2026-05-21

Wings of Fire book 16

Book 16 time! I read the entire thing in one day. And well, I didn't like it.

Spoilers ahead as usual!

I already think that this was not planned ahead, so I'm not gonna ask continuity questions like "why did Darkstalker et al. never mention the LeafWing and BeetleWing tribes back then" or "how did none of the escaping Pantalan dragons get to Pyrrhia instead." Plus, the dragons had been shown to have extremely short long-term memory despite having written scrolls, so whatever.

It does answer the question of "where did the Pantalan dragons come from," though, which was escaping mass imprisonment from Pyrrhia. But like. The whole thing is so weird. The thing from three thousand years ago, one thousand years before Darkstalker. So what we got from this book was that, the queens of the LeafWings and BeetleWings wanted to merge their kingdoms because they were dating (which is a shortsighted decision, if you ask me, and also how are you dating in the first place), and the other queens didn't like it. At the same time, dragons were building a village called Harmony, which is like Possibility, and the other queens didn't like it either. So Darkling and Sorrel decided to kill the SkyWing and NightWing queens, because they heard Precipice and Bloodshed talking about informing them and sending armies to… invade Harmony. But turns out, the RainWing queen had conspired with the SkyWing queen to drive the LeafWings and BeetleWings out so they can have more territory.

Okay that was a lot and I think it makes a bit of sense, but my problem is, what exactly were Darkling and Sorrel killing the queens for? To save Harmony, or to have Magnolia and Euphoria successfully merge? Because to me, the issues were similar in nature but still separate. You can have a LeafSilk Kingdom without Harmony, or you can have Harmony while the LeafWing and SilkWing kingdoms remain separate, and I don't see how one would guarantee the other. And just why would they go through all the trouble to build a magic prison out somewhere, instead of just killing them?

And also I hate how I know of the information above already, through the amazing magic of the Memory Room. Like oh my, books 14 - 16 were all like half of them memory visions, give me a break! I could easily imagine the whole thing from three thousand years ago being in a Legends book, with alternating PoVs. Imagine if in Moon Rising, Darkstalker decided to send Moon a bunch of his memories to watch or something. Of course it would be really biased in favor of Darkstalker, but other than that, it would be really distracting from Moon's own journey of learning to live with mind-reading, and the plotline of solving the murders.

Speaking of Sora, she was like. Really weird in this book. Like she was just acting out whatever's convenient for the plot.

And speaking of distracting, that was exactly what the memories in this book did. Distract. I really don't see how most of these memories contributed to the plot and Umber's character development. The only important part was Precipice's map. Because the real-life part of the book was mostly overthrowing Beryl and Snakeroot and putting the elected Triumvirate back in power. None of that had anything to do with why this prison was here. It worked in The Dangerous Gift because they all had an impact on Snowfall, therefore contributing to her development. It didn't work in The Flames of Hope or here. They just infodumped. Yeah that's what it is, essentially. Infodumping.

Speaking of Umber's character development. Where is it? Learning not to follow orders anymore? Or just to follow orders from the right dragon? I genuinely don't know. He spends most of the book just reacting to whatever's going on, following dragons around as they explained stuff, watching memories, mooning over Mulberry whom he met for one minute before falling for. The book ends on him and Mulberry going outside to raise their little baby. Awww, fuck off. So convenient that the way to break the ancient prison magic is to raise babies. What is it with raising babies now. First Bumblebee, and now Harmony. Also it's weird that Umber thought about raising dragonets with Mulberry. That feels very not-MudWing. Why wouldn't he think something like, "I want to have a bunch of dragonets with Mulberry and bury them in a mud mound and forget about them" instead.

Finally, the Isle itself. It is. SO STUPID. How the fuck did Beryl and Snakeroot gain power, when the King's Teeth were described since the beginning to be so weak? If they lost in the election, that means their supporters were outnumbered by the supporters of the true Triumvirate in the first place. Do they have any power at all, to put the entire Isle into such a chokehold? The exiles were roaming out free the whole time and no one ever found them? Platypus roamed inside the castle all the time with fewer disguises than Cricket et al. in Jewel Hive and they just couldn't find her once? Where did the dragons who voted for the Triumvirate go? Aurora's fucking concerts and songs… Argh. I feel like the author was just piling a bunch of "evil authoritarian state" prototypes on there, like the King's Teeth disappearing dragons. Wow, so believable, when they can't even hunt down Platypus. Destroying scrolls. What could possibly be written in the scrolls that are not within living memory of all the dragons on the Isle. Like seriously. Also why don't they have any books if a lot of Pantalan dragons are here. Also what do they even gain from ruling the Isle? Extra work? It's not like the fact that their son is the beloved special kid would change regardless of who's in power. What even is the point anymore. The entire thing is just so stupid.

Also near the end, Umber talked the King's Teeth into, like, not supporting them, but I would've felt a lot more impressed if we had known these characters at all aside from the like one sentence used to describe them. Again, distracting memories.

Speaking of Pantalan dragons. The fuck you mean Queen Monarch is here?? What?? Do actions even have consequences anymore?? This just proves my point. Wasp is too lenient. Couldn't even fucking kill her.

Also, WildWings. Okay, dragon diversity. Now for the question. Who the fuck cares about dragon diversity. Dragons are not real. Dragon diversity is not real. It can't hurt you. It can't help you.

When I first saw the cover of the book, I thought the building behind Umber looked a lot like the Sydney Opera House. Now that the Isle is revealed to be fantasy Australia where dragons sent prisoners, the Opera House made a lot more sense. Thanks, Joy Ang, GOATed as always.

Finally, the epilogue. The queens disappeared. Very well, you've succeeded in grabbing my attention and convincing me to read the next book. Hell, maybe it's time to bring democracy to the Kingdoms. However it's kind of funny that the mystery magic recognized Wasp instead of Jewel. I hope they don't end up fucking saving Wasp.

So yeah. This book was… not good. Umber's lacking development, and the entire book was just underwhelming. The weakest beginning to the arc so far. Now I'm not too confident in whether there would be good books in this arc at all. But we'll see.