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As a child, Erin Michelle Sky fell in love with llamas and with the books of Anne McCaffrey, whose Dragonriders of Pern series inspired her to become a writer. When she finally met Anne McCaffrey at a fantasy convention some two decades later, she wept uncontrollably throughout the entire affair. She does significantly better with llamas.
Steven Brown spent his childhood reading anything he could get his hands on, sharing his favorite stories with his younger brothers and then acting them out, especially if this required sword fighting on horseback. When they ran out of books, he wrote his own, including his brothers as the main characters by sketching original illustrations on magazine clippings.
Together, they are the permanent writing team known as Dragon Authors. You can find them most often online on Twitter and on their blog, where they review other books and create cringeworthy videos for YouTube. (And occasionally talk about their own work.)
Reviewed by Caitlin Lyle Farley for Readers' Favorite
The Wendy is a captivating and charming re-imagining of Peter Pan. Wendy Darling hasn’t got a mother. She and hundreds of other babies appeared overnight on the doorsteps of almshouses across London. As she grows up, she decides that she wants to captain her own ship. A fortunate meeting with a former slave presents Wendy with the opportunity to learn all the skills she needs, but the 1780s make for an inhospitable climate for Wendy’s goal. The Royal Navy won’t employ a woman but, surprisingly, the Home Office will. Only women and dogs can sense the magic of the everlost, the winged men who harass England’s shores. And so Wendy is employed as the diviner for the Fourteenth Platoon of the Nineteenth Light Dragoons stationed in Dover. One evening she, Michael, and John are working when both Wendy and Nana, the Newfoundland, smell magic.
The Wendy has completely altered my unfavourable view of retellings. Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown successfully capture the essence of the original Peter Pan characters, even while presenting them in entirely different circumstances. Wendy may be somewhat edgier, but not in any way that seems contrary to her personality in canon. This alone would be cause to consider The Wendy a triumph, as it is the major pitfall of a re-imagined story. Sky and Brown’s narrative voice is engaging, evocative, and delightfully witty. The third person omniscient POV can easily confuse a reader, but The Wendy is a prime example of how effective it can be when done well. Sky and Brown interlace a subtle commentary on the misogyny of the era with an exciting plot that forces Wendy to make difficult decisions at every turn. From page one right up to the end, The Wendy held me enthralled. I can’t wait for the next instalment of this marvellous re-imagined version of Peter Pan.
