Dragonslayer: a book review by Ruiwen

Dragonslayer, the second title in Tui Sutherland's the Wings of Fire: Legends series, is about a girl named Wren, who thinks the leaders of her village, the dragonmancers, are corrupt liars who are hiding treasures. The dragonmancers finds out that she stole one of their books, so they tie her up and feed her to the dragon (as a “sacrifice” to the dragons). Wren somehow breaks free and runs into the woods. She finds a baby dragon (a Skywing), and she takes care of him and lives with him for eight years. In those eight years, they go and explore Pyrrhia, and she goes to the Indestructible City to get books. Meanwhile, Wren’s brother, Leaf thought Wren was eaten by a dragon and wants to seek revenge and become a dragonslayer.

I would recommend this to my friends because it is a really great book. There are a lot of cliffhangers, and it is very interesting to watch how the characters come together (because the book is split into three perspectives). It is so fascinating seeing from the perspectives of the dragons (from the other books) and from the humans (in this book). Many parts that were unclear from the previous books now makes sense. It is very satisfying to see all this happen. The style of writing also makes this book very enjoyable. 

 Five trivia questions (and answers):

  1. Why did Sky want to free the animals? Sky is very nice and friendly to animals (and to everyone else), he loves snails and turtles, so it makes sense that he wanted to rescue animals that were locked in the cages (p. 252).
  2. How did Rose know that the pellets were poisonous? The answer is not given but since Rose has been living in the palace for 20 years, she probably has seen some dragon eating the pellets and dying before (p. 372).
  3. Why did Rose not want to leave the palace? She has been living in the palace for 20 years. Her owner, Smolder is very nice. She has no worries that a dragon is going to eat her. She knows that humans are evil. She also dislikes following rules, which there aren’t in the dragon palace (for her). She also says that it's never boring in the dragon palace (p. 439).                 
  4. What happened to the wingwatchers who were exiled? Most of them went back to the old village, and the other wingwatchers took care of them. However, there were some wingwatchers who went to the Indestructible City and were never seen again. Based on Wren’s description of the Indestructible City, people have to wait in a very long line even if their villages burned down and most of them weren’t allowed to enter (p. 241).
  5. When Leaf was fighting a dragon, it turns out that dragon scales are very tough and the sword bounces right off. Then how did Stone and Heath (the Dragonslayer) kill the Queen? They were able to stab through the scales somehow and they also stabbed her in the eye. If a human were stabbed in the eye, the person shouldn’t die immediately, but the Queen did which is very confusing. However, she has been ruling for a long time, she might have been very old which explains how she died (pp. 5-7 and 199).

Three Discussion Questions:

  1. If Rose spent 20 years in the Dragon palace, how does she not know anything about their language?
  2. Is the Indestructible lord going to use Undauntable to find Wren? Will they capture Wren when she comes to the Indestructible City to get new clothes and books?
  3. Ivy wants to make peace between dragons and humans, how will she do that?
By ElaineN on January 13, 2021