Mercedes Lackey starts a brand new series with her latest book, “Joust.” With over 25 books in her widely popular Valdemar series, not to mention the retellings of fairy tales she’s done, Lackey has now decided to head in a different direction. Unlike her previous books, magic is not prominent in the new series.
The protagonist is a young boy whose homeland has been overrun by raiders. He’s gone from being the son of a prosperous farmer to less than a slave. Bound by law to the land on which he lives, he cannot be sold. Therefore, he has no value to his master.
Vetch is rescued from his fate by a Jouster. Jousters are men who have the ability to control and ride dragons, engaging other Jousters in aerial fights and laying waste to the enemies’ homeland. Most of the dragons are controlled by putting tala in their feed, a drug that makes them easier to handle. Ari, however, had raised his dragon from an egg and needs no tala to make the beast do what he wishes. It is he that prevents Vetch from receiving a whipping and brings him back to the Jousters’ compound to be his dragon boy. There Vetch is given clean clothes and all the food he can eat. In return, his duties include taking care of his master’s dragons and keeping his master’s suite cleaned.
Vetch quickly discovers that the work is much easier and the rewards more plentiful than on the farm. He learns that his hard work and willing attitude bring him respect from his new masters, if not admiration from his peers. For it turns out that he is the only serf serving as a dragon boy. The rest are freeborn sons hoping themselves to someday become Jousters, something Vetch, as one of the enemy, has no hope of ever attaining.
Vetch, however, has fallen in love with the dragons at first site and vows to someday become a Jouster himself. While most dragons are captured wild when they are fledglings, Ari has taught him that those raised from an egg are much more tractable and reliable. Vetch knows that the only chance he might ever have is to steal an egg and raise the dragonet himself.
Lackey draws on ancient Egyptian culture and her own extensive knowledge of avian behavior to create this book. As a licensed wild bird rehabilitator she uses what she knows to show how dragons could live, breed, hatch and hunt.
Although this book has some similarities to Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels and also to Jane Yolen’s Pit-Dragon trilogy, they are minor. Lackey has indeed crafted a unique and compelling new universe, and I hope she continues to explore it.
Lisa Dees is a Raleigh freelance writer.
