"Joust" by Mercedes Lackey

Vetch is a serf who was taken from his homeland of Alta. He is forced to work under harsh conditions. After working countless hours for his cruel owner, a life-changing event happens: The dragon jouster, Ari, chooses him to be his dragon boy for his dragon Kashet. Vetch is ignored and overall treated badly by most of the staff at the jouster compound, yet he knows it is infinitely better than when he was forced to work for his old master.

While working at the compound, Vetch finds out that Kashet is a one-of-a-kind dragon, being the only dragon who doesn’t need to be controlled by the drug, Tala. Overtime Vetch gains a special bond with Ari’s dragon. Kashet is a large blue and green dragon that has a good sense of humor and is fun to be around, since he is calm and doesn’t need to be controlled like the other dragons. That’s when Vetch realizes the secret to how Kashet is so tame. Ari had raised Kashet from the egg. As Vetch and Ari begin to trust each other, Vetch begins to learn some of the secrets on how to raise a dragon from an egg. Vetch decides that that is one of the only ways he could escape Tia and get back to his homeland of Alta.

As Vetch sweeps through the jouster compound, finishing all his tours as fast as possible, his chance comes. A dragon boy quit and his charge was a pregnant dragon. Vetch eagerly agrees to take care of her planning that he can steal one of her eggs. Everything seems to slow down in his life even if it is going faster than before since he is caring for two dragons instead of one. Vetch knows that he will be free of his slavery soon and it drives him to greater measures to get everything done with the best care possible. Vetch becomes even braver after the weather mages of Alta send a terrible storm to ground the Tian dragon jousters. Vetch begins to worry that he will be discovered escaping from the compound but he won’t know if he will be discovered until he tries. His escape attempt is the climax of the story.

The dragons in this book are very different from what you normally expect when you read a book about dragons. First of all, the dragons don’t breathe fire or spit acid or any of the other magical things. Secondly, they are highly intelligent but can’t speak at all. The dragons in the book also have no fascination with gems or precious metals like most other dragons. The dragons somewhat have the color of certain gems but there are only gem like on their wing skin and back skin. The color of the belly is almost always different than the rest of the body. The shape and size of a dragon is about the same as in the book “Eragon,” so they aren’t as big as sky scrapers with huge caverns as their home. Also the dragons are feral (excluding Kashet) so they must be drugged in order to be ridden or handled.

The book is also different from most fantasy books because it has very little action in it. Vetch doesn’t do any fighting in the book and the only time you see any action is when the weather mages of Alta forced most of the dragons at the compound to land at once, which caused several people to be injured as well as infuriating the dragons. Ari comes back several times from fighting but you never actually see him joust against an Altan jouster. For the most part the book is about Vetch planning his escape, meeting and working with new members of the compound, doing his chores, and him having conversations with Ari. It is still a good book and the books later in the series—“Alta,” “Sanctuary,” and “Aerie”—have plenty of action.

It is an excellent book that almost anyone who loves to read fantasy would enjoy.

>>Buy “Joust” by Mercedes Lackey.