Checked out by Derek

This book is from Glory’s viewpoint. Now the dragonets head into the rainforest kingdom. Again, nothing is as they expected. Really, there weren’t many expectations as nobody knows much about the Rainwing dragons, but Glory was hoping to find that the slanders she’s heard all her life about Rainwings being lazy were untrue. Unfortunately, it seems there was a reason for that stereotype. The rainforest dragons certainly are different, and have a very relaxed, unconcerned attitude about almost everything.... although the Rainwing dragons are beautiful and life in their kingdom seems easy, some of them have been disappearing- and nobody cares to find out why or look for them. Glory and her friends are appalled at this attitude, and take it upon themselves to solve the mystery and rescue the missing dragons. In the course of their investigation, they find hidden magic passages to other parts of the world, sneak into a Sandwing fortress in disguise, meet an assassin who has the most unlikely personality for that job ever, become acquainted with the third Sandwing queen Blaze (who is just as shallow and unintelligent as the rumors always said). Another big surprise in this book is that the Nightwing dragons don’t appear to be as all-knowing and dangerous as they’ve led others to believe. Some of the dragonets end up in the Nightwing kingdom, which is a dark and dismal place. Also conspiracies are coming to light- apparently the Nightwings and the Talons of Peace each have “replacement” dragonets they’d rather use to fulfill the prophecy, and some of our gallant young five are wanted dead. No surprise, there’s continued violence and threats in this book. Some of the dragons are downright cruel to each other. There are absolutely silly scenes too. It was at turns amusing and intriguing. I did really like reading Glory’s perspective- she realizes that some of her difficulties come from having grown up shut away in a cave, when Rainwing dragons thrive on sunshine (literally, they need to soak up sun to recharge their energy). She’s glad to finally experience the life she was supposed to have lived, but also unsettled by how, well, lazy and unproductive it seems. Among other things. This story kind of barrels through everything and pitches the reader into a cliffhanger, so I’m on to the next soon. ( )

Got moving in the second half - trademark dry humour. ( )

The books are still cute and charming, despite the level of violence they sometimes sport. Sutherland does a great job of giving each character a different voice and motivation, at making each 'tribe' stand out from the others without one being the clear favorite all-powerful group that you seem to find in every YA novel. Glory's perspective was well-handled - she's defensive and has a chip ob her shoulder, but isn't an emo mess. This book felt much faster then Lost Heir, and the ending was very sudden, unlike the other two that wrapped up more neatly with little bows. ( )

My 8 year old son brought home this book from the library- neither of us having read the previous books in the series. The reading level is beyond him and it's a little scary/intense for him at times, but otherwise we really enjoyed this novel.
As mentioned, we read it out of order. That worked okay. I think reading them in order would give better understanding of the growth of the characters or situations that are alluded to, but we weren't lost.
The story has good pace with interesting characters situations. Overall, we both really enjoyed this book.

Things that I didn't like:
- I was really disappointed that one of the lessons came to that royal blood is important. I think omitting that few lines would have worked with the rest of the book just as well if not better, and I prefer that lesson that we make our own destiny far more (and goes with other themes in the novel)
- This is not really stand alone as the end doesn't stand alone. I know, it's a series. My personal preference, even for series, is that they should stand on their own. Like you should be able to feel satisfied at the end. The prologue also makes little sense without the rest of the series. Almost none of the characters are mentioned again until the epilogue.

Things I liked
- Strong emphasis on knowledge as changing and important
- New information - sometimes in the form of different perspective - changing the valence of information (something considered negative seen as positive with different perspective)
- Violence seen as something that can and should be avoided (doesn't feel good)
- Neat ideas like passage way portals, changing scales having both mood and camouflage properties, dragon perspective of humans

Things I ignored
- Sloths do not scamper, or in any way move fast. Perhaps these creatures should have been given a different name ( )