Tui T. Sutherland

Judith Sargent

Here be dragons

Tui T. Sutherland offers a deep dive into her fantasy series

by hope katz gibbs

Fans of Tui T. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire fantasy series can dive into the backstories of the 10 dragon tribes in A Guide to the Dragon World.

Readers learn the dragons of Pyrrhia and Pantala are on a mission to develop a definitive guide to the lives and history of each tribe told by the dragons themselves.

“It’s sort of hilarious because I was thinking of this book as the nonfiction one,” laughs Sutherland while talking to the Costco Connection from her home near Boston. “Clearly, it’s still fiction, like a little map with letters, interviews and journal entries that expose old myths and reveal dark secrets.”

Having sold more than 14 million copies and been translated into a dozen languages, the 15-book Wings of Fire series has been on the New York Times bestseller list for years. There are also two stand-alone titles, two companion books, four short stories and six graphic novel adaptations.

How did the woman, named after a noisy New Zealand bird, dream up this alternative universe?

“When I was a little kid we lived in Caracas, Venezuela; Paraguay; Miami; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before moving to New Jersey for high school, and everywhere I went, I’d make up stories, read stories and imagine myself in new worlds. After graduating from college, I went into publishing because I wanted to know how books are made. By then, I had written several fiction books of my own, but it was writing about a world based on pure fantasy that interested me most,” says Sutherland.

When her first son was born in 2010, Sutherland wanted to take him on a hero’s quest. “So, I created a series about destiny and what’s written for you versus what you choose for yourself. You can save the world no matter what kind of dragon you are—the fierce bossy one or the tiny optimistic one with no powers. They all have their way of making their world a better place.”

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