Skip to main content

story identification - Identify this YA book series about dragons, acid blood, and dangerously cold nights


I'm trying to remember the name of a series of books about a boy who works with dragons. Dragon's blood (or maybe it was slobber?) is acidic, and the children who wrangle these dragons often end up with deep pock marks. On this world, days are like ours but nights get very cold, requiring anyone stuck outside to find a shelter until dawn (not the false dawn)


The other thing I remember is that in one of the books by slicing open a dragon and spending the night, the character emerged with special dragon powers.



Answer



Wow, a blast to my childhood here! I remember reading the series you've described as a kid back during my dragons phase. I even still own the first book.


This is The Pit Dragon Trilogy written by Jane Yolen. The books are Dragon's Blood (1982), Heart’s Blood (1984), and A Sending of Dragons (1987). A fourth book, Dragon’s Heart was published in 2009.


On this world, days are like ours but nights get very cold, requiring anyone stuck outside to find a shelter until dawn (not the false dawn)
This is the Dark After on the planet Austar IV, where the books take place. During a four hour period in the night the two moons overlap and it becomes so cold that humans cannot remain outside without dying.



The other thing I remember is that in one of the books by slicing open a dragon and spending the night, the character emerged with special dragon powers.


This is detailed in the book Heart's Blood:



Golden, Jakkin, and Akki flee to the mountains, but Golden is badly injured. Pursued by the Wardens, they are forced to leave Golden behind in a cave which they had sheltered in during Dark After, using Heart's Blood's body as a door and heater. Jakkin manumits the traitorous Erikkin, and Heart's Blood dies from a stinger shot in the neck, her body saving Jakkin and Akki. The only shelter they have during Dark After, is Heart's Blood's body, so they crawl into her birth sac. In the morning, Jakkin and Akki are reborn out of the dragon blood, and became the first real human Austarians, linked to each other and Heart's Blood's five hatchlings.


Jakkin and Akki are now able to communicate the way the dragons can, due to their "rebirth" from Heart's Blood carcass.



And yes dragon's blood is acidic. Quoted from Dragon's Blood (link withheld b/c not sure if legal):



Blood Brother gave one last mighty pull and his wing tore free, the hot blood dripping down onto the dust, burning the floorboards where it fell. Three drops spattered onto Jakkin’s back, leaving deep pits. But he had been unconscious since the first blow and did not feel the burns.




...



The orange dragon in the pit shook its head and the blood beaded its ears like a crown. A few drops spattered over the walls and into the stands. Each place a drop touched burned with that glow peculiar to the acidic dragon’s blood. The onlookers ducked. One watcher in the third row of the stands was not quick enough and was scared on the cheek. He reached up a hand to the wound but did not move from his place



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more