The Wingfeather Saga

The Wingfeather Saga is a young adult fantasy book series by Andrew Peterson. So far the series consists of three books, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, North! Or Be Eaten..., and The Monster in the Hollows. The fourth and final book, The Warden and the Wolf King is in the writing process.^[when?]

The saga starts out in a little town called Glipwood in the land of Skree, which was long ago invaded by the vicious Fangs of Dang, evil lizard-like humanoids who enslave and abuse the Skreens. A twelve-year old boy named Janner Igiby and his younger brother and sister, Kalmar (aka Tink) and Leeli, are the main characters, and the first book relays their adventures in Glipwood and the surrounding area, and their involvement with the Fangs and other characters, both friendly and evil. In the end they learn that they are the royals heirs to the lost Kingdom of Anniera, and that they are the whole reason why the Fangs invaded Skree. In "North! Or Be Eaten..." the Igiby family travels north to escape the Fangs, but encounter many hideous dangers along the way, ending up rather worse off than they started, which escalates further in "The Monster in the Hollows".

In all, the series has a very darkly satirical air to it, often inserting random facts about Skreen culture or wildlife (of which there are many dangerous specimens) or purposefully making redundant, humorous, or ironic statements, even during times of suspense and danger.

Tropes used in The Wingfeather Saga include:

• Action Mom: The Igiby's mother, Nia, is a proficient fighter.
• Exclusively Evil: The Fangs. They even take pride in their wickedness.
• Animorphism: Fangs and the like are created when a human is magically fused with an animal and morphs into a hybrid creature.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Oftentimes, Tink to Janner.
• The Atoner: Artham will do anything to protect his neice and nephews because of his faliure to save his brother the king in the past.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: General Khrak, the Fang leader in Skree, is a far more competent fighter and strategist than his troops and captains.
• Badass Grandpa: Podo Helmer, and how!
• Bad Boss: Claxton Weaver of the Strander tribe.
• Berserk Button: Unless you want to be shredded to pieces, DO NOT hurt the Igiby kids. Especially Leeli.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Bomnubbles are this world's equivalent of yetis. Except even more fierce and carnivorous.
• Big Friendly Dog: Nugget. Although he started out as a little friendly dog...
• Big Eater: Tink
• Black Cloak: The mysterious hooded driver of the Black Carriage, as well as the Stone Keeper.
• Bookworm: Oskar N. Reteep. Might also qualify as a Badass Bookworm, as he has done some pretty tough and daring things.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Fangs, as well as the Stranders, a tribe of vicious thieves and all-around rogues.
• Chaotic Neutral: The Sea Dragons
• Crapsack World: Of both the dramatic and mutable versions, with a bit of comedic too. This is even Lampshaded in the first book's prologue.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Peet the Sock Man/Artham Wingfeather is the master of this trope.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Both Peet the Sock Man and Podo.
• Dark Is Evil: The Black Carriage.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Florid Sword, a Fang-killing, fancy speaking vigilante, wears all black, in Zorro-like fashion.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Maraly Weaver; although she starts out as more of a Dark Action Girl who eventually softens up to Janner.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Played with. "A nameless evil who's name was Gnag the Nameless." Also the title of the first book and the dark sea after which it was named.
• Dumb Muscle: Trolls (who aren't very bright) make up the brute force of the Fang armies.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Maraly, Claxton Weaver's daughter, said that even he isn't evil enough to send her off to the Black Carriage.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: Death, torture, war, and violence are often shown and referenced, though never in a good light. Still, there are some very vicious deaths and battles.
• Fate Worse Than Death: The Black Carriage is an extremely terrifying version of this, and characters have even explicitly stated this. The Fork Factory as well.
• Femme Fatal: The Stone Keeper.
• Foreign Queasine: The Fangs enjoy some very.... interesting delicacies. Examples include booger gruel and maggot loaf.
• Fridge Horror: In the second book, you find out that the Fangs are created when a human is mystically trans-mutated with a snake or wolf. Humans taken by the Black Carriage. And how many Fangs died in both books?
• Giant Spider: While not exactly a spider, the gargan rockroach in the second book is still equally creepy.
• Great Escape: Janner's escape from the dreaded Fork Factory didn't exactly go as planned...
• Green-Eyed Monster: Janner gets jealous of Tink after he is revealed to the the King of Anniera, as well as when he outwits the Stranders' leader, Claxton, and is accepted into their clan.
• Grim Up North: The second book is all about this.
• Handicapped Badass: Badass Grandpa Podo has a wooden leg.
• Haunted House: Anklejelly Manor, where lies the ghost of Briminey Stupe.
• Heel Face Turn: Maraly.
• Heroic Dog: Nugget, both before and after he got huge.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Peet the Sock Man attempts this several times, but never ends up dying. Nugget on the other hand... *sniff*
• Hypocritical Humor: The Fangs think that humans are smelly, disgusting creatures, and mock them for it, despite the fact that they themselves are smelly and disgusting creatures.
• Killer Thwaps: Thwaps are small, furry, gopher-like critters that invade gardens and eat veggies. They will also attack you viciously if you happen to open a sackful of Thwaps that have been encased there for days. Slarb found this out the hard way.
• Lemony Narrator
• Living MacGuffins: The Igiby/Wingfeather kids.
• Lizard Folk: The Fangs are described as looking "exactly like humans, except for the greenish scales that covered their bodies and the lizard-like snout and the two long venomous fangs that jutted downward from their snarling mouths. Also, they had tails."
• Magical Incantation: "Sing the song of the ancient stones, and the blood of the beast imbues your bones."
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Sea Dragons are fierce but noble beasts that can talk.
• Our Monsters Are Different: The author seems to be fond of this trope. Some include toothy cows (carnivorous versions of regular cows), horned hounds (huge dogs with horns on their heads), cave blats (which are not called that because they live in caves, but because they're so ugly that when you see one, you'll wish that it was hiding in a cave), quill diggles, digtoads, ratbadgers, chorkneys, thwaps, bomnubbles, snickbuzzards, flabbits, and a host of other critters. Oh, and most of them are savage and carnivorous.
• Punch Clock Villain: Ridgerunners are treacherous, elf-like people who work for anyone who gives them fresh fruit. Unfortunately, all of the ridgerunners in the series have worked for villains.
  • Maraly Weaver only acts nasty when it suits her. She eventually does a full Heel Face Turn.
• Ravens and Crows: Crows constantly surround the Black Carriage and are generally associated with it. Therefore, they are disliked.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The lizard-like Fangs.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After Migg Landers betrays the Igibys to the Fangs, the lizards promptly reward him with a venomous bite to the neck.
• Sibling Team: The Wingfeather kids.
• Sssssnaketalk: The Fangsssss.
• Three Amigos: The Janner, Tink, and Leeli, even though they are siblings.
• Transformation Sequence: At the end of "North! Or Be Eaten...".
• Ultimate Evil: Gnag the Nameless has not yet been seen, and his species has not been fully revealed yet either.
• Whip It Good: The Overseer of the Fork Factory uses one to keep his "tools" in line, and for punishment.
• Winged Humanoid: Artham Wingfeather after his completed transformation by the Stonekeeper, grows a pair of huge eagle-like wings.
• Wolf People: The Grey Fangs are just like the regular Fangs, only wolves.
• Wolverine Claws: Peet the Sock Man has razor-sharp talons instead of fingers, thanks to Partial Transformation.
• Would Hurt a Child: All Fangs, but Slarb especially, who hates the Igiby kids because they humiliated him numerous times.
• Ye Olde Butchered English: Aha! The Florid Sword shalt smite thee, thou malodorous reptiles!