Wingfeather Tales

This book is outside the 4-book set and contains "Seven Thrilling Stories from the World of Aerwiar."

This is a collection of 7 stories by 6 different authors tied to small snippets from The Wingfeather Saga. It is also beautifully illustrated by 7 different artists.

This collection introduced me to authors I've wanted to read for a while, people like Jennifer Trafton, Pete Peterson, Jonathan Rogers, and Doug McKelvey. After having spent nearly a month in the Wingfeather world reading the 4-book series, this was a delightful dig deeper into the world through different modes of storytelling (novella, poem, and even a comic).

The final story by Doug McKelvey impacted me deeply. I will sometimes get choked up while reading, but I have never cried with tears coming out until this morning finishing McKelvey's story The Places Beyond the Maps. For me, it was like being blindsided by a work of art to where I'm left asking "What just happened?" I know what happened - it was an incredibly beautifully-written story about a father's failure, pain, and redemption. It was a timeless story and yet woven into the fabric of the Wingfeather Saga. You could probably read this without any context and be moved. But reading the Wingfeather Saga first makes it incredibly powerful and much deeper. McKelvey's story is one of the best I've read in a long time and I want to read it again.