Cover of “Wings Of Fire: Darkness Of Dragons” by Tui T. Sutherland.Happy September, everyone!
I hope that all of you had a wonderful August and that this September is just as good or better.
I’m back with another book review, and this time I’m reviewing “Wings Of Fire: Darkness Of Dragons” by Tui T. Sutherland! I’ve reviewed the past several books in this series, though I was a bit disappointed when reviewing the most recent books before this one. I hope that this book turns things around. Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:
“A young NightWing may have had the first true prophecy in generations . . .
Something is coming to shake the earth
Something is coming to scorch the ground
Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice
Unless the lost city of night can be found.
Will the return of Darkstalker bring a horrible future to Pyrrhia? Or can five young dragons save the world — again?
Don’t miss the thrilling conclusion to the new prophecy in the epic, bestselling Wings of Fire series!”
Character Development: 1.5 out of 5 stars
I initially loved reading Qibli in this book. The beginning chapters easily made me sympathize with him as a reader. I also thought it gave more depth to Thorn, as well, so good on the author for giving her some much-needed depth. However, that was ruined when Qibli, along with the other dragons, decided to mind-control and depower Darkstalker so he would “start fresh” as a young dragonet again, especially after they spent so many books being against dragons using magic to get their own way. It makes Qibli and the others hypocritical, which I dislike as a reader.
I also think that many of the main characters started sounding alike instead of having unique personalities. I also noticed an excessive use of all-capitalized words in their dialogue, which didn’t help distinguish them as individual characters. It’s one thing if they all start rubbing off on each other due to their developing bonds, but if they all start sounding like the same person, it makes all of the characters less interesting to read.
Plot Development: 1.5 out of 5 stars
This book takes place partially during the events of the previous book in the series and is meant to be the actual last book in the second main series arc. At first, it was interesting to see how it culminated in Qibli confronting his family (particularly his grandfather) but then the plot got overly complicated very quickly. There were too many political side plots going on for me as a reader to keep track of.
Also, there was a giant contradiction that happened at the end of the book. For the past several books, this one included, all of the main characters were vehemently against mind-controlling other dragons. But then they decide to do the exact same thing to stop Darkstalker in his tracks. This makes them hypocritical and also ruins any previous conversations and lessons against manipulating others (no matter what reason you have behind it). I wish they resolved the Darkstalker issue in some other way; perhaps imprisoning him again but permanently, or even just killing him off as his downfall for trying to manipulate everything and every dragon to his whims. The way it was resolved in this book was not the way to go.
Worldbuilding Development: 2 out of 5 stars
At first, I was interested in the magic that was presented in this series’ world several books ago. And in a way, it made sense throughout the past few books with how Darkstalker used it to control dragons and everything for his own advantage.
However, I think the constant use of magic is becoming a lazy way out of fixing all the problems that happened during the past few books, and this book is no exception to that. It’s especially exemplified with what I’ve complained about in both the plot and character development sections of this review; using magic to wipe out Darkstalker’s memories and adult form so he can start anew as a dragonet again and so he doesn’t destroy the world. I won’t elaborate on this part much longer, but it’s just the worst of how the author used the world’s magic to solve the problems in this series.
Overall, I’m rating this book out 1.5 of 5 stars!
I am disappointed that I had to give this book a low rating, but I truly do think that this was the most disappointing story arc conclusion in the Wings Of Fire series. The first five books were my most-favourite, especially compared to this second arc.
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