Name: Darkness of Dragons (Wings of Fire, Book 10)
Rating: 4.77 (35 reviews)
Author: Tui T. Sutherland
ISBN: 9780545685481

Book Reviews (36)

moonwatcher6

4 months ago

Wings of Fire: The Darkness of Dragons, book ten is an amazing fantasy novel by Tui T. Sutherland. Qibli (SandWing) is going to Jade Mountain Academy when an evil, immortal, animus NightWing named Darkstalker from the past rises again. Qibli uses his brain and some small animus touched objects to save the entire continent and defeat Darkstalker.

celebang

3 years ago

I loved the plot and emotion in this book, of Qibli's suffering his entire childhood, then having to return to that same family to save his fellow Outclaw and potentially the rest of the world. Really great plot, and AMAZING epilogue. Great closing to the second arc.

adroit_avimimus

3 years ago

A terribly displeasing ending to one of my favorite series ever. I understand that Tui T. Sutherland had backed herself into a corner with the major plot holes in Talons of Power, but she only digs herself deeper. At this point, I don’t think it was an accident or a poorly thought plan, just simply a bad idea executed pretty well. All things considered, I am extremely disappointed with this book, I was so connected to it, I had dreams of it, wrote fanfictions of it, was inspired by it, and its characters were always in my head…I’m not sure I will ever get over how upset I am with this. **SPOILER WARNING** If you have not read the book yet, please stop here. Firstly, it was bad enough that readers had to follow Turtle in Talons of Power, with his sadly pathetic demeanor and slow dopey train of thought, despite his obvious capabilities. But then we get a book with Qibli, whose cleverness and cunning I for one have been greatly looking forward to, only to find someone who thinks along the same lines. “Oh, woe is me, I’m useless and the world hates me…” Secondly, Tui has been showing signs of failing in the exact same place as many other authors, something as a critic I cannot stress enough-- character consistency. First shown in the fleeting glimpses of our beloved characters in Talons of Power, and now given as a blast to the face here. Thirdly-- and this is mostly due to Talons of Power, not inherently this book-- Darkstalker’s defeat was so…dumb. One of the unspoken laws of writing is to never, ever make any character-- good or evil-- all-powerful because then there is no really good way to get rid of them. I mean seriously, he teleported all animus dragons all over the world to his throne room in a second (by the way, where on earth is the animus enchanting in that spell?), and he supposedly made himself invulnerable to animus magic, yet both with Turtle's stick and with his defeat it didn't seem to work... Fourth, the greatest plot hole in the book, how did Darkstalker even get his power back or how did the piece of his scroll that Moon and Qibli used to defeat him have any power? The animus magic can only be in one place-- otherwise, it makes absolutely no sense-- but when they "destroyed" the scroll with his animus magic he got his power back, yet there was part of his scroll still left with magic in it. How does Tui explain this? She doesn't, which is the worst thing she could do. Fifth and finally-- and this one is about the character pairing in the book-- why the heck did Tui decide to do Moon and Qibli? Although I suppose it was obvious since she announced that the last book was going to be on Qibli. And this isn’t all about personal opinion! If you think about it, how many times before this book did Moon and Qibli even speak to each other, let alone exchange special looks, or were even alone together? In Winter Turning I would say that Winter and Moon had some romantically tense moments, which were very exciting to read about. On top of that, and this last part doesn’t matter as much but it is still significant, there were polls on what pair the readers wanted in several places on the internet, including Scholastic’s official website, and readers voted incontestably for Moon and Winter, with the polls going at an average of 76% to 24%. **End of Spoilers** All in all, a complete flunk from my point of view. I understand that the vast majority will be happy with whatever they are given, but I’m not. I only ask for three simple things: A good story. Consistent characters. And a good ending to the series. That’s it. Nothing more. I’m not asking for perfection, just decency, and although this was one of my favorite series ever, this book couldn’t even nearly reach those simple standards. And for that, my 2-Star Rating.

happy_man

3 years ago

Qibli did not have magic or night wing powers for that matter, which he mourns. As an advisor to the new queen Thorn he will always stretch his loyalty and do anything for her. But then Qibli and his friends run into a new problem! A two-thousand year old dragon legend named Darkstalker has come out of the earth! Qibli thinks everyone is acting strangely, especially Winter. Shouldn't they be afraid of this powerful legend? Just when it seems like his life can't get any worse he has to find his grandfather Vulture. Qibli is the one dragon holding Pyrrhia together. Or he could be the one thing to split in half? Will he say yes to the gift of animus power or will he turn it down? Will he chose the right or wrong path? Find out in Wings of Fire #10: Darkness of Dragons!