Name: Dragon's blood
ISBN: 9780152008666

Jane Yolen

Jakkin, a bond boy who works as a Keeper in a dragon nursery on the planet Austar IV, secretly trains a fighting pit dragon of his own in hopes of winning his freedom.

Dragon's blood

Kirsten Simkiss

I read one of the books in this series - or at least a part of it - when I was a kid. Rereading as an adult did not disappoint, though I had forgotten that this book isn't just a high fantasy dragon trainer book, it's also science fiction. Sci-fi with dragons! It's a great idea and I like that blend.

Ultimately, the culture and the history of the world was the most interesting part of the book. I loved the concept of pit fighting dragons, though it is a little more on the brutal side of things. For instance, if it were a culture of dog or horse fighting, this book would never have gotten off the ground, but because it's dragons, it seems to be more acceptable. Actually, it bothered me a little in hindsight that the character never seemed to consider that maybe the main source of his livelihood and the eventual source of his freedom was immoral. Granted, he's a sixteen year old basically being raised as a slave, so what about his life isn't already immoral? The whole world had some problems, but it was kind of a fascinating world culture. 

The characters could use more depth overall, but they weren't so bad. A little bland sure, but not bad. The main character is an orphan being raised as essentially an indentured servant in a society of indentured servitude, as are several of his friends. They all live and work on a dragon breeding farm where they intentionally breed dragons to fight other dragons in pit fights.

One thing I had more of a gripe with was the fact that Yolen decided it was culturally necessary for there to be "bag girls," a code word for prostitutes. It's not really something that's generally necessary for a young adult dragon trainer book. And it would be one thing if bag girls were all adults, but it was very very definitely stated that a girl named Akki, roughly the same age as the fifteen year old main character, could have been a bag girl. Fifteen year old prostitutes? That's pretty messed up. I get that on a world that grew from a penal colony, there would be some bad things, but I don't feel like every bad part of society needed to be constantly mentioned as the bad girls were. They also didn't need to be treated as being good and normal. I don't remember even once anyone saying how awful it was, not even Akki whose mother was a bag girl.

Additionally the writing style is very simple, to the point that I almost feel talked down to as a reader sometimes, which drives me crazy.

Overall, this isn't really a book I feel like is a bad read, although I have some gripes about the author's dark world building. I enjoyed reading it and it flowed well. I really like books with dragons where the dragons aren't all tame and loving. I liked that some of the dragons were as much feral beasts as they were trained pets. And, overall, I did like the book. Is it the best dragon book? No, definitely not, but it was definitely a different take on dragons than I've seen in other books.