Battle Dragons

Abel loves dragons, but after a disastrous showing in his dragon rider exam, he feels he's destined never to pilot one. That's why when an opportunity presents itself - even though it's tied to one of Drakopolis' mob-like kins - Abel leaps at the opportunity. But soon he's swept into a game of danger and cruelty - cruelty toward people, and especially toward dragons. With his own family's loyalties split between the kins, soon Abel will need to choose a side.

In a modern mega-city built around dragons, one boy gets caught up in the world of underground dragon battles and a high-stakes gang war that could tear his family apart. In the city of Drakopolis, dragons and humans have co-existed for centuries. Dragons burn the city's garbage, taxi its busy citizens from place to place, and even compete in vicious underground battles for ganglike kins. But the dragons also compete in legal sports, like the spectacular aerial races that draw in cheering crowds by the thousands.

Banished from Drakopolis to the desolate frontier town of Glassblower's Gulch, Abel and his family must face a harsh new reality: life without dragons. Far from the lights and lizards of the megacity, Abel's new home effectively bans the great beasts. Anyone caught smuggling dragons is hauled away by the ruthless sheriff and her fearsome deputies. They have the only dragons in town, and they run the dreaded dragon rodeo, which pits those who fall afoul of the sheriff's "justice" against a wild dragon in a competition for their freedom. It's dragon versus human and only one can win.