History Literature / TheShadowOfBlackWings

* HeroesWantRedheads: Bran's original love interest is a redhead. Also, Nagomi is hinted at.

* TheThingThatGoesDoink: The shishi-odoshi is silent.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Nagomi's hair is amber red and can shift to other hues depending on factors such as her mood or the weather. Because of this, most people see her as bad luck.

* NotSoDifferent: Bran sees the Orient and especially Yamato as 'exotic' and 'wonderous' etc. while Sato holds the same wonder and awe of the world outside Yamato. For extra points, her fasincation is centered on a freshman textbook from Bran's country college; both of which he found to be stifling and boring.

* {{Seer}}: Another priestess power is seeing the future.

* ABoyAndHisX: In this case, dragon. Emrys is often reffered to as a 'pet' and 'child's toy' that Bran is too found of to replace with a bigger/stronger/faster etc, breed.
* AlternateHistory: Roman Empire was never vanquished.

* AnimalEyes: Edern has cat-like eyes due to him being Fair Folk.

* BloodMagic: Alluded to in a custom made gaunlet but not seen just yet.

* DragonRider: Bran and many others. Dylan is a commander in Dracaland's Dragon Rider division.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Frequently

** Nariakira's ChessMaster manuvering

* GoneHorriblyRight: Pre-series, mages raised the dead and used them as weapons of war. They were so successfull no one could tell the undead from the truly living. It made everyone paranoid.

* HealingHands: A standard priestess power.
* HeirToTheDojo: Sato considers herself this. Her father considers her this. Misc other people note that she has the skill to be this. Being a girl, however, means she legally can't be this.

** Qin was this pre-series but it has since been discovered, exploited, and decayed as a result.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Bran's original love interest. Also, Nagomi (hinted at).

* NotSoDifferent: Bran sees the Orient and especially Yamato as 'exotic' and 'wonderous' etc while Sato holds the same wonder and awe of the world outside Yamato. For extra points, her fasincation is centered on a freshman textbook from Bran's country college; both of which he found to be stifling and boring.

* {{Seer}}: Another priestess power.

* TheWatson: During the trip to Qin Bran asks questions about the places and events so [[MrExposition Dylan has an opportunity to explain them.]]

* SupportingProtagonist: Bran is the one the story follows but after the third chapter or so he's just watching his Dad be awesome.
** {{Deuteragonist}}: Reducing his role further, he's absent and/or OutOfFocus in the latter part of the narrative while Sato and Nagomi share center stage.

# ''The Chrysanthemum Seal''(2014)

[[AC: Two of four planned books have been published as of 2012:]]

# ''The Islands In the Mist''
# ''The Rising Tide''

* JerkJock: Wulfhere is more athletic Bran and bullies to gratify his ego.

* TheThingThatGoesDoink: Subverted, as the shishi-odoshi is silent.

A detailed and fast-paced historical fantasy based around the turbulent opening of Japan to the West in the middle of the 19th century. Being a FantasyCounterpartCulture, the names are different. Japan is "Yamato", China is "Qin", the British Empire is the Dracaland Empire and so on.

* AncientTomb.
* AnIcePerson: Sato.
* AnimalEyes: Edern who has cat-like eyes due to him being Fair Folk.

** Bran's academy test
** Nagomi's first healing
** Nariakira ChessMaster manuvering
** etc
* EvilPlan: Averted. The closest thing the first book has to ' devious scheme plotted by a villain' is Dylan trying to replace his son's pet dragon with one more suitable for a professional dragon rider. This is something ''all'' dragon riders have to do eventually and all of Bran's generation has already done it.
** A Qin saboteur is hinting "a cause older than the rebels or the court".

* GoodScarsEvilScars: Dylan has a scar running across his cheek and possibly more around his body.

* HighAltitudeBattle: Bran fighting the {{Dracolich}}. All battles of the Royal Marines Dragon Corps.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: For Bran's, it's wanderlust. For Sato's it's magical talent and getting in trouble with the capital.

* NotSoDifferent: Bran sees the Orient and especially Yamato as 'exotic' and wonderous etc while Sato holds the same wonder and awe of the world outside Yamato. For extra points, her fasincation is centered on a freshman textbook from Bran's country college; both of which he found to be stifling and boring.

* TheThingThatGoesDoink: Subverted, as the shishi-odoshi is actually silent.

* ElementalPowers: Its possible for anyone to learn them but every mage has to make due with a 'innate speciality' for one or another. Sato, for instance, is an Ice/water Innate. While she can cast fire magic too it is weaker, less versaile, and more exhausting.

* JerkJock: Wulfhere.

* SupportingProtagonist: Bran is the one the story follows after the third chapter or so he's just watching his Dad be awesome.

* EyesOfGold: Played straight with several minor characters who may or may not have something in common.

* SpoiledBrat: Keinosuke, who beacuse his dad's a samurai, thinks he's above everyone else and can order his teacher's head cut off despite the fact that she is also from a samurai lineage.

# ''The Islands In the Mists''

Two of four planned books have been published as of September 2012:

It is the sixteenth year of Queen Victoria's enlightened rule and the world trembles before the might of her ironclad navy and the dreaded Dragon Corps. The largest ship ever built sails from the Brigstow Harbour on a journey to the mysterious lands of Orient. Its load - a regiment of the Royal Marines and one Bran ap Dylan - freshly graduate in Dracology at the Llambed Academy of Mystic Arts.

In the empire of Yamato, sealed from the rest of the world for the last two centuries, a wizard's daughter Sato witnesses her father joining an anti-government conspiracy. Her friend Nagomi, training to be a priestess, is haunted by dark visions that she must keep secret. Neither of them is aware that a change is coming to Yamato... on the wings of a dragon.

!!!"The Shadow of the Black Wings" is the first volume in James Calbraith's "The Year of the Dragon" saga.
!!!Two of four planned books have been published as of September 2012: