Alta takes up right where Joust left off. Vetch, now Kiron, his true name, is in the middle of his escape to his homeland of Alta. He is intent on teaching them how to raise tame dragons to give them an advantage in the war against Tia.

Once again, there is only limited action in this book. A lot of time is spent on raising the young dragons, and not enough on the real problems facing Alta, which is that their leadership is being taken over.

Actually, the discussion of the problems with Alta's leadership is a part of the problem. It's very much taken from current events, where people disagreeing with the leadership are called traitors, and things get a little preachy at times.

The Magi, who are taking over Alta and have been at it for centuries, are pushed to escalate their takeover. By the end of the book, they go from being content to being the power behind the throne for centuries to placing some of their own into the line of succession.

There really isn't enough time given to some of the problems faced in this book. The freeing of the dragons happens quite suddenly, and is almost anticlimatic. It would have been nice to see more time spent on details other than raising dragons or hiding Aket-Ten from the Magi.