Customer Reviews

Joust

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

I bought this book because I'm a fan of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, and this looked like it might be in that vein. I was not disappointed. The dragons themselves were characters along with the more traditonal human ones, something that Lackey shares with McCaffrey.

This is the first of Mercedes Lackey's books that I've read, and I was really impressed with her attention to characters and details. I'm assuming that this is the first in a new series, as the book ends leaving the reader wanting to know more about Vetch (or Kiron) and his dragon Avartre. I'm looking forward to further adventures.

The kingdoms of Tia and Alta are at war while at the present time the Tians are winning because they have better Jousters who know how to use their dragons as a tool of war. Much of Altan has become part of the Tian empire and Vetch, who was once a farmer's son, is now a serf, lower than a slave, belonging to a master who treats him very badly. When the Jouster Ari sees Vetch's owner whip him, he takes him away to the Jouster compound and makes him his dragon boy.

Vetch now cares for Ari's dragon Kashet who he comes to love. He has plenty of food and a fair workload but he never forgets for one moment that he is a serf with no rights. Although he comes to care Ari and a few other people in the compound, he can't stomach what the Tians are doing to his people. He wants his freedom and embarks on a course of action that will achieve that goal if he doesn't get caught.

Mercedes Lackey always writes a terrific story and this first installment in her new series is absolutely mesmerizing. Readers will feel for the protagonist who is only a ten-year-old child yet wise beyond his years. Once he sets a goal for himself, he sees it through no matter the risks. JOUST is a fantasy tale that will appeal to Anne McCaffrey's Pern fans as well as anyone who loves an adorable dragon.

Harriet Klausner

Mercedes Lackey has created another wonderful world. Its desert setting is worlds away from Valdemar. Vetch, the young protagonist, has been through very difficult times. He has seen his father placed in an impossible situation and die, his mother grandmother, and sisters taken away, and himself turned into a serf, the lowest of the low. He is starved, beaten, and subjected to cruel working and living conditions. When a Jouster rescues him and makes him a dragon boy, his hard-learned lessons of perserverance and hiding his emotions combine with his sterling work ethic and intelligence to earn him a measure of respect in his new profession. His new master is as different from his peers as Vetch is from the freeborn dragon boys. They strike up a comaraderie, with the care of the dragon as its basis.
The dragons here are unlike Anne McCaffery's. They come in different colors and are not ranked as rigorously in status. They are--perhaps--not intelligent and do not speak mind-to-mind as the Pern dragons or Lackey's other creations, the Companions. Vetch learns why his master's dragon is unique and, given a chance when an unplanned mating between dragons results in eggs, cares for an egg. He raises the dragon and trains it on the sly. When he is discovered, he seizes his opportunity to escape and try to return to his native country.
I very much enjoyed this new series and am eagerly looking forward to the next one. It doesn't look as if this world has as much potential for expansion as the Valdemar books have, but we'll have to wait and see. Lackey uses her considerable abilities to create a unique world and populate it with people both ordinary and extraordinary. You definitely won't be wasting your time reading this book.

This was a light read, but still mostly enjoyable. The strangest thing is that it reminded me of a book I read when I was little (slave gets and trains dragon and thus becomes free) called Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen, but since it has been over ten years since I read Dragon's Blood I can't really compare the two.

Joust really was no more or less than the description says. There were no amzing plot twists or unforeseen events, and it could have used another hard edit (there were many times where we read some description or another that was already in the book previously such as that the hots sands would turn to hot soup in the rain). However, if you like easy reads and want to see a new view of dragons, this would probably be perfect for you. The dragons are engaging creatures, and I really enjoyed Lackey's personifications of them.

Frankly, she's done much better, but it is still an interesting start to a new world.

Joust is a fantasy novel about a boy and a dragon. Vetch is an Altan and when the Tians conquer his part of Alta, his father's land is given to a Tian family. The soldiers who evict his family also kill his father and cause brain damage to his sister. Then, the surviving, conscious members of the family are informed that they are serfs, property of the Great King and bound to the land.

When Khefti-the-fat wants to gain possession of part of the property formerly owned by Vetch's family, he must also take possession of one of the family itself since the lands go with the serfs, so he chooses Vetch. Khefti works Vetch much harder than his apprentices, for they are Tian and can return home if their family agrees, and harder even than his slaves, for they are worth money, because Vetch is worthless to him alive. Khefti cannot sell him, but Vetch wonders if Khefti can keep the land without any serfs if his current serf dies.

Vetch is fetching water to the cistern that serves the tala fields when a man takes away his water bucket, drinks part of it, and pours the rest over his head. Vetch is very angry, but his anger turns to terror when Khefti comes with his whip to punish him for losing the water. At first Khefti does not see the stranger, but after two slashes of the whip, the man brings himself to Khefti's attention by holding back the third slash. While initially angry, Khefti starts to grovel as soon as he sees the stranger, for he is a Jouster, a dragon rider for the Great King of Tia.

The Jouster, Ari, requisitions Vetch for the Great King's service as his dragon boy and flies away with him on Kashet, the dragon, leaving behind a very angry Khefti. After one day as Ari's dragon boy, Vetch realizes that life will be much less difficult for him in this job and that Ari is an exceptional master compared to the other Jousters. As he grows to know more about Ari, Vetch begins to lose his hatred of this particular Tian. Moreover, he is gaining respect for a few others in the dragon corps, but he stills hates Tia itself. Nevertheless, he works ardently for the welfare of his master and his dragon, earning his place among the dragon boys.

The reason Ari is different is that he has raised Kashet from the egg, thus automatically becoming a Jouster. No other dragon has been trained in this way and Kashet is much more cooperative than the other dragons, especially with Ari, but also with Vetch himself, and to lesser extent with Haraket, the Overseer of the Dragon tenders and another man Vetch learns to respect.

Vetch decides to emulate Ari and raise his own dragon from the egg. Knowing that a serf will never be allowed to be a Jouster, he will have to hide all such activities even from Ari, but various events make such secrecy less difficult, possibly due to intervention by the Altan gods.

This story is set in a world much like ancient Egypt; even the names of gods and places are phonetically similar to Egyptian names. Tia is much like the Upper Kingdom and Alta is similar to the Lower Kingdom and, like ancient Egypt, the two kingdoms have very similar cultures, languages, gods, and physiognomies. Even the Tians recognize that the two kingdoms may have come from the same people, but don't want to think about it.

In fact, the Tians themselves had been conquered 500 years before and treated in a callous manner by the invaders. Although they have ousted the Nameless Ones long before, possibly with help from Alta, they still remember their heinous treatment, but now the Tians are treating the Altans in exactly the same way.

Not being an Egyptologist, I really don't know if the ancient Egyptians had a dragon mythos, but the mesopotamians -- e.g., the Assyrians and the Babylonians --- certainly did and many legends crossed the deserts between these civilizations. The headwaters of the Nile have often been considered a place where anything is possible, maybe even dragons.

Once again, the author brings alive an exotic culture and some of its people while presenting a vivid lesson in social ethics. Her portrayal of the Bedu provides another lesson about stereotypes. However, this story is a pleasure to read, so who cares if we learn something in the process. I do hope this is not a singleton novel, for the author ends the story with so many unfulfilled possibilities.

By the way, there is a lot of really interesting details of animal training, particularly of raptors, all applied to the training of dragons. Moreover, we learn that dragons are a lot like cats, especially when young. If you ever find a dragon egg, look to this book for good advice in raising the creature. Better still, email the author for assistance.

Recommended for Lackey fans and anyone who enjoys interesting animals, exotic cultures, and daring adventure.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Joust has wonderful plot development and colorful characters you can relate to. Lackey has done a superb job of putting you right in the middle of the story. I couldn't put the book down. Literally. I finished it in about a day.
But... yes, you knew there'd be a but... the editing in this book (at least the hardback edition) is not so great. There were probably seven or eight places in the book where the punctuation made me pause and do a doubletake. It didn't really confuse the story, but it was very distracting and interrupted the flow of my reading.
I would have given Joust a five-star rating, except for this. There can be many reasons to criticize a book, but editing should not have to be one of them.
Don't let this dissuade you from reading Joust. It's fun, exciting and dramatic.
Here is a must-read for dragon lovers and anyone else looking for a good read.

I knew, going into this book, that I was probably going to find it similar to other things I've read; I'd heard a friend say of it, "Nice book, but Anne McCaffrey did it better." I decided to give it a try anyway, since I'm a fan of Lackey's and a terrible sucker for dragons.

I found that my friend had a point.

The main downside to _Joust_, in my opinion, is that it's so painfully similar to other books: first to McCaffrey's _Dragonflight_ (I found Vetch's sudden reprieve from drudgery on the land his family had previously owned, and his introduction to life in the compound, *very* reminiscent of Lessa's Search) and then in later chapters to Jane Yolen's _Dragon's Blood_. I know it's said there are no truly new stories under the sun, but this went beyond just using the same general themes--some of the scenes in _Joust_ echoed scenes in those other two books so strongly to me that I remain kind of amazed that Lackey got away with it. The near-constant sense of 'Gee, where have I seen this before?' detracted slightly from my enjoyment of the novel. It didn't help that ML recycled her own oft-used 'abused young person stumbles into a new life and discovers amazing talents that earn the respect of almost everyone' theme, either.

A secondary negative was that the editing job seemed a bit sloppy. You should never find a sentence of dialogue followed by a random '%%.' And whoever wrote the dustjacket summary ought to be smacked with a wet noodle--I kept thinking Kashet's 'growth spurt' was going to lead to some sort of plot twist involving the discovery that he was actually female, what with the jacket referring to him as 'she.'

However, these things aside, I really quite liked this book and found it difficult to set aside. The pacing let the story move along quickly. Ari may not have been fully fleshed out, but I enjoyed his scenes anyway; I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't turn up in the sequel! The dragons themselves were fun to read about, the settings were well-described, and I found the pseudo-Egyptian culture of Tia engaging. Too, I'm generally of the opinion that Mercedes Lackey is a talented author with a real flair for storytelling--and while I wouldn't say _Joust_ is as good as some of her earlier works (the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, most notably), she does show off her gifts here, and I'd recommend it to any fan of fantasy... at least in paperback. As far as new SF/fantasy series go, one could certainly do much worse.

On the plus side, this is a well written book with fairly three dimensional, if drawn in broad strokes, characters.
On the balance side, this is fairly obviously the first book in a series and does not come to an end.
On the negative side, it isn't at all original. The dragons may not be completely identical to Pernese ones, but you need to look closely to spot the differences. The setting is mythological ancient Egypt. The only difference is that, in this setting, the Hyskos invasion happened before upper and lower egypt had been united. And the plot has been done before in infinite variations.

I finished Joust in one sitting and enjoy every moment of it. The world Lackey has created is rich and her descriptons of her dragons and their habits loving, vivid and magical. Her young protagonist, Vetch, is immensely likeable and Ari, the secondary character is just as charming. Nowadays, alot of so called epic fantasies seek for heavy plots and too many characters which I find hard to follow after a while and even frustrating at times. Joust has a simple plot but it possesses all the merits of a captivating fantasy. Joust proves that a fantasy does not need to be convoluted with myriad plots and sub-plots to keep a reader hooked. I look forward to more from Vetch, now named Kiron, Ari and their dragons. Lackey, please don't let us wait too long.