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Young adult fantasy full of action and adventure!
Woods and Wings is the first book in the new young adult fantasy series of the same name by author M.W. Devers and it is full of daring action, suspense, and fresh approaches to this popular genre. With engaging and heroic protagonists, a smarmy, villainous town warden, and two tragic and dragon-like wingroans as antagonists, I was absorbed by this adventurous tale from start to finish.
Told from the multiple viewpoints of several main characters – good guys, bad guys, and wingroans – readers are treated to an intimate look at the story from all angles and quickly realize that this fantasy adventure is much more complex than the blurb description leads on. Astraya Myna, while aching to escape a safe future serving in the Rhigov village bailey’s kitchen, yearns to take what she feels is her rightful place alongside her grandfather and older brother, Raustra, as a guardian of her village and its residents. Raustra, who’s always known this was his destiny, is driven by his deep sense of duty, never dreaming that one day he may not be able to fulfill it in the way he’s always imagined.
The last of the world’s original inhabitants, the dangerous wingroans, are the brother and sister, Vronti and Vulmen. Their kind was obliterated by the actions of humans when they naturally fought to retain their homes and way of life, which included hunting and eating large land animals like the livestock the humans brought with them to their farms and villages. Their conflict with the humans became a tragic cycle as time passed, and neither side was sure who was initially to blame for their troubles.
However, one of the most interesting characters is Elizabyth, Astraya and Raustra’s widowed mother, mentally and emotionally troubled since the death of the sibling’s father and the love of her life by Vulmen during a long-ago village Harvest Ceremony. I was riveted to her storyline as she forces herself to re-enter life in hopes of getting the answers to how to help her son Raustra heal from injuries inflicted by Vronti during the most recent Harvest Ceremony.
Devers’s world-building is robust and creative. Gaeyla vividly comes to life, along with its inhabitants, as Astarya, her grandfather, and their companions track Vronti across the land to end the wingroan threat once and for all. The story is one of family, friendship, loyalty, and courage in the face of desperate odds and one that you’ll not want to suffer interruptions.
I recommend WOODS AND WINGS to readers of young adult fantasy.
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