On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

The Wingfeather Saga, Book 1

By: Andrew Peterson

Narrated by: Andrew Peterson

Once, in a cottage above the cliffs on the Dark Sea of Darkness, there lived three children and their trusty dog, Nugget.

Janner Igiby, his brother, Tink, and their disabled sister, Leeli, are gifted children as all children are, loved well by a noble mother and ex-pirate grandfather. But they will need all their gifts and all that they love to survive the evil pursuit of the venomous Fangs of Dang, who have crossed the dark sea to rule the land with malice. The Igibys hold the secret to the lost legend and jewels of good King Wingfeather of the Shining Isle of Anniera.

Full of characters rich in heart, smarts, and courage, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is a tale children of all ages will cherish, families can read aloud, and readers' groups are sure to enjoy discussing for its many layers of meaning.

*This audiobook includes a PDF of maps, illustrations, and more.

Critic reviews

Praise for the Wingfeather Saga

“I love all the adventure and the wild inventiveness and, most of all, the heart in Andrew’s books. He is a poet and a master storyteller. I want to read anything he writes.”—Sally Lloyd-Jones, New York Times best-selling author of children’s books

“An experience your family will never forget. I can’t recommend these books highly enough!”—Sarah Mackenzie, author of The Read-Aloud Family and founder and host of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast

“The Wingfeather Saga is witty, imaginative, and full of heart. Highly recommended for middle-grade readers who’ve run out of Narnia novels and are searching for their next great series.”—Anne Bogel, creator of the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog and host of the What Should I Read Next? podcast

“A wildly imaginative, wonderfully irreverent epic that shines with wit and wisdom—and features excellent instructions on how to cope with thwaps, Fangs, and the occasional toothy cow.”—Allan Heinberg, writer and coexecutive producer of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and cocreator of Marvel Comics’ Young Avengers

“Immensely clever!”—Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales

Meaningful and entertaining but slowly paced

I listened to this series on my own, and now I am sharing this with my eleven year old son and six year old daughter. I loved the narration. Peterson does a great job giving voice to his characters. He is one of the best narrators I have heard to date.

The story itself is entertaining because it is intelligent as well as funny and written on a level which children and adults alike can understand and enjoy. The books are filled with Christian symbolism to which most people, even those who are not Christians, can relate. Self-sacrifice, love, family loyalty, truthfulness, forgiveness, and repentance are all themes of the series. There is more than one prodigal son in this series, all whose stores have very different shades of meaning and outcomes. Particularly meaningful is the method by which the monsters are made and then remade. There will be a lot for kids and parents to discuss with this series.

Some of the more difficult parts of the books follow. There are monsters, distorted and overpowering, some exceedingly evil and powerful, and others misunderstood, regretful, despairing, or pitiful. The children and their families are in danger repeatedly and often escape death only narrowly. Many children are abused by adults and bullied by other children. War, thievery, murder, lying, betrayal, mental illness, depression, and fighting abound. Several loved characters die. The final death in the story is particularly difficult and a bit shocking. These elements may disturb some readers / listeners, especially younger ones for whom the book is aimed. That said, as the characters work through their problems in the fantasy world, they learn coping skills and wisdom which may help child listeners / readers deal with problems when they are mistreated, feel depression, or experience the death of loved ones. Some problems the characters experience belong solely to the fantasy world, and the manner in which they are solved belong solely to the fantasy world. These elements are where the spiritual symbolism broaden the meaning and beauty of the story.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the books is the cast of characters. Most of Peterson's characters are complex, imperfect, and believable. Most are funny in some way. The pirate grandfather and several other characters, even the some of the scary creatures themselves, are very funny and entertaining.

I think Peterson may have had input from some of his children when he thought up some sillier elements of his fantasy world. Cows are not particularly scary--let's give them rows of teeth and make them eat people. Let's make candles out of snot. Let's make a drawing of a character, each of us taking one body section, head, torso/arms, legs/feet, but not show each other our part until it is all done. Now this monster has the head of a bear, the arms of an octopus, and the tail of a monkey!

The greatest difficulty I had with the story was the pace of the writing itself. Peterson's writing takes a LONG time to set the stage for each scene. Character's feelings are discussed, what they see, what they remember, etc., etc. until the story becomes quite tedious and somewhat repetitive. Sometimes the characters act in ways which seem unrealistic given the situations in which they find themselves which also adds to the tension and length of the story unnecessarily (Would mom REALLY say it was "too dangerous" for them to walk along a ledge when they were already being chased by monsters?). I actually left the room in which I was listening to the story and came back five minutes later with one character still walking down a staircase of a three story house towards danger. Did we really have to hear what everyone else in the person's life was doing right then? If I had been reading the story myself, I would probably had skimmed these parts and moved on with story at a faster pace than listening to the narration allowed. Sometimes I wonder if writers get paid by the word because this is a problem I have seen with other books including the Harry Potter series (especially the final book). My six year old daughter had another perspective, though. When I was complaining aloud that Peterson should move along a little faster, she yelled, "Oh Mom, just enjoy the story for what it is!" Haha, out of the mouth of babes...

Awesome.

Great awesome amazing.
Great family book.
I have listened to it one time and I wanna listen to the other books. My name is Charlee Appel
I am eight years old. I want to be a writer.
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Adventure and the power of family

Just a great overall story full of adventure and the power of family. You will find this book mostly in the young readers section of a book store. But I'm a 38 year old man and loved it just as much as the next kid.

really good

loved this book, finished in a day. I'm 26, surprised that I loved it.

Amazing book! (+PDF info)

This is a great book! I can’t get around to reading the real book because, 1.I never have the time, and 2.I just have the audio books!
I love this series, and listen to non-stop every night! Great listen. And some people have problems with the PDF, how you get into is you look at the ‘chapters’ and it’s up at the top. If that still doesn’t work I don’t what to say. Overall,I loved it, and would recommend it to ages 5+. Might be a little scary for ages 4 and younger. Have good rest of you day/night