47:120 Wings of Fire: Winglets #3 Deserter by Tui T. Sutherland

The tale of Six-Claws, a happy and loyal Sandwing, and of three Sandwing princesses and the war that tore apart the Sandwing kingdom for many years. An interesting look into not just his past but the personalities of the Sandwing sisters and how events brought us to where the series starts.


Page Count: 48p/12,688p/262,765p lifetime

45:120 How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

Hiccup is the son of the chief of the Hooligan tribe of Vikings but a more useless Viking child and future chief no one could imagine.  When he sets about his coming of age task to get and train a dragon, it's a dismal failure. He gets the most ordinary dragon ever except that it's also the smallest one anyone has ever seen and then can't get it to respond to the most basic of commands.  When it comes time to demonstrate his mastery over his small dragon, everything goes wrong and it ends up getting all of the young men going through the trial banished from the tribe. This is horrible but not nearly as horrible as the humongous sea dragon that has washed up on their shore, awake and starting to become hungry.  Maybe all of Hiccup's hard work studying his dragon will pay off in some spectacular way.

Having seen the movie and really enjoying it, I was looking forward to reading the book but I have to say I didn't really like it.  It was boring and plodding and it was hard to muster up any sympathy for any of the characters.  Since there is a long series of these books, other people obviously see something in them that I don't which is fine but neither I nor my 10yr old enjoyed reading this one so we won't be trying others to see if it gets better.


Page count: 214p/12,445p ytd/262,522 lifetime

2:120 Wings of Fire: Winter Turning by Tui T. Sutherland

The 7th book in the Wings of Fire series, 2nd in the Jade Mountain series.  Winter has always been a disappointment to his family.  He has never excelled at the things the Icewings care about and thus has never raised high enough in the rankings to the determent of all of them. When he returns from a trip without his brother, Hailstorm, who was captured by Skywings that was bad enough to put him last in the rankings but when news of Hailstorm's death reached them, it was decided he would be better someplace, any place, else.  So thus he was sent to Jade Mountain where he found the last thing he was looking for, friends who accepted him as he was and not based on the Icewing rankings.  When his sister, Icicle, tries to kill the Dragonets of Prophecy, he knows he must stop her and is determined to do so no matter the cost but he never dreamed he would be doing so with a Nightwing, a Sandwing, and a Rainwing at his side.

I'm personally finding it nice to learn more about the other tribes but I'm less engaged by the current story and it's characters.  I'm glad to be caught up now so I have a chance to read some other things before my son gets the new one that just came out and he bugs me to read that one too.  I will read it and hope that things get better.  This one wasn't bad, just a bit slow and a bit repetitive in the internal monologue.


Page Count: 336p/758p ytd/251,053p lifetime

132:120 Wings of Fire: Moon Rising by Tui T. Sutherland

The 6th book in the Wings of Fire series.  In the last book, the war was won when the Dragonets of Destiny crowned a new Sandwing Queen.  Now they are pledged to try and make sure that was the last war ever by opening up Jade Mountain School, a school for dragons of all clans to come together in peace to learn more about each other, each other's clans, and how to get along.  It's an ambitious project to say the least.  Moon is one of the first dragons signed up by her mother but she is incredibly worried because as a Nightwing she is already held in contempt by pretty much every clan but on top of that, she was born with the gifts of mind-reading and prophesy, gifts the Nightwings used to have but lost several generations ago.  No one knows she has these gifts in order to protect her but how will she handle living in a cave system with so many other dragons?  Moon isn't sure she is going to survive without going crazy when one voice starts cutting in louder than the rest and giving her instruction on the use of her powers.  That helps her keep things at bay until she is hit with the horrible vision of a schoolroom about to explode. Her ability helped to save some lives but others were lost and now she has been outed to her friends and teachers.  They aren't sure what to think but when she foresees more death and destruction, they decide taking a chance on helping her stop it is better than nursing their grievances.

This is definitely the start of a new adventure for a new group of dragons where the Dragonets of Prophecy from the first five books play a more background role.  Ms. Sutherland continues focusing on a new dragon's point of view for each book which allows us to know the different dragons more thoroughly.  I'm still interested in the world but the plot of this adventure so far is not gripping me in the same way.  My 9yr old is still enthralled, however, so I'll probably continue reading.

Page count: 336p/33,732p ytd/248,648p lifetime

93:120 The Wings of Fire: The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland

Book 2 in the Wings of Fire series.  After having escaped their guardians, the Skywing kingdom, and found that Mudwings don't really do families and Clay's mother had sold his egg for 5 cows, the Dragonets of Prophecy have decided to go check out the Seawings realm and search for Tsunami's parents. Tsunami always loved the tale of the Missing Princess who was welcomed home with much fanfare into her families loving arms once she was found.  She had no idea Queen Coral had written it nor that she, herself. was a missing princess of the Seawing kingdom.  However, as she soon learns, being a missing princess returned home is not nearly all she dreamed it to be.

9yr old is really insistent that I read the whole series so I'm thankful that they are written well for children's book and the plot, while definitely using basic tropes and characters, have a bit more depth than just that and a plot that while is fairly predictable is still done well.


Page count: 336p/24,742p ytd/239,674p lifetime

84:120 Sky Dragons by Anne McCaffrey & Todd McCaffrey

The 24th book set in the world of Pern, the last collaboration between Anne McCaffrey who created the world and her son Todd, written just before her death in 2011.

Plague has ravaged Pern and now the next pass is imminent but the Dragonriders and dragons were just as vulnerable to the epidemic as anyone and there are not enough dragons to fly Thread and keep the planet safe.  The only hope lies in sending a group of dragonets and their riders along with just a few slightly older riders to the Southern Continent in the hope that they will be spared the plague and their dragons will rise enough to help repopulate the Weyrs.  Unfortunately no one foresaw the problems with large predators and tunnel snakes or how close the Pass was and how unprotected they would be when Thread did start to fall.  Their only hope lies in going back in time but with their leader being the first female rider of a blue dragon in recorded history, their biggest problem will be in learning to trust her enough to survive.

It's been a couple of years since I read the book before this and this led to a lot of confusion reading this one as there was a lot I didn't remember clearly that was alluded to but not enough detail given to help jog the memory.  Also, there were a couple of times that dragon names were switched which caused me more confusion. I got through the book and I understand what happened but all the confusion made it a less enjoyable read than I normally find Pern books to be.  Add in that I felt the whole "go back in time to the Southern Continent to save the world"thing a giant cop out since that was the big thing back in the first couple of books for almost the same reason.  Honestly, given how much I love this series and much more Anne McCaffrey's books to Todd's I was disappointed in this one and I hate saying that.  I do plan to reread the series at some point and maybe reading it all together in order it will be better.  I can only hope.

Page count: 344p/21,950p ytd/236,884p lifetime