Exile

by Mercedes Lackey

Daw, 291 pp, $25.95

Exile is book four of the Dragon Jousters..

Kiron escaped imprisonment in Tia with a dragon he hand-raised from the egg… Reaching Alta, his homeland, he fell in love with a fledgling priestess, Aket-ten, and learned of the Magi - Mages without ethics who developed a weapon that kills from afar.

Kiron and Aket-ten fled Alta with the other jousters and dragons, and members of the royal family, to a lost city in the desert called Sanctuary. From Sanctuary, they trained new dragons and jousters. Through careful planning, they join the Altan and Tian jousters and bring down the Magi. But Sanctuary was overflowing and they found a new cliff city that seemed made for dragons. The jousters were happy to move to more spacious quarters. However, though the Magi were conquered, there were still more mages that wanted to destroy everything that had been built. They then had to fight not only armies but a wildcard goddess that loved destruction and blood. Aerie had its own secrets, and the Jousters had to learn them and become avatars to save the future.

Any Lackey novel is exciting and fun, with good characterizations, good plotting, good world building, this one with an Egyptian aura. This novel is no different. Gotta have it. - Pam Allan