#tui sutherland

Talenia is a fan-continent of the series “Wings of Fire” by Tui Sutherland, populated by five tribes: Ashwings, Cavewings, Woodwings, Cloudwings, and Baywings.

The southernmost tribe, the Ashwings, are large, muscular, black and gray dragons that live in a scorched, volcanic biome. Their kingdom prioritizes the sharpening of their skills and attempting to find the best of the best in their tribe.

The “mysterious” tribe, the Cavewings, are stocky, small-winged, earth-colored dragons who primarily live in an extensive tunnel system under the ground of their kingdom. As a tribe, they are very reserved, and prefer to stay out of other kingdoms’ businesses.

The feathered tribe, the Cloudwings, have a wide range of colors, with their feathers and scales ranging from whites and grays, to reds, pinks and yellows. They live in the mountainous region of the continent, and they have a wide range in family ideals, customs, and priorities.

The nomadic tribe, the Woodwings, are green and/or brown dragons with varying styles of antlers that live in the heavily forested region of the continent. They prioritize freedom and creativity, often sending dragonets on nomadic treks as soon as they turn seven years old.

The northernmost tribe, the Baywings, are dragons with the widest range of colors, including browns, greens, teals, blues, purples, and pinks. They live along the rivers, marshes, and beaches in the north of Talenia, and they value great knowledge and power over all else.

Work in progress of Tsunami of Wings Of Fire !! Probably gonna do a digital version

I feel it important to preface this with a mention of @gabberblabber 's wonderful art of Stonemover I felt captured his character perfectly and inspired me to go write a long piece on him as a character.

I’ve always thought Stonemover is a wonderful look at the terror of animus magic, in how to feel control he felt obliged to turn the believed side effects upon the soul tangibly upon himself so he could always see them as an act of personal initiative. He writes himself out of the narrative in an act of defiance because he’s from the nightwing tribe as they were and doesn’t trust himself to not continue doing what he’s told and can’t bear to make decisions that could hurt people in the future. Thus he takes it to the extreme of making no decisions at all.

It makes him a fascinating narrative foil to Darkstalker I’ve always found and fundamentally one of the most distinct dragons of the series. Because Stonemover changes, he changes before the protagonists are even hatched from wittingly supporting plans for a rainwing subjugation/genocide and nightwing superiority to fundamentally wanting to nothing but mind his own business and not lose his mind along the way. He also, notably, looks at Darkstalker while under an enchantment to like him and is horrified by his cavalier attitude to animus magic and reacts accordingly- which demonstrates his principles rather blatantly not bending to the whims of like and dislike once formed, they stay the same regardless of his current mood (a large part of it is also a trauma response to the insidiousness potential animus magic has on someone’s personality, but he stands out regardless as not being taken in on nearly any level by external pressure).

It’s the small details but his willingness to pass on messages for the Talons of Peace, his gloomy politeness allowing Sunny to share his cave and his muted happiness learning he has a daughter are all shockingly selfless for a dragon in wings of fire where the default is not kindness to strangers most places culturally, particularly across tribes, at all. Stonemover reaches his position of apathetically unprejudiced of his own accord, for virtually no reward or expectation he’ll get anything from it- which fascinates me. Sunny taking after her father in her pacifism, ability to make a decision then stand by it all on her own, her willingness to let bygones be bygones and stubborn refusal to do something she feels is wrong isn’t talked about enough it feels. Because yes, Stonemover is heavily depressed, despondent and about as vivacious as could be expected after how long he’s been on his own but he’s still remarkably principled in it.

I adore how Sunny’s visits to get to know her father and build a relationship with him are demonstrated in arc 2 as a continuous effort- which he welcomes! He’s not Thorn, so I see why he doesn’t stand out, he has no Qibli talking him up, but I really think his thoughts on the nightwing tribe have the potential for a fascinating conversation with Moonwatcher where she could get answers without any resentment levelled her way for asking.

I really think he’s neat and in some ways has more going for him than Thorn, who’s also brilliant, but much less eccentric. Oh, she supports community efforts, opposes dragonets starving, thinks healthcare is important I believe (I love characters inclined towards such socialism) and fits a leadership role superbly, but she’s much more immersed in dragon culture than Stonemover is. Thorn, remember, is the kind of gang leader who will shoot the messenger, threaten torture/death/violence and is remorselessly practical in her choices as well as fuelled by vindication in places.

It’s great! I have most of the books it’s possible to get that way in hardback and they all neatly match each other on the shelf! I like all of the arcs as much as I have favourite narrators. The exploration of dragon society through the fabled dragonets of prophecy who’ve grown up completely cut off from the world gives them an extremely plausible reason to be outsiders and paragons of unusual traits in dragons as a whole- like violence being bad, that’s outlandish, how about we all stop killing each other. The succession crisis spiralling into a continental war with each faction having a degree of complexity and developed characters eventually is great, as it also lets Sutherland tackle a wide range of how prejudice forms etc in the books. I enjoy its worldbuilding too- when bearing in mind the dragons have no critical thinking skills or need to look for options that aren’t just violence to solve problems why would they bother with, let’s see, doing lots of fretting over morality etc. Not in dragon society they aren’t! There’s no time for that, there’s a war on and other dragons’ problems are other dragons’ problems after all, what is this charity!

I think the arcs intersect pretty well, although there’s some ways it could be a little smoother. The first arc is my favourite, Clay is just so great, I like protagonists who are just fundamentally good yet still deal with the plot. In the first arc, representation wise, there’s some disability compared to how dragons normally function present, which is fun, and one protagonist is entirely uninterested in romance. As the series goes on there’s more and more background or main characters who fall into categories of different representation. I enjoyed every book, although not all equally as some were in the list of my absolute favourite books ever.

I've read: the full fifteen-book series in prose form spanning its three arcs; the graphic novel range of books one to six; both Darkstalker and Dragonslayer from Wings of Fire Legends; Wings of Fire A Guide to the Dragon World; and the full Wings of Fire Winglets Quartet.

MOBI - missing graphic novels and A Guide to the Dragon World

EPUB - missing graphic novels 3-7