First off, forgive me—I read this about a month ago, and didn’t have the time to blog it; now some of the details are fuzzy. But what really stands out as excellent is the world building. I picked up the book expecting it to be high fantasy; instead, it’s science fiction that happens to feature dragons (as well as electricity and space ships). The development of the planet is vital to the story itself. The planet was originally a penal colony, and what began as the hierarchy of guards over prisoners has, generations down the line, became a caste system. The majority of people living on the planet are bond servants—either born into the caste or they sold themselves (or were sold by a parent) into it. Bonders only serve until they’ve earned the money (an amount never specified in the book) to buy their freedom, but most seem to spend their money frivolously instead. But that’s considered acceptable—there’s no cultural shame attached to being a bonder, since it guarantees you room and board. So rather than shameful to be a bonder, it’s impressive to buy yourself out of bondage.It’s implied that the only way—or at least, the most common or best way—to earn the money to buy yourself out is to steal a dragon egg from one of the Masters, in order to hatch, train, and raise it yourself. It’s rare that someone manages to do this (thus my assumption that it isn’t the only way, just the most notorious), and Jakkin—our hero—goes a step beyond. He’s in the infirmary when the dragons hatch and loses his chance to steal an egg, so instead manages to steal a hatchling. The book progresses almost exactly how you’d expect: he steals the dragon, trains it, has some adventures, enters his dragon in its first fight and wins dramatically. It’s a pretty simple story made interesting by the excellent world around it.That said, the thing about the world (and the books) that mildly disturbs me is the women. We only see two in the whole book; one is the cook (a former bonder who bought her freedom), and Akki, a female bonder who befriends Jakkin, learns of his secret, and helps him keep the dragon safe. The cook is an ally herself, though she doesn’t know what he’s up to; I liked that the book went out of its way to explain that she didn’t become the cook because it was a female role, she did it because she loves cooking, she’s quite good at it, and she considers keeping the kitchen running smoothly to be an important job and worthy of respect. Cool.But then there’s Akki, who’s an anomaly. She’s an anomaly because she’s not a whore. Everyone thinks that’s odd—because apparently all female bonders are prostitutes? The cook was when she was a bonder, and everyone is clearly amazed that Akki isn’t. There are no female bonders on the (dragon raising) farm, only boys. Which…seems really odd to me. First off, it makes no sense that half the population would do a single job that doesn’t really contribute much to society, leaving only half the population to do literally everything else; second off, how many whores does a world need? Fifty percent of the population seems like a whole lot.That weirdness aside, Akki herself is fairly awesome. She’s level-headed and intelligent; she saves Jakkin once and acts as his nurse a few times. She helps him come up with the food he needs to feed the dragon and provides cover for him to sneak off and train the beast. And she often openly defies their Master—the rumor is that she can only do that because she’s his new mistress. Which is a disturbing rumor, as she’s only fifteen, made more disturbing when Jakkin notes that she’s been on the farm with their Master since she was twelve, and he just sort of shrugs it off because hey, some people are into that. Which is unspeakably gross. She’s not his lover, Jakkin eventually discovers—she’s his daughter. Her mother was a whore he’d fallen in love with, but she died in childbirth; Akki was raised in the brothel. He says he wants to buy her freedom and acknowledge her as his daughter, but she won’t allow it—when she assists Jakkin in a daring stunt that earns him a lot of money, she’s given half but refuses it, apparently for the same reason. She has declared she won’t take money from a man to buy her freedom, but in the meanwhile also doesn’t care what kind of orders her owner gives her and behaves as though she were free. (Jakkin notes that for sure that’s only allowed because the Master is her father.)Okay, so the book shows an interesting relationship developing between Jakkin and Akki. After she saves him, he respects her a lot and they come to be friends and enjoy each other’s company, and he can’t decide whether or not he’s attracted to her…until the end, when he is. He wins enough money to buy his freedom, and after that, Akki’s father gives her to Jakkin, saying she needs a master. Needless to say, Akki is having none of that; she says goodbye to Jakkin and walks away, not interested in that kind of relationship at all. His reaction? To swear he won’t remove his symbol of bondage, “until he could pour out the gold from the bag into Akki’s hands and she accepted him as a master and a man.” I had been entirely indifferent to Jakkin’s character until that point—he’s a standard brave, fair-minded, determined hero type. After that? I don’t like him. Because the excellent thing about their potential relationship is that it would have been based on trust and equity, and he clearly doesn’t seem to want that; he doesn’t even want her to accept him as a lover, but specifically as her master.This is the first book in a trilogy, so it’s entirely possible he sees the error of his ways later on. But if I ever do pick up the rest of the series, it would definitely be to read about Akki, who is intriguing and awesome, and not Jakkin, who I find to be kind of a jackass.
Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.nikihawkes.comThis was actually my second read-through of Dragon’s Blood, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time around. It’s book one in a four book series, and I wanted to refresh my memory on everything that happens before continuing on. As it turns out, I really hadn’t forgotten much, just that the book was a lot shorter than I remembered it being. Because of that, this review is also going to be short and sweet. :-)It’s no secret that I love anything to do with dragons. The fact that this series sat gathering dust on my shelf for so long should be considered an ultimate shame in my household. It had an incredibly cool and original concept, some fun and likable characters, a unique setting (for a dragon book), and a plot that had me engaged right from the start!As I mentioned in the overview, the concept really was my favorite part of Dragon’s Blood. These people were originally sent to the planet as prisoners, but after several generations had formed a gritty, functioning, society. Dragons were already native to the planet, so it was only a matter of time before someone thought to capture one. From that grew an economy of selling dragons and their eggs, and training studs to fight each other in the pits. I found the entire thing fascinating and loved how thoroughly imagined Yolen’s society came across. The story starts out with a young slave boy trying to figure out how to steal a dragon egg from his master so he can raise a fighting dragon and win his way to freedom… it was awesome!The only thing I had a hard time wrapping my head around was the all odd names. There were a lot of double k’s, and I found myself having to reorient a couple of times to make sure I was thinking about the right character. This was by no means a deal breaker, however, as the weird spellings actually had significance – communicating lineage and slavery status. I can get on board with just about anything if it serves a cool purpose, haha. In any case, other readers should probably try to read it a bit more carefully than I did.Overall, this book had the same essence that made me fall in love with Anne McCaffrey, but was just different enough to feel like something original. If you enjoy Dragon books, I highly recommend adding this one to your list!
What do You think about Dragon's Blood (2004)?
I think the book was amazing. I look for books that are different and this fit the bill. I have read 2 other books from this series and I believe that Jane Yolen had the right idea. This book and the others in this series are different from other books because they are childish but still enticing. A young adult could pick up this book and read it and be good to them (hence me), but a 10 year old child could pick up this book and read it and it be exiting to them too. The good thing about this series is, it is not tied to one type of audience, therefore, the book can be interpreted in many ways by different people. I think by the book being read by all ages and still be understandable makes it a good book.
—Daniel Pedigo
The Planet Austar IV, a desert planet, was originally used by Earth as a place to drop convicts. Although, this planet is not so liked by everyone and is not viewed well in the eyes of off-world creatures, it does have one great feature: its dragons. While in this world, people have discovered how to communicate with their dragons, which they call their “mighty worms”. If it happens that that a person leaves Austar IV, they would no longer be able to communicate with their worms. These dragons a
—Alexandra
See this review and more on my blog: https://readwritetravel.wordpress.com...Jakkin lives on Austra IV, a desert planet that used to house convicts. A bond-boy to the best dragon breeder on the planet, Jakkin’s talent for dragon training may very well be his only way to free himself from bond. But stealing a hatchling is dangerous business, and raising one out in the desert sands even more so. Battling an egg-sucking drakk, a weed-smoker named Likkarn, and a sarcastic girl named Akki, Jakkin triumphs and takes his worm to the fighting pits. He could lose everything there–or win everything, too. Does his dragon have what it takes to become a champion?This is an older book, and this isn’t the first time I read it. I debated taking this from the library for some time because thus far my 52 Book Challenge has been made up of “new-to-me books” and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to break the streak. However, back in my day the “Pit Dragon Chronicles” were simply the “Pit Dragon Trilogy.” In recent years, a fourth book was published, and it’s been a decade since I read the first three so I thought I should give them a re-read before diving into the fourth.That said, this book holds a lot of promise for both younger children–I first read the series when I was ten–and YA-loving adults. It has all the magic and adventure of sneaking and dragons and hideaways for kids, and all of the intricacies of world-building for those of us who need to know “why” things work the way they do. Austar IV is a beautifully imagined setting with all the ins and outs of culture and technicalities of climate and raising dragons fully thought-out and brought to life on the page. It’s one of those books I’d recommend to writers who want to improve their world-building because it has all of the details realized that might otherwise be overlooked.The characters and plot were engaging, too–the dynamic between Jakkin and Akki was downright amusing, and I loved seeing them both grow as the dragon did. Jakkin himself grew from a bond-boy who gets in a little over his head to someone who can hold his own and knows exactly what he’s getting into.A warning to all protective parents, however–the book does contain a lot of references to adult themes (three guesses what the “baggery girls” get up to) which some parents might not deem suitable for their ten-year-olds. I can testify that at ten it all went straight over my head. It was pretty eye-opening when I read it this time around!Anyway, I love this book and absolutely recommend it to every dragon fan out there, and any YA fantasy/sci-fi lovers too. The entire series is fantastic, but then Jane Yolen rarely disappoints.
—Emily
