Wings of Fire Books 6-10 Review (now with more potential spoilers)!

...You know, I think it's safe to say that Wings of Fire is my favorite book series. Seriously, the only form of literature that I found just as entertaining was Harry Potter. From an engaging premise, lovable characters, surprisingly brutal scenes of violence that sometimes border on Watership Down levels of disturbing, and DRAGONS, this series has everything a fantasy-adventure lover could ever want in a novel series. And if you don't like DRAGONS, you are just straight up lying to yourself, because let's be real here. Unless the writing in general is bad, it's impossible to write a dragon in a story without inspiring at least some levels of awe and wonder. And I want an excuse to talk about books more often, so we're reviewing the Second Arc of Wings of Fire.

For those not in the know, Wings of Fire is a series of fantasy novels written by Tui T. Sutherland (most well-known for collaborating with half a dozen other authors and writing a very long-running series called Warriors, which is not to be confused with the beat-em-up video game franchise of the same name). The general idea is simple. DRAGONS have replaced humanity as the dominant species on Earth and have formed a bunch of Tribes based on various biomes (SandWings come from the desert, for example). During the First Arc, the Tribes went to war with each other thanks to a SandWing civil war getting out of hand, resulting in over two decades of the Tribes fighting and killing each other. A NightWing prophet named Morrowseer foretold a prophecy that five dragonets (read: teenage DRAGONS) will stop the war and bring in an era of peace. The First Arc followed the adventures of Clay, a gentle MudWing with a heart of gold, Tsunami, a hot-blooded SeaWing who can best be described as "the one who gets stuff done", Glory, a sassy RainWing who uses sarcasm and wit to hide her bitterness towards society, Starflight, a cowardly but incredibly intelligent NightWing who solves problems with brains instead of brawn, and Sunny, a happy-go-lucky SandWing who tries to hold on to good morals even when the world around her tells her that having good morals is basically useless when the world is at war with itself.

Oh, and there WILL be spoilers for books 1-5 (which I already reviewed. Shameless plug, I know). "But WAIT!!!" You cry. "You said this the second Arc of the series! Does that mean that Wings of Fire has a rotating cast and you can read the arcs out of order?" Sort of. Wings of Fire has what I like to call anime arcs, where the cause of a major conflict is one arc and the arc ends when that specific conflict is resolved. Characters from one Arc may be brought back for the next Arc, but they won't be the main focus this time around. Anime and manga use this format constantly. But without further adieu, let's begin.

Book Six, titled Moon Rising, stars Moonwatcher, a timid, antisocial NightWing that was mentioned, rather casually, at the very end of Book 5. In this book, the main dragonets from the First Arc decide the best way to teach the DRAGONS how to cooperate and not be racist to each other is to open up the Jade Academy, which is, for all intents and purposes, the dragon equivalent of a high school. Now I know some folks have insurmountable hatred for high school settings, but I don't feel they are inherently bad, as long as it makes sense in the story. Plus, Moon Rising actually doesn't do all the overdone cliches associated with high school settings and even has a complete genre shift in the second act, becoming more akin to a murder mystery, but with a twist. You see, Moonwatcher has telepathy, and as such can hear the thoughts of any person within earshot of her. Now when all the murder mystery stuff started happening, I first thought was "How is a mind-reader not gonna solve a mystery in five minutes with her mind-reading powers?". The answer is simple. She can only hear the thoughts of whatever the other dragon is thinking at that specific moment. She can't look through someone's memories or see something that the other dragon was thinking about hours ago. And I find that to be a rather unique twist on the mind-reading concept, because normally in fiction mind-reading is so overpowered that the mind-reader in question needs to be laughably stupid in order for the conflict to last the entire story and not be resolved in five seconds. This book reminds me quite a bit of Book One, The Dragonet Prophecy, in that the first act is devoted almost entirely to world-building and character introduction, and the pace picks up absurdly fast in the second and third acts to compensate. It also serves as the first real introduction to Darkstalker, a character that was mentioned back in Book 5, and arguably the most important character not just to this arc, but the entire series. Overall, this was a great book, and definitely worth a read, even if you were turned off by "Dragon High School".

Fun Fact! Book 7, Winter Turning, was the entire reason I decided to read this series in the first place. Long story short, I was visiting the library and just happened to look down and see a book with some gorgeous artwork of an ice dragon. My curiosity piqued, so I read the synopsis blurb on the back, and was immediately hooked. Before I rented it though, I saw that was the seventh book in a series, and I don't like reading things out of order, so I tracked down books 1-6 in preparation of Winter Turning. Because of that, Winter (the character) is one of my favorite characters just for that reason. 

Anyway, onto the book itself. Winter Turning focuses on Winter, an IceWing prince who back in Moon Rising acted arrogant and haughty. The reason he acts arrogant and haughty though, is because he was the black sheep of the royal family, his parents verbally abused him, and his siblings taught him that IceWings are better than the other Tribes, for the sole reason that they are IceWings. I like to think of the IceWings as the archetypal elves of this universe, since elves are usually portrayed as being better than everyone else (or at least believing so), in addition to be rare and mysterious (plus, if Inheritance Cycle taught us all anything, it's that elves are just the worst when it comes to social skills). And up until now, we (the readers) knew literally nothing about IceWing culture, mostly by virtue of the IceWings getting left out of Morrowseer's prophecy, which meant that back in the First Arc, Sutherland had no real reason to explore the lore of the IceWings. Kind of like how J.K. Rowling had no reason to focus on the Hufflepuff House since they had next to no stake in the overarching plot. But now we have the IceWings in the spotlight for once and... They're arguably just as bad (morally) as First Arc-Era NightWings, maybe worse.

Anyway, Winter himself goes through quite a lot of character growth, as he learns how to not be a IceWing supremist jerk to everyone around him, begins to question the moral ambiguity of IceWing culture being run by a constantly shifting leaderboard that ranks every single IceWing in the Tribe in order of perceived value, finally realizes that his parents are scumbags after years of abuse, and develops a crush on Moonwatcher (and hating himself for it). No, I'm not making that up. A lot of Winter's growth is brought on by him falling hopelessly in love with Moonwatcher, but because she's a NightWing, he feels like he will bring shame to the entire Tribe if he pursues a relationship with her. Also, the last time a NightWing and an IceWing hooked up, the resulting romance nearly doomed Pyrrhia (more on that later). Also, I like just how radically different Winter when he's trying to keep up the jerkish facade versus how he really feels about everything. Seriously he goes from "IceWings are perfect, there is nothing better than the IceWings, and anyone who thinks otherwise should feel bad!" to "H-hey, Moon, I think you're really pretty, I-is it all right if we h-hang out sometime? I got a cute pet scavenger that does tricks!". That's obviously an exaggeration, but it should give you an idea of Winter's character.

As for the actual plot of this book, Winter, Moonwatcher, a SeaWing named Turtle, a SandWing named Qibli, and fan-favorite returning character Peril all team up to track down Winter's sister Icicle, who went rogue and is planning to assassinate the Original Five Dragonets on behalf of Scarlet, an antagonist debuting all the way back in the very first book, and was presumed dead up until now. Oh, and we get to delve even further into the lore and backstory of Darkstalker, so that's a plus.

Book 8, Escaping Peril. This book has the best narration and prose in the series. Is it the best overall? No. At least in my opinion. But holy crab-cakes, the narration and descriptions in this book were fantastic. Now all the books are written in third-person limited, with narration changing it's word use to match up with the personality and origins of the Point of View character. Example, Winter uses a lot of ice and snow metaphors when describing things, Glory is prone to listing off all her options, usually using the phrase "but on the other claw..." when doing so, reflecting her street-smarts and calculating demeanor. Peril's narration? It's erratic, full of random shouting and death threats, reflecting both her mental instability and her violent upbringing. It also has long tangents about how great Clay is, reflecting Peril's obsession with him. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Peril is the Harley Quinn of the Wing of Fire universe, and the narration captures her shameless craziness perfectly.

For context, Peril was a SkyWing that was born with (and I quote) "too much fire". Now, all SkyWings have flame breath, mostly by virtue of the Skywings being the closest thing to a traditional dragon (or at least the Western interpretation of a dragon). Peril's flame is so hot that merely touching her will set you on fire. And considering that the only ranged weapons dragons have developed are their naturally occurring breath weapons (which seem to function more like shotgun blasts rather than a dedicated projectile), and since most dragons prefer melee combat, it means we have a dragoness (read: female dragon) who is not only invulnerable to an oversaturated fighting style, but can punish said fighting style just by gently poking the other dragon. It's kind of like Gaara's Sand Protection ability from Naruto. Heck, both Gaara and Peril go through a redemption arc after initially antagonising the heroes on behalf of a much more dangerous villain. And both of them were ostracized because of their unnatural defenses. And both of them can't control their defensive abilities. And both of them were initially treated like tools to be used rather than living creatures with their own thoughts and ideas. ...Frankly I'm starting to think that Peril was at least partially inspired by Gaara. Or maybe I'm just being a dork for making this comparison in the first place.

Anyway, Peril goes off on her own to try and track down Scarlet, because as much as she was constantly belittled and manipulated by her, Peril still views Scarlet as a mother figure, and Peril legitimately doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, since the only talent she developed was fighting in gladiatorial combat, and all of her not-evil peers are pacifists who detest blood-sport. So her arc revolves around finding a new purpose in life. I like this book a lot, and has some of the greatest comedy in the series.

Book 9, Talons of Power is the first book in the Second Arc to not use the P.O.V. character's name in the title. I like to think the reason for this was because Sutherland couldn't think of any catchy titles involving the word Turtle. Because guess what? The main protagonist of this book is Turtle, a mellow SeaWing prince who (spoilers for Escaping Peril) is revealed to be an Animus Dragon, which are this universes's equivalent of wizards. Animus Dragons can cast magic spells that do just about anything. There are only two limits to Animus Magic, the first being it cannot revive the dead. Which is good, because it makes consequences feel more permanent. The other, and arguably the more importantly lore and story wise is that every time an Animus dragon casts a spell, they lose a bit of their soul/sanity (it's left up for interpretation on what exactly happens when an Animus casts too many spells). Cast too many spells at once and the Animus in question will become a chaotic killing machine. Anyway, the premise of this book is that after (spoilers) Peril burns up the scroll containing Darkstalker's Animus powers, he breaks free from his underground prison and almost immediately charms the entire main cast with his swagger and surprisingly nice attitude. Except for Turtle, who immediately enchanted himself to be invisible to Darkstalker's gaze. Turtle did this because he had a gut feeling that Darkstalker is probably bad news (he's a giant NightWing with telepathy, Animus magic, and foresight, and went down in history as the dragon equivalent of the boogeyman) and figured he'd be less likely to die a horrific death if he took some precautions. Anyway, after enchanting Qibli to become unaffected to Darkstalker's magic, Turtle and Qibli team up to see if they can find any skeletons in Darkstalker's closet, so to speak, and prove that he is nowhere near as altruistic as he is behaving.

Anyway, Turtle is another one of my favorite characters. He's a mellow SeaWing prince, but unlike Winter, who let his royal privileges go to his head prior to his character development, Turtle is humble to a fault. Out of the Second Arc characters, Turtle might be the most relatable. Between his self-deprecation, desire to blend in and be accepted as a decent person, love of writing and storytelling, and somehow managing to apply various tropes and cliches to real life, I found myself thinking on more than one occasion, "Wow, Sutherland just turned me into a dragon. Cool.". I also love Darkstalker as an antagonist. But the main reason why I love him needs to be discussed later. I will say though that every time I read Darkstalker's dialogue I always imagine him speaking with the voice of The Snatcher from A Hat in Time.

And now for Book 10, Darkness of Dragons. Woo, double digit entry! Wings of Fire is now an established franchise. Anyway, Darkness of Dragons stars Qibli, a street-savvy SandWing who used to be a thief, but gave up the life of crime to become Queen Thorn's right hand man. I like Qibli, but I still prefer Winter and Turtle over him. But my main criticisms of Darkness of Dragons have a lot of spoilers within them, so we'll save them for last.

Anyway, Darkness of Dragons actually runs parallel to Talons of Power, showing us what Qibli was doing when he and Turtle split up. While split up, Qibli and a slightly hypnotized Winter learn that Darkstalker is, surprise, a ruthless tyrant whose hatred for IceWings is eerily similar to the Nazis' hatred for Jews. Oh, and they deal with what can best be described as a Dragon Mafia, which is run by Qibli's grandfather. You know now that I think about it the only adult dragons in this universe that are decent parent figures are Queen Thorn (she's Sunny's mom, by the way), and Secretkeeper (Moonwatcher's mom). 

But while I like this book a lot, the ending, specifically how Darkstalker is defeated, kind of bothers me. Now, the series as a whole has a very strong pacifism message. So killing off an antagonist would be hypocritical. But at the same time, Darkstalker murdered his own father out of spite, planned to commit an IceWing genocide, emotionally manipulated his own lover so she wouldn't dump him because of the whole, "I'mma go murder all the IceWings and declare myself King of the World!" thing, brainwashed dozens of dragons into obeying him, and performed even more atrocities that simply can't be forgiven. So how is Darkstalker defeated? He gets hit with an enchantment that turns him back into a baby, giving him a second chance at life. Now if Sutherland were to do a plotline involving the reborn Darkstalker, now named Peacebringer, finding out about his past life, that would make for a potentially amazing character redemption arc. But as far as I'm aware, Sutherland has no intention of going anywhere with this thread, since the Third Arc (yes, there's a third arc in this series as well), focuses mainly on the Lost Continent and introduces new Tribes to the lore. But personally speaking, unless Sutherland brings Peacebringer back and has a arc for him kind of like how I described, I feel like Darkstalker should have died, and the ending would have the same emotional impact.

But now it's time to talk about the one thing the Wings of Fire fandom can never agree on! Who should Moonwatcher have hooked up with at the end of Darkness of Dragons? Qibli, or Winter? Yes, we're talking about a shipping debate. Just be thankful that my buddy Vincent hasn't read these books yet, because I already know that if he gets involved in a shipping debate, it's going to be impossible to win that debate. But let's break it down, shall we? Moonwatcher expressed romantic interest in both Winter and Qibli back in Moon Rising, the former because she sympathized with his troubled past and hidden depths, the latter because of his swagger, charisma, and nice guy attitude. She winds up choosing Qibli at the end of Darkness of Dragons.

 Part of the reason Winter undergoes his character development is because of Moonwatcher not only shattering his preconceptions about NightWings, but because his love for her helps him realize just how heartless IceWing society is. Qibli was born into a criminal organization and only became a honest man (dragon?) thanks to Queen Thorn's influence. Qibli's growth actually has nothing to do with Moonwatcher, and the fact that he even likes her romantically is more of sidepoint than a major characteristic. Personally, I feel that Moonwatcher should have hooked up with Winter, since Winter's love for her allows him to grow and develop in the first place. I do respect Sutherland's decision to have Moonwatcher and Qibli become an item, even though I disagree with it. Now get your tin hats ready, because I have a conspiracy theory explaining why Sutherland opted to 'ship Moonwatcher and Qibli. She probably considered Winter and Moonwatcher becoming an official couple, but realized the parallels between them and Darkstalker's parents would bring up some rather unfortunate implications, so she recycled the love story elements and reused them for Qibli instead. But that's just a theory. A BOOK THEORY!!! (thanks for reading!)

Oh, and you know how this post is supposed to cover the entire Second Arc? There's one book missing, and though this book isn't numbered, it's crucial that I at least mention it.

Wings of Fire Legends: Darkstalker, a prequel to the entire series and can, in theory, be read right after Book 5. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Taking place thousands of years before the Sandwing civil war that kicked off the plot of the First Arc, Darkstalker gives us a first-hand look at the events that lead to Darkstalker's descent into madness. It has a rotating perspective, between Darkstalker himself, his lover Clearsight, and fellow Animus dragon Fathom. What's great about this book is while it doesn't add anything new to Darkstalker's character, it reinforces the thing that makes Darkstalker such a great antagonist. He genuinely believes all the terrible things he does is in the name of the greater good. He wants to rule not because he craves power but because he genuinely believes he would a better leader and dragon society would see improvements with a clairvoyant wizard dragon at the helm. He doesn't hate the IceWings because of petty racism, he hates them because his father, who was abusive by the way, was an IceWing, and his father's mistreatment of Darkstalker inadvertently taught him that all IceWings are terrible people and should be "removed" for the safety of the other Tribes. And the sad thing is, thanks to Clearsight's ability to see every possible future at once (hence her name), we know that had events played out differently, Darkstalker could have wound up becoming a good person who really does change dragon society for the better (she even says at one point that for every timeline where Darkstalker falls from grace, there's another two timelines where he became a genuinely good person).

But because of Darkstalker's charisma and ideals, it's easy to forget he's the primary antagonist. Which means when we switch perspectives and see how Clearsight and Fathom perceive him, it serves as a somewhat jarring (but completely necessary) jolt to remind us that yes, the charming NightWing teen with awesome superpowers is gonna grow up to become a bloodthirsty megalomaniac. Which is another reason why I love this book. It manages to make a character, who seems so lovable and well-intentioned, and shows the the reader first hand just how messed up he really is moments later.

Overall, the second arc was great, containing plenty of must read books. The characterization is just as strong as the First Arc, and to be frank I am excited to see what happens in the Third Arc. I give Wings of Fire Books 6-10 (plus Wings of Fire Legends: Darkstalker) 10 magical introverted lizards out of 10. If you haven't read Wings of Fire at all yet, I strongly encourage you to pick up a book or two, because these books are really freaking good.

Return to the Maw! Little Nightmares DLC review!

"Did I forget to mention there's a DLC campaign? Because [Little Nightmares] did well enough for Tarsier Studios to make a DLC campaign titled Little Nightmares: Secrets of the Maw. I'll review that eventually." - Spencer, 2017.

 

Yep. Two years in the making, I'm finally ready to review DLC stuff! Now I reviewed Little Nightmares during the Christmas craze of 2017, where not only did I give the game a 10/10, I made the argument that it would be my personal Game of the Year. That was the only time I made a Game of the Year "nomination" as it were, because if anyone knows me it's that I have a really hard time keeping to a schedule! So by the time I make a Game of the Year nomination (and explaining why) the year has long since past and it's no longer relevant. Anyway, for context, Little Nightmares is a stealth-based puzzle platformer (with horror elements) designed with a Tim Burton-style aesthetic. Featuring an atmospheric soundtrack, and a thought-provoking (albeit wordless) story, and a very unconventional style when it comes to horror games.

The DLC campaign, titled Secrets of the Maw, stars The Runaway Kid, or Seven, or The Prisoner. Look, he doesn't have a canon name, and those are just some of the names the fandom commonly associated with this character. As much as I would love to call him "Joey Joeington" for the remainder of this post, I'll keep things simple and refer to him as Seven (because the previous protagonist is canonically named Six, and because typing "The Runaway Kid" five million times is gonna get old real fast). Anyway, Seven is trapped aboard the titular Maw. In case you never played the original game or read my review, the Maw is a kind of hotel/submarine hybrid that is filled with abnormally humongous furniture and home to a plethora of grotesque giants. The Maw is normally underwater but once a year it surfaces in random spot on the globe, where morbidly obese pig-like creatures known as the Guests come aboard and devour a mighty feast. Now this wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that the meat in the food is strongly implied to come from human children. You can see why Seven wants to leave.

The first chapter, The Depths, has Seven follow almost the exact reverse route Six (the main protagonist of the original game) took during her first chapter. During this he follows a nameless girl armed with a flashlight who's been planning to escape for a while. Considering she disappears and all that remains of her is the flashlight (which Seven takes and uses himself) relatively early on in the adventure, it's safe to say the girl doesn't make it very far before... Something caught her.

After falling down a hole, Seven finds himself in the flooded basement of the Maw, where the Granny lurks just below the murky water. I hope you aren't afraid of water (or things hiding in the water), because the Granny's main form of attack is to attempt to drown Seven with her long spindly limbs. The atmosphere of this chapter is dreadful in the best possible way, and whenever you set foot in the water here your heart just starts racing. There aren't too many puzzles in this chapter, since it consists mostly of platforming across the floating furniture and trying to stay out of the water as long as possible. Also, fun fact! The Granny is the only monster that dies onscreen during the DLC.

The next chapter, The Hideaway, picks up right the cliffhanger ending of The Depths (spoilers, Seven gets caught by the Janitor and stuffed into a meatbag heading for the Maw's kitchen). Seven manages to escape from the meatbag, but falls all the way down to the Maw's engine room. Now I know this is going to sound petty and nitpicky, but this whole review is biased, there is no way a human could survive a fall such as the one Seven had without at least some broken bones, but the fact he survives with only a minor bruise is a bit taxing on my suspension of disbelief. Yes, I can believe in a macabre hotel-submarine that feeds fat greasy swine-people food made of human flesh, and I can believe that the whole thing is being run by a narcissistic Geisha who may or may not have left her own daughter to die, AND the main protagonist of the original game being revealed to be some kind of cannibalistic vampire-esque monster, but Seven falling a great distance and getting back up without a single scratch is what breaks the immersion.

The Hideaway is by far the least scary of the DLC chapters, but that doesn't mean it's the worst. Unless we're measuring a horror game's quality on scare factor alone (for example, Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is considered to be the weakest game in that franchise precisely because it's the least scary of the FN@F games, even though it did have some really cool gameplay mechanics), in that case, yeah, it would be the worst. But I'm not measuring it on just scare factor, because this chapter has some of my favorite puzzles in it. Namely, working together with small white conical creatures known as the Nomes (pronounced like "Gnome") to move from room to room, eventually warming up the engine enough to reveal a secret passage that leads to a (potential) exit. I really like The Hideaway despite it's lack of horror, but one knock against it is the fact that there are no new threats in this chapter, the only monster here is the Janitor (who was the very first monster you encountered in the original game), and it isn't even actively searching for you (instead just grabbing you if you happen to get in it's way). To be fair, the story reason for this is because the Janitor is preoccupied with both it's duties to maintaining the Maw and is also looking around for Six, so it's attention and priorities aren't focused on Seven. 

The final DLC Chapter, The Residence, is definitely my favorite out of the three. In it, Seven must explore the Geisha's private suite at the very top of the Maw. Now, if you played the original game you know the Geisha is bad news, since she was the final boss as well as the primary antagonist. However, you don't get to see much of the Geisha at all here, at least until the final couple of rooms. Instead, the primary threat are these masked shadowy figures similar in appearance to Seven.

These shadows are, in my opinion, the scariest thing in this game. They can only be defeated by the shining the flashlight directly on them (paralleling the Geisha's weakness to reflections), but that is only a temporary solution, as the shadows can just respawn over and over. Additionally, they are much faster and more aggressive than every other monster in the Maw combined, gunning for you the moment you step into their territory. The other monsters at least of the courtesy of let out a squeal or gasp when they see you, giving you a brief headstart. The shadows offer no such warning at all. They only appear in dark or poorly lit rooms, but that becomes even more terrifying because part-way through the chapter, the lights in every room are switched off, with the only source of light being Seven's flashlight. 

The Residence also sports what I feel to be the best level design of the DLC chapters. While The Depths focused a bit too much on horror and platforming, and Hideaway focused a bit too much on puzzle solving, Residence has the perfect amount of both. Featuring some really clever puzzles (one of which felt like it was pulled straight from Indiana Jones) and some genuinely yelp-worthy spooks. It also continued the dollhouse/hotel/prison aesthetic of the original game, but with a more lavish flair. After all, why would the owner of such an eldritch establishment reside in a place just as dirty and unkempt as say, the kitchen, or the basement. Also, the ending of The Residence is somehow just as chilling and horrific as the ending of the original game. It also makes what was already one of the most nightmarish scenes in Little Nightmares even more disturbing in retrospect, and to spoil what I'm talking about would be a crime against the game.

Overall, all the DLC chapters were good. It's somewhat of a bummer that we only got two brand-new monsters (the Granny and the Shadows) out of this, and I do feel like The Hideaway could use more action and/or scare factor moments, but overall, this was a job well done from Tarsier Studios. Now we just gotta wait for the prequel that was announced fairly recently. But anyway, I give Little Nightmares: Secrets of the Maw 9 hungry kids out of 10.