The Dragonriders of Pern

I haven't been so conflicted with a book in a long time. I found myself tearing through some chapters and wanting to claw my eyes out the next. The story would be an absolute bore and then a glimmer of hope would keep me coming back for more. There were multiple times in Dragonriders of Pern where I thought the story would go one way but it eased off and went another.

I have to take all of my criticisms and understand the time the books were written and that these stories are the foundation of something larger.

The concept of Dragonriders is top notch and for being written in the late 1960's this would be groundbreaking. The political and economical structure based on dragon and village to support was uniquely done. The bond between dragon and rider is excellent and having the dragons be an active contributor to the story was fun. The cyclical nature of Thread falling, society forgetting lessons from the past during 'peace time' and exploring a world that is rich in history offered plenty of interesting story ideas.

Also, dragons that could travel distances in a blink of an eye and go back in time?! Wow!, this concept saved the series for me.

Unfortunately the excellent ideas felt poorly executed half a century later. I have come to appreciate a bit more meat on the bones of my story and that wasn't found here. Dragonriders felt like a long winded brief of what the story is and in the hands of a modern day fantasy writer could have been so much more engaging.

However, for something in the 1960's this would be groundbreaking, but today it left me wanting more.

I am not reviewing the first three books individually but as a whole, and I'm not sure it would make a difference. Each book was a disappointment with flashes of brilliance. There was an interesting concept or hastily rushed climax and then it went on to the next book. The stories would tease of something larger and then pull back. This is likely associated with there being a boat load of books after this and maybe they will touch on some of these brilliant ideas, but to have them hinted at, briefly touched, and then discarded was a letdown.

The characters were likely a byproduct of the time this was written but I had very little investment in them. Instead of the cryptic names I needed to have them summarized as the following: Dragon Queen, Dragon King, Dragon King's Brother, Harper, Other Trades, Bitchy Oldtimers, Accommodating Oldtimers, Disgruntled Hold/Wyr People, Randoms and Dragons For All of the Above.

Jaxom. Did he ever officially break up with Corana? He used her as a girlfriend of convenience. Imagine how happy Corana's family was that their daughter had the attention of Lord Holder of Ruatha and then he disappears. After falling ill he becomes smitten with Sharra, fails to return home for a long time and Corana doesn't cause him any guilt? Not cool. I don't usually invest much effort in relationships of my characters but this one bothered me.

I have some questions about what happens next, but I don't care to wade through 20 more books to be disappointed. The moments I enjoyed of Dragonriders were excellent, but it was weighed down by everything else. The story is closer to did not like it but the parts that were great made this enjoyable and less of a chore for a three week read, but only just.

These books kept my attention a lot better than I expected. I've heard about them all my life and I'm not really sure why its taken me so long to get around to reading them. I can see why they are considered classics.

I really loved the sci-fi / fantasy blend and wish there was more out there like it. The only non-science based stuff was the dragon abilities of

......Minor Spoilers......


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(Ok I warned you and I'm trying to hide the key words in a paragraph just in case, ;) ... instant travel and time travel But both abilities were handled with class and (for lack of a better term) respect. I didn't get the feeling that they were used to cover plot holes or anything like that. Which brings me to a point about why I'm surprised that I liked these so much.

There wasn't really much of an overarching plot to these. The sci-fi style of exploring a little theme, almost like you are just playing with an idea and seeing what happens, is not very common with fantasy settings (Sanderson, sticks out as a counter example - as he often does). So while that lighthearted style is fun, it's not what I usually expect in a book with dragons. And I have to say that the downside is that I'm less likely to race to the other books based on the Pern universe because of that, but I still enjoyed the time I spent there. I suppose a lot of it may be a consequence of Ms. McCaffrey writing these as short stories first.

From back cover: Another Turn, and the deadly silver Thread continues to fall. So the bold dragonriders take to the air once more and their magnificent flying dragons swirl and swoop, breathing flames that destroy the shimmering strands before they reach the ground.
But Weyrleader F'lar knows he must find a better way to protect his beloved Pern before the rebellious Oldtimers can breed any more dissent ... before his brother F'nor is foolhardy enough to launch another suicide mission ... and before those dratted fire-lizards can stir up any more disastrous trouble...

which, by the way, does not at all accurately sum up the story of this book. I'm not sure how the snippet writer came to those conclusions.

First, I got this book because I had started reading Dragonsong, then went to read Dragonsinger, and found out I was reading these books all out of order.

This story is most centrally located around F'lar, with Lessa in attendance. Quite a few more Weyr characters are added, and all the Weyrleaders and seconds and riders did get to be a bit confusing. I wanted to strangle Kylara. Having read books out of order, I already knew what happened to Wirenth and Brekka, although reading it in this story was still very moving.

Ms. McCaffrey's mix of old and new is interesting. We have to remember that Pern was a colony of Earth and it took a lot of technology to get to Pern and to get it started as a colony, yet that circumstances of the Fall of the Collected Worlds Empire, plus the Fall of Thread specifically on Pern isolated and reduced the population to a less technological one.

It does seem like McCaffrey writes highly technical worlds, or worlds with mixed high and low technology that eventually go through an industrial revolution of sorts. Pern appears to be on the cusp of it.

Dragonquest also appears to be the ending of the F'lar and Lessa story, although The White Dragon was third in the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy when it was originally released. I guess I will see as it is my next book to read on this Anne McCaffrey feast I am consuming.