Today it is my very great pleasure to join the blog tour for The Pirate’s Dragon, the final book in the Legends of the Sky trilogy, and to welcome author Liz Flanagan to my blog. My reviews of the first two books are here: Dragon Daughter and Rise of the Shadow Dragons.
Liz has kindly provided some insight into a few of the key characters in the book. I hope that you enjoy reading her words as much as I did. My review of The Pirate’s Dragon appears afterwards.
Over to you Liz, please tell us how you created the main protagonists in this epic quest.
How I started writing The Pirate’s Dragon by imagining two very different narrators – and
why a supporting character surprised me the most!
If you’re a writer, what comes first, the story or the characters? For me, characters come first and the story springs from what I know about them. Isn’t it funny that we ‘know’ characters who might only exist in our head? But that’s one of the things I love about
writing – that we get to imagine and hang out with people who only exist in the story, and later in the minds of our readers. It seems like the closest thing to magic!
I like to make up characters who seem ‘real’ to me. I never borrow from one real person, but I definitely borrow traits or feelings I’ve noticed in others or had myself, and I hope this makes my characters feel rounded and interesting. I did intend that my two narrators start out as opposites. Serina is the daughter of the duke and duchess general of Arcosi, and she’s confident and comfortable giving orders, perhaps – whisper it – a little bit spoiled? Meanwhile on Skull Island, Raff Sparrowhawk is the son of the former pirate queen, and he’s grown up in her shadow. He’s watchful and sensitive and cautious, as well as kind. So Serina’s journey is about having to learn to be ‘ordinary’ and listen to others; while Raff must learn to speak up for himself, find strength and believe in his ideas.
But the character who surprised me most of all – and was huge fun to write! – was the pirate queen herself, Malena Sparrowhawk. She swaggered off the page from the first chapter onwards: daring, beautiful, bold. I enjoyed writing every scene she’s in and every line of dialogue, and I really hope readers will love her too! I guess she’s the female equivalent of Yannic in the previous book, Rise of the Shadow Dragons, a character who steals the show and who is ready to break all the rules. As a writer, you welcome characters who make things happen and who create drama and tension all around them.
And perhaps it’s because Malena is the opposite of me that I love her too. I’m much more like Raff, watchful and reserved till I’m sure of myself. And this is one of the great rewards and privileges of writing: we get to imagine so many different ways of being and living and speaking.
I hope you enjoy meeting all the characters in The Pirate’s Dragon! Please do let me know who is your favourite?
The Pirate’s Dragon is published by UCLan Publishing, £8.99 ISBN: 9781915235992
My review.
I loved this heart-pounding adventure where the action flew back-and-forth between rival island communities. It is a tale that encompasses the range of negative and positive human emotions. At its heart the bonds between the human characters and their dragons are used to show the futility of envy, revenge and mistrust and the way that these feelings can be counteracted by friendship, forgiveness and kindness.
One of the aspects of this entire trilogy that I have found very engaging is the way that author, Liz Flanagan, has narrated each book through the lens of a twelve year old character, passing the baton of storytelling down through generations. In this way she has built a real sense of the history of the island of Arcosi which, as the only island on which dragons can hatch and grow to adulthood, is so central to every story. At this point I must give a shout out to Joe Todd-Stanton whose fabulous artwork adorns the book covers and chapter headers.
The Pirate’s Dragon commences with another hatching ceremony on Arcosi, with Serina, the only daughter of Duke Vigo and General Duchess Tarya hoping that it will be her turn to follow in the family tradition and bond with a newly hatched dragon. In fact she begins to bond with the new life inside a beautiful white and gold egg before it is even hatched, which results in her impulsively climbing astride the dragon of the leader of a violent pirate raid, to stay with the nest of stolen eggs. On arrival at Skull Island, Serina discovers that she is now at the mercy of Malena, former queen of the pirates and will have to prove that she is worthy of her place on the island. It transpires that Skull Island is home to two dragons that found refuge there with their dragon riders after the battle which took place in the second book in the trilogy, Rise of the Shadow Dragons. The owners of these two dragons, having been on the losing side, have consequently given a biased account of the selfishness of Arcosans in hoarding the dragons for themselves and their friends in the kingdom of Sartolia.
The pirate inhabitants of Skull Island want to harness the power of dragons for their own ends, but have very little knowledge of how to raise the hatchlings. This provides Serina, who has grown up surrounded by experts in dragon-lore, with the opportunity to prove herself…but just how much of her knowledge should she share with her captors? She gradually forms a friendship with the two children who have bonded with the two other dragons from the brood: Raff who is the son of Malena and Naomi who is the daughter of one of the most ferocious pirate captains. Their three dragons, Alden, Pearl and Caster bring the children closer to form a unit which will be vital to the action to come!
Once more, epic battles are fought, new allegiances are forged and pirate cunning alongside dragon power proves to be a dominant force. I really enjoyed the way that this epic trilogy comes to a close in a tale of power shifts, misunderstandings and mistaken pride. The children’s role in highlighting the arrogant mis-steps of the adults will, I am sure, be enjoyed by readers aged 9 years and above.
I highly recommend The Pirate’s Dragon for middle grade readers who enjoy fast paced action and adventure; pirates and dragons are a winning combination!
I am grateful to Antonia Wilkinson and UCLan Publishing for providing me with a review copy of The Pirate’s Dragon and inviting me to join this online blog tour. Do check out all the other fabulous posts from the amazing book bloggers on the tour schedule.
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