The Blog Fantastic 043: Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern Review (Unread 029)

Every once in a while I like to look at the Blog Fantastic page and assess the reviews I’ve done so far. Most of the time when I do this it’s to help me decide which book I should read next. As regular readers know, I’m reading several series at the same time rather than read a single series from start to finish before moving on. I do this because I like variety in my reading pile. That’s how I roll.

This time, what stood out to me, is how many reviews I’ve written of books in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series. This is my seventh review in that series, more than any other series I’ve read so far and I think I know why. This series has been one of the most enjoyable to read since I’ve started the project. Not only do I enjoy reading the books, I find the reviews are relatively easy to write. I don’t have to think too much about what the content of the review will be, it sort of comes out naturally once I’ve finished reading. This differs from some of the other series I’ve reviewed.

Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time is kind of a pain because the books take so long to read. They literally take me weeks and sometimes it’s discouraging because those books regularly have entire chapters of 20+ pages where next to nothing happens. Other times, I’m devouring roughly 200 pages during a weekend because out of the blue, the plot kicks in and there is action galore. The books also give me conflicting feelings as I fluctuate from love to hate, sometime within a single chapter. They’re so sprawling in content and length that I find them a little exhausting. Other series that I absolutely love, like Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea, are also hard to review. The difficulty is caused by different reasons though. LeGuin’s books are just excellent, masterpieces of the genre. When I review them I can’t help but feel inadequate, as if my commentary doesn’t begin to describe the excellence of her writing and the stories contained in her books.

The Blog Fantastic 038: Dragondrums Review (Unread 014)

Dragondrums is the third volume of the Harper Hall trilogy. It’s noticeably different than the first two volumes because this volume focuses on Piemur, rather than Menolly. I read some reviews and comments online about how some people really didn’t like that change. It was said that it undermined Menolly’s character and that Piemur isn’t worthy enough to lead his own book. I personally like the change. Menolly rubbed me the wrong way because she was infallible and could do no wrong. She reeks of Mary Sue’ness and that got tiresome pretty quickly. She’s still a part of Dragondrums but it’s less focused that in the previous volumes. I did have my moments where I really liked her but overall, I liked her better in this book. She works better for me when she’s not in the spotlight. For me, she’s a character that works best when I’m not spending all my time inside her head. I can appreciate her talents and personality much more this way. I also happen to like Piemur, so having more of him in Dragondrums was a positive change, in my opinion. However, like Menolly, he did have his moments where he annoyed me.

This book is about growing up and dealing with changes that our out of control (kind of funny then that readers were upset about the change in main character – you can’t do anything about it so settle in and enjoy the story). Piemur, at the age of 14, loses his soprano voice leaving him unable to sing until his voice settles down and he finds his new vocal range. He’s at a loss as to what his future hold. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s never excelled at anything else at Harper Hall besides singing. He’d even become Master Shonagar’s favourite student because of his voice. Aside from that, he’s not really any good in other fields of music. He sucks at making instruments, his gitar playing is no more than average, he isn’t good at composition, or at copying sheet music. Crushed by the thoughts that he would have to return to his childhood Hold, he is given incredible news.

The Blog Fantastic 034: The White Dragon review (Unread 003)

The Dragonriders of Pern is one of the series I’ve written the most about as part of my Blog Fantastic project. It’s a cheat since it’s pretty clearly a science fiction series but my blog, my rules. The series has a shit ton of dragons in it and that’s enough to quality it as fantasy for me. The White Dragon is the third and final volume in the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy but it’s the fifth Pern novel to have been published. I’ve been reading them in publication order so I broke up the original trilogy with the first two volumes of the second (or concurrent?) trilogy focusing on the Harper Hall. As such, the main plot of The Dragonriders of Pern continues with this volume but it doesn’t bring a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Certainly it wraps up several elements of the story so far but it also poses many new questions.

The trouble with the Pern series is that it’s not something you can easily adapt into a trilogy of books. The problem is that Anne McCaffrey’s stories are essentially slice of life. There are no villains, instead the books has a few antagonists. With Pern she’s developed a colonized planet and the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy focuses on the rediscovery of dragonriders’ role in Pernese society. The first and second books are mostly about discovering the fictional world and it works well because the reader learns along with the characters. It makes for a very interesting read because the world McCaffrey created is rather fascinating. The White Dragon has plenty of moments of discovery and innovation as well but it brings a more balanced approach to it because we also get several chapters’ worth of everyday life on Pern from the point of view of several different characters.

The Blog Fantastic 030: Dragonsinger review

Dragonsinger is the second part of the second trilogy of the Dragonriders of Pern series. When I wrote about the first part of the trilogy, Dragonsong, I provided some context as to its publication. The same applies to Dragonsinger. Actually, in many ways both books resemble each other. When I started to read the book it quickly became apparent that it’s more of a continuation of Dragonsong than an actual sequel. However I do agree with splitting up the book in two as the first book focuses on Menolly’s life at Half-Circle Sea Hold and her eventual escape while the second book focuses on her arrival at the Harper Hall where she will be receiving her training in harper craft.

I enjoyed my stay at the Harper Hall but I admit that I’m a little bummed out I was accompanied by Menolly the whole time. I like Pern, I really like Robinton and, more importantly, the storytelling in this book is enjoyable. It’s surprising that McCaffrey can write what more or less amounts to slice of life storytelling in an engaging way. There isn’t a villain, there isn’t a fantasy quest or many other science fiction and fantasy tropes. Instead, the book focuses on one of McCaffrey’s main themes: mankind’s ability to learn and improve. This theme is explored on a few levels. One the macro level, the series’ story, there are many elements in Dragonsinger that deal with the development of the Harper Hall with the inclusion of fire lizards and one of the most promising female apprentices. This also ties into the overarching plot of Pern’s reorganization after the return of threadfall in the Ninth Pass. On the micro level, the book’s story, Menolly actually faces a few challenges. Her reputation as a musical prodigy still holds up but she does face a few new challenges. She learns that she has limitations. She’s not particularly good at singing and one of her most valuable classes is singing lessons with Shonagar, the Voice Master.

Another thing that McCaffrey did well was introducing and developing the Harper Hall. Again, this was important not only for Menolly’s story but also the ongoing narrative of the Dragonriders of Pern up to this point in the series chronology. In Dragonflight and Dragonquest the main focus of the story is on Benden Weyr and the Dragonriders. We’re aware of the existence and some of the roles that the craft halls have but this is the first time that a main story takes place within of the halls. It was interesting to see how the storytelling and the organization of the individuals who work and live at the hall resembled the depiction of schools for magic in works of fantasy. I’m not sure if it’s just me or if there really is a comparison that come be made with places such as Hogwarts from Harry Potter and the School for Wizards on Roke Island in the Earthsea series. It must be tricky to write about something not everybody is familiar with. Magic is one thing but music, even though not everybody understands and not in the same way, especially not classical music, must also be difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t have that training. McCaffrey is pretty adept at writing about music in a way that provides detail without overwhelming readers with it. Even though I didn’t fully understand all the musical details, it was enough to allow me to stay engaged in the story and even flesh out additional conflict between characters.

That brings us to my main critique of this book. It has the same problem that Dragonsong had: Menolly is too good at everything she does. Menolly can’t fail and even worse than that she doesn’t even have to try hard. McCaffrey attempted to give her a handicap by giving Menolly an injury in the first book. She sliced her hand open while gutting a fish and she was poorly healed and her hand has scarred over, severely restricting the movement of her hand. Luckily, she’s so still that she can easily come up with variations that will accommodate her wounded hand while playing music on her gitar. Similarly, we learn in Dragonsinger that Menolly’s voice skills aren’t on the same level as her other musical skills. She’s given special one-on-one instruction by the Voice Master and in less than a week she appears to have mastered the art of singing. Menolly is so much better than everybody else that training to develop her weaknesses is easy for her. This kind of behaviour makes for very little conflict and personal growth. Instead of acknowledging her talents and using them in interesting or beneficial ways she’s glib about it. She acts as though she doesn’t realize just how good she is and it makes her unlikeable. What could easily have been an empowering story for young female readers turns into an exercise in arrogance and petty junior-high level drama. When Menolly dislikes a character it’s obviously because that other person is bad and deserves to be disliked. She’s never in the wrong and when others try to point out Menolly’s flaws many other characters come to her defence. The most frustrating quality that McCaffrey gives Menolly is her inability to understand her abilities in comparison to that of others. I think it’s supposed to make Menolly look like a nice person but it just backfires.

Since I’m (re)reading the series in publication order, I’ll be reading The White Dragon next and taking a break from Menolly. I’m glad I read the first two books of the Harper Hall Trilogy as they’ve provided me with a different point of view on the Dragonriders of Pern series but they were also frustrating, albeit in different ways as the principal trilogy. To be clear, I like Menolly in small doses and I would love for her to be given a challenge worthy of her skills as she is quite capable but so far she’s just coasting and it’s boring and frustrating to read about. I’ll be glad to return to the rest of Pern as I’m anxious to read about Jaxom and his white dragon. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the story of Dragonquest continues to develop. I’ll be returning to the Harper Hall Trilogy with the final book, Dragondrums which thankfully deals with another character other than Menolly, Piemur a character introduced in Dragonsinger that I happen to like quite a bit.

                                                                                                                                                                               

Consider it covered:

Here are some quick thoughts on the cover to my edition of Dragonsinger (pictured above). While I really like the Michael Whelan covers for The Dragonriders of Pern series it’s nice to have a cover by a different artist. In this case, Elizabeth Malczynski, who also did the cover of my edition of Dragonsong. Appropriately the focus is on Menolly and her fire lizards. They’re depicted in a stylized way, with very lean and accented features, particularly the wings and the claws. The result is nice but otherwise unbelievable. Like many artists who draw dragons, regardless of their size, I find that the wings are unrealistically small. I find it hard to believe that they could actually take flight. I’m a bit conflicted with this cover because while it’s a rather nice image with interesting details in the windows’ arches and the characters clothing and the scaly little dragons, it doesn’t do justice to the source material. I find it difficult to believe that there is such detailed architecture on Pern. Most Forts and Holds are carved out of mountainsides and it’s very hard to believe that such detail heavy sculptures were carved out of rocks which are likely sedimentary stone. Same goes for the clothing. Pern is a place where animal hide is a staple of everybody’s wardrobe. Fine dresses like the ones on this cover are likely somewhat rare to see. All of this nit picking doesn’t really matter because the artist gets the tone more or less spot-on. Menolly is pleased to be in a place where she feels accepted and many people at the Harper Hall are happy to have her. However, like the back cover shows, some people are less than pleased at Menolly’s arrival and serve as main antagonists to the story. The details might not be exact but the overall image works. My complaints are minor because I think I prefer a cover like this one knowing I have many other covers that portray the world of Pern a bit more accurately. 

The Blog Fantastic 023: Dragonsong review

Dragonsong is a bit of an oddity when compared to the other books in the Dragonriders of Pern series. In some ways, it works to its advantage but in other ways it’s boring when compared to the first two books in the series. What follows is part review and part comparison with Dragonflight and Dragonquest. I would compare it with other books in the series but I haven’t read them in years and I cannot trust my memory to provide me with information accurate enough to make the comparison worthwhile.

The biggest difference between McCaffrey’s first two novels in the series and Dragonsong is that the latter is written specifically for the young adult market. In fact, the entire Harper Hall trilogy, of which Dragonsong is but the first entry, is targeted to young adult readers. It was the idea of her editor Jean E. Karl who having a new imprint for young readers at Atheneum Books asked McCaffrey for a story. The goal was to attract more female readers to science fiction and fantasy. Knowing this actually increased my appreciation for Dragonsong but not really my enjoyment. It’s a fine novel for young readers, specifically girls, but it’s not a very good Dragonriders of Pern book. Simply put, the novel didn’t quite fit in with its predecessors and it made for an underwhelming read.

Originally published in serialized form beginning in July 1968, Dragonflight was collected and released as a novel in 1969. Shortly after a sequel, Dragonquest, was published in May 1971. These novels make up two thirds of the first Dragonriders of Pern trilogy which was concluded with The White Dragon. Before McCaffrey went on to complete her first trilogy, she wrote two thirds of a second trilogy, called the Harper Hall trilogy of which Dragonsong is the first volume and was published in March 1976. The last book in the Harper Hall trilogy was published after the release of The White Dragon. The first trilogy is clearly targeted at adult readers due to the inclusion of themes that deal with gender politics and sexuality. They also have a few violent scenes (McCaffrey is good at writing knife fights) thought by today’s standards, those wouldn’t be out of place in a young adult novel. The second trilogy is targeted at a young audience and it shows in the story. It’s odd that both trilogies are entangled so during their initial publication. I do not see the benefit of this aside from the fact that McCaffrey had an offer for a particular book and she went ahead and wrote it without finishing her first trilogy. That in itself is fine, but it causes a bit of a problem for readers who are new to the series and are trying to read the Dragonriders of Pern in the “correct” order. That’s actually simple to do if you’re not interested in reader the young adult novels of the series. Just skip them and move on ahead to The White Dragon.

I didn’t want to do that. I’m curious as to how the young adult Pern novel stands up. I’m also curious as to how its story fits in with that of Dragonquest. As it turns out, it doesn’t have much of an impact at all but it does provide an opportunity for the reader to enjoy scenes from Dragonquest from a different point of view. Two of those stories include Brekke’s healing process after the loss of her gold dragon and the hatching of Ruth and his impression to Jaxom. It’s nice to have the new perspective on those events but it only works if you’ve read Dragonquest. I’m certain that readers who aren’t familiar with the overall setting of Pern have no bearing to help them appreciate the second perspective. In other words, those events don’t have any meaning for readers unfamiliar with them because they’re taken out of context.

               

The type of story told in Dragonsong is very different from the first two Pern novels. If you continue to compare Dragonsong with Dragonflight and Dragonquest while reading, you likely won’t enjoy this book much. Yet Dragonsong has plenty of good stuff to offer, particularly to young female readers. The story’s basic theme is that due to the fixed gender roles of Pern, Menolly is denied the freedom to pursue her dream. Her father specifically forbids it but her mother supports her father’s decision and likewise, the rest of the village is in passive agreement of it. I say passive because they do not specifically try to stop Menolly from pursuing her dreams and her passion for music but they do nothing to encourage her. As the story progresses Menolly is given opportunities to continue developing her talents in music as well as a way to escape from the confines (both physical and mental) of her village. Her arrival at Benden Weyr makes it look like a very progressive place in comparison to Holds and small villages. That’s kind of strange considering just how odd and constricting gender roles have been presented in the previous two novels, at Benden and elsewhere on Pern.

Dragonsong is essentially a young woman’s power fantasy. Menolly is good at everything and she’s the main character in a story that is concerned, primarily, with showing the reader just how perfect she is. Of course, for it to have any meaning and emotional importance for the reader, her dreams are heavily discouraged in the first third of the novel. The rest though, is all about Menolly excelling at every challenge and task that bars her way. I have nothing against such a novel. In fact, I think it’s an important novel due to its theme and focuses on a female lead, even in today’s market. The problem is that as an adult male, I appreciate the book more than I like it.

I quite enjoyed that we get to see the role of a Harper in action. We get to see the importance of Harpering in Pernese society. We’ve been aware of the existence of Harpers since the very first novel and we know that they’re entrusted with the job of sharing knowledge and history through songs and poems. Teaching ballads play an important role in the education of children as well as the continuing education of entire Holds. That makes sense considering the type feudal-like society that inhabits Pern. Why then would Menolly’s father be so opposed to the idea that she could become a Harper? Simple, Pern isn’t a planet of equal opportunity, especially not in small Holds where every able bodied person is expected to pull their weight in the development of local economy. In Half-Circle Sea Hold that’s fishery. 

There are things about the novel I simply don’t like. Fire lizards are not replacements for dragons.

The focus is too small. I liked the large canvas that McCaffrey used in the first two novels. There is a planet wide scope and I liked it. Dragonsong also has a predictable story and it doesn’t offer any surprises. I think that’s due to the target audience more than anything else. It’s a simple and straightforward story. Still, young readers are capable of understanding beyond what adults think young readers can manage. The book doesn’t pander to the reader but it doesn’t challenge them either.

The prologue does a good job setting up the location of Pern and the threat of Thread. It’s a nice, succinct introduction to Pern and it’s pretty essential in establishing the planet as something wondrous, different and often dangerous. It’s really big deal that Menolly runs away from home because being caught outside during threadfall usually results in death. Menolly is very talented and skilled. She also has the strength of will to make her own choices and deal with the consequences. When she’s living in the cave with fire lizards, she doesn’t whine and complain without end about her predicament. She’s well aware that she is there of her own volition and she makes the best of it. The problem I have with Menolly is that she’s too good at everything. She’s amazing at everything she does and I can’t help but read her for what she really is: a Mary Sue. It’s distracting. Menolly doesn’t just have a couple fire lizards, she has NINE.

The reason I found the book to be a little on the boring side is that Menolly’s journey is completely predictable. The novel starts by telling us just how great she is and it continues to do so while also offering up Menolly’s ignorance at her own self-worth. It’s completely believable for a talented teen not to know just how gifted she is but to present it as the main theme of the novel give the book an underwhelming feeling since it’s painfully obvious to the reader that she is quite talented. At the same time, it’s for that very same reason this book probably works really well for young adults. Discovering that Menolly has self-worth can likely help young readers realize that they too, have self-worth. I think I’m just out of the targeted audience for this one. I appreciate it more than I like it.

The Blog Fantastic 022: Dragonquest review

I was torn while reading Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey’s first novel in her acclaimed and popular Dragonriders of Pern series. I felt very similar while reading Dragonquest as McCaffrey’s follow up to the first successful novel is simultaneously better and worse. There’s a pretty simple reason for this. McCaffrey expands on nearly everything that was present in the first book. That includes the good as well as the bad. I admit that I enjoyed the second book more simply because the focus was widened considerably.

In my review of Dragonflight I wrote the following:

Everything is structured based on dragons and their importance to the survival of Pern. What's interesting is that the threat of Thread occurs regularly but with a significant amount of time between each occurrence that Pernese tradition and culture relaxes and changes. Cultural changes aren’t necessarily a bad thing in our world. Modern life becomes increasingly complex as time passes and change is inevitable. In the world of Pern however, too much change to tradition can lead to the destruction of the human colony. The organization of the Weyrs and Holds was such as to protect mankind.

The transformation of modern Pernese culture is one of the main themes of Dragonquest. The book begins with a prologue in which McCaffrey gives the reader a pretty good look at the history of Pern from the point of view of the original settlers. It includes their initial encounter with Thread and their development of their defences against it. We learn quite a bit from this prologue and it contributes to the world building of Pern, mostly by providing historical information. More importantly, we learn that dragons were genetically engineered and developed with the help of human empaths. The Weyrs were built in extinct volcanoes which explain their bowl-like shape. This is the time in Pern’s history were tradition regarding the defence against Thread were shaped. The story of Dragonquest focuses on the transformation of traditions established centuries ago.

At the end of Dragonflight Lessa travelled 400 turns (years) into the past and when she returned to the present day she was accompanied by five Weyrs’ full of dragonmen. These dragonmen are known as the Oldtimers and they’re having a difficult time adjusting to modern life. They agreed to travel to the future in order to help in part because they were bored now that threadfall had ended in their timeline. Fighting Thread was what they did and without their regular battles against the spores of the Red Star, the Oldtimers had nothing to do. Now that they’re in Lessa and F’lar’s present time, their dislike of the changed traditions is making them bitter and difficult to deal with. Likewise, the existing Lord Holders of Pern are having a difficult time adjusting to the custom of giving their Weyr a tithe as repayment for protecting them during threadfall. They’ve never had to do that before and the Lord Holders are continuously putting pressure on the Weyrs, particularly Benden Weyr, to find a permanent solution and end the problem of Thread once and for all.

Because Lessa and F’lar of Benden Weyr did a great deal of work to protect their planet in the first book of the series, most of Pern’s population is now looking at them to continue to protect them. It's interesting that Benden Weyr would not relish the opportunity to consult the Oldtimers on traditions, the care of dragons, the political and economic structure of the Weyrs and Holds and the fight against Thread. Many, many different things have changed in the last 400 years instead of the present day people learning from the Oldtimers’ experience and the Oldtimers learning about the new traditional elements and social structure of the future, both groups just clash. It’s ok for a couple of reasons. The first is that without this conflict between both groups of people there would be very little other conflict in the book. The second reason is that if you tried to look at the situation realistically, based on how two different social and culture groups behave in opposition in the real world, this outcome is to be expected. The issue now though is that F’lar and many others, refuse to consult the Oldtimers on how they did things and simply continue to make it up as they go along. Similarly, the Oldtimers refuse to accept that traditions change.

Lessa and Mnementh by John Schoenherr

The focus of the novel is still on world building. The conflict with the Oldtimers and the Lord Holders that began in the first novel gets a whole novel to itself (Dragonquest) to allow for the conflict to play out. As such, Dragonriders of Pern isn’t a typical fantasy novel because there aren’t traditional elements such as a quest (despite the title) or a clearly identified villain. The book is essentially world building through narrative storytelling. The focus is on developing the world and some elements work really well and others don’t. An example of an element that worked well is the Red Star. It’s played out in a very enjoyable way and even though this is an old book I don’t want to say any more than that. McCaffrey could have written the Red Star sub-plot in so many different ways and, for a while during the book, I was worried she’d get it wrong but she sticks the landing. It’s one of my favourite parts of the book. Other elements of the book like time travel and characters, simply don’t work nearly as well.

Time travel wasn’t originally part of McCaffrey’s series but when her editor on Dragonflight suggested she include it, she liked the idea so much it became a pivotal element of her stories. I found it to be a copout, a quick fix ending to the first novel but there aren’t any huge time jumps in Dragonquest. It’s still used regularly but it’s mostly to time jump back to the beginning of a threadfall. If time travel continues to be used this way, I’ll get over it. It’s not ideal because it makes surviving threadfall that much easier. If they miss some they can just travel back to where it began. If McCaffrey wrote about the mental and physical strain of time travel (fantasy jetlag) on dragonriders I would appreciate it more but as it is written, it’s one of the weaker world building elements.

It seems strange to me that McCaffrey has her characters deal with the Weyrs’ isolation politics with a technological solution. They have the capabilities to communicate rapidly by using dragons and going between (space and time travel) but for reasons that are never quite explained, Dragonriders are extremely reluctant to do so. Instead some Weyrs and Holds use a system of drums and drummers to communicate. There also isn’t a whole lot of details of this. From what I understand there are drummers and located at intervals between Holds and Weyrs. That seems unlikely though because the combination of isolation and the threat of Thread probably make for a dangerous situation. Fandarel, a builder, develops what is essentially a telegraph but it works without electricity. I think it’s strange that Fandarel develops or redevelops a lot of technological solutions to some of the population’s problems over the course of the book. I understand why a lot of technology was lost and that Thread forces the people to spend more time developing way to survive than they were able to give to focusing on other things like renewable energy, refining raw materials and developing sustainable technology. I guess that the use of technology in this book kind of exemplifies the contradictions present in a world where traditional science fiction and traditional fantasy elements are two side of the same coin. It think it also serves as an example that increasing the scope of your world building can leave entire sections of your work underdeveloped.

The other big problems, similarly to Dragonflight, is gender roles and characters. The gender roles are as disturbing in this book as they are in Dragonflight. F'nor reflects on the roles and activities of women in the Weyr. In short, they're constantly occupied providing for the Weyr and the dragonriders by making numbweed salve, treating wounds and other similarly domestic functions. This keeps then active, in shape and as F'nor reflects "appealing". The women in the lower caverns are there for the picking when dragonmen want sex. As demonstrated in the first book, if a woman becomes pregnant it’s not uncommon for a dragonrider to abandon her and move on. Women in the Holds have a different job to do. They're responsible for giving birth and raising children until their bodies no longer allows them to do so. It's unsettling way in which Pernese society is structured. It’s structured in such a way as to allow for their survival but that structure is done at the detriment of women who are reduced to manual labourers, tools of sexual pleasure and baby making.

I recommend clicking on the image and making it bigger. It's a great cover by Michael Whelan.

Is there no such thing as a familial structure in Pernese society? I couldn't find a definitive answer to this question in the first two books. It's odd though that five Weyrs full of dragonriders (five or six Weyrs?) agreed to travel 400 years into the future where they will permanently reside; a decision they made nearly instantly. There I no way such a large number of individuals would have done that if they had families. The Dragonriders of Pern series is so cold and emotionless. Maybe being bonded to a dragon makes it near impossible to maintain an amorous human relationship that would lead to children and family life. It’s odd that Lessa and F’lar have a child but they don’t spend any time with him at all. He kind of wanders around the Weyr while mom and dad, Pern’s power couple, take care of business. Maybe family life is something McCaffrey explores in later books. I don't know. I'll have to read them. The absence of a strong familial structure would also explain the absence of surnames.

Overall, the characters of Dragonquest are fine on the surface. Some of them even manage to be interesting but as soon as McCaffrey starts to develop relationship between characters everything goes to shit. Some characters, primarily Kylara, seem to be in the book only to be used for slut shaming and to demonstrate the complicated, odd and often time disturbing gender politics of Pern. When she becomes pregnant early on in the novel, she travels between where the incredible cold of teleportation kills the child in her womb. It’s teleportation abortion and free of any motherly responsibility, she can continue to be as promiscuous as she likes. She’s one of the most problematic characters in the book. She’s had five children at this point and she’s determined not to have any more. She’s mean spirited about it though and she regularly uses her dragon’s ability to fly between as a fantasy and science fiction method of the morning after pill. There are no contraceptives on Pern and the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancies is to be abstinent which Kylara refuses to be. Instead, she takes matters into her own hands when she becomes pregnant. It's very unfortunate that the one pro-choice female character in Dragonquest is also characterized as a slut that revels in engaging with whomever she wants whenever she wants. 

Lessa and F’nor have change for the better since Dragonflight but their comments towards the behaviour of others (again, Kylara) suggests they’re also poised for problematic character development in the next book. I liked that F’nor got a larger role in this book than the previous one. I also enjoyed his budding romantic relationship with Brekke, the rider of a gold dragon, up to the point where their first romantic encounter was turned into a scene of romanticized rape. The only characters I like without reservation are secondary or background characters. Robinton, the Masterharper of Pern is one such character. I also quite liked Manora, the Headwoman of Benden Weyr but she doesn’t get to do much and works mostly in the background.

That’s a lot of problems to deal with but, somehow, McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series still manages to be interesting and enjoyable to me. It’s not always enjoyable to read, certain passages make for uncomfortable reads, but the series often provides food for thought.The problem is that there isn’t really anything I love unabashedly about the series. Any recommendation I would make of this book would come with a disclaimer and a few words of caution. There are pacing issues (there are a lot of people standing around talking), problematic gender politics and characters that are interested but flawed due to a single or small handful of character moments that just ruin them for me. I also have a few point of content with McCaffrey’s writing in general. Despite all these problems I can’t help but be swept away by the world she’s created. When I think at the world, the dragons and the history of Pern, I’m very interested in all of those things and I think they make for a fascinating setting for stories. When I look at the characters, I like them from afar and I only dislike them when I spent too much time in their heads or watching them shame others and take part in unsavoury actions. I like it and I dislike it! Thankfully, I am able to communicate why certain things bother while also being able to separate the implications of some of the elements found in Dragonquest from my enjoyment of all the different things that work. I will be revisiting Pern again but I think I need a little break from all the insanity that takes place there.

The Blog Fantastic 007: Dragonflight review

The lame cover of my edition of
Dragonflight.

Wheel and turn

Or bleed and burn.

Fly between,

Blue and green.

Soar, dive down,

Bronze and brown

Dragonmen must fly

When Threads are in the sky.

I read a half dozen or so Pern novels when I was a young teenager. I remember Dragonsdawn and one about a Harper (but I don't think it was the Harper Hall trilogy). One of them was The Dolphins of Pern. I can't say I remember too much about them. I remember that the dolphins were very smart, I remember that the beginning of man's colonization of Pern had a strong science fiction edge to it but that most of the books taking place later in its history were essentially fantasy novels. There was one story that featured spaceships and smuggling but I can't seem to remember the name. Anyway, I've always wanted to start reading Anne McCaffrey famous Pern series from the start. Not the start chronologically, I already undertook that when I was younger and I think that’s one of the reasons I stopped. Approaching the series that way didn’t really seem to work for more than two books. I’ve since learned that the best way to read a multi-part series is to do so by order of publication which is what McCaffrey has often suggested readers do (though I completely disregarded this self-imposed rule with The Wheel of Time). Still, I’m adamant to stick to it with the Pern novels because I always enjoyed them but I've always been confused about the internal history and chronology of the series, mostly because I picked the books at random after reading Dragonsdawn.

This time around I decided to read the first book which is a collection of three novellas which surprised me a bit because the book works pretty well as a whole. I really liked Dragonflight but I can’t help but feel disappointed because there are some serious things that simply do not work. I’ve essentially rediscovered Pern with this book. I remember very little from the books I’ve read before and that’s probably one of the contributing factors to my disappointment. In short though, I can summarize things quite simply by saying that Dragonflight seriously lacks any emotion. Before I get into that, here’s a bit of plot.

Pern has fallen on hard times. Every two hundred years, a Red Star passes in Pern’s orbit and in doing so releases an interstellar pest that feeds on most things biological. The Threads are silvery-grey worms that fall from the Red Star encased in eggs which break away in Pern’s atmosphere. They fall from the sky in clusters and, when they land, burrow deep into the Earth where they breed before setting out to devour all plants and wildlife they can touch. In order to survive the Pernese, earth men and women who colonized this distant planet, ride fire-breathing dragons and burn the Thread right out of the sky! Man and dragon working together to fight a common enemy, in truth, fighting for their very survival. That’s what makes Pern an enduring series in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

The Red Star’s passing happens between such lengthy intervals that the very culture and tradition of Pernese society has the chance of dissipating and leaving all of Pern unprepared for the Thread’s next deadly arrival. It’s during the end of one particularly lengthy absence of the Red Star (four hundred years) that the story begins. There is but one Weyr (a dragon fortress) functional on Pern and its men and women are left scrambling to equip themselves for survival amidst popular belief that Thread and the Red Star are nothing but bedtime stories.

The awesome full cover of Dragonflight by Michael Whelan. These gorgeous covers are one of the reasons
I liked Pern as a teen. I'm very sad the bookstore only had the new, ultra-lame cover shown at the top.

This particular story sounds great when summarized like this but McCaffrey’s storytelling left much to be desired. Her storytelling is mechanical and overtly practical. Her characters face problem after problem and they meet them head on with solution after solution. There is a lot of discussion and strategizing but it’s too neatly organized and nearly no mistakes are made which leads to disbelief on the readers part. Quite honestly, I will believe the fictional world you’ve created, even if it includes telepathic and teleporting dragons but it’s impossible for me to believe that in a time of such dire crisis, humanity will make practically no serious mistakes. Despite that important flaw, McCaffrey does succeed in creating a palpable sense of dread.

So far I can live with these mistakes but it’s difficult to pardon the lack of any engaging characters. McCaffrey doesn’t even provide a single main character the reader can relate to or root for. I was far more interested in discovering the mysteries of Pern (how did Pernese of the past fight the Threads?) than I was interested in knowing what Lessa and F'lar were up to. Their relationship is frightening to behold. I’m quite surprised that a woman could have written this book because of the way the female characters are written. Lessa is continuously treated like a child by F'lar who is like an angry father to her. More disturbing is their sexual relationship which I'm sure is tinged with violence based on how F'lar grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her whenever he gets angry with Lessa. It's weird and it prevents me from getting emotionally invested in the characters because I don't like them. As if that wasn’t enough, because of the emotional bond riders share with their dragons, when Lessa and F’lar’s dragons mate the two humans are taken over by a sense of dragonlust and also have sex. It’s written in a sense that makes it seem like the magic of their connection to their dragons is what makes them do it but I can’t help but interpret this as F’lar imposing himself sexually on the younger Lessa. I’m not even reading between the lines, I got this feeling from reading any of their scenes and interactions together. There is no warmth in their relationship, neither is there any warmth in the relationship of any of the other characters.

Dragonflight has very little emotion in it and scenes between Lessa and F'lar are not only an example of this lack of emotion but they make me feel queasy in their portrayal of a couples. As Weyrleaders of Benden Weyr, these two are Pern's best chance at survival? It’s not just Lessa and F’lar though, none of the characters really show emotion. Many of them have drive and ambition and a will to succeed, to survive but they all do so in a cold and emotionless way.

Gender roles are also messed up and very uneven. Again, this is surprising because McCaffrey is a woman, I wouldn’t have expected this of her and my young teenage self either didn’t pick up on it or I simply don’t remember these elements. In the last fifteen pages, we discover that what we thought were the old ways, the ways long forgotten, aren’t quite the ways that F’lar and Lessa have interpreted from their limited sources. Gender roles aren’t as uneven as they’ve been portrayed thus far in the story and it give me a bit of hope for the other books in the series. Still, Lessa still acts like a child in F’lar’s presence, she’s nearly completely dominated. Near the end of the book she even mentions to other characters that she’s frightened of F’lar and McCaffrey has F’lar describe Lessa as docile while he’s thinking about her on many occasions.

The world of Pern:

Where McCaffrey failed with character and emotionally charged storytelling, she makes up for it in world building. I’m convinced that it’s because of the fully realized world of Pern that the Dragonriders of Pern series has endured.

There are many things I like about the world of Pern. One of them is that riders have to take care of their dragons. They have to bathe them, oil their skin, be concerned about how, what and when they eat. They’re not just awesome fire breathing lizards with wings; they’re animals that require care and nurturing. Despite being mostly a fantasy story, McCaffrey approaches many elements that make Pern in a scientific way. I’ve already mentioned one example in the care of dragons but she explains other things like how they breathe flame. In a true fantasy book you do not need to explain or even question this. It’s a basic characteristic of a dragon. But on the dragons of Pern can only breath fire when they chew and eat firestones that, combined with the acid in their stomachs, produces a phosphine gas that ignites when combined with the oxygen in the air.

While things are explained in scientific terms, there isn’t a whole lot of technology on Pern. For all intents and purposes, Pernese live in a world were technology is at the same level of progression as it was during Europe’s medieval times. This is particularly interesting (and important to Pern as a series) when considering how the Holds and Weyrs keep track of their history and traditions. Paper isn’t a commodity on Pern. Written words are poorly preserved on animal hide and their history and traditions are mostly kept alive through songs and ballads by Harpers. Similarly to Harpers, weavers are also instructed to make tapestries for posterity which also serve a dual purpose by covering the stone walls during the winter months in order to keep out the cold.  

I find this fascinating because the existence of an oral history on Pern makes the battle for survival something continuous, even when the planet and its inhabitants aren’t immediately threatened by Threads. Their history is kept alive by Harpers who write songs to educate and entertain all of Pern. Their jobs is crucial to everyone’s survival, particularly during the two hundred years where no Threads are seen. They have to make sure tradition and routine proceedings are maintained to ensure that they will be ready by the next time the Red Star passes.

For many, many years now McCaffrey has been called the “Queen of Dragons” and you don’t need to wonder why. With her Dragonriders of Pern series (which, oddly enough, used to simply be call the Dragon series) McCaffrey has created an entire world with a culture that revolves around dragons and their abilities that help them protect their planet from Threads. Everything is structured based on dragons and their importance to the survival of Pern. What's interesting is that the threat of Thread occurs regularly but with a significant amount of time between each occurrence that Pernese tradition and culture relaxes and changes. Cultural changes aren’t necessarily a bad thing in our world. Modern life becomes increasingly complex as time passes and change is inevitable. In the world of Pern however, too much change to tradition can lead to the destruction of the human colony. The organization of the Weyrs and Holds was such as to protect mankind.

Harpers are supposed to be the teachers of tradition by the singing ballads that tell stories of the past. The problem with this oral tradition is that when three, four, five or more generations have never lived through one of the Red Star's passes, these stories and ballads appear to be much more fictitious than they really are. Tradition must remain rigid and unchanging in order for Pernese to survive and thrive but the world's technological limitations at recording and teaching these traditions is so limited that it’s incredibly difficult to maintain a single way of life. Despite the willingness to maintain tradition that witnessing the fall of Thread may have on a person, it quickly goes away when the threat is absent for generations at a time. What I don't understand is how people refuse to believe the songs and stories about Threads when their main defence against it, dragons, remains a staple of Pernese wildlife. 

Rediscovering the world of Pern wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought for sure that I would love Dragonflight from start to finish. That wasn’t entirely the case since I discovered quite a bit that disappointed me or simply disturbed me a little. But there was a lot that I enjoyed that making a return trip to Pern with Dragonquest is a sure thing at this point.  I’m optimistic for the second book in the series. The world has been more or less established and the book is revitalized by the arrival of several new characters by the book’s end. Along with these new characters is the promise of more gender balance in the book’s characters as well as in Pernese society. Although Pern seems to be an exciting fantasy world in this introductory book to the Dragonriders of Pern series, it’s a cold, emotionless place. Now that Lessa, F’lar and all of Pern’s survival is guaranteed, I’m hoping McCaffrey provides a story that goes beyond that and explores some characters and stories that are less practical and machine-like in their execution. I need some emotional investment to go along with the awesome world building.