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Joust by Mercedes Lackey Vetch was a ten-, perhaps even twelve years old Altan serf in the Kingdome of Tia. Being a serf made him lower than a slave, or even cattle, since he was bound to the farm he was working and could not be sold to make his �master� a profit. He was scrawny, abused, underfed and filled with hate. When he woke up, he was filled with hate. When he worked, his thoughts were heavy, filled with hate, and so was his mind and pure soul when he went to sleep on his straw �bed� inside a cold shed. His hatred was against the people of Tia, the ones who�d conquered his people�s, the Altans, land. This hatred came to be when he saw his father being brutally killed by two Tian soldiers, and the last memory Vetch had of his father was him laying on the ground with his blood floating out in the dirt. When the soldiers left, the took his mother and sisters with them and left him to the care of his new master, Khefti the fat, who would mistreat him for several years, forcing him to do the work of three grown men in the full sun of the desert country piercing his eyes, with the hot winds of the kamisheen blowing and the heated sand burning his bare feet. |
| Warning! May contain spoilers! ;) |
| Stories with the character younger than 15 always bores me. Still, I could not prevent myself from being spellbound by this remarkable little young man. I just had to continue reading and I couldn�t stop thinking about him and his struggles when I weren�t. And, I got really relived when he was taken from the evil Khefti by the Jouster named Ari and his gold/blue dragon Kashet. To Vetch, it was no saviour, merely a switch of masters, but things would become really different once he got to the compound and became their dragon boy. Something that included clean clothes, a daily bath and enough food to fill his otherwise so empty stomach. He got to sleep on soft fabric instead of uncomfortable straws that made his back hurt and he never got beaten. Not once!
His new routine was simple; tend your dragons and Jouster. It sure was hard work, but it was nothing compared to the inhuman work back at Khefti�s and it didn�t take long until Vetch was the most hard-working dragon boy in the compound, and overseer Haraket even got proud of him! Despite all this, Vetch was still filled with hate; the other dragon boys were all free born Tians and they did not speak to, sit beside or even glance at him. But, after some time, things get better � ;)) This is a story about an exposed, young man that the world have been especially hard on. You can�t read this splendid book without being touched by this strong boy, the love of a dragon and the kindness of Ari, the Jouster who sees beyond the Great King and sees the truth in the situation, everything that is unfair. Slowly, these two men beome great friends, both of them outcasts in their worlds. Yes, the tempo of the book is slow, and sometimes nothing �remarkable� happens for a few twenty-thirty pages, but that�s okay. Miss Lackey is a splendid author and makes you a part of Vetch�s day to day life, as if you were a fly and sat on his shoulder and observed his every action. After a while it feels like you�re really there, and you really feel for him, Ari and the dragons. The dragons, yes, with them it really was love at first sight. It could have something to do with my deep love for these creatures to begin with, but they�re more in this book, so much more! They�re so personified, so human, but still like big cats that needs the proper care, or else they won�t obey anyone. There are a larger number of dragons in the compound, but only a handful are described more than the others. My personal favourites are Kashet, Coresan and then the little red one (I won�t say more, don�t want to spoil). Kashet�s Ari�s dragon. He was the only one who had been raised by human hands from an egg. The others had been taken as young fledglings and had to be drugged with tala berries to keep their calm. Kashet slowly grows fonder of Vetch, though he�s a one-man�s-dragon and only has accepted Ari before. One of my favourite chapters in this book is when Kashet helps Vetch when Khefti comes to claim his old serf. It�s the scene I remember the most, incredible beautiful! This is perhaps the best book I�ve ever read! (it�s on first place with my bloved Harry Potter series). Books about dragons are quite hard to find, especially those in which they do not slay them (dragons are not for �great� soldiers to kill!). And, then, the plot must be somewhat good and, gee! This book just swept me away! I highly reccmend it to who ever may read this review and, myself, I can�t wait until I get my hands on the sequel! ^___^ (Acctually, I sent after the sequel, Alta, decades ago� Bloody slow Pocket.. ::grrrrr::) |