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A Sending of Dragons (Pit Dragon Chronicles #3)

Jane Yolen (Goodreads Author)

3.92 · Rating details · 4,721 Ratings · 66 Reviews

Teens dragon master Jakkin and beloved healer-in-training Akki hide in mountain cave network beside Heart's Blood warm hatchlings, exchanging mind-picture "sendings". But who could leave a huge pile of stripped dragon bones neatly interwoven? The monstrous secret is bloodier than they could imagine. Can they save anyone, even sacrificing themselves?

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Paperback, 296 pages

Published 1997 by Magic Carpet Harcourt (first published September 1987)

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Nov 04, 2014 Cassandra rated it it was ok

Shelves: speculative-and-fantastic, reviewed

Disappointing. The plot felt rushed and choppy, never seemed to find a rhythm or establish what direction the story was trying to take, and left any number of loose threads dangling. For instance, the possibility of the (view spoiler) emerging to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting outside world is never referred to or discussed after the first time it is mentioned. After all the horrors they experience, and the suggestion of worse to come, Jakkin a ...more

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Jun 07, 2016 Jacob rated it liked it

Shelves: youth, from_library, science_fiction

The main characters Akki and Jakkin, living in the mountains with Heart's Blood's offspring, discover a secret no one else on the planet appears to know. It's an obvious homage to The Time Machine and yet it works pretty well; Yolen has sorted out how her surprise could be the way it is and what the ramifications are. More of the story follows Jakkin than Akki, which is kind of a shame since Akki probably has a lot more that could be told about her. Akki still contributes a lot, though, and they ...more

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Sep 21, 2017 Raven2k360 rated it it was amazing

Read this series (then only 3 books) when I was a kid back in middle school -- I absolutely loved every page. I plan on going back through this series eventually, especially since there's a new book (as of 2009); we'll see if I enjoy it as much as an adult.

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Nov 13, 2017 Misti rated it liked it

Jakkin and Akki go from one danger to another. Fleeing from both the Wardens and the Rebels, they make their way into the system of caves in the Astarian mountains. There, they make a sinister discovery...

I have mixed feelings about this series. The writing is fairly utilitarian, but the plot moves quickly, so once I get caught up in the story, I find them quick and engrossing reads. There's not a lot of depth to the characters, and I could use a bit more explanation of how certain elements of t ...more

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Aug 25, 2017 Debbie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, fantasy, young-adult-lit

Pit Dragon Chronicles, book 3.

Jakkin and Akki are presumed dead, but thanks to the sacrifice of Heart's Blood, a mother dragon, they can now survive the cold of the wilderness and communicate with dragons by sending mental images. When a helicopter flies over the cave where they are living with Heart's Blood's five hatchlings, they push further on into the wild, desperately seeking safety.

They discover a cave entrance that leads deep into the bowels of the earth. Once below ground, they lose to ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 S.M. rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This one was just weird. It tried to address the more brutal parts of the world that was taken for granted in the two previous books, but it didn't do it effectively. Also the last ten pages were just a big infodump on what was happening in the rest of the world during the entire book, but that was more interesting than the weirdness that happened to the Jakkin and Akki.

I'm no longer enjoying these, and if I didn't have to write an essay on all four, I'd quit reading them.

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Feb 09, 2017 Kaye rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Yolen keeps the story moving along. This book was like a detour on the path, both interesting and disturbing.

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Jul 10, 2017 Diane rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Jakkin and Akki are living in the mountain caves to hide from rebels or wardens who might blame them for the bombing of Rokk Major. With them, are the five hatchlings of Heart's Blood. Jakkin still grieves for Heart's Blood who saved their lives. And they have undergone a change. Because they hid in Heart's Blood's egg chamber after her death, they now can survive the cold of Dark After and can mind speak with all creatures. But, a copter appears one day and they must flee from this make shift h ...more

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Nov 07, 2010 Alexandra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. “A Sending of Dragons” by Jane Yolen, the third part of the Pit Dragon Trilogy

Jakkin and Akki are now living in hiding with Heart’s Blood five hatchlings. But why are they living in hiding? And from who are they hiding?

These five dragons grew to be very big, responsible, and Jakkin and Akki can talk to them with actual words. You want to know how? Read the book!!

The rebels were searching for them with copters, or so they thought. They were so close to being discovered, but they were saved by a “A Sending of Dragons” by Jane Yolen, the third part of the Pit Dragon Trilogy

Jakkin and Akki are now living in hiding with Heart’s Blood five hatchlings. But why are they living in hiding? And from who are they hiding?

These five dragons grew to be very big, responsible, and Jakkin and Akki can talk to them with actual words. You want to know how? Read the book!!

The rebels were searching for them with copters, or so they thought. They were so close to being discovered, but they were saved by a cave they found. The cave was bigger than it would actually seem to be, and it was also hidden away on the side of the mountain. Akki and Jakkin got lost in the cave, met a new dragon that seems to bring sad and painful memories for Jakkin, and discovered a new kind or race of people. These people could also communicate with the dragons. However, in the eyes of Austar they would have either been pure criminals or pure masters of art. In Jakkin’s and Akki’s eyes they were nothing but murderers. Is there a connection between the ways that Akki and Jakkin can communicate with the dragons and the ways these new people can?

Jakkin and Akki were these people’s new prisoners, for they could not afford to let them go and tell the world about their secret hiding, and cruel rituals. But, Akki and Jakkin need to return to their own dragons and maybe even to their home that they missed so much. Will Akki and Jakkin be able to escape these cruel malicious people? Will they even be able to return home? How can they keep their secrets about the way they were able to live in the “After Dark” when others would have perished? Again, if you are curious about what “After Dark” means, then you should really read the book!!

I loved the whole book and I really cannot pick a specific part. I thought some of the situations were rather sad, and the ending seemed a little odd, but otherwise, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed it very much, just as much as I enjoyed the previous two books of this trilogy. If you read any of the previous books and loved them, then you will love this book just as much, but if you hated them, then don’t even bother finishing up this trilogy. And if you didn’t read any of them, I encourage you to do so, for it is a fantastic trilogy.

...more

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Dec 20, 2014 An Odd1 rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

"Like his mother before him, and like [sister] Sssasha, [eldest, biggest] Sssargon was mute .. But his sendings were always louder than necessary, like a young boy clamoring for attention" p 34. Sendings have sound, even if voices do not. Author misleads by calling them "pictures", confused me for weeks. "Out loud, in imitation of Sssargon's sendings, Akki announced in a deep voice "Akki sleeps" p 59. Dragons can joke; Sssasha plays trick with "Splat!"

Three smaller "remarkably alike" p 28 browns "Like his mother before him, and like [sister] Sssasha, [eldest, biggest] Sssargon was mute .. But his sendings were always louder than necessary, like a young boy clamoring for attention" p 34. Sendings have sound, even if voices do not. Author misleads by calling them "pictures", confused me for weeks. "Out loud, in imitation of Sssargon's sendings, Akki announced in a deep voice "Akki sleeps" p 59. Dragons can joke; Sssasha plays trick with "Splat!"

Three smaller "remarkably alike" p 28 browns Tri-sss, Tri-sssha, Tri-ssskkette twitter aloud and "sputtered with color .. often remained unclear" p 17 sendings, Jakkin sneaks sending to Akki despite cave captors' ("trogs"p 7 next book) using only that method of communication. (view spoiler)

Since "wounds dragon scales inflict on the inner thighs of any humans foolish enough too sit on them .. muscles laid bare" p 53 is repeated and emphasized, couldn't saddles be made? How about like baby slings over parents' fronts? Or protection in some position? If chronicles continue, would problem be solved?

"If they had found the tunnel those many months ago, Heart's Blood need not have died" p 48. Why aren't her hatchlings angry at humans for killing their mother and cutting her open. Maybe after death isn't as bad as I thought before. But her sacrifice still seems unnecessary.

Pushing cart of fresh bones, Jakkin drinks fill of "red drink", whether of dragon's blood or not. Yet he can't do, or even fake what the others do, "hold it up to his nose or lick it surreptitiously", because with a wing-bone "in his hands he could feel - as if in a sending - the mental screams of the dying dragon .. into a side tunnel and was quietly sick" p 233. In their eyes, he "failed some important test" p 233.

Is there a lesson about everlasting human behavior? Civilizations act uncivilized "acres of painstaking hoeings did not seem to belong to a folk who savaged a dragon hen .. people were a puzzle" p 202. ...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Tony rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 10th-grade

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book starts out where it last left off where Akkin and Jakkin live in a cave with Heart Blood, a dragon and her babies. Jakkin is determined to train the babies so that they are able to protect and maneuver themselves in the new world they arrived into. In this book, Jakkin and Akkin raise the dragons and soon the dragons develop ways of reaching each other. As a result of this sudden action, mountain drakes and other creatures are able to connect with them and kill them. "He didn't answer, ...more

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Feb 09, 2017 Rena Sherwood rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, otherworldly, four-star-fiction, supposedly-for-children

Well, we've come a long way in these three books, haven't we? First we're fighting to get ahead in a dragon-exploiting society and then we try to start a revolution in that same society. This book is far too short for what it is trying to accomplish. And the cover art sucks, but that's hardly the author's fault. Some readers may find the Austarian's use of dragons uncomfortably like the way we use and abuse livestock -- and that may be the point.

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May 26, 2012 Frank rated it it was amazing

Book three of Pit Dragon Trilogy. A story of a young couple on the run with dragons. They escaped to a land so inhospitable that anyone staying there for very long would die of the cold. But they live there because they are hunted at their home; a home it appears they will never be able to return to. Suddenly a chopter shows up at their makeshift home in a cave and in their attempt to escape it find themselves captured by a community of srtange semi humans living in a cave network with a couple ...more

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Aug 27, 2013 Jp36 rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi, read-in-2013

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 17, 2011 Nick rated it really liked it

Shelves: juvenile-fantasy, science-fiction

While technically science fiction, too many elements feel more like fantasy in their execution, so it's kind of a hybrid. Still, this story was a good completion to the original Pit Dragons trilogy, with some interesting tidbits and payoffs for the careful reader.
In this book, the central characters are in hiding after being framed for a terrorist-style event. They are successful mostly because they shouldn't have been able to survive their escape, according to what everyone in their society has ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Autumn rated it liked it

Shelves: a-world-of-their-own, animals, not-just-for-teens

Third installment of the Pit Dragon trilogy. Jakkin's thoughts about his life—past, present, and future—make him a complex character; it's an interesting way to show how a character grows and figures out what is important to him and the type of person he wants to be. Also, a neat message about the power of words, specifically human speech. Mental bonds are intimate, but speaking is a natural human act that helps Jakkin and Akki feel more closely bound together and more human than beast or fantas ...more

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Aug 24, 2011 Alisha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

The one got even weirder than the others, but was still interesting. The series is not the most captivating in the world--I probably remembered nothing of the latter two books because I probably only read them once--but there was nothing really wrong with them. They're all a good diversion, if that's the type of book you're looking for (I reread them while I was sick on the couch one day and it was plenty satisfactory for me).

One great thing, however: even though the protagonists tell each other ...more

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Aug 27, 2013 Morgan Lee rated it it was amazing

I actually read this series when I was a kid, and decided to reread it before suggesting it to the girl I nanny for. I quickly found myself engrossed once again with Jakkin and his adventure to steal an dragon egg and train his own dragon. Jakkin is a wonderful character, set apart from the others but always willing to help anyone he considers a friend. Really this series as a whole, including the more recently written 4th book, are great for kids who love the fantasy genera. These books are not ...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Lisa Rathbun added it

Each book in the Pit Dragon Chronicles has focused on something different: Book 1 introduces Austar as we learn about dragons and pit fighting; Book 2 is concerned with politics and the city of The Rokk.; Book 3 explores a new world as Jakkin and Akki hide in the mountains and their adventures there. The desert-like planet of Austar reveals deeper riches and mysteries. (Even if you've read books 1 and 2, still read the introduction, supposedly from an encyclopedia and telling about Austar. Altho ...more

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Jul 01, 2013 Angie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Ok, so I got my wish. Last book was too political, now this book was pretty much devoid of it. Yay!! Although it took a very different turn that I didn't expect.

*Spoliers!!*

So... mongoloid, dragon-eating cannibals living deep within mountain caves? Yup, didn't see that one coming! But Jane did a pretty good job making it a strange, suspenseful story arc as Jakkin and Akki try to escape and save a female dragon from the tribe's next, bloody ritual. I did wish for more of Heart's Blood's children ...more

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Jan 20, 2009 Kathryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi-fantasy, young-adult

This book was a COMPLETE break from the first two. The main characters have been turned into something almost-but-not-entirely human, and they're living in the wilderness with five growing dragons. And there's an underground society of revolutionists, and medical treatment for dragons, and even MORE dragons that have to be rescued. I truly wish Yolen would continue this series because the end of the book seems to have the prison colony about to join the rest of the universe, and I would have lov ...more

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May 29, 2009 Evelyn rated it liked it

Shelves: action-adventure, fantasy, science-fiction

It gave the series closure. Once again, I found myself rather...vexed because Akki is a really annoying character and the romance was a detriment to the actual plot. The ending was weaker than I'd have liked, and overall I feel that the series went downhill after Dragon's Blood. I still recommend the trilogy, if only for Yolen's superb writing.

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Oct 24, 2010 Welwyn Wilton added it

Shelves: not-my-taste-didn-t-finish, youngadult-adult-fantasy, young-adult-fantasy

I hate blood sports, and yet I love Jane Yolen. What's a reader to do? Well, I read the first in the Pit Dragon Trilogy (a fourth is on the way), and sadly put away the other two which I had already bought. I loved the dragons too much to fear for their lives every time they fought. And there was something a bit worrying about the bonding Jakkin has with his dragons. He fights their fights in his mind (literally), and so the bloodiness became even more disturbing to me.

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Feb 16, 2014 Alex Scholz-lague rated it it was amazing

A Sending of Dragons by Jane Yolen picks up beautifully from where the last book left off. The story continues to follow Jakkin and Akki as they survive in the wild with their newfound abilities. Many different obstacles face them as they try to stay away from civilization, just to find a new people altogether. The story isn't quite over yet, and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next installment.

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Feb 25, 2010 Magila rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-middle-readers, middle-reader

could have been a 5. the second was rounded up, this one was rounded down. same result. i normally balk at what i consider to be environmentalist messages. not this time (it's hidden, but i believe clearly there). that wasn't the point, it was more sanguine than forced messages are. the end was well written and made sense. if you cared for the first book, see the series through to its conclusion.

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May 21, 2014 Liana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dragons, young-adult, sci-fi

A Sending of Dragons has a COMPLETELY different feeling compared to the last two books! Now that Jakkin and Akki have their new 'gifts' (thanks to Heart's Blood) it greatly changes them as characters and how the plot will carry on...

I was a little sad that this book didn't continue where volume 2 had left off... There isn't any rebel chasing in this book like I had hoped. :( But the idea of that dragon cult thingy was pretty cool and creepy!

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Jan 11, 2016 Dick Baldwin rated it liked it

A great 'conclusion' (it's a trilogy, but Jane Yolen is supposedly going to write a fourth book). They end up in this weird series of tunnels and caves in the mountains when they are running away from the people trying to kill them from the second book, and there are creepy cannibal people who live there and take them hostage. The people in the caves are cool. They're kind of like zombies, but they aren't the living dead..if you get what I mean.

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Feb 14, 2013 Nicole rated it it was ok

Shelves: well-that-was-terrible

Much better than the second book but the setting was too sci fi for my tastes... I prefer a more traditional or fantastical element for a dragon book and was somewhat put out by the cave men. Overall though it was a much better book of growing up and showed the different dragon/people interactions and less of the annoying and not so greatly woven political drama.

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Jan 25, 2014 Dan Clarke rated it liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads

With a few interesting new twists and turns, Yolen managed to finish her trilogy fairly well. There were some fundamental flaws mostly stemming from a common YA trilogy issue (not knowing where things are going from the beginning, new inventions that change things in the world, etc.), but overall it was fairly well written and certainly easy to read.

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Jun 21, 2013 Vorbis rated it liked it

This one had a surprising twist, right at the start the plot goes from being chased to discovering a whole new subculture living under the mountains. This was *wonderful* and unexpected, opening up whole new avenues for the book to go forward in and deepen the understanding of the world.

Didn't realise there was a book four til I reached the ending, will have to try to find it now.

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About Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen

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Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachuset ...more

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