Land of De Nile

A while back, someone gifted me a copy of Mercedes Lackey's Joust, which I last read when it was released. It was fun to revisit one of her not so major series. 

For the sake of summarizing the setting, this first book focuses on the kingdom of Tia, which is roughly analogous to the Upper Egypt of antiquity. Our focus is on the Altan serf, Vetch, who's family was put into serfdom after the Tians invaded their farm. (Alta, of course, being analogous with Lower Egypt, where the Nile reaches its delta.) While the two countries share similar Gods, the hierarchy of deities is a bit different, as are some of the practices. 

Anyway, Vetch labours under Kefti-the-Fat, who pretty much abuses the heck out of his serf, his servants, and his apprentices. Indeed, much of the first chapter gives us details on curses Vetch is trying to lay on his evil master. Then Ari lands, and Vetch's life takes a turn for the better. Ari is one of the famed Dragon Jousters of Tia, who rides dragon back to keep Tia safe. He ends up conscripting Vetch and making him his Dragon Boy (a squire and caretaker when in quarters). 

Vetch excels at his new job, and Kashet, Ari's dragon, loves him. Kashet was raised by Ari from an egg, unlike most of the other dragons in the compound, who were grabbed from nests around the time of their first flight. As the book goes on, and we find that Ari is sympathetic to Vetch's problems, we hear all about how to train a dragon. Which comes in handy later on, as one of the wildborn dragons has a mating flight and lays an egg Vetch ends up hiding in an empty pen and eventually hatching. 

By the end, we all sing one of those 70's numbers as Vetch and Avatre fly free on her first flight. All is revealed in the last chapter, as Vetch gets a bit of help from Ari and heads to Alta. 

While not as epic in scope or as prolific as some of her other series, it's still fairly quality and good for a read.