47 pages • 1 hour read
Tui T. SutherlandDarkness of Dragons
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Series Context: Wings of Fire
The Wings of Fire series is written by American children’s book author, Tui Sutherland, and has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. A critical success, the series focuses on important issues and themes that arise during adolescence.
Each arc in the Wings of Fire universe includes five novels, each of which revolves around a prophecy. The first arc of the series includes The Dragonet Prophecy, The Lost Heir, The Hidden Kingdom, The Dark Secret, and The Brightest Night. This initial arc narrates the adventures of the Dragonets of Destiny, or Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny, five dragonets foretold to end the brutal war of SandWing Succession by helping one of three princesses ascend the throne after the mysterious death of their mother, Queen Oasis.
The Jade Mountain Prophecy arc takes place six months after the conclusion of the war and the creation of the Jade Mountain Academy, an intertribal school for dragons. The second arc expands the action across Pyrrhia and focuses on the adventures of Moonwatcher, Winter, Peril, Turtle, and Qibli in Moon Rising, Winter Turning, Escaping Peril, Talons of Power, and Dragons of Darkness as the dragons attempt to maintain a peaceful coexistence between tribes and prevent the destruction of the new school. This arc also further develops the existence of magic in the Wings of Fire universe introducing animus dragons with the power to enchant objects or other dragons.
The novel, Darkstalker, is a prequel to the Jade Mountain Prophecy arc. The book is one of two Legendary Novels that expand the fantasy universe in a historical sequence that tells the story of the animus dragon, Darkstalker, through the alternating perspectives of legendary figures Darkstalker, Clearsight, and Fathom. Darkstalker is woken from an enchanted sleep and becomes the main antagonist of the second arc more than a thousand years after the events of the novel.
The final arc tells the stories of Blue, Cricket, Sundew, Snowfall, and Luna in the novels The Last Continent, The Hive Queen, The Poison Jungle, The Dragon’s Gift, and The Flames of Hope. The Lost Continent Prophecy predicts the discovery of a lost continent believed to be a myth by the dragons of Pyrrhia. The Lost Continent of Pantala is ruled by a tyrannical queen, Queen Wasp, whose mind control powers threaten the continued existence of Pyrrhia once contact is established between Pyrrhia and Pantala.
Genre Context: Bildungsroman
Each Wings of Fire novel is a Bildungsroman, a literary genre that follows the social and moral development of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood, demonstrating their process of maturation from innocence to experience as the character learns to integrate into society. In the Wings of Fire universe, this process of adolescent development is represented by anthropomorphized dragons.
There are several sub-genres of the Bildungsroman including the Entwicklungsroman, a novel that depicts the growth of the protagonist but ends prior to adulthood. Much young adult series fiction features a sequence of Entwicklungsromans that comprise a complete Bildungsroman. The Wings of Fire novels are different in that each novel emphasizes a different dragonet’s process of maturation.
The Bildungsroman often includes themes that highlight important aspects of society such as Power, Corruption, and the Abuse of Power as in Darkness of Dragons. These themes develop an adolescent reader’s understanding of the nuances and complexity of adult life. For example, Qibli grapples with important moral and ethical issues that arise from arbitrary and illogical rules alongside questionable cultural norms in the Wings of Fire universe. The Bildungsroman always includes a focus on Identity and Self-Discovery as well.
