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A review by faeonyx
The Hidden Kingdom by Tui T. Sutherland
5.0
The third installment to this series really picked up the pace in a surprising way. Having just escaped captivity under the shield of a surprise attack in the sea kingdom, the "dragonets of destiny" find themselves heading into the rain forest to seek out Glory's lost tribe. As with Clay and Tsunami, Glory has no idea what she will find and she spends a good amount of the early pages trying to clamp down her expectations. As long as she isn't rejected like Clay was by his mother, and as long as they don't try to hold her against her will like Tsunami's mother, then she figures it will be totally okay.
The reason this book is so interesting is because so little is known about the RainWings. It is assumed that they are lazy and useless and have no special qualities. However, we learned a secret about Glory in the first book, and she has no idea if other RainWings possess this power or not. None of the other dragons seem to know about it, either, but she is very interested in finding out if others of her tribe share that. She is also interested in learning if anyone missed her. Unfortunately, no one noticed her egg was missing. The RainWings keep all of their eggs together and then check for hatchlings every so often. The dragonets are then raised by the village and the only time anyone checks for reation is when the dragons are preparing to breed. It was definitely not the welcome that Glory was looking for.
However, this dynamic and the problem that is caused by it really give Glory the chance to grow and show her true character. The hardship she faces with no one caring about the missing dragons when she arrives pushes her to become the leader that she was never really sure she could be. It also shows her that there is a place for her inside the prophecy, even if she wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. What she discovers is an incredibly sinister side to the NightWings. It is something that was hinted at quite heavily in the earlier books, and Glory always knew they could not be trusted, but there is solid proof to that end presented in this book. She finds that they have been kidnapping RainWings to study their venom, but not what they are studying it for. It's pretty easy to figure out given the tone and clues surrounding the war, but the motives are lost on the dragonets.
The deeper the story gets, the more obvious it is that the dragonets have much bigger problems to face before even thinking about how to help putting an end to the war. They have a lot to learn about themselves, a lot to learn about the tribes, and even more to learn about how the different dragons interact, or not, with each other. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interaction between tribes until the war started, and now the dragonets have to deal with a world that is plagued by these horrible tensions. None of the three sisters seem like a great choice for a queen, and the situation just keeps getting worse. To top that all off, the NightWings clearly have their own agenda in all of this, and no one has managed to figure out what that is yet.
The characters are beginning to develop in some truly surprising ways. The first two books had a very heavy emphasis on the way that the prophecy had formed their lives, but this book is the first to really push the idea that they are more than capable of shaping their own destinies. Glory takes charge and changes the way things are going for her, and she learns a lot about herself and how she needs to rely on her friends in the process. StarFlight learns through her experience that the NightWings are not as great as he had imagined them to be. Overall, all of the dragonets have been more than a little disappointed by their experiences at home, but they have all shown an amazing adaptability to those situations. They have also shown that they can focus on problems facing each of the tribes individually instead of just caring about the overarching war around the world. These individual problems seem to be teaching the dragons how to think and fight for themselves as well as work together and ask for help.
The story has just started getting really interesting, and this novel was a great addition to the series. I love the way it takes a look into each of the tribes and explains how things work within them. I love how the reader discovers these things at the same time as the dragonets, and I enjoy that the knowledge is filtered through the dragonets' reactions to whatever they see or experience. It was a pleasure to read and very well presented.
The reason this book is so interesting is because so little is known about the RainWings. It is assumed that they are lazy and useless and have no special qualities. However, we learned a secret about Glory in the first book, and she has no idea if other RainWings possess this power or not. None of the other dragons seem to know about it, either, but she is very interested in finding out if others of her tribe share that. She is also interested in learning if anyone missed her. Unfortunately, no one noticed her egg was missing. The RainWings keep all of their eggs together and then check for hatchlings every so often. The dragonets are then raised by the village and the only time anyone checks for reation is when the dragons are preparing to breed. It was definitely not the welcome that Glory was looking for.
However, this dynamic and the problem that is caused by it really give Glory the chance to grow and show her true character. The hardship she faces with no one caring about the missing dragons when she arrives pushes her to become the leader that she was never really sure she could be. It also shows her that there is a place for her inside the prophecy, even if she wasn't supposed to be there to begin with. What she discovers is an incredibly sinister side to the NightWings. It is something that was hinted at quite heavily in the earlier books, and Glory always knew they could not be trusted, but there is solid proof to that end presented in this book. She finds that they have been kidnapping RainWings to study their venom, but not what they are studying it for. It's pretty easy to figure out given the tone and clues surrounding the war, but the motives are lost on the dragonets.
The deeper the story gets, the more obvious it is that the dragonets have much bigger problems to face before even thinking about how to help putting an end to the war. They have a lot to learn about themselves, a lot to learn about the tribes, and even more to learn about how the different dragons interact, or not, with each other. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interaction between tribes until the war started, and now the dragonets have to deal with a world that is plagued by these horrible tensions. None of the three sisters seem like a great choice for a queen, and the situation just keeps getting worse. To top that all off, the NightWings clearly have their own agenda in all of this, and no one has managed to figure out what that is yet.
The characters are beginning to develop in some truly surprising ways. The first two books had a very heavy emphasis on the way that the prophecy had formed their lives, but this book is the first to really push the idea that they are more than capable of shaping their own destinies. Glory takes charge and changes the way things are going for her, and she learns a lot about herself and how she needs to rely on her friends in the process. StarFlight learns through her experience that the NightWings are not as great as he had imagined them to be. Overall, all of the dragonets have been more than a little disappointed by their experiences at home, but they have all shown an amazing adaptability to those situations. They have also shown that they can focus on problems facing each of the tribes individually instead of just caring about the overarching war around the world. These individual problems seem to be teaching the dragons how to think and fight for themselves as well as work together and ask for help.
The story has just started getting really interesting, and this novel was a great addition to the series. I love the way it takes a look into each of the tribes and explains how things work within them. I love how the reader discovers these things at the same time as the dragonets, and I enjoy that the knowledge is filtered through the dragonets' reactions to whatever they see or experience. It was a pleasure to read and very well presented.