Sanctuary: Joust #3

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.

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 f

Sadly, the tale of Ari and Kiron (Vetch) ends here. When all is said and done, you can imagine what will happen next. The colors come alive in the mind as Mercedes Lackey describes the events of the story. It is another outstanding read!

I had been afraid that Lackey would not continue this series past "Alta", and I was extremely pleased that she did. I found Sanctuary, the city, interesting and thought the adjustments the dragon riders and others living there had to make were plausible. I was very glad to see the reappearance of characters (including dragons) I had liked in "Joust", and I liked the way Lackey handled the issue of tensions between Altans and Tians. I was particularly satisfied by the answering of questions from earlier in the series, such as why it was important for Ari to join the group in Sanctuary. I did miss the rich development of characters that "Alta" had, and I was disappointed that there was a mix-up of two characters, with Gan being the beautiful character in this book. The story did tell what happened to the families of some of the riders, but I also wanted to know about the others. However, this series has become one of my favorites. I have enjoyed "Sanctuary" a number of times already, and I look forward very much to "Aerie" when it comes out.

For years the magi, a magical evil organization, has worked in the shadows to gain power; now they have come out in the open with the Eye of Light, a weapon of mass destruction. The war between Alta and Tia goes on because the magi feed off the essence of the dying and become even more powerful. Those with psionic powers, the god touched are being drained of their power to feed the insatiable hunger of the magi. The magi believe that the fighting force of the Jousters and there dragons are dead but in the desert city of Sanctuary, far from the magic of the magi, a dragon wing survives led by Kiron who once was a serf and a dragon boy in Tia. Sanctuary welcomes all the refugees who are fleeing the magi. The magi plan to use the Eye against the Tia army that is invading Alta; Kiron must rescue the woman he loves and rally the people so that when the earthquake hits as a byproduct of using the Eye, they will be able to evacuate in an orderly manner so that some of Alta will survive. Book three of The Dragon Jousters" is a fantastic finale to an excellent fantasy trilogy. Kiron has grown from a subservient serf (lower than a slave) to a man who leads a mighty force that can take on the magi and save thousands of people. Much of the novel takes place in SANCTUARY as the people make a dead city come alive. The dragons have a special bond based on love and trust with their humans and fans of Anne MacCaffrey's Pern series will want to read this very special series. Harriet Klausner