100 Things: Dragon's Blood, by Jane Yolen

So I thought I'd do the 100 Things Blogging Challenge. Basically: pick a topic, blog about 100 things that fit in that topic. I'm going to blog about stories that were/are important to me in some way--whether that's because I just think they're good, because they changed the way I thought about things, the way I wrote about things, whatever. And stories means I can do books, short stories, movies, TV, fic--see how that works out? :D

First up: Dragon's Blood, by Jane Yolen. This was one of my favorite books as a kid, so beloved I can still quote phrases from it. The book takes place on a planet called Austar IV, an inhospitable world originally used as a penal colony and now mostly a gambling planet--the main economic driver is the dragon fighting pits (the native dragons having been bred up, but not really tamed, by the human settlers). The plot follows Jakkin, a teenage worker on a dragon farm, as he independently raises a dragon from hatchling to her first fight.

I really loved this when I was younger because, one, interesting worldbuilding, and two, DRAGONS! Awesome dragons! (And some philosophical things later on in the books.) However, there are some weirdnesses about the book that I notice now. ( Read more... )

It's a short book--I think it took me about 3 hours to reread it recently--and the other books in the series are good as well. I don't love this the way I did when I was, like, ten, especially the rather abrupt ending, but it's still a fun little read.