I like the books Mercedes lackey writes, she is good at creating a believable world and people to populate it. This series starts off very strong though I do feel that it falls off a bit as it progresses. It is truly readable and enjoyable. ( )

My wife loves this series and reads it at least once a year, so about 2 years I bought them in hardcover for our personal library.

I discovered Lackey when I was in highschool and during college. I liked most of her storylines [when you're 17, everything is new] but found a lot of her material to be objectionable from a Christian standpoint. So I ended up being extremely wary of her works, as I felt like I was walking through a minefield every time I read one of her books. Now, being a bit more mature, I feel like those mines" are more like dog poop "mines". If I step on them, they won't kill me, but they make me feel disgusting and then I need to go wash my feet off :)

Now that I've got all that out of my system, let write about the book itself. This was right on par with the previous two. Same pacing, same characters acting the same way, same gushing about dragons, same badguys being all "baddy".

My first thought when starting this was "why are they keeping the dragons around?" The group in Sanctuary doesn't seem to be planning on using the dragons as an army, aren't going to attack anyone, yet they spend enormous resources, in manpower, time and materials, keeping these dragons around and planning for more. They are gigantic pets!

Then things get going with Alta and Tia and the mages and everything wraps up pretty neatly and nicely. And I know that there is another book yet. So I ask my wife about the whole "dragon" question and she told me that the next book addresses that very issue; I also asked her WHAT the final book could be about, as it felt like this one really wrapped the series up. She just told me that the story moves to a wider scope than previously but still wraps up ok.

So final word is if you liked the previous 2 books, you'll like this. If you didn't, don't bother, this isn't some how magically "better" than them, it is the same :)" ( )

Actually, [bc:Aerie|13979|Aerie (Dragon Jousters, #4)|Mercedes Lackey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166575458s/13979.jpg|2600] is concluding book to this four volume series. That said, this one was a very satisfying entry in series and a riveting read in terms of action, engrossing characters and more so than first two books a believable worldbuilding. I am particularly fond of the type of worldbuilding where beloved characters get to build a whole new society (and generally a really big fan of Ms. Lackey for all that three of her collaboration efforts are among my most hated ever) so likely this review is prejudiced. ( )

I ripped through this pretty quickly. It was definitely a page turner and an easy read. The story was enjoyable, I just feel like Mercedes Lackey's actual writing could be better. But she does come up with good plots. ( )

This is the third book in the Dragon Jouster's series that began with Joust and continued in Alta, and you should read those first. I'm a fan generally of Lackey's books, particularly her Valdemar series, and I think these are among the best of her books I've read. The series is centered on Kiron (in the first book known as Vetch) and I like his arc throughout the books, as well as the magical land, reminiscent of Ancient Egypt, in which this is set--and the dragons of course. They're not talking or telepathic dragons in the vein of McCaffrey or Novik, but are still engaging. The problems in the two lands of the previous books come to a head in this one, and beyond following characters I'd grown to care about (the dragons as much as the humans) this makes for a well-paced gripping adventure tale. ( )