The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Trilogy Book #1): Dragon's Blood

I loved this story when I was younger and I can remember being fascinated by dragons. This book only strengthened my obsession and I found myself wishing I could train a dragon of my own. The story itself is captivating and sheds a new light on dragons in comparison to the doom-and-gloom image

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dragons are always given. The writing is excellent and the world that Jane Yolen creates is realistic and you easily feel yourself drawn into this society where dragons are trained and fought for sport.

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The world Yolen created here is really interesting, and I think that's what grabbed me as a pre-teen. Austar IV is a former convict planet that is now one of the top recreational locations because of the violent and exciting sport of Pit Dragon fighting. Our protagonist, Jakken, is a bonder who

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works in a dragon nursery and dreams of buying his way out of bond by stealing a dragon and raising it to be a champion fighter.

It's a simple story at its heart, but rich with delicious detail and wonderful characters - both Jakken and Akki, the girl who first catches him and then helps him - are interesting and capable.

Something in this story makes it feel very relevant to adolescence - despite its fantastical setting, it's very much a coming of age story, and some of the details resonate strongly. Jakken experiences setbacks that feel, to him, insurmountable - but he manages to surmount them. He feels like he's fighting his upward struggle alone, but through the course of the book we come to realize that a number of people are rooting for him to succeed. And through the course of it, he learns a great deal about both responsibility and friendship.

The subsequent books aren't nearly as strong in my opinion - the themes shift rather sharply toward political hijinks and adventure - but this first volume remains very entertaining.

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Dragon hatchlings are valuable and carefully guarded. It's worth a man's life to steal one of them if caught, even without the danger inherent in the training. Fifteen-year-old Jakkin's father found that out the hard way, losing his life in his attempt. Nevertheless, for Jakkin stealing a

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hatchling, raising it and training it to fight in the tournaments is the only way to earn his bond price and his freedom from the life of a bonder in the dragon barns. With some luck and assistance from an unexpected quarter, can Jakkin succeed where his father failed?

Yolen doesn't disappoint in this coming of age tale, the opener of the Pit Dragon trilogy. Jakkin's life is gritty and difficult, but there is kindness and affection, even in a society that doesn't seem to value softness.

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It's more than 200 years since humans settled the planet Austar IV in the Erato galaxy, and training and fighting the native dragons has become the planet's main claim to fame. Jakkin is a bond-servant, indentured to his master until he can fill the bond-bag that hangs around his waist, but Jakkin

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has a plan: steal a hatchling, teach it to fight, and use the profits to become a master in his own right. Of course, though he knows a little bit about dragons, he doesn't really know anything about teaching them to fight . . .

I found this a quick, engrossing read. I was expecting it to be a children's book, but it makes no bones about some of the rougher aspects of Jakkin's world (prostitution, drug use) and that places it more squarely in the YA arena. I'd recommend it to readers looking for something like Anne McCaffrey's dragon books.

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The book is set in a futuristic world with a medieval feel to it. The most popular sport is dragon fighting. Young Jakkin is a servant in a dragon barn which raises dragons to enter the ring, he will continue to be a servant until he can get enough money to buy his freedom. He steals a dragon

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hatchling in hopes of buying his bond from his master. The book is a fun read, though sometimes lags at times. The characters are interesting and the aspects for raising and training dragons are unique in this book. The chance that the character might get caught at any time makes it suspenseful. Though there is no magic and very little technology in the book unlike many medieval and science fiction books. Readers might get hung up on some of the technical vocabulary that has been made up by the author to explain the dragons. This book is suitable for either gender.

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Possitively my favorite books of all time..all three.

Set in a former convict world about four to five hundred years from now, this is a story of Jakkin, a 15 year old bond boy. In order to pay of his bond and be a master he steals a dragon to raise and teach to fight in the planet's biggest sport -- dragon pit fighting.

It's an entertaining story. I

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enjoy reading about Jakkin and his blood bond with his dragon. I also found Jakkin's semi-love interest Akki endearing. She provides a strong female character which I always find appealing.

Altogether an enjoyable way to spend a lazy afternoon (it's a short, quick read).

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An early work by Yolen that features one of my favorite mythological creatures from childhood: dragons. Yolen has created a complex world in Austar IV, where the story takes place, that is like old school science fiction in its attention to the details that make an alternate planet, but the story

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itself is all fantasy. It reminds me a bit of the Pern series by McAffrey in its blend of fantasy and scifi and dragons, but the story is much more kid friendly.

The novel focuses on Jakkin, a young boy who works in a dragon nursery on Austary IV. In his society, some are masters and some are bonders; if bonders manage to fill the bag they wear around their neck with gold, then they can become masters themselves. Jakkin is a bonder, but he is determined to fill his bag. He thinks that he has found his chance the day he discovers an unaccounted hatchling and spirits it away to a hidden oasis, to raise as his own dragon.

See, in Austar IV, dragons are used for various means, but the most lucrative one is in the pits, where dragons fight against each other for vast amounts of gold. Jakkin wants that gold, but he also loves his dragon with a deeper bond than many other trainers, and wants to care for her. As he enters the bloody world of the pits, he meets mysterious Akki, who seems to be neither master nor bonder, and they set in motion plans that might free him once and for all.

As I mentioned before, I love dragons. More when I was a kid, but I still get a fuzzy little feeling inside when I read about them. This series is all about the dragons, and Austar IV is a fascinatingly complex world, with a unique political system and environment. The idea of dragon pit fights is new and intriguing, and the other characters are completely human. The tension in the story and the complicated relationships make this a page-turning read.

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Review by: Funky Chicken Returns

I LOOOOOOVED THIS BOOK!!!!! IT WAS THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!!!! YOU MUST READ THIS BOOOOOOOOK!!!!! THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME!!!!!
Review by: big pink panada

I don't think I can rate it that good because I'm not done with it yet. But so far its great!!!!! Try it!!!!!!!!!!

I read this book as a young adult, and it became my ultimate favourite book at the time. I read and re-read it so many times that the book became ragged and dog eared.

I guess I liked it so much because it contained all the elements that I was looking for at the time: A young person basically

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surviving on their own, dragons and adventure.

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I liked this book beacause of the nice way it merges classic fantasy (dragons) with sci- fi in a believable futuristic world. It kept flowing, though the book as a whole was only ok beacause the plot wasn't going anywhere fast.

This is a well-written tale of an orphan with ambition, plans, and enough gumption to follow through and achieve his dreams. Nice read for young or old.

Substance: A "convict world" some centuries after "mancipation", where the main entertainment is fighting dragons in huge "pits" (multi-story buildings). Gives gladiatorial status to the mildly sentient animals controlled telepathically by their human trainers. A boy steals a hatchling and raises

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it, so he can earn enough money to buy his way out of bonder (slave) status.
Mild romance and intrigue.
Style: Easy narrative flow, sanitized view of animal fighting culture with minimal violence , disguised immoraltiy.

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I mostly enjoyed this, though the "thee"s and "thou"s directed at dragons annoyed me. It didn't make even handwavium sense.

Also, the ending was nauseatingly pro-eugenics and pro-indentured servitude. ("None of that false compassion--picking a runt or one with an injured wing. You went right to the

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best." And nonsense about some people not being man enough to get out of their servitude?? Yuck, yuck, yuck.)

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In 1982 this would have been obviously a McCaffrey YA follow on with pit fighting instead of thread fighting. The world building makes Hunger Game's look solid and in spite of a spunky resourceful girl giving our hero substantial help it doesn't quite overcome the women default to whores assumption

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of the ex-prison world setting.

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