Pentapod reviewed All the Weyrs of Pern (Pern, #11) by Anne McCaffrey
Review of 'All the Weyrs of Pern (Pern, #11)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This is the last Pern book I read as a teen; I never read the newer ones co-written with Anne's son Todd, and from what I've read, that's a good call. So this book essentially wraps up the story of Pern and brings to conclusion the story arc that started with Lessa and F'lar. Although they are present in this book, they play a smaller part than some of the younger characters such as Piemur and in particular Jaxom.
At the end of The White Dragon the dragonriders discover AIVAS (artificial intelligence voice activated system) left behind at the old landing site by their distant ancestors due to a volcanic eruption, and this book continues that story as AIVAS is able to fill in the lost history of Pern and help the current Pern residents to continue towards their ancestors' ultimate goal: to eliminate Thread. In order to do this, …
This is the last Pern book I read as a teen; I never read the newer ones co-written with Anne's son Todd, and from what I've read, that's a good call. So this book essentially wraps up the story of Pern and brings to conclusion the story arc that started with Lessa and F'lar. Although they are present in this book, they play a smaller part than some of the younger characters such as Piemur and in particular Jaxom.
At the end of The White Dragon the dragonriders discover AIVAS (artificial intelligence voice activated system) left behind at the old landing site by their distant ancestors due to a volcanic eruption, and this book continues that story as AIVAS is able to fill in the lost history of Pern and help the current Pern residents to continue towards their ancestors' ultimate goal: to eliminate Thread. In order to do this, AIVAS has to give the brightest of modern day Pern a crash course in enough science and technology that they can use the old colony ships - which have been left in orbit - to alter the orbit of the red star.
While it was a fairly satisfactory wrap up of the series, it also felt rather rushed and forced in parts, and of course very deus ex machina - literally, since AIVAS is a godlike machine. The modern day Pernese spend the book being led around by the nose and kept in the dark by AIVAS, for the most part simply trusting it blindly. After all the progress and effort they have made in the previous books, this makes a somewhat unsatisfactory theme to this final book. Still, there are fun, interesting, and touching moments, and it concludes the series on a final note that wraps up the previous books.
