A Sending of Dragons

I was all set to review the whole series at the end of this book when I discovered that there was a later addition to this series. However, it seems that [[dragon's heart]], the final installment, was written considerably later than the first three, so I think I will stick with my original plan.

There is so much to enjoy in these books. There is a simplicity in the writing style that gives a nice clean feel to the books. By which I mean they are easy and refreshing in the style of presentation. The history of the world is clear and presented at the beginning of each book with some development based on the previous novel. The dragons are well developed, both as a species and as individuals. Some of them I felt quite in love with. The show more dragon breeding facility, situated in the barren land of this metal poor planet, is well described and easy to immerse yourself in. I found myself right in step with Jakkin, the protagonist, also the viewpoint character, who works among the dragons, mucking stalls and tending the large and sometimes dangerous beasts.

Jakkin is well developed although at times annoying. But he is a teenage boy, so I mustn’t expect perfection in his way of handling his feelings. At the same time there is a lot in him that is charming and occasionally joyful and fun, particularly in his relationship with his favourite dragons and with his female friend, Akki. I have read few books in which play plays much of a part, if any, but it is an important element of this book, as is the bonding that it reflects and strengthens. It is good to see some good and healthy relationships in a novel, and to see a male character motivated as much by love as anything else.

Not all of the relationships are playful or happy by any means, but as the series continues there is an evolution in some of these as well.

There are things to not love about the books, also. Bearing in mind that these were written in the 80s, they are still a bit too sexist for my taste. There is an emphasis on being a man, and although this is countered a little by the competence and viewpoint of the female character, she ends up, despite her strengths, being far too ready to allow him to take the lead, and occasionally somewhat wimpy. So there is nascent feminism in the book but it does not come to fruition. And I wouldn’t look too hard at the science behind the dragons, for instance, and the material culture of the place.

Spoiler alert for this paragraph:

((There is a race of hidden people discovered in the third book who fall into the cliché of inbred subhumans that have so much more wrong about them than there is about us. In other words, the trope so well exploited in white, settler fiction of the dangerous other. It doesn’t go completely wild. There is some sympathy and some understanding that they are not so very different from the main culture of the planet. But that understanding does not leaven the othering sufficiently for me.))

Summary:

I enjoyed them enough that I will read the fourth novel, written several decades after the first three books. After all, when I was growing up every single book I read had these faults. It’s the old baby and bathwater routine. I shall enjoy everything there is about this baby while pouring off the bathwater as best I can. show less

Jakkin and Akki go from one danger to another. Fleeing from both the Wardens and the Rebels, they make their way into the system of caves in the Astarian mountains. There, they make a sinister discovery...

I have mixed feelings about this series. The writing is fairly utilitarian, but the plot moves quickly, so once I get caught up in the story, I find them quick and engrossing reads. There's not a lot of depth to the characters, and I could use a bit more explanation of how certain elements of the telepathic "sendings" work. Still, not a bad way to spend a little time, especially if you are fond of dragons.

The world of Austar IV becomes abruptly more foreign in this volume, but in comparison to ours and to what the reader knew about it from the previous books. This story doesn't work nearly as well for me for several reasons, beginning there.

We lose all contact with the Pit Fighting and the nursery as Jakken and Akki hide in the mountains with Heart's Blood's five hatchlings and newly-gained telepathic skills. While it is a semi-interesting expansion of the world, it's hard not to read this book - which reveals that the dragons have fully-formed thoughts and can communicate them - and wince at the implications for earlier books - in which dragons are bred for food and fighting.

To Yolen's credit, she does not ignore these implications - show more her characters struggle with them quite a bit, and much of the thrust of the last book revolves around the tension between wanting to share this discovery with the world, and what it might mean if they do - since the only way to gain these telepathic skills appears to be to kill female dragons.

I think, though, that this shift of setting combined with the shift of story - away from coming of age and into an escape/rescue/adventure from a bizarre clan of mountain folks - makes it feel jarring, and Yolen just doesn't manage it as well as she managed the others. For me, this is the sort of book I read because I fall in love with a world, and because I'm a completionist. show less

I always enjoy Jane Yolen's books; I think she really knows how to craft a story and characters. The Pit Dragon Chronicles is one of my favorite series of hers and it definitely holds up over time. I do think the first couple books are the strongest and then it does tail off a bit after that. There are many dragon stories but this does not feel repetitive or similar to others.

In this third book of the "Pit Dragon Chronicles", we discover Jakkin and Akki in hiding from the authorities in the wild mountainous areas of Austar IV. With the help of Heart's Blood's five hatchlings, they explore deeper in the wilderness, only to discover a series of tunnels and caves that beckon them onward into a mystery.

I enjoyed this installment of Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon series, though maybe not as much as the previous two. I am looking forward to the hatchlings maturing into adult dragons in the future, perhaps in the next installment?

This one was just weird. It tried to address the more brutal parts of the world that was taken for granted in the two previous books, but it didn't do it effectively. Also the last ten pages were just a big infodump on what was happening in the rest of the world during the entire book, but that was more interesting than the weirdness that happened to the Jakkin and Akki.

I'm no longer enjoying these, and if I didn't have to write an essay on all four, I'd quit reading them.