I’m unable to be objective about this book since I’ve been reading it since childhood. I love it, it really is a perfect book to start a person onto sf/f. Dragon’s Blood follows Jakkin, who is an indentured servant at a dragon fighting stable. He’s an orphan whose father was killed when he was trying to train a feral dragon and whose mother died after they went into indentured servitude. The book blends science fiction and fantasy, as the dragon fighting happens on an alien planet in a vague future. When people settled the planet, they found wild dragons that they’ve tamed and bred over the years to be pit fighters. Despite the presence of trucks and stun guns, the setting feels more fantasy like due to all the dragons and the fact that Jakkin’s immediate surroundings are more low-tech. In order to make his bond back and someday be a master dragon breeder, Jakkin has a plan to steal an egg and raise a great fighting dragon in secret. He has to overcome obstacles and come of age, which plays out in a very well-paced and satisfying narrative.
I think I got this book out of the library the first time around 10 or 11 and I remember being completely transported by it. The idea of being able to mentally bond with a dragon was so appealing (it still is!) and Jane Yolen’s writing is so good. It’s still a transportive experience, and as soon as I start reading again I’m carried away to the sands of Austar IV. It’s a great book for anyone who loves sf/f and anyone who might love it after reading this. I don’t honestly know if it’s for grade 6 like my copy suggests due to the indentured sex workers, and there’s a whole conversation to be had about the gender and sexual politics of this book, as well as what Yolen is trying to say about slavery vs indentured servitude and people’s desire to be free, but when I read it as a kid I seem to have completely missed all of that.
Warnings for: violence towards people and animals, child abuse, indentured sex workers, lots of references to sex (“making love” as Yolen calls it), cock-fighting type dragon fights. Skews mature for a juvenile fantasy.