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reviewed Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (The Dragonriders of Pern, #1)

Anne McCaffrey: Dragonflight (Paperback, 2005, Del Rey) 4 stars

HOW CAN ONE GIRL SAVE AN ENTIRE WORLD?To the nobles who live in Benden Weyr, …

Review of 'Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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.)