Joust

Rating:
Summary: A weak book
Review: This is a disappointing product by Lackey who has written some interesting books in the past. It is very slow, as if she has decided to write a five book series and does not want to put too much into any one book.

Rating:
Summary: One Of Lackey's Best
Review: This is a really well written book. This was just an exceptional piece of writing for her. I enjoy her stuff normally but this one was quick and fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: Hoped for better
Review: This novel began as a short story published in an anthology titled The Dragon Quintet. It was the best of the collection and when I learned that Lackey had decided to use it as the basis for a novel, I was delighted. Within a short time, I had a copy of the novel in hand and looked forward to reading it.

The reality was less than the anticipation. The first 108 pages encompass one day in the life of Vetch, the 10-year-old boy who is the protagonist of the story. Now, we all know how much energy children can have, but this lad accomplishes more in this one day than most people can get done in a week. He also has the wisdom of the ages and tends to repeates himself incessantly, especially when he is judging others. In this latter regard, good editing and tightening would have been of great benefit.

One does not have to get very far into this story to recognize the references to ancient Egyptian culture, history, and mythology. Unfortunately, these references are neither strong enough nor slight enough to actually work. Instead they are something of an irritant: either be Egyptian or don't.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but Not Lackey's Best
Review: Vetch is a serf serving his enemy, when one day he is taken into the custody of a Jouster, a dragon rider who defends Vetch's enemies and is battling his home country. He is forced to serve them, and even though he is treated very well, for a serf, he cannot stop longing for his freedom. Ari, his Jouster, and dragon are one of a kind. Ari raised the dragon from hatching so he is completely tame. Taking Ari's example, Vetch manages to obtain a dragon egg, hide it from everyone, and raise the baby from hatching. As his dragon is approaching its first flight, He escapes one day, and is pursued by 3 Jousters. Ari is the only one who catches him, and he ends up helping Vetch escape and begin the journey back to his home country.
Lackey is one of my favorite authors, but she sometimes seems to have trouble coming up with new ideas. This same sort of story has been told hundreds of times before. The whole book is black and white, all the situations are either good or bad, and all the characters are either perfect and good, or flawed with no redeeming qualities. There is also very little characterization in this book. The only character you really know at the end is Vetch. Overall, this is a good light fantasy book that all Lackey fans should read, and probably my favorite outside of the Valdemar series.

Rating:
Summary: The Start of a Wonderful New Series!
Review: Vetch was still alive because he was simply too stubborn to die. He refused to show any emotion to his master, Khefti-the-Fat, even when he was beaten and starved. As an Altan serf, Vetch had no rights among the conquerers, the Tians. He had watched the Tian army murder his father and then his whole family enslaved and separated. Vetch had little or no hope that his life would improve, but he felt that it was unfair that one of the famed Jousters, warriors who rode dragons, had to make his life a little more miserable. After hauling a heavy bucket of water for a long distance, the Jouster had taken the bucket and dumped the water over his head before Vetch could stop him. Of course, Khefti blamed Vetch for not watering the tala plants and started to beat him, as usual. But the Jouster was not a typical Tian and felt pity for Vetch. The Jouster, Ari, needed a dragon boy to tend to his dragon, Kashet. And so Vetch's whole life was changed in an instant as he was taken to the dragon compound and taught how to tend to the great dragons of the Tian army. Vetch found, to his surprise, that he liked the dragons and the dragons seemed to respond to his care. If Vetch had to be a serf, this was the best place to be, but Vetch still dreamed of freedom and hatched a daring plan to escape from his captors...

I simply loved this book. Vetch was such an engaging and wonderful character that I was really rooting for him the whole time. The secondary characters were also wonderful and I suffered along with Ari as he tried to reconcile his honor with his orders, the great overseer Haraket, the falconer Baken and so many others. I thought that the world this book was set in was quite fascinating and was reminiscent of ancient Babylonia and Egypt. The dragons were different than other dragons in that they were definitely animals and incapable of thinking for themselves, but they could learn some affection for their masters if shown kindness and love. My only complaint with the book is that it was not edited very well and there are quite a few grammatical errors, nothing that detracts from the story, but the editor did not do a good job. Still, I am eagerly awaiting the next book in this series to see what happened to all of these new friends I have found!

Rating:
Summary: not her best, but still surprisingly good
Review: When this book begins, we see how miserable Vetch's life is. He is an Altan serf, so the law does not require that he be cared for even as well as a slave and there is no chance that he would ever be freed. However, he gets lucky, and a Jouster takes him to become is dragon-boy. Jousters are warriors who ride dragons. These dragons are not like Anne McCaffrey's dragons, or Lackey's Companions - they are wild and, without the tala that keeps them somewhat sedate, they would kill their riders and those who care for them and fly away. Vetch's new job is to care for the dragon of the Jouster who took him, but this dragon is different. He needs no tala, and seems to genuinely care for his rider.

Because I recognized elements of the plot from other things I've read, I was expecting to hate this book. I expected it to be more like some of Lackey's recent books: boring and maybe a bit preachy (not religion preachy, but more "a person cannot be even slightly lazy or they are bad" preachy - I've been feeling that the characters of her past few books have been far too perfect to feel real). However, I found that I really liked this book and practically flew through it. Still, most of the characters were fairly bland - I never really felt like I knew Ari, the main Jouster in this book, and none of the other characters, even Haraket, very even close to being as fleshed-out as Ari. The ending of the book, which happened a little before I thought it would, leaves things open enough that there may be another book. If there is, I plan on reading it. In spite of the problems I had with it, I really did enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Mercedes Lackey is back
Review: While I loved Lackey's earlier books, I've been very disappointed with some of her more recent novels. I hadn't planned on buying this one, but after reading the first two chapters online, I couldn't wait to read this novel, and continuing in this tradition, from the moment I opened the package I couldn't put the book down.

While Joust has some of the elements that have irritated me in her other works (she breaks up action scenes with backstory that could easily wait for a page or two, among other things), it also has most of the elements that I loved from her other novels. I immediately adored Vetch and found myself going through his dilemmas with him. Khefti was a believable and fun-to-hate villain. Ari's soul-searching is very realistically written. The list goes on and on.

Anyone who loves Mercedes Lackey will love her newest book. Those who, like me, have been disappointed by her recently will most likely find themselves entranced by Joust. It's a wonderful novel and I hope that she continues in this better vein.