Sanctuary | Sanctuary (The Dragon Jousters, Book 3)

The Dragons Tamed | Sanctuary (The Dragon Jousters, Book 3) | Mercedes Lackey

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	• Sanctuary (The Dragon Jousters, Book 3) Mercedes Lackey DAW, 2006 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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Weaker Than Alta....

There's a danger in a series that once you become committed to it that the story line will begin to weaken. That unfortunately happens to some degree in Sanctuary.

If you started with Joust and Alta and enjoyed them, you will want to know how the story continues. I imagine it would be disconcerting to jump right into book 3.

The development of Kiron/Vetch continues and he moves from the leader of a small corp of dragon riders into a powerful man of his own in the new city of Sanctuary, which is beginning to see the crumbling of both Tia and its enemy Alta, due to the rotten leadership at their cores.

Sanctuary is being composed of refugees of both cities. The culture develops and grows as Kiron grows.

The book isn't bad, just a bit formulaic -- though it does have all the elements of Mercedes' wirting that I enjoy -- but I have read better. It kept my interest enough to read the sequel, so start with Joust, move to Alta, and if you enjoyed them both pick up Sanctuary.

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Sanctuary

Sanctuary is an interesting sequel to its predecessor Alta.

The story from the second book ended in such a way as to make a sequel mandatory. We were curious as to what would happen to Alta and Tia, sure that the story could not end with the hero, Kirion, escaping the Magi, but that somehow the atrocities that were rotting away Alta and Tia would be rectified.

This book follows that story and describes the daring exploits of the new jousters as they try to free those they can from the Magi.

We see the beginning of a new world order with Alta and Tia united.

We also see Kirion, mature into a leader amoung his people.

If you enjoyed the first book, Joust, Anne McCaffrey's novels of Pern or Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valedemar series (special horses as companions rather than dragons) then you will enjoy this book.

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The Dragons Tamed

Sanctuary (2005) is the third Fantasy novel in the Dragon Jousters series, following Alta. In the previous volume, Kaleth escaped to the Bedu and learned to become a Mouth of the Gods. The Blue People also helped Kaleth find the Lost City, which they renamed Sanctuary. Later, Kiron and Aket-ten took the twins Marit and Nofret to the desert edge to rejoin Kaleth in his Sanctuary.

Kiron and Aket-ten spread dust into the winds to blight the tala plants throughout Alta and Tia. When the tainted tala wore off, the drugged dragons shed their riders and escaped into the wild. Kiron and his wing outfought Kashet and took Ari with them to Sanctuary.

In this novel, a great sandstorm hits Sanctuary and all the dragons take shelter within a large building. All the dragons have been told of the coming storm and the younger ones are very nervous. Only Kashet and Avatre are unconcerned, having prior experience with such desert storms. The winds scream and roar around the building and through the cracks, but eventually all -- human and dragon -- fall asleep.

When they awake, Sanctuary has gained two major additions: a great manor and a temple complex. The gods have prepared the city for new arrivals, for Lord Ya-tiren, his family and the household servants appear shortly thereafter. They move immediately into the manor.

The temple complex has outbuildings that can be altered into dragon pens; with lots a work, each dragon will have a sandpit of its own and the rider will have private quarters next to the wallow. No more shared sleeping arrangement for the dragons or barracks for the riders.

Other refugees trickle into Sanctuary over the next few weeks. Among there are a contingent of Tian priests and priestesses. They are fleeing a few strangers who have ousted the previous advisors to the Great King and have started inviting gifted priests to the royal court. The bodies of some of these guests have turned up in the river.

With the Tian priests are Haraket, Baken and the few remaining Tian dragon boys. Soon the priests of Thet have worked the magic that keeps sand wallows heated throughout the night. They even create a cold room to preserve leftover meats from the hunts.

Kiron initiates a search for nesting dragons. While most escaped Altan dragons returned to the swamps, many of the fleeing Tian dragons settled into the desert around Sanctuary. Kiron has the Bedu and dragon boys looking among the hills and tells his riders to keep an eye open for nests while they are hunting.

In this story, Kiron finds a long lost city in the hills near Avatre's hunting grounds. As he is showing the city to Aket-ten, they also discover a nesting dragon nearby. After some consideration, he decides that the dragon is Coresan, the mother of Avatre. The dragon also seems to recognize him as her former dragon boy.

When Nofret decides that she needs a dragon of her own, Kiron and Aket-ten introduce her to Coresan. As the eggs hatch, Nofret provides food for the hatchlings. Eventually, Coresan accepts Nofret as a strangely misshapen dragon and even leaves the fledglings in her care.

Highly recommended for Lackey fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of dragon taming, evil machinations, benign conspiracies and a touch of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

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Slow to start...

This book is a bit slow to start and has a lot of set-up going on (which makes some sense given that it isn't the last book in this series). It also requires the reader to remember a lot from the previous books, so if it's been a while since you've read those you might want to go back. Once you get into it, though, it gets better and is worth the read.

Further Adventures of Kiron

Some of the urgency has left this series since the Alta dragonriders along with Kiron's former master Ari are now safely concealed in a mysterious city re-emerging from the remote desert sands. However, there are still evil wizards to defeat, daring rescues to undertake and more dragon biology to discover. If you read the previous two books of Joust and Alta, then you really don't want to stop there. This is good fun, great reading and comes to a resounding conclusion.

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The dragon-boy once known as Vetch has returned to his homeland of Alta to reclaim his birthright, only to discover that Alta is under the thrall of evil Priest-Kings. Gathering troops of dragon riders by his side, Vetch rasies an army in the sanctuary of the desert to rid his land of both war and magical domination once and for all.

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