He's a really interesting 00:05:08.310 --> 00:05:10.629 character. I also find it ironic that she wanted 00:05:10.629 --> 00:05:13.230 female villains and then she realized that, oh 00:05:13.230 --> 00:05:16.550 no, maybe I'm making women look too bad. And 00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:18.589 then she has the first book from a male dragon's 00:05:18.589 --> 00:05:20.730 perspective. So like, I don't know, that kind 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:24.730 of lack of foresight is kind of weird. Especially 00:05:24.730 --> 00:05:28.709 in a mainstream trad pub author. I don't know. 00:05:28.810 --> 00:05:30.709 And I'm not trying to attack the author on this. 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:32.170 I'm just trying to talk about the book fairly. 00:05:33.750 --> 00:05:35.490 Yeah, let me get back to more competent stuff 00:05:35.490 --> 00:05:37.269 in the book and then I'll go from there. Um, 00:05:37.410 --> 00:05:41.569 so... Actually, there's one more thing I want 00:05:41.569 --> 00:05:43.689 to complain about. Uh, they actually call the 00:05:43.689 --> 00:05:45.709 dragons that are made to fight by this one queen, 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:49.730 um... They call... Oh, that's Queen Scarlet. 00:05:49.850 --> 00:05:52.670 Yeah, I'm... I got an error. Anyway, doesn't 00:05:52.670 --> 00:05:53.790 matter. I don't think it's... It's recorded... 00:05:53.790 --> 00:05:55.649 Not recorded here, so it's fine. Uh, so Queen 00:05:55.649 --> 00:05:59.520 Scarlet of the Skywings, um, she forces... dragons 00:05:59.520 --> 00:06:03.360 into gladiatorial combat in an arena because 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.360 she enjoys bloodsport. It's thrilling to her. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:09.819 And she calls them gladiators, which is very 00:06:09.819 --> 00:06:12.399 steeped in Roman culture. It literally means 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:15.019 sword warrior. That's what a gladiator is. A 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:17.860 gladius is like a sword or, you know, gladius, 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:19.259 gladius, whatever, something like that. That 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:21.779 root of it means sword, like the old, you know, 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:24.710 Starfighter video game, gladius. Anyway. And 00:06:24.710 --> 00:06:26.569 I just find it kind of odd. It kind of took me 00:06:26.569 --> 00:06:28.310 out of it. Like, oh, they're saying gladiator, 00:06:28.310 --> 00:06:29.810 you know, world of dragons. And like the world 00:06:29.810 --> 00:06:31.529 is dominated by dragons. There are humans there, 00:06:31.610 --> 00:06:33.810 but they're like a subspecies. They're seen as 00:06:33.810 --> 00:06:36.930 prey, you know, almost like vermin. And I don't 00:06:36.930 --> 00:06:38.610 know. It's just like things like that kind of 00:06:38.610 --> 00:06:39.569 took me out of it. And I thought, well, it's 00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:41.850 weird. Like you can just, you know, like why 00:06:41.850 --> 00:06:43.730 not say blood sport? Blood sport is much better, 00:06:43.850 --> 00:06:47.189 you know, or like, you know. Just combatants 00:06:47.189 --> 00:06:49.790 or, you know, arena fighters or something like 00:06:49.790 --> 00:06:51.209 that would have been, I think, a little bit better. 00:06:51.310 --> 00:06:53.389 So anyway, I'm done with complaining about the 00:06:53.389 --> 00:06:55.550 book overall in regards to those things. I'll 00:06:55.550 --> 00:06:57.589 come back to the other stuff later. But as far 00:06:57.589 --> 00:07:01.389 as the positives are concerned, I like the loving, 00:07:01.509 --> 00:07:04.430 like sibling relationship, the deep connection 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:06.649 and the ties that the five dragonettes have to 00:07:06.649 --> 00:07:08.670 each other that are locked away in the underground 00:07:08.670 --> 00:07:12.850 thing. This resistance movement took them, the 00:07:12.850 --> 00:07:14.589 wings of peace, I think is what they're called. 00:07:15.709 --> 00:07:17.550 They took them and hid them and they're raising 00:07:17.550 --> 00:07:19.089 them and they're waiting for this prophecy to 00:07:19.089 --> 00:07:21.629 come true so that they can dethrone or like they 00:07:21.629 --> 00:07:23.949 can basically stop this 20 year long war and 00:07:23.949 --> 00:07:28.610 bring peace. And like, that's interesting. That's 00:07:28.610 --> 00:07:31.790 cool. They have minders or caretakers who treat 00:07:31.790 --> 00:07:33.110 them in different ways because they have different 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:34.889 types of personalities and they've been through 00:07:34.889 --> 00:07:36.910 different things. We learn about two of their 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:39.029 backstories, but not all three, I believe. And 00:07:39.029 --> 00:07:42.069 very compelling stuff. You have a great character 00:07:42.069 --> 00:07:44.889 arc for one of the caretakers. whose name I can't 00:07:44.889 --> 00:07:48.069 remember right now. Gosh darn it. And it was 00:07:48.069 --> 00:07:49.889 really interesting to see how she transformed 00:07:49.889 --> 00:07:51.509 over the course of the story when you got more 00:07:51.509 --> 00:07:53.829 of her backstory and more of her context. And 00:07:53.829 --> 00:07:55.790 Clay wants to be understanding of her. Clay's 00:07:55.790 --> 00:07:59.310 very much like, he sees through and beyond conflict 00:07:59.310 --> 00:08:01.389 and he wants to be very cooperative and it makes 00:08:01.389 --> 00:08:04.009 sense for what type of dragon he is and what 00:08:04.009 --> 00:08:05.670 their social structure is. And that's another 00:08:05.670 --> 00:08:08.750 thing. Sutherland made dragons have different 00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:10.329 social structures. She kind of made them elemental, 00:08:10.430 --> 00:08:15.149 which is very cool for kids. uh the mud dragons 00:08:15.149 --> 00:08:17.350 thrive in the mud the sea dragons can have kills 00:08:17.350 --> 00:08:19.509 and they can swim underwater in you know indefinitely 00:08:19.509 --> 00:08:23.509 or whatever and um like the mud helps to heal 00:08:23.509 --> 00:08:26.889 uh mud dragons and there's different things like 00:08:26.889 --> 00:08:29.720 that um so it's it's a pretty cool approach to 00:08:29.720 --> 00:08:31.259 dragons making them elemental and making them 00:08:31.259 --> 00:08:33.279 so that they're like best suited to particular 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.159 environments but they can of course cross environments 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:39.000 which i think is very smart and uh like that's 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:40.740 really cool the fact that there are these different 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:42.600 dragons with this like toyotic appeal to them 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:44.399 of like oh my dragon has this type of power versus 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:47.820 that type of power um it's pretty cool and um 00:08:48.509 --> 00:08:50.250 That was a lot of fun, and you have this, like, 00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:52.269 tight family bond between these dragons of different, 00:08:52.350 --> 00:08:54.690 uh, upbringings, or different, you know, races, 00:08:54.750 --> 00:08:56.929 I guess you could say, uh, or species, however 00:08:56.929 --> 00:08:59.970 that works, um, and it's a lot, I think a dwarf 00:08:59.970 --> 00:09:02.250 and an elf are different species, and, you know, 00:09:02.309 --> 00:09:05.929 uh, a black dwarf, or, you know, a black elf, 00:09:06.070 --> 00:09:07.590 or whatever, different types of elves are different 00:09:07.590 --> 00:09:09.389 races of elves, so I'd say these are different 00:09:09.389 --> 00:09:12.929 dragon races, especially because with them hinting 00:09:12.929 --> 00:09:15.070 at romantic interest between, like, cross -dragon 00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:19.960 race, like, it must be. doable, for lack of a 00:09:19.960 --> 00:09:24.100 better word. Like, you can't breed a rabbit and 00:09:24.100 --> 00:09:26.019 a gopher, because they're too different from 00:09:26.019 --> 00:09:27.899 each other, but like a, you know, X rabbit and 00:09:27.899 --> 00:09:30.120 a Y rabbit, you can. So, just to clarify what 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:32.500 I'm talking about there. But yeah, like, all 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:36.179 the lore built into the different dragon races, 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:39.330 and what they can do, and... and that stuff is 00:09:39.330 --> 00:09:42.029 really neat i like that a lot actually now i'm 00:09:42.029 --> 00:09:43.269 thinking about it one of the dragons probably 00:09:43.269 --> 00:09:45.429 is like a mixed breed between two because she's 00:09:45.429 --> 00:09:49.529 a weird sand dragon um so that'll be interesting 00:09:49.529 --> 00:09:53.730 to see if that happens and whatever um but yeah 00:09:53.730 --> 00:09:56.269 it's kind of like a we are prophesied to save 00:09:56.269 --> 00:09:58.669 the world or bring peace to the world which i 00:09:58.669 --> 00:10:00.450 really don't like prophecies being like core 00:10:00.450 --> 00:10:02.529 uh fundamental or like a core mechanic in books 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:04.960 distract like it just doesn't make sense to me 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:06.799 especially because there's usually no like god 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:08.740 who is the prophet over everything which like 00:10:08.740 --> 00:10:10.000 you know biblically that's where prophecy comes 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:11.840 from it comes from god and he created everything 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:13.539 he makes the rules and makes everything happen 00:10:13.539 --> 00:10:15.320 the way he wants it to so if you're not like 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.879 if you're not including a divinity in your story 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:19.519 but you have prophecies like it's just weird 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:24.200 to me um like it never fits to me um so yeah 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:29.139 there's that um and so all that world building 00:10:29.139 --> 00:10:30.840 lore stuff is cool the relationship between the 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.539 dragons is cool when they're being sibling -like, 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:38.720 there's this introduction of this peril character 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:42.539 who is a Skywing, and she's been raised by the 00:10:42.539 --> 00:10:43.980 Skywings, and you find out her backstory. I'm 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:46.240 trying to be light on spoilers here, but she's 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.059 like their sixth ranger, so to speak. Power Rangers 00:10:49.059 --> 00:10:51.620 took Satsu. It's another thing I'm into, so I'll 00:10:51.620 --> 00:10:53.620 just say she's like their sixth ranger. But she 00:10:53.620 --> 00:10:55.940 doesn't actually have a full redemption. She's 00:10:55.940 --> 00:10:58.470 like a possible... future member of their group, 00:10:58.590 --> 00:11:01.169 but there's a lot of tension with her and a lot 00:11:01.169 --> 00:11:03.090 of drama with her. Actually, this romantic drama 00:11:03.090 --> 00:11:07.570 comes in because she's... I don't know how else 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:10.750 to say this. Peril is so hot that anything she 00:11:10.750 --> 00:11:15.409 touches, she burns. But she's... But Clay is 00:11:15.409 --> 00:11:17.710 special so that when he touches her or she touches 00:11:17.710 --> 00:11:21.379 him, he doesn't get injured or burned. And it's 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:22.899 weird because it's like suggesting something 00:11:22.899 --> 00:11:25.120 like everything that's going on around them suggests 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.059 that they're going to end up having a kid together. 00:11:27.299 --> 00:11:29.159 And like, I don't know when that's going to be. 00:11:29.179 --> 00:11:31.019 And I don't know why that's there, especially 00:11:31.019 --> 00:11:33.580 because there was already another of his group 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:36.000 that was interested in him romantically and at 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.100 least one other, if not two. And it's just weird 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:41.700 because it just introduces this odd element of 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:43.840 like, you know, building a ship into your book 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:47.159 for kids. And like. well i kind of understand 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:49.600 it um like it's also unnecessary and doesn't 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:50.940 really make sense it kind of distracts from the 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:52.440 story like they could have just been friends 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.820 or he he could have understood her like no other 00:11:54.820 --> 00:11:57.019 dragon could or she could have been amazed that 00:11:57.019 --> 00:11:58.559 you know if she discovered this thing that she 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:00.779 could touch him earlier without hurting him that 00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:02.919 like i don't know just it could have just been 00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:04.340 done from a different angle but instead it's 00:12:04.340 --> 00:12:07.179 like this romance is this romance supply is basically 00:12:07.179 --> 00:12:09.840 pushed into the story excuse me that makes me 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:11.100 very uncomfortable and i don't understand why 00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:13.590 it's there and i don't think it adds It definitely 00:12:13.590 --> 00:12:15.169 adds tension and drama to the book, but it could 00:12:15.169 --> 00:12:16.850 have been done a different way, and I don't think 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:19.149 it's really good for this age group, and I don't 00:12:19.149 --> 00:12:21.289 think it really makes sense. So I definitely 00:12:21.289 --> 00:12:25.779 disliked that aspect of it. But yeah, so I mean, 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:28.820 the book has a lot of merits. The fight scenes 00:12:28.820 --> 00:12:30.679 are good. They're exciting, but they're brutal. 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:32.279 They're like shockingly brutal. Like dragons 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:34.159 are snapping the other dragon's necks. Dragons 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:35.960 are being tortured. And it's kind of been gone 00:12:35.960 --> 00:12:38.299 into detail. Like this one dragon, a water dragon, 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:41.320 sea dragon, whatever, sea wing. He's been kept 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:43.159 from water. He's been dehydrated. He's insane 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:45.240 because he's been so dehydrated for a long period 00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:47.519 of time. And he has blood all over his mouth 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:49.159 as if he's been like licking his lips, trying 00:12:49.159 --> 00:12:50.720 to make them bleed so that he has some sort of 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:53.139 moisture going on in his mouth. And he's completely 00:12:53.139 --> 00:12:56.879 feral. the sea wing has to kill him. She snaps 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:58.659 his neck and it's just like, I was just like, 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:01.460 it feels unnecessarily brutal. Like I want good 00:13:01.460 --> 00:13:03.379 characters to fight bad characters and I want 00:13:03.379 --> 00:13:05.139 them to be able to kill them, but you can have 00:13:05.139 --> 00:13:06.840 them kill a character without having it be like 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:11.679 brutal and gross. And also, yeah, it almost seems 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:13.460 like. I don't know, like, Clay is this, like, 00:13:13.500 --> 00:13:15.299 bridge builder, and he doesn't want to be violent, 00:13:15.379 --> 00:13:16.980 but he will be, and he can be as the capacity 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:19.000 for violence, which is good. You know, like Aslan, 00:13:19.019 --> 00:13:21.039 he's not safe, but he is good. Like, that's a 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:23.500 good character. That's a good dynamic to have. 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:25.039 I think it's very smart, and I think it teaches 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:26.620 children, like, self -control. It's not that 00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:28.299 you're weak and ineffective. It's that you control 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:30.899 yourself, and you don't harm others without good 00:13:30.899 --> 00:13:33.360 cause, and you only harm bad people. Like, those 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:34.980 are good things to teach children through stories, 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:37.500 and having characters who just don't want to 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:39.080 fight and don't want to harm other people, like... 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:43.620 i don't know that it really makes sense um like 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:46.539 the way he like kind of wallowed in the idea 00:13:46.539 --> 00:13:51.039 of having to take a life uh while he's in this 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:53.500 brutal world of death and war around him i don't 00:13:53.500 --> 00:13:55.019 know it was like i don't know it was just like 00:13:55.019 --> 00:13:57.100 something about the way it was handled i didn't 00:13:57.100 --> 00:13:59.580 like even though i'm sympathetic to that worldview 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:02.080 and i'm like i don't like wars and i don't want 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:03.500 wars to go on forever i want them to end quickly 00:14:03.500 --> 00:14:05.840 so that like peace can be somehow rebuilding 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:08.299 me especially like the innocent civilians of 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:10.539 countries that are experiencing war can have 00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:13.379 a normal help healthy happy life instead of being 00:14:13.379 --> 00:14:15.940 you know tortured threatened by war um for a 00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:17.360 prolonged period of time because that's i think 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:24.539 it's worse that's bad um anyway yeah so i know 00:14:24.539 --> 00:14:26.379 i think i've said enough i i think i've presented 00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:30.240 the case very nicely. I don't think Wings of 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:32.320 Fire belongs in the fortress fiction. It has 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:34.340 no place of honor in the fortress fiction. It's 00:14:34.340 --> 00:14:36.039 not a book series I will share with my children. 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:37.799 It's not a book series I will suggest to other 00:14:37.799 --> 00:14:38.980 people to share with their children. It's something 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:40.580 I would warn them away from because of some of 00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:45.720 the weirder aspects of it. There's also, well, 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:47.299 I don't really want to get into spoiler talk 00:14:47.299 --> 00:14:52.860 now, gosh. There's discussion of like, child 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:54.840 is rejected by their parents because they don't 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:57.480 really care about them and like they're simultaneously 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:01.980 uh not interested in mating but they like do 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:04.279 it perfunctorily like it's just it's something 00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:06.039 that happens like putting on your shoes or whatever 00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:09.679 and when they have a baby with a special egg 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:11.299 they sell it off to somebody because they don't 00:15:11.299 --> 00:15:13.460 really care and like it doesn't matter to them 00:15:13.460 --> 00:15:16.309 and that's kind of brutal and it feels like i 00:15:16.309 --> 00:15:18.529 don't know real harsh but it fits for the world 00:15:18.529 --> 00:15:20.850 i guess this harsh world but it's just like i 00:15:20.850 --> 00:15:23.029 don't know just also like the way it's it's handled 00:15:23.029 --> 00:15:25.850 the way it's talked about um you know like the 00:15:25.850 --> 00:15:27.289 mating rotation or whatever and like someone 00:15:27.289 --> 00:15:29.149 else is talking about uh like they're prohibited 00:15:29.149 --> 00:15:31.289 from being on the breeding schedule i think like 00:15:31.289 --> 00:15:32.970 so it's got this weird like dystopian edge to 00:15:32.970 --> 00:15:34.769 it where it like deals with you know mating and 00:15:34.769 --> 00:15:37.350 family making and stuff in this really weird 00:15:37.350 --> 00:15:39.809 way and i just i just find it to be super odd 00:15:39.809 --> 00:15:44.539 um so yeah i didn't like that either I've been 00:15:44.539 --> 00:15:46.039 thinking about it. I don't really have a dragon 00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:48.759 book to suggest to you or as an alternative for 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:50.960 this, except for The Hobbit, which has a dragon 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:54.100 in it, which, you know, it's a really good book, 00:15:54.179 --> 00:15:56.720 but it doesn't get into any of the weird stuff 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.019 here. And, like, Smaug is bad. He's a bad, bad, 00:15:59.059 --> 00:16:01.440 bad guy. And they deal with serious threats in 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:02.820 there, but just, I don't know. It's interesting. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.700 It's interesting. I'd love to just say, oh, yeah, 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:07.879 read this dragon book instead. I didn't read 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.240 Dragonriders of Pern, which Sutherland said she 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:17.169 did. Yeah. So I, before I like strained to the 00:16:17.169 --> 00:16:18.610 territory of just like bashing this book, which 00:16:18.610 --> 00:16:20.850 I think, I hope you think I've been fair about 00:16:20.850 --> 00:16:23.090 this book, calling out some things I don't like, 00:16:23.110 --> 00:16:25.529 some things I feel don't really fit or make sense. 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:29.049 And if you don't, then I need to do a better 00:16:29.049 --> 00:16:32.990 job of being more fair in the future or, you 00:16:32.990 --> 00:16:34.730 know, it's your perspective. I don't know. We'll 00:16:34.730 --> 00:16:37.230 see. Again, I'd love to have a conversation about 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:39.250 all this. I'm definitely open to having a conversation. 00:16:39.250 --> 00:16:42.379 I'm just saying for me in mind, this. crosses 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:45.179 a line that I would rather not cross or rather 00:16:45.179 --> 00:16:48.019 have it not cross, but, um, well, I'm not going 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:49.899 to force it to be different. So I'm just going 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:51.799 to say, you know what, then this isn't something 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:53.139 I want to read. This isn't something I want on 00:16:53.139 --> 00:16:54.620 our shelves. This isn't something I want to, 00:16:54.620 --> 00:16:59.440 uh, have us invest in. So anyway, um, before 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:02.860 I close out, I want to contrast this to, uh, 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:05.119 Chronicles of Bredain. Um, I'm covering this 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:07.559 week by week. Chapter at a time. I should say 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:09.900 chapter by chapter. And releasing it here on 00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:12.079 Fortress Fiction. And the Tar and the Lonely 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:14.279 relationship evolves throughout the course of 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:18.779 the books. It evolves as they age up. And it 00:17:18.779 --> 00:17:21.259 evolves very slowly and is never openly romantic 00:17:21.259 --> 00:17:25.920 until... Well, it's never openly romantic in 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:27.940 a two -sided way until the final book, I believe. 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:30.940 And it's one -sided for some period of time. 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:34.329 And there's hints, but... You don't have people, 00:17:34.390 --> 00:17:36.089 they're not like touching each other and blushing 00:17:36.089 --> 00:17:38.170 and stuff like that doesn't happen, which happens 00:17:38.170 --> 00:17:40.109 in this book. So like there's a much more chaste 00:17:40.109 --> 00:17:44.349 way to handle it. And yet the feelings of them 00:17:44.349 --> 00:17:46.210 potentially being a couple, potentially having 00:17:46.210 --> 00:17:49.170 a future together are very strong and it's enjoyable. 00:17:49.309 --> 00:17:52.369 It's fun. It's not weird because they're definitely 00:17:52.369 --> 00:17:55.930 much older. And I understand how the human age 00:17:55.930 --> 00:17:58.650 works better than I do this dragon age. Forgive 00:17:58.650 --> 00:18:03.049 me using that phrase. So it makes it a lot. more 00:18:03.049 --> 00:18:05.529 palatable, and I think it's better done. And 00:18:05.529 --> 00:18:10.730 yeah, that's about all I'll say. So I want to 00:18:10.730 --> 00:18:13.170 go ahead and shift now. So if you were just here 00:18:13.170 --> 00:18:19.789 for the Wings of Fire, Dragonite Prophecy, you 00:18:19.789 --> 00:18:22.789 know, book one discussion analysis, you can leave 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:25.190 now. However, I would invite you to stay because... 00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:28.500 This is the first book in a series. I have a 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:30.000 first book in a series that's coming out soon. 00:18:30.359 --> 00:18:32.319 I've been working on it. I, in fact, did some 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:34.619 revisions to it today because I changed an element 00:18:34.619 --> 00:18:38.779 late in the game and I had to go back and fix 00:18:38.779 --> 00:18:41.099 something because I had created an inaccuracy 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:45.119 or whatever. So I created a plot hole and I closed 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:48.759 it back up. So we're good now. It's less of a 00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:50.319 plot hole and more of a people shouldn't be doing 00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:52.099 this because this fundamental thing has changed 00:18:52.099 --> 00:18:56.990 in this way. So anyway, in my book, Mockwing 00:18:56.990 --> 00:18:58.690 Mayhem, which features magical bugs fighting 00:18:58.690 --> 00:19:01.710 monsters where some of the monsters find out 00:19:01.710 --> 00:19:02.890 where they live and they want to go there and 00:19:02.890 --> 00:19:04.650 kill them all because if they can destroy this 00:19:04.650 --> 00:19:07.190 group of defenders of human children, then the 00:19:07.190 --> 00:19:09.349 monsters, the gremlins, will be able to attack 00:19:09.349 --> 00:19:12.609 children with relative ease. And it'll be good 00:19:12.609 --> 00:19:14.450 for their people if they destroy the grow bug 00:19:14.450 --> 00:19:19.200 people. And grow bugs are this big. Probably. 00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:21.519 Yeah. About this big. The babies are this big. 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:22.880 The teens are like this big. And the adults are 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:25.480 like that big. And they're magical bug people. 00:19:25.740 --> 00:19:28.680 They fall from the stars and they have interesting 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:30.880 adventures. They live in a world of humans, but 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:33.460 they exist hidden within the world of humans. 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:36.759 And they face death. They face drama. I actually 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:39.099 purposely structured my book. So I don't know 00:19:39.099 --> 00:19:42.480 what Sutherland has in mind. However. I purposely 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:44.359 structured things in my book so that all grow 00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:46.859 bugs essentially are brothers and sisters and 00:19:46.859 --> 00:19:49.500 especially kind of like, so this is slight spoilers 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:54.180 for, uh, wings of fire, um, or for the dragon 00:19:54.180 --> 00:19:56.680 at prophecy, rather, um, slight spoilers for 00:19:56.680 --> 00:19:58.299 that. At the end, you learn that the mud wings 00:19:58.299 --> 00:20:02.599 like clay live in a family unit type thing and 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:04.339 brothers and sisters always live together throughout 00:20:04.339 --> 00:20:09.059 their whole lives. I guess that's why they. kind 00:20:09.059 --> 00:20:10.700 of part of the reason why they do their mating 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:12.740 rotation thing because the brothers and sisters 00:20:12.740 --> 00:20:15.359 continue to live with each other and that's their 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:17.700 family unit and I don't think they really take 00:20:17.700 --> 00:20:19.099 care of their kids I think their kids form their 00:20:19.099 --> 00:20:21.779 own family unit and then those family units live 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:24.019 together they cooperate together for hunting 00:20:24.019 --> 00:20:26.119 and defense and whatever and then they eventually 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:28.559 turn into like military units so every military 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.039 unit from the mud wings is actually a group of 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:34.660 siblings and they call them siblings and when 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:36.819 siblings die they become unsibbed and then unsibbed 00:20:37.829 --> 00:20:40.630 mud wings can join together in order to form 00:20:40.630 --> 00:20:42.730 a new unit for fighting or coexistence whatever 00:20:42.730 --> 00:20:46.369 however that works so um i think that's an interesting 00:20:46.369 --> 00:20:49.369 world building and lore detail i purposely made 00:20:49.369 --> 00:20:53.390 all of uh my grow bugs siblings so when they 00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:55.230 make starfall they're explicitly brothers and 00:20:55.230 --> 00:20:57.410 sisters however the older grow bugs refer to 00:20:57.410 --> 00:21:00.539 them as brothers and sisters as well And they 00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:03.539 don't mate at all in order to reproduce or in 00:21:03.539 --> 00:21:05.119 order for there to be new wigglers, which is 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:08.579 the baby form of the grow bugs. Little worm type 00:21:08.579 --> 00:21:11.500 guys, wigglers. Anyway, they don't mate. They 00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:13.420 fall from the stars because they all exist already. 00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:16.119 And I guess they all exist already. Whatever 00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:17.819 finite number or is it infinite? I don't know. 00:21:18.180 --> 00:21:21.420 And then they all fall from the stars. And Land 00:21:21.420 --> 00:21:24.539 is a shooting star in a group of them. So in 00:21:24.539 --> 00:21:26.460 particular, this book features seven grunts who 00:21:26.460 --> 00:21:28.769 come into the world. by a starfall and they all 00:21:28.769 --> 00:21:30.490 emerge and they're taken care of and they grow 00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:32.930 up and are raised in a loving supportive home 00:21:32.930 --> 00:21:35.829 unlike uh in this book where they're abused and 00:21:35.829 --> 00:21:40.049 it's not a great situation but um anyway my point 00:21:40.049 --> 00:21:42.690 is uh it's just a very different context it's 00:21:42.690 --> 00:21:44.809 a very different uh, type of story, but there 00:21:44.809 --> 00:21:47.569 are similarities. They are trained to fight. 00:21:47.690 --> 00:21:49.509 However, they're trained to fight in a very supportive 00:21:49.509 --> 00:21:51.710 way. Uh, they're not fighting against fellow 00:21:51.710 --> 00:21:54.190 grow bugs. They're not, you know, killing or 00:21:54.190 --> 00:21:55.630 murdering or having war with fellow grow bugs. 00:21:55.769 --> 00:21:58.230 They are fighting against the gremlins. The grow 00:21:58.230 --> 00:21:59.950 bugs fight the gremlins. The gremlins take many 00:21:59.950 --> 00:22:05.069 forms. Um, mist birds, uh, a vexivore, which 00:22:05.069 --> 00:22:09.839 is like a parasitic worm, uh, uh a sorrows bud 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:12.119 patch there's lots of different um gremlins out 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:15.660 there a nos jelly that's a very cool one um lots 00:22:15.660 --> 00:22:16.859 of different gremlins out there that take all 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:18.440 different forms and prey upon human children 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:21.180 and the grow bugs exist explicitly to stop them 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:27.819 and uh to deal with that that threat and What's 00:22:27.819 --> 00:22:29.359 my point? Oh, I explicitly made them brothers 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.240 and sisters so there's no shipping, there's no 00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:33.059 chance of them being romantically involved, and 00:22:33.059 --> 00:22:34.220 that's something I don't have to deal with because 00:22:34.220 --> 00:22:35.539 it's not something I want to deal with in these 00:22:35.539 --> 00:22:37.019 stories that are made for children because, frankly, 00:22:37.099 --> 00:22:39.180 I don't think children need romantic subplots 00:22:39.180 --> 00:22:42.099 in their stories. They can be kind of funny, 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:43.519 they can be kind of nice, the kids might naturally 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:44.859 gravitate towards, like, saying, oh, I think 00:22:44.859 --> 00:22:46.880 these two are going to get married, woo! But 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:49.460 it doesn't need to be part of the story baked 00:22:49.460 --> 00:22:51.819 in by the author. And certainly not if it's going 00:22:51.819 --> 00:22:54.079 to be handled in a weird way. And I wanted to 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:55.519 avoid love triangles and things like that. But 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:58.759 anyway, the book has danger. It has stakes. You 00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:01.240 know, not everybody survives. Their enemies die 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:06.299 and an ally dies for sure. Yeah, an ally dies 00:23:06.299 --> 00:23:10.319 for sure. And yet I don't think I made it. I 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:12.299 think I made it very exciting, but I didn't make 00:23:12.299 --> 00:23:16.380 it brutal. And I didn't make it like edgy. But 00:23:16.380 --> 00:23:18.640 it did make it very cool and very slick. And 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:21.660 I write with a very cinematic style. And I was 00:23:21.660 --> 00:23:23.819 actually, I read this chapter with the big fight 00:23:23.819 --> 00:23:26.460 to my girls the other, like a week ago or so. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:28.980 And I rewrote it two or three days ago. And I 00:23:28.980 --> 00:23:30.599 read it to them again last night. And they said, 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:32.960 oh, this is way better. This sounds super cool 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:35.640 and fun. And, you know, they're girls. My girls 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:38.059 kind of like stuff with combat, but they're not 00:23:38.059 --> 00:23:42.009 super into it. And it definitely entertained 00:23:42.009 --> 00:23:43.529 them and they liked everything that was going 00:23:43.529 --> 00:23:45.710 on there. And I even had a cool shocking thing 00:23:45.710 --> 00:23:48.490 happen, but like it was never like gritty or 00:23:48.490 --> 00:23:52.769 like super dark, even though crazy stuff happens 00:23:52.769 --> 00:23:54.309 and it's like very dangerous and the stakes are 00:23:54.309 --> 00:23:56.269 very real and people's lives are really on the 00:23:56.269 --> 00:24:00.349 line. And I mean, I wrote that because I prefer 00:24:00.349 --> 00:24:03.970 that. And now having, you know, experienced Wings 00:24:03.970 --> 00:24:08.019 of Fire with its like grittier combat, I... don't 00:24:08.019 --> 00:24:10.440 think it's necessary and i i it's something i 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:14.359 more want to avoid um i tremendously dislike 00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:19.319 in the hobbit and in c .s lewis is the boy in 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:22.680 the horse and his boy and and i think the first 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:25.480 second or third harry potter book um the hero 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:27.519 gets knocked out and wakes up after the battle 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:28.859 and gets everything explained to them i don't 00:24:28.859 --> 00:24:30.519 do that because i hate that but on the other 00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:34.690 side um i think it's weak for or i think that's 00:24:34.690 --> 00:24:37.289 weak and feeble a little bit uh to borrow a british 00:24:37.289 --> 00:24:39.569 term from my uh compatriots across the pond uh 00:24:39.569 --> 00:24:41.509 but i also think it's like a little grotesque 00:24:41.509 --> 00:24:44.069 a little excessive to have you know my childhood 00:24:44.069 --> 00:24:46.069 characters or my child characters like breaking 00:24:46.069 --> 00:24:48.630 people's necks um i balance that out by having 00:24:48.630 --> 00:24:51.309 my guys use weapons and they destroy these monsters 00:24:51.309 --> 00:24:53.190 and i think it's done in a very tasteful way 00:24:53.190 --> 00:24:56.420 and uh anyway I'm not saying it's a superior 00:24:56.420 --> 00:24:58.359 book, but it's definitely more in keeping with 00:24:58.359 --> 00:25:00.119 my taste, my book, Mock and Mayhem, that I wrote. 00:25:00.359 --> 00:25:02.980 And if you find some of the things in Wings of 00:25:02.980 --> 00:25:04.759 Fire, The Dragon and Prophecy Objection, like 00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:06.819 I do, then I think you'll like my book. So you 00:25:06.819 --> 00:25:08.779 can find out more about it on the website. There'll 00:25:08.779 --> 00:25:10.500 be links in the show notes, mjmwinners .com, 00:25:10.539 --> 00:25:13.779 go there. And you can see a little pop -up for 00:25:13.779 --> 00:25:16.460 you to sign up for a newsletter so that you can 00:25:16.460 --> 00:25:19.039 be made aware of the book when it's ready. And 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:20.619 you can also get bonus material, including a 00:25:20.619 --> 00:25:22.180 short story and a guide to the GrowBug world. 00:25:22.539 --> 00:25:23.920 Anyway, folks, thank you so much for your time 00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:26.160 and attention. I hope you enjoy. Until next time, 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:27.920 be well and keep reading.