303 pages
English language
Published Jan. 6, 1985 by Ballantine Books.
HOW CAN ONE GIRL SAVE AN ENTIRE WORLD?To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise--and take back her stolen birthright. But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa's world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world. . . .From the …
HOW CAN ONE GIRL SAVE AN ENTIRE WORLD?To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, Lessa is nothing but a ragged kitchen girl. For most of her life she has survived by serving those who betrayed her father and took over his lands. Now the time has come for Lessa to shed her disguise--and take back her stolen birthright. But everything changes when she meets a queen dragon. The bond they share will be deep and last forever. It will protect them when, for the first time in centuries, Lessa's world is threatened by Thread, an evil substance that falls like rain and destroys everything it touches. Dragons and their Riders once protected the planet from Thread, but there are very few of them left these days. Now brave Lessa must risk her life, and the life of her beloved dragon, to save her beautiful world. . . .From the Paperback edition.
Okay I liked this book, it's alright science fantasy, heavy on the fantasy...
But god the relationship between the main characters is awful and doesn't even really matter to the story. The story isn't improved in anyway by its marginal inclusion, it's just baffling. Why why why it's so gross
Okay I liked this book, it's alright science fantasy, heavy on the fantasy...
But god the relationship between the main characters is awful and doesn't even really matter to the story. The story isn't improved in anyway by its marginal inclusion, it's just baffling. Why why why it's so gross
I devoured this entire series of books when I was a teenager in the 80s, but hadn't reread them for decades. This book was originally published in 1968 I believe. For its time it was hugely imaginative, had a strong heroine, and there was nothing else like it - telepathic dragons! What? I remember adoring the entire series and reading them over and over - I discovered I still remember large parts of the book even after all this time, in particular most of the songs/rhymes.
That said, it's definitely a bit dated to read now. There's internalized misogyny that may have been par for the course in 1968 but is definitely more obvious nowdays. The fast pace of the writing is breathtaking compared to the 900 page epics some authors are writing nowdays; the introduction to Dragonflight is approximately a page an a half. An author like Patrick Rothfuss …
I devoured this entire series of books when I was a teenager in the 80s, but hadn't reread them for decades. This book was originally published in 1968 I believe. For its time it was hugely imaginative, had a strong heroine, and there was nothing else like it - telepathic dragons! What? I remember adoring the entire series and reading them over and over - I discovered I still remember large parts of the book even after all this time, in particular most of the songs/rhymes.
That said, it's definitely a bit dated to read now. There's internalized misogyny that may have been par for the course in 1968 but is definitely more obvious nowdays. The fast pace of the writing is breathtaking compared to the 900 page epics some authors are writing nowdays; the introduction to Dragonflight is approximately a page an a half. An author like Patrick Rothfuss would barely have introduced a character in that time. The reader fills in many details on their own, rather than the author spelling out everything - which isn't necessarily bad at all, and my teenage self certainly filled in those details with enthusiasm, but it's a different style than currently common.
Anyway, this is a seminal work of fantasy, and worth reading for many reasons, and still a very enjoyable book if you can gloss past the issues above. (Also worth noting that Terry Pratchett's very first Discworld book, The Colour of Magic, is a very clear and deliberate parody of this book in one part.)
Love the concept... hated the execution. Too much of a product of its time, unfortunately.
Enjoyed it more than I expected to, to be honest. Knowing that there are dozens of other books published after this one, it would be easy to look at this story as mere set dressing, but McCaffrey does well navigating the line between telling this story and setting up future tales. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the twists and developments, and it's clear she worked out the details of the science-fantasy elements of the story very carefully and (so far as I can tell) thoroughly.
An excellent fantasy that does not follow the quest structure slavishly.
As a kid, I heard a lot about the Pern books, but somehow never got around to reading them.
I'm reading through them one by one as part of an omnibus edition, so I'm not sure how much of the foreward information was or is included if you read just Dragonflight on its own.
Pern is an awesome blend of science fiction and fantasy. A red star orbits in the same system as Pern, and when it comes close, these black threads fall to the planet leaching the life out of everything. So the Pernese genetically engineer dragons to fight the threads. Dragons that can tesseract through time and space.
Dragonflight centers around the last haven of dragonriders on Pern following a very long time passing since the last pass of the red star. People are starting to think that the danger that the dragons "protect" them from is just …
As a kid, I heard a lot about the Pern books, but somehow never got around to reading them.
I'm reading through them one by one as part of an omnibus edition, so I'm not sure how much of the foreward information was or is included if you read just Dragonflight on its own.
Pern is an awesome blend of science fiction and fantasy. A red star orbits in the same system as Pern, and when it comes close, these black threads fall to the planet leaching the life out of everything. So the Pernese genetically engineer dragons to fight the threads. Dragons that can tesseract through time and space.
Dragonflight centers around the last haven of dragonriders on Pern following a very long time passing since the last pass of the red star. People are starting to think that the danger that the dragons "protect" them from is just a legend. Even dragonriders are getting a little complacent with how they handle life in the weyr.
The threat returns, luckily just following the installation of new leadership among the dragonriders, and the group must come together to keep the threads from destroying a world that has forgotten the threat.
I finally dipped my toes into the Pern saga. It went OK. The book might be a classic, but more because it became popular and inspired others. And not for an exceptional story or characters. But it was still entertaining although I am not sure whether I'll continue the series.
I finally dipped my toes into the Pern saga. It went OK. The book might be a classic, but more because it became popular and inspired others. And not for an exceptional story or characters. But it was still entertaining although I am not sure whether I'll continue the series.
Such an awesome, quick paced, entertaining read! Can't wait to continue the series!
Just a few notes: Dragonflight is a fairly light SF/fantasy novel that has held up well over the 35 years or so since I last read it. There were more typos than I remembered! There is more visual imagery than in Dragon's Kin, and I wonder whether that is a trademark difference between Anne's writing and her son's.
This is the first novel in a classic series, and various books in the series have own a bucketful of awards. This novel reads like a fantasy, and you think that is what it all is about until later in the series when it becomes a science fiction theme. Dragons in this case are winged beasts who can breathe fire and burn the "thread", a deadly enemy that periodically falls from the sky. Lessa, a young lady, has certain mental powers that she puts to work getting revenge on the people who invaded her family's domain, and tries to use those powers on the Dragonriders when they come around. This brings her to their attention, and she become a Dragonrider herself. While I like it a lot (and so do many others when you look at the awards McCaffrey earned), I would not recommend it to someone who does not …
This is the first novel in a classic series, and various books in the series have own a bucketful of awards. This novel reads like a fantasy, and you think that is what it all is about until later in the series when it becomes a science fiction theme. Dragons in this case are winged beasts who can breathe fire and burn the "thread", a deadly enemy that periodically falls from the sky. Lessa, a young lady, has certain mental powers that she puts to work getting revenge on the people who invaded her family's domain, and tries to use those powers on the Dragonriders when they come around. This brings her to their attention, and she become a Dragonrider herself. While I like it a lot (and so do many others when you look at the awards McCaffrey earned), I would not recommend it to someone who does not enjoy fantasy. The science fiction aspects do not come out until later in the series.
I have this as part of the three-volume set The Dragonriders of Pern which includes the first three novels in the series.
Rereading the Pern series as an adult, it's both surprisingly feminist and a little bit rapey. :/
But I like that Lessa isn't that relatable. I like that she's angry, that she's traumatized, that she makes mistakes -- that she's flawed. I like that her relationship with F'lar is complex, even if the ways it's complex seem unhealthy. I like that she's allowed -- both by the story and by the author -- to be a hero. Even if that's undermined in a lot of ways.
I don't even begin to understand Pern's weird gender issues, but in some ways the entire setting feels to me now like an allegory for the male-dominated SF world in which McCaffrey was writing. The dragonriders, hyper-masculine as they are, seem almost to be caricaturing traditional, Golden Age SF, and I find it very interesting that thus far (Dragonflight and the Harper Hall trilogy), …
Rereading the Pern series as an adult, it's both surprisingly feminist and a little bit rapey. :/
But I like that Lessa isn't that relatable. I like that she's angry, that she's traumatized, that she makes mistakes -- that she's flawed. I like that her relationship with F'lar is complex, even if the ways it's complex seem unhealthy. I like that she's allowed -- both by the story and by the author -- to be a hero. Even if that's undermined in a lot of ways.
I don't even begin to understand Pern's weird gender issues, but in some ways the entire setting feels to me now like an allegory for the male-dominated SF world in which McCaffrey was writing. The dragonriders, hyper-masculine as they are, seem almost to be caricaturing traditional, Golden Age SF, and I find it very interesting that thus far (Dragonflight and the Harper Hall trilogy), McCaffrey's Strong Female Characters have all been invested in, to some extent, overthrowing those patriarchal traditions in order to make the place in the world where they belong, where they can follow their passions.
What's not so good is the way in which both Menolly and Lessa are set up as extraordinary, as "not like other women". But, hey, this book was written in 1968.
Good book and fun. I've always been told to read this now that I have it was interesting. I didn't find the stories at all compelling and each book specifically led into the next one leaving opened plot holes to be filled in. I don't know if that was planned by the author or not.
A few people have stated that the sexism was a bit much to take but without giving away too much it was very tame compared to maybe the series of "A Song of Fire and Ice". There was a bit a slapping around of women and taking and holding women to you until they conceded they wanted the character. But it fit the period in Pern. So to be offended I couldn't be.
Again, it was good and went in directions that I didn't think made much sense but just told a story.
I realized as I read it that I had read it thirty plus years ago. I like it more then. I still liked it, but time travel is used a s a solution for too many problems and the descriptions of it are not convincing enough.
