Name: Dragon's blood
Rating: 3.2 (5 reviews)
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.

Lorien O'Brien

Dragons are trained to fight to the death, and two determined teens help free them in this spellbinding saga. Training a dragon to be a fighting champion is the only way to freedom for fifteen-year-old Jakkin.

Dragon's blood

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