The book was an important aspect to support the details of the series because it give more back round.
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Introduction:
The New York Times bestseller Dragonslayer by L. Sutherland revolves around 3 main characters and their fight against dragons. Their names are Wren, Ivy, and Leaf and in the book they go against ruthless dragons and leaders and cross paths at the end teaming up to defeat a common goal. The 3 perspectives add a different tone and mood to the story as they all have different views on the world and its situations. This book includes a guide on the abilities of dragons from a human perspective, 496 pages and was published on March 3rd, 2020.
In my eyes, the thesis of the book is for the 3 characters to improve the corrupt world, and they complete it. They did this by returning stolen treasure to the dragons and dethroning corrupt human leaders.
Summary:
The book “Dragonslayer” consists of 3 interesting stories focusing on their journey through the world. Wren was a character who was the brother to Leaf, and she was exiled out of her home from her family to find refuge in the wild where dragons roam. Instead of getting eaten, she meets a dragon who didn’t eat her but instead became friends with her as he was also rejected from his home. Over the next few years, they go on to grow up and learn about the continent and one day they decide to see a city of people called the indestructible city. Where Wren meets the prince of the coveted city and becomes a good friend with him. He trades goods for Wren’s dragon scales and eventually, her friend wants to marry her but she rejects him as in a sense she already has a dragon which she would have to leave behind for him and her dragon means more to her. After time passes she lets her dragon visit a city and in it, he gets captured and is taken away. Heroically Wren tries to save him by going to the place he was being held, in there she rescues him and helps a newfound friend Ivy to stop her raging father.
Ivy was an important character in the story because she influenced all the main characters and brought them together to defeat their opponents. Ivy started out as a schoolgirl with 2 friends named Violet, and Daffodil. They slowly uncover Ivy’s dad’s secrets, which he says he has killed a dragon and is concerned about treasure. The three continue this until they become 12 which in their village is an age where they can become wingwatchers. These wing watchers look over the sky to spot dragons and go on missions into the world. This was perfect for the 3 as they wanted to find the secret of Ivy’s dad. One day they went on an expedition to find the hidden treasure that the dragonslayer hid and found only a necklace with a sapphire. Even though the discovery was small it was a big step in uncovering the secret. After he was suspicious of a plot against him he put his kingdom into complete lockdown and it was up to Ivy to stop him. So she went to get back up and met Wren which with her dragon scared her dad into coming clean with his actions.
Leaf was an essential person to the plot of the book and was Wren's brother. When Wren was kicked out of their village he wanted revenge. Over several years he trained and practiced for a moment to get revenge for her. It was ironic because he is trying to fight the thing that Wren loves the most. While he was training he was studying with a council of Dragonmancers who were exploiting everyone for their own benefit and he wanted to discover their secrets. One day they were caught as one of his friends became greedy and ran away to get the treasure himself, because of him they were all caught in the dragon palace. In the dragon, palace Leaf had his chance to get revenge, but when he tried he realized how impossible of a task that was. So he formed a group to escape and he decided to find the dragonslayer who was Ivy's dad. After many seasons he got their home and he tried to contact him but he was turned down as the dragonslayer was stressed and paranoid. He went with Ivy and helped her overrule her father with the help of dragons. This involved trying to steal the dragonslayers treasure to give it back to the dragons. So they split up and Leaf was in charge of taking the treasure. So he took it and brought it to Ivy, and then he met with Wren and he had his life's goal changed as she was alive and had a dragon. He worked with the others to help overthrow the dragonslayer and the talisman (Wren and Leaf’s home).
Strengths:
Dragonslayer is an interesting book with different strengths, they range from being engaging to using figurative language to describe scenes better. The book is engaging because the three parts of the book are connected so you will want to read 3 sections instead of one to understand what’s happening in full. The figurative language in the book includes things such as the basic simile and metaphor but also many more. The complex examples are symbolism, sarcasm, irony and many others. Tone and mood play a large part in Dragonslayer, because it makes you want to keep reading. For example Ivy’s father, the Dragonslayer, makes an ominous mood making the characters' every action feel dangerous. Theme plays a big part in Dragonslayer because the book has an important message of being courageous. Every character has this theme because all of them needed courage to save themselves and their loved ones. For example Wren went into the dragon's palace to save her dragon which needed lots of courage and determination to do.
Weaknesses:
Even though there are multiple strengths there are weaknesses too. A big weakness is that the story is quite slow and some points of the story don’t serve much of a purpose. An example is where Ivy grows up because it explains too many irrelevant details and makes it boring to read. Other things that the book lacks are that Ivy and Leaf aren't as interesting as Wren's story, and because of this many people can find themselves skipping their parts of the story because the content is less engaging. The easy difficulty of the book is slowly becoming more apparent as I become older, making them feel less accomplished when I finish them, making it feel less accomplished when I finish reading it.
Key details:
Some important key details are that Wren loves dragons, but Leaf was trying to kill one for revenge. It symbolizes how even though you try to help sometimes it hurts more than help or some things can be misunderstood. In a way, Leaf was deceived about Wren’s death making it so that he tries to fight against her.
A big detail is how coherent the information and plot of the book match the main storyline of the series as most questions in the books can be answered in the book. A key detail is a prologue of how the sand queen dies which ties loose ends from the first story arc.
Conclusion:
Dragonslayer is a great read and many people including me would recommend it. It has a complex theme and a surreal atmosphere created by the book. Wren, Ivy, and Leaf are essential to the plot because they tie the loose ends of the main timeline of the “Wings of Fire'' book series. But it can also be boring at some parts but the interesting parts outweigh the significance of this so I would recommend this book. Especially to people who enjoyed “Wings of Fire '' because it is a continuation of the series. The many strengths overall are more important than the weaknesses because at some moments it can be boring but at its core Dragonslayer is an excellent book with a meaningful message
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