Joust by Mercedes Lackey

Wanting to become better read in my favorite genre of genre fiction, that is, fantasy, I picked up a random Mercedes Lackey Book. That book happened to be called Joust and have a hunky man on the cover in a loin cloth with a beautiful red dragon. How could I not? I'll start by stating the books overwhelming flaws with the intention of eventually dismissing them as being out of the author's control. Firstly, the cover, while accurate, portrays basically the eventuality of the book. It is actually an image of what is achieved by the end of the novel. I'll try to explain. The main character is a young serf. Serf's are not aloud to cut their hair so it's obviously him on the cover. He goes to work for a dragon compound where the highest honor is to be a jouster. He's holding a jousting lance on the cover. Do you get the gist here? And for the duller readers, the back is basically a one-page summary of the book. At this point there's really no point in reading it since you know exactly what is going to happen. You can't root for the underdog because staring you in the face every time you pick up the book you know he will be victorious. Maybe I'm being overcritical here. But like I said, it's not Lackey's fault.
Also there are a ton of typos. Like 4 that I've caught and I'm no editor. Some are quite blatant. Again, not Lackey's fault...really.

So why did you read the book, Nicole? Is your love for dragons so strong that you will read a story you already know the entire plot and ending to? Probably, yeah, but what really kept me is Mercedes Lackey's ability to tell a story. I'm not saying it's groundbreaking work or anything but Lackey studied birds to compare them to dragons. She is consistent and her imagination for the world is thorough without being dull.

Maybe Fantasy novels get pushed unfairly into this mass-market, highly disregarded section. Or maybe they deserve it. But then again the publishers aren't giving as much time to these books as to the best selling "literature." If they can't even make sure a book goes out without typos and if instead of praise the book is covered in its entire plot then I don't know how far it can actually get.

4/5