Dragon's Blood (Pit Dragon Trilogy Series #1), Vol. 1 Book

I absolutely hated this atrocity of literature. I felt as if I was reading a seventh grader's failed attempt at a creative writing assignment. Jane Yolen tries to give credibility to her appallingly poorly written story by adding adult elements, like the constant reference to the "bag girls" (a.k.a. prostitutes) and bleary-eyed, abusive weed smokers. She also invents cuss-words for her world which she readily uses with gusto, making me cringe as if she had actually used a real one. She apparently does not know or understand the audience she is aiming for, and, therefore, entirely misses her target. I'm not normally a harsh book critic, but I wish I could rate this book with negative stars. It was bleak and boring from beginning to end, and I felt absolutely no sympathy for any of the clichéd characters. It felt like a cheap rip off of every fantasy novel since the birth of that genre (they even greet each other with a version of the star trek Vulcan salute! *gasp*). I know there are more books in this series, and I've heard they "get better." But no one could pay me enough money to even pick one up.