Joust - Book Review
In Joust, the two kingdoms of Alta and Tian are at war with each other. Their main source of combat is in the sky, with Dragons and their jousters--men who can ride the dragons who are armed with lances.
It seems Alta is a swampy country while Tian is a dry, desert area. At this particular time Tian is "winning" or taking territory from Alta. Our story begins with Vetch, a small boy who is a serf on land that was once his family's farm. His father is dead and the rest of his family dispersed. Serfs are different from slaves in that they belong to the land they work and cannot be sold for profit and cannot be freed. Therefore they are not worth anything. Vetch knows nothing but loathing and hate of his master. On one hot afternoon while hauling water for his masters irrigation system, his water is taken from him by a Tian Jouster. His master screams at him for not working and the Jouster seeing the lad is being vastly mistreated and since he was needing a new "Dragon Boy" (boy who takes care of the dragon) anyway the Jouster takes the boy from the abusing master, in name of the king of course all serfs are technically the kings property, and Vetch's life drastically changes. He knows kindness from Ari and his outlook of life begins to change. Now his sole purpose in life is to care for Ari's dragon and Ari himself. Vetch also manages to make friends of the other dragons as well.
The Dragons are calmed or drugged by Tala a fruit that is pounded into a powder, all except Ari's dragon who was raised by Ari from an egg. Ari has a fascination with Dragons and a love for his dragon. He tells Vetch all about dragons and soon ignites a desire in Vetch to raise his on dragon like Ari has done. But how will Vetch procure a dragon egg and how can he raise a dragon in secret? For no Tian who let an Alta boy have a dragon egg--for a future jouster is a threat.
I love Vetch's character in this novel. He grows so much from a boy who can only hate, and hate some more, into a boy who befriends Ari, and begins to care about the dragons in his charge. Ari, the jouster, is a pretty one-dimensional character. The righteous mentor that sets our young hero on his task. The dragons are fascinating and have a bit of personality of their own. There are other one-dimensional characters who preform specific roles in molding Vetch. Vetch is the only truly developing character here.
Mercedes Lackey has a flowing style in this novel that is great. I was never bored and the plot was not all action, but there was enough plot movement to keep the story rolling. The ending is a bit choppy for a stand alone novel--it didn't wrap everything up--but there is a sequel in the works that will take care of this problem. If you like Mercedes work or you would like to embark on a novel about dragons then you should enjoy this novel.