The Barnes & Noble Review
From Mercedes Lackey, renowned for her Valdemar novels (Exile's Honor, Exile's Valor, et al.) that feature the intimate relationship between human Heralds and their sentient horselike Companions, comes an exciting new saga about dragons and the courageous men who train and ride them. Vetch is a young Altan serf working his fingers to the bone for a lazy Tian conqueror who now owns his family's farm. With his father dead and his mother and sisters scattered to the four winds, Vetch lives a nightmarish existence where he is overworked, beaten, and starved on a daily basis. The only thing sustaining him is unadulterated hatred: hatred of the Tians and their dragon-riding Jousters, who are steadily overwhelming the nation of Alta. Vetch's life is ironically spared by a Jouster who, upon seeing how Vetch is being abused, takes him on as the caretaker for his dragon. After learning more about the Jouster, Ari, and his beautiful dragon Kashet, Vetch sees an improbable way to freedom -- by hatching and taming a dragon of his own.

Fans of Anne McCaffrey's Pern saga and Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance novels will undoubtedly devour this story, which lovingly portrays dragons -- and how they live, reproduce, hunt, and bond -- in meticulous detail. Additionally, readers will be happy to know that the events in Joust are just the beginning of what should be a lengthy series. Paul Goat Allen

In this elegant, compelling fantasy from the prolific author of the Valdemar series (Arrows Fall, etc.), Lackey combines meticulously detailed dragon lore with emotionally intense, realistic human characters. In the arid desert country of Tia, the Altan serf Vetch has to scramble after whatever crumbs are left over after the servants, the slaves and the animals have been fed, while doing the work of three or four full-grown boys. Being hungry is hard enough to take at the best of times, but being a hungry, growing boy, sorely overworked during the dry season when even the beasts of burden are sheltered against the cruel sun, is intolerable. By chance (or the will of the gods), this dreadful situation comes to the notice of one who can change it. Jouster Ari, a dragon rider and a warrior of the Great King of Tia, dislikes cruelty to animals, men and even to mere serfs. In a neat turn of events, Vetch becomes Ari's dragon boy and the caretaker of Ari's dragon, Kashet. What follows is a detailed look at the lives of Tia's dragons, their dragon riders and those who care for them. This uplifting tale, which contains a valuable lesson or two on the virtues of hard work, is a must-read for dragon lovers in particular and for fantasy fans in general. (Mar. 4) FYI: Lackey's most recent collaboration, with Andre Norton, is Elvenborn: Book Three of the Halfblood Chronicles (Forecasts, Sept. 23, 2002). Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.