Wings of Fire is a wildly popular middle grade
fantasy series. But after listening to the first
book, I have questions. Questions like, why are
we talking about mating? Why are dragons flirting
like teenagers, even though they're like six
or eight years old? Which I guess if they mature
differently, that's fine. Maybe. I don't know.
It's weird, though. And most of all, why is this
being marketed to kids? Again, kids who are like,
you know, eight years old or so, about the age
of the dragons, who are getting romantically
involved and having weird stuff happen with them.
Look, I enjoyed the story. I really did. But
the farther I got... into it, the more I found
myself thinking, this is a great YA book disguised
as a middle grade one, and I think that's a problem.
So in this video, I'm diving into the fire. What
works, what doesn't, and why this book might
not be the right fit for every kid, even if it's
wildly entertaining for adults, and, you know,
obviously kids are enjoying it too. But as a
kid, I was shown Robocop and Terminator and Alien
and all sorts of things that I shouldn't have
been watching, and, you know, here I am. I'm
fine. Anyway, this is MJ. I'm an author. I'm
an artist. I'm an analyzer. You can find all
my work at mj1news .com. Prepare yourself for
unbannable book analysis as I talk about whether
or not this story holds a place of honor or scorn
in the fortress fiction. So, yeah. Wings of Fire
is really interesting. I think that... Gosh,
there's a lot to talk about. So, first of all,
I think it is a very competently written book.
I think... Tui S. Sutherland is a great writer.
Well, she's a good writer. She's a very good
writer. There are problems, though. There are
things in the book that I thought, like, it's
kind of weak. There are things in the book that
I thought weren't so great and didn't really
make sense to me. And actually, as a bonus in
the Audible book, there was a recording of her
saying, like, oh, like, talking about, like,
how she came up with the idea for the book and
some of the things that she thought. And, like,
I found this remarkably funny that... And I don't
know what she meant by this, but I'll just throw
it out here real quick as a little red meat for
people. She said that she wanted there to be
these queens, very powerful dragon queens. She
thought it would be very cool for them to be
a matriarchal society. But then the longer she
wrote it, the more and more she realized that
there were a bunch of bad women, bad female characters
in her story and how horrible that is. And I
just thought, well, lady, what do you expect?
Like, if you want it to be female dominated,
then you have to have very heroic. you know female
characters and you have to have very um evil
female characters in order for it to work i mean
you could have made it like i don't know like
she's the author if she didn't want it to feel
sexist or like feel like it's woman bashing or
whatever by framing women as you know bad or
intrinsically evil which i don't think it does
like it obviously does not do that even to kids
um especially because like most of the cast it's
like um i don't know I can't remember all their
names. Clay, for sure, is a guy. And I think,
like, Starwing or Star Knight or Black Knight
or whatever his name is, he's also a male dragon.
But the other four dragons that they have, or,
yeah, the other four dragons that are involved,
because there's six total, are all female. And,
like, if four out of your... six character cast
is female and they're heroic then i think no
matter how many villains you have in it that
are female it's not going to be a big deal and
it's not going to make kids think like oh girls
are gross women are evil or anything like that
which is so i thought that was like a silly concern
of hers um and like that kind of thinking that
kind of like comment that she made as the author
makes me wonder like hmm something else going
on here i don't know and like can i fully trust
everything that this lady's saying or doing which
i feel really bad about but it just seems like
uh that's I don't know, like, that seemed to
betray something that I don't like. Like, it's
like a red flag, but I don't know what it's warning
me about. But it also gets into some of the other
stuff that I didn't like or that I thought was,
like, less than, you know, wonderfully written
in the book. Like, I guess not being able to
think through that implication makes me wonder
about things like Clay has a hard time, like,
he kills... humans who are scavengers uh no problem
he eats them every now and then uh as he's being
raised in this cave um he you know eats animals
for prey cows um and sheep and rabbits and stuff
like that and that's fine you know i kind of
have no issue with that but like after he sees
killing happen like he's like he doesn't if he
sees like a dragon killed or you know murdered
in a gladiatory arena uh like he doesn't want
to fight and he or he doesn't want to eat the
food and things like that which like doesn't
make sense because i would think what I don't
know, just, like, the idea of eating a dead animal
is, like, horrible after having somebody be killed.
I've never watched somebody be killed. Not in
that way. Not, like, live in an arena or whatever.
So, I don't really know how to say, or, like,
how to process that. It just seemed like a weird
thing. Like, it seemed incongruous with the,
like, hardcore veneer that the world has. And
there's other things, like, like what? Oh, gosh.
Yeah, like, Clay's not sure he can be a killer.
He thinks he's a killer, which is actually a
pretty cool plot twist that's explained at the
end of the book, which was nice, other than that
got wrapped up and resolved. And I like that,
and I like what it means, and I like how it will
push things going forward, but it also kind of
detracts. No, it doesn't detract from anything.
It was just, it was interesting. It was interesting
the way that was played, but yeah. So, you know,
they think that Clay's this killer, and he thinks
he has this monster inside of him, and he just
can't summon it, and he wants to be cooperative,
and he's, like, unsure of himself. And anyway,
he's like, it's... He's a really interesting
character. I also find it ironic that she wanted
female villains and then she realized that, oh
no, maybe I'm making women look too bad. And
then she has the first book from a male dragon's
perspective. So like, I don't know, that kind
of lack of foresight is kind of weird. Especially
in a mainstream trad pub author. I don't know.
And I'm not trying to attack the author on this.
I'm just trying to talk about the book fairly.
Yeah, let me get back to more competent stuff
in the book and then I'll go from there. Um,
so... Actually, there's one more thing I want
to complain about. Uh, they actually call the
dragons that are made to fight by this one queen,
um... They call... Oh, that's Queen Scarlet.
Yeah, I'm... I got an error. Anyway, doesn't
matter. I don't think it's... It's recorded...
Not recorded here, so it's fine. Uh, so Queen
Scarlet of the Skywings, um, she forces... dragons
into gladiatorial combat in an arena because
she enjoys bloodsport. It's thrilling to her.
And she calls them gladiators, which is very
steeped in Roman culture. It literally means
sword warrior. That's what a gladiator is. A
gladius is like a sword or, you know, gladius,
gladius, whatever, something like that. That
root of it means sword, like the old, you know,
Starfighter video game, gladius. Anyway. And
I just find it kind of odd. It kind of took me
out of it. Like, oh, they're saying gladiator,
you know, world of dragons. And like the world
is dominated by dragons. There are humans there,
but they're like a subspecies. They're seen as
prey, you know, almost like vermin. And I don't
know. It's just like things like that kind of
took me out of it. And I thought, well, it's
weird. Like you can just, you know, like why
not say blood sport? Blood sport is much better,
you know, or like, you know. Just combatants
or, you know, arena fighters or something like
that would have been, I think, a little bit better.
So anyway, I'm done with complaining about the
book overall in regards to those things. I'll
come back to the other stuff later. But as far
as the positives are concerned, I like the loving,
like sibling relationship, the deep connection
and the ties that the five dragonettes have to
each other that are locked away in the underground
thing. This resistance movement took them, the
wings of peace, I think is what they're called.
They took them and hid them and they're raising
them and they're waiting for this prophecy to
come true so that they can dethrone or like they
can basically stop this 20 year long war and
bring peace. And like, that's interesting. That's
cool. They have minders or caretakers who treat
them in different ways because they have different
types of personalities and they've been through
different things. We learn about two of their
backstories, but not all three, I believe. And
very compelling stuff. You have a great character
arc for one of the caretakers. whose name I can't
remember right now. Gosh darn it. And it was
really interesting to see how she transformed
over the course of the story when you got more
of her backstory and more of her context. And
Clay wants to be understanding of her. Clay's
very much like, he sees through and beyond conflict
and he wants to be very cooperative and it makes
sense for what type of dragon he is and what
their social structure is. And that's another
thing. Sutherland made dragons have different
social structures. She kind of made them elemental,
which is very cool for kids. uh the mud dragons
thrive in the mud the sea dragons can have kills
and they can swim underwater in you know indefinitely
or whatever and um like the mud helps to heal
uh mud dragons and there's different things like
that um so it's it's a pretty cool approach to
dragons making them elemental and making them
so that they're like best suited to particular
environments but they can of course cross environments
which i think is very smart and uh like that's
really cool the fact that there are these different
dragons with this like toyotic appeal to them
of like oh my dragon has this type of power versus
that type of power um it's pretty cool and um
That was a lot of fun, and you have this, like,
tight family bond between these dragons of different,
uh, upbringings, or different, you know, races,
I guess you could say, uh, or species, however
that works, um, and it's a lot, I think a dwarf
and an elf are different species, and, you know,
uh, a black dwarf, or, you know, a black elf,
or whatever, different types of elves are different
races of elves, so I'd say these are different
dragon races, especially because with them hinting
at romantic interest between, like, cross -dragon
race, like, it must be. doable, for lack of a
better word. Like, you can't breed a rabbit and
a gopher, because they're too different from
each other, but like a, you know, X rabbit and
a Y rabbit, you can. So, just to clarify what
I'm talking about there. But yeah, like, all
the lore built into the different dragon races,
and what they can do, and... and that stuff is
really neat i like that a lot actually now i'm
thinking about it one of the dragons probably
is like a mixed breed between two because she's
a weird sand dragon um so that'll be interesting
to see if that happens and whatever um but yeah
it's kind of like a we are prophesied to save
the world or bring peace to the world which i
really don't like prophecies being like core
uh fundamental or like a core mechanic in books
distract like it just doesn't make sense to me
especially because there's usually no like god
who is the prophet over everything which like
you know biblically that's where prophecy comes
from it comes from god and he created everything
he makes the rules and makes everything happen
the way he wants it to so if you're not like
if you're not including a divinity in your story
but you have prophecies like it's just weird
to me um like it never fits to me um so yeah
there's that um and so all that world building
lore stuff is cool the relationship between the
dragons is cool when they're being sibling -like,
there's this introduction of this peril character
who is a Skywing, and she's been raised by the
Skywings, and you find out her backstory. I'm
trying to be light on spoilers here, but she's
like their sixth ranger, so to speak. Power Rangers
took Satsu. It's another thing I'm into, so I'll
just say she's like their sixth ranger. But she
doesn't actually have a full redemption. She's
like a possible... future member of their group,
but there's a lot of tension with her and a lot
of drama with her. Actually, this romantic drama
comes in because she's... I don't know how else
to say this. Peril is so hot that anything she
touches, she burns. But she's... But Clay is
special so that when he touches her or she touches
him, he doesn't get injured or burned. And it's
weird because it's like suggesting something
like everything that's going on around them suggests
that they're going to end up having a kid together.
And like, I don't know when that's going to be.
And I don't know why that's there, especially
because there was already another of his group
that was interested in him romantically and at
least one other, if not two. And it's just weird
because it just introduces this odd element of
like, you know, building a ship into your book
for kids. And like. well i kind of understand
it um like it's also unnecessary and doesn't
really make sense it kind of distracts from the
story like they could have just been friends
or he he could have understood her like no other
dragon could or she could have been amazed that
you know if she discovered this thing that she
could touch him earlier without hurting him that
like i don't know just it could have just been
done from a different angle but instead it's
like this romance is this romance supply is basically
pushed into the story excuse me that makes me
very uncomfortable and i don't understand why
it's there and i don't think it adds It definitely
adds tension and drama to the book, but it could
have been done a different way, and I don't think
it's really good for this age group, and I don't
think it really makes sense. So I definitely
disliked that aspect of it. But yeah, so I mean,
the book has a lot of merits. The fight scenes
are good. They're exciting, but they're brutal.
They're like shockingly brutal. Like dragons
are snapping the other dragon's necks. Dragons
are being tortured. And it's kind of been gone
into detail. Like this one dragon, a water dragon,
sea dragon, whatever, sea wing. He's been kept
from water. He's been dehydrated. He's insane
because he's been so dehydrated for a long period
of time. And he has blood all over his mouth
as if he's been like licking his lips, trying
to make them bleed so that he has some sort of
moisture going on in his mouth. And he's completely
feral. the sea wing has to kill him. She snaps
his neck and it's just like, I was just like,
it feels unnecessarily brutal. Like I want good
characters to fight bad characters and I want
them to be able to kill them, but you can have
them kill a character without having it be like
brutal and gross. And also, yeah, it almost seems
like. I don't know, like, Clay is this, like,
bridge builder, and he doesn't want to be violent,
but he will be, and he can be as the capacity
for violence, which is good. You know, like Aslan,
he's not safe, but he is good. Like, that's a
good character. That's a good dynamic to have.
I think it's very smart, and I think it teaches
children, like, self -control. It's not that
you're weak and ineffective. It's that you control
yourself, and you don't harm others without good
cause, and you only harm bad people. Like, those
are good things to teach children through stories,
and having characters who just don't want to
fight and don't want to harm other people, like...
i don't know that it really makes sense um like
the way he like kind of wallowed in the idea
of having to take a life uh while he's in this
brutal world of death and war around him i don't
know it was like i don't know it was just like
something about the way it was handled i didn't
like even though i'm sympathetic to that worldview
and i'm like i don't like wars and i don't want
wars to go on forever i want them to end quickly
so that like peace can be somehow rebuilding
me especially like the innocent civilians of
countries that are experiencing war can have
a normal help healthy happy life instead of being
you know tortured threatened by war um for a
prolonged period of time because that's i think
it's worse that's bad um anyway yeah so i know
i think i've said enough i i think i've presented
the case very nicely. I don't think Wings of
Fire belongs in the fortress fiction. It has
no place of honor in the fortress fiction. It's
not a book series I will share with my children.
It's not a book series I will suggest to other
people to share with their children. It's something
I would warn them away from because of some of
the weirder aspects of it. There's also, well,
I don't really want to get into spoiler talk
now, gosh. There's discussion of like, child
is rejected by their parents because they don't
really care about them and like they're simultaneously
uh not interested in mating but they like do
it perfunctorily like it's just it's something
that happens like putting on your shoes or whatever
and when they have a baby with a special egg
they sell it off to somebody because they don't
really care and like it doesn't matter to them
and that's kind of brutal and it feels like i
don't know real harsh but it fits for the world
i guess this harsh world but it's just like i
don't know just also like the way it's it's handled
the way it's talked about um you know like the
mating rotation or whatever and like someone
else is talking about uh like they're prohibited
from being on the breeding schedule i think like
so it's got this weird like dystopian edge to
it where it like deals with you know mating and
family making and stuff in this really weird
way and i just i just find it to be super odd
um so yeah i didn't like that either I've been
thinking about it. I don't really have a dragon
book to suggest to you or as an alternative for
this, except for The Hobbit, which has a dragon
in it, which, you know, it's a really good book,
but it doesn't get into any of the weird stuff
here. And, like, Smaug is bad. He's a bad, bad,
bad guy. And they deal with serious threats in
there, but just, I don't know. It's interesting.
It's interesting. I'd love to just say, oh, yeah,
read this dragon book instead. I didn't read
Dragonriders of Pern, which Sutherland said she
did. Yeah. So I, before I like strained to the
territory of just like bashing this book, which
I think, I hope you think I've been fair about
this book, calling out some things I don't like,
some things I feel don't really fit or make sense.
And if you don't, then I need to do a better
job of being more fair in the future or, you
know, it's your perspective. I don't know. We'll
see. Again, I'd love to have a conversation about
all this. I'm definitely open to having a conversation.
I'm just saying for me in mind, this. crosses
a line that I would rather not cross or rather
have it not cross, but, um, well, I'm not going
to force it to be different. So I'm just going
to say, you know what, then this isn't something
I want to read. This isn't something I want on
our shelves. This isn't something I want to,
uh, have us invest in. So anyway, um, before
I close out, I want to contrast this to, uh,
Chronicles of Bredain. Um, I'm covering this
week by week. Chapter at a time. I should say
chapter by chapter. And releasing it here on
Fortress Fiction. And the Tar and the Lonely
relationship evolves throughout the course of
the books. It evolves as they age up. And it
evolves very slowly and is never openly romantic
until... Well, it's never openly romantic in
a two -sided way until the final book, I believe.
And it's one -sided for some period of time.
And there's hints, but... You don't have people,
they're not like touching each other and blushing
and stuff like that doesn't happen, which happens
in this book. So like there's a much more chaste
way to handle it. And yet the feelings of them
potentially being a couple, potentially having
a future together are very strong and it's enjoyable.
It's fun. It's not weird because they're definitely
much older. And I understand how the human age
works better than I do this dragon age. Forgive
me using that phrase. So it makes it a lot. more
palatable, and I think it's better done. And
yeah, that's about all I'll say. So I want to
go ahead and shift now. So if you were just here
for the Wings of Fire, Dragonite Prophecy, you
know, book one discussion analysis, you can leave
now. However, I would invite you to stay because...
This is the first book in a series. I have a
first book in a series that's coming out soon.
I've been working on it. I, in fact, did some
revisions to it today because I changed an element
late in the game and I had to go back and fix
something because I had created an inaccuracy
or whatever. So I created a plot hole and I closed
it back up. So we're good now. It's less of a
plot hole and more of a people shouldn't be doing
this because this fundamental thing has changed
in this way. So anyway, in my book, Mockwing
Mayhem, which features magical bugs fighting
monsters where some of the monsters find out
where they live and they want to go there and
kill them all because if they can destroy this
group of defenders of human children, then the
monsters, the gremlins, will be able to attack
children with relative ease. And it'll be good
for their people if they destroy the grow bug
people. And grow bugs are this big. Probably.
Yeah. About this big. The babies are this big.
The teens are like this big. And the adults are
like that big. And they're magical bug people.
They fall from the stars and they have interesting
adventures. They live in a world of humans, but
they exist hidden within the world of humans.
And they face death. They face drama. I actually
purposely structured my book. So I don't know
what Sutherland has in mind. However. I purposely
structured things in my book so that all grow
bugs essentially are brothers and sisters and
especially kind of like, so this is slight spoilers
for, uh, wings of fire, um, or for the dragon
at prophecy, rather, um, slight spoilers for
that. At the end, you learn that the mud wings
like clay live in a family unit type thing and
brothers and sisters always live together throughout
their whole lives. I guess that's why they. kind
of part of the reason why they do their mating
rotation thing because the brothers and sisters
continue to live with each other and that's their
family unit and I don't think they really take
care of their kids I think their kids form their
own family unit and then those family units live
together they cooperate together for hunting
and defense and whatever and then they eventually
turn into like military units so every military
unit from the mud wings is actually a group of
siblings and they call them siblings and when
siblings die they become unsibbed and then unsibbed
mud wings can join together in order to form
a new unit for fighting or coexistence whatever
however that works so um i think that's an interesting
world building and lore detail i purposely made
all of uh my grow bugs siblings so when they
make starfall they're explicitly brothers and
sisters however the older grow bugs refer to
them as brothers and sisters as well And they
don't mate at all in order to reproduce or in
order for there to be new wigglers, which is
the baby form of the grow bugs. Little worm type
guys, wigglers. Anyway, they don't mate. They
fall from the stars because they all exist already.
And I guess they all exist already. Whatever
finite number or is it infinite? I don't know.
And then they all fall from the stars. And Land
is a shooting star in a group of them. So in
particular, this book features seven grunts who
come into the world. by a starfall and they all
emerge and they're taken care of and they grow
up and are raised in a loving supportive home
unlike uh in this book where they're abused and
it's not a great situation but um anyway my point
is uh it's just a very different context it's
a very different uh, type of story, but there
are similarities. They are trained to fight.
However, they're trained to fight in a very supportive
way. Uh, they're not fighting against fellow
grow bugs. They're not, you know, killing or
murdering or having war with fellow grow bugs.
They are fighting against the gremlins. The grow
bugs fight the gremlins. The gremlins take many
forms. Um, mist birds, uh, a vexivore, which
is like a parasitic worm, uh, uh a sorrows bud
patch there's lots of different um gremlins out
there a nos jelly that's a very cool one um lots
of different gremlins out there that take all
different forms and prey upon human children
and the grow bugs exist explicitly to stop them
and uh to deal with that that threat and What's
my point? Oh, I explicitly made them brothers
and sisters so there's no shipping, there's no
chance of them being romantically involved, and
that's something I don't have to deal with because
it's not something I want to deal with in these
stories that are made for children because, frankly,
I don't think children need romantic subplots
in their stories. They can be kind of funny,
they can be kind of nice, the kids might naturally
gravitate towards, like, saying, oh, I think
these two are going to get married, woo! But
it doesn't need to be part of the story baked
in by the author. And certainly not if it's going
to be handled in a weird way. And I wanted to
avoid love triangles and things like that. But
anyway, the book has danger. It has stakes. You
know, not everybody survives. Their enemies die
and an ally dies for sure. Yeah, an ally dies
for sure. And yet I don't think I made it. I
think I made it very exciting, but I didn't make
it brutal. And I didn't make it like edgy. But
it did make it very cool and very slick. And
I write with a very cinematic style. And I was
actually, I read this chapter with the big fight
to my girls the other, like a week ago or so.
And I rewrote it two or three days ago. And I
read it to them again last night. And they said,
oh, this is way better. This sounds super cool
and fun. And, you know, they're girls. My girls
kind of like stuff with combat, but they're not
super into it. And it definitely entertained
them and they liked everything that was going
on there. And I even had a cool shocking thing
happen, but like it was never like gritty or
like super dark, even though crazy stuff happens
and it's like very dangerous and the stakes are
very real and people's lives are really on the
line. And I mean, I wrote that because I prefer
that. And now having, you know, experienced Wings
of Fire with its like grittier combat, I... don't
think it's necessary and i i it's something i
more want to avoid um i tremendously dislike
in the hobbit and in c .s lewis is the boy in
the horse and his boy and and i think the first
second or third harry potter book um the hero
gets knocked out and wakes up after the battle
and gets everything explained to them i don't
do that because i hate that but on the other
side um i think it's weak for or i think that's
weak and feeble a little bit uh to borrow a british
term from my uh compatriots across the pond uh
but i also think it's like a little grotesque
a little excessive to have you know my childhood
characters or my child characters like breaking
people's necks um i balance that out by having
my guys use weapons and they destroy these monsters
and i think it's done in a very tasteful way
and uh anyway I'm not saying it's a superior
book, but it's definitely more in keeping with
my taste, my book, Mock and Mayhem, that I wrote.
And if you find some of the things in Wings of
Fire, The Dragon and Prophecy Objection, like
I do, then I think you'll like my book. So you
can find out more about it on the website. There'll
be links in the show notes, mjmwinners .com,
go there. And you can see a little pop -up for
you to sign up for a newsletter so that you can
be made aware of the book when it's ready. And
you can also get bonus material, including a
short story and a guide to the GrowBug world.
Anyway, folks, thank you so much for your time
and attention. I hope you enjoy. Until next time,
be well and keep reading.