Gary J. Darby

Gary J. Darby creates fantasy adventures shaped by classic quest storytelling and a lifelong interest in speculative fiction. If A Dragon Cries begins the Legend of Hooper’s Dragons series on Erdron, where Hooper works in a dragon birthing barn despite fearing the creatures around him. A dying green dragon leaves him a tear-shaped jewel, drawing him into the struggle over Golden Wind and the ambitions of the faerie Vay. The company that forms around him includes Cara, Helmar, Professor Phineas Phigby, and the animal companion Scamper. Independent genre records describe the book as young-reader epic fantasy and identify it as the series opener, originally released in 2016. Darby's author note traces his enthusiasm for reading to discovering Robert Heinlein as a child, a background reflected through its emphasis on an ordinary person entering an expansive world. The book's central movement is from reluctance toward responsibility, with dragons, alchemy, rival riders, and magical guardians supporting Hooper's gradual change.