manwithanagenda's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.75
At the risk of being aggressively shaken, I must say this book wasn't good. 'Dragonflight' starts off the legendary and prolific 'Dragonriders of Pern' series, appearing in the late 1960s when science fiction began to be more nuanced and experimental.
There's a brief prologue describing how the planet of Pern had been a colony of Earth but millennia have passed since there was any contact with other colonies and histories have forgotten humanity's origin. Pern is periodically threatened by alien life from a red star that comes into close orbit every two-hundred years. An invasive plant species, called thread, rains down on the planet and kills other organic life. Sometimes the orbit isn't close enough for an attack leading to disbelief in the threat over centuries. The book opens during such a time when the thread-fighting dragon population is at a critical low. It sounds like its going to be a really good story.
McCaffrey goes to great lengths to gild her fantasy tale with enough sf elements for it to pass. It's an interesting setting. Her execution leaves a lot to be desired. This was cobbled together from a couple short stories and doesn't quite flow. There's a lot of clumsy exposition and a lot of, frankly, important information that is left unsaid or unexplained. Unsurprisingly for such a long series the 'feel' of 'Dragonflight' is different from later installments, so I'm told. I also gather that Pern may have originated Dragonlance's habit of turning hithertoo minor characters and events from the first books into the stars of their own books creating a confusing timeline overall.
Confusing, but fitting, as this first book uses time travel as a means to neatly solve problems. No consequences here!
My main beef is with the characters and gender roles. Our lead man, K'lar, is the coolest guy because he's super stoic and follows all the old lore that other chumps have forgotten. Lessa is the scion of good, old blood and has survived a brutal takeover of her home hold and the slaughter of her family. Her life is defined by revenge until she is selected to bond with the new Dragon Queen. Her personality is quickly subsumed by the traditional do-nothing role of the sole female dragonrider in the Weyr. Sometimes she advocates for herself and is rewarded. Sometimes it backfires. Either way, she's gonna get a good, hard shaking for her troubles. Also, raped because when your bonded dragon mates, you're not conscious enough to really fight back. Or is it psychic hormones? This detail is off-handedly related to us. It's not developed much. Why did McCaffrey include it? So we can realize Lessa has a reason to be so upset?
Oh no. Is it to feel sorry for K'lar, who must have sex with this woman who doesn't get what a nice guy he is when given a chance?
A society devolved to barbarism, or whatever you call this, because of outside threats is an interesting choice for me if there is any sign at all in this society of the characters or even in the narrator that the situation is undesirable. That women, perhaps, shouldn't be soft objects to be passed around while the men are talking. There's no sense of that here. We might as well be on Gor.
A lot of this is hand-waved as being a product of its time. Which, sure, okay. It doesn't mean it's not bad writing. Ursula K Le Guin was writing powerful stuff at this time and earlier. Shirley Jackson. Madeleine L'Engle. Not to forget certain gentlemen and plenty of non-genre authors going back over a HUNDRED YEARS. But sure, it was the style of the time.
Later books are probably more coherent and better written. For me, I've read enough.
Dragonriders of Pern
Next: 'Dragonquest'
There's a brief prologue describing how the planet of Pern had been a colony of Earth but millennia have passed since there was any contact with other colonies and histories have forgotten humanity's origin. Pern is periodically threatened by alien life from a red star that comes into close orbit every two-hundred years. An invasive plant species, called thread, rains down on the planet and kills other organic life. Sometimes the orbit isn't close enough for an attack leading to disbelief in the threat over centuries. The book opens during such a time when the thread-fighting dragon population is at a critical low. It sounds like its going to be a really good story.
McCaffrey goes to great lengths to gild her fantasy tale with enough sf elements for it to pass. It's an interesting setting. Her execution leaves a lot to be desired. This was cobbled together from a couple short stories and doesn't quite flow. There's a lot of clumsy exposition and a lot of, frankly, important information that is left unsaid or unexplained. Unsurprisingly for such a long series the 'feel' of 'Dragonflight' is different from later installments, so I'm told. I also gather that Pern may have originated Dragonlance's habit of turning hithertoo minor characters and events from the first books into the stars of their own books creating a confusing timeline overall.
Confusing, but fitting, as this first book uses time travel as a means to neatly solve problems. No consequences here!
My main beef is with the characters and gender roles. Our lead man, K'lar, is the coolest guy because he's super stoic and follows all the old lore that other chumps have forgotten. Lessa is the scion of good, old blood and has survived a brutal takeover of her home hold and the slaughter of her family. Her life is defined by revenge until she is selected to bond with the new Dragon Queen. Her personality is quickly subsumed by the traditional do-nothing role of the sole female dragonrider in the Weyr. Sometimes she advocates for herself and is rewarded. Sometimes it backfires. Either way, she's gonna get a good, hard shaking for her troubles. Also, raped because when your bonded dragon mates, you're not conscious enough to really fight back. Or is it psychic hormones? This detail is off-handedly related to us. It's not developed much. Why did McCaffrey include it? So we can realize Lessa has a reason to be so upset?
Oh no. Is it to feel sorry for K'lar, who must have sex with this woman who doesn't get what a nice guy he is when given a chance?
A society devolved to barbarism, or whatever you call this, because of outside threats is an interesting choice for me if there is any sign at all in this society of the characters or even in the narrator that the situation is undesirable. That women, perhaps, shouldn't be soft objects to be passed around while the men are talking. There's no sense of that here. We might as well be on Gor.
A lot of this is hand-waved as being a product of its time. Which, sure, okay. It doesn't mean it's not bad writing. Ursula K Le Guin was writing powerful stuff at this time and earlier. Shirley Jackson. Madeleine L'Engle. Not to forget certain gentlemen and plenty of non-genre authors going back over a HUNDRED YEARS. But sure, it was the style of the time.
Later books are probably more coherent and better written. For me, I've read enough.
Dragonriders of Pern
Next: 'Dragonquest'
vayudev's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
lissydizzy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
professionalpadawan's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
ahammel87's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book not knowing anything about it except that it contains dragons and flight. As it turns out, it's a fairly blatant wish-fulfillment story about a plucky heroine who discovers that she is the only person who can save the world, since she a long-lost priestess of sorts with the secret power to communicate with dragons. Flying dragons. Flying, teleporting dragons. Huge, psychic, flying, teleporting, time-travelling, fire-breathing dragons who like to cuddle.
From this, admittedly really awesome, premise, I didn't find that too much was delivered. The prose was probably the purplest I've ever read, and I read this coming off a China Miéville novel. A lot has been said about the misogyny in this novel, and…yeah, it's bad. It's usually really easy to cheer for the heroic organization sworn to protect the world from evil (think the Jedi knights or the Avengers), but in this book they're kind of arrogant, douchey, kidnapping, thieving, jerk-asses. There's really no getting around the fact that the plot resolution is a deus ex machina.
Probably the most disappointing aspect of the book was the botched St. Crispin's Day speech. This is a mandatory scene in this kind of book: the plucky heroes are at the end of their resources and almost ready to give up and accept their fates. Their leader then gives an absurdly impassioned pep-talk, calling on the heroes to band together and use their individual talents to courageously fight on in spite of the odds. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. Everybody cheers. Goosebumps.
What the hero should not do in this situation is have his friggin' minstrel, a character we've never heard from before, give the St. Cripin's Day speech. Particularly if said minstrel takes the opportunity to irritatingly mimic the voices of the people he's trying to motivate like a six-year-old. The recipients of the St. Crispin's day speech should cheer like lunatics and then run of to perforate the bad guys with axes. What they should not do is mumble some gibberish about a tapestry and then kind of shuffle off to do research.
So there are clearly quite a few problems with this book. What elevates it to `average' status is how much fun it is in spite of all the problems. This is clearly the appeal: who wouldn't want a giant flying cuddly telepathic dragon friend to fly around on while shooting fiery explosions at things? I had fun reading this one, but not as much as I should have, and certainly not enough to check out the rest of the series and see if McCaffrey cleared up the problems.
Cross-posted on Worlds Without End.
From this, admittedly really awesome, premise, I didn't find that too much was delivered. The prose was probably the purplest I've ever read, and I read this coming off a China Miéville novel. A lot has been said about the misogyny in this novel, and…yeah, it's bad. It's usually really easy to cheer for the heroic organization sworn to protect the world from evil (think the Jedi knights or the Avengers), but in this book they're kind of arrogant, douchey, kidnapping, thieving, jerk-asses. There's really no getting around the fact that the plot resolution is a deus ex machina.
Probably the most disappointing aspect of the book was the botched St. Crispin's Day speech. This is a mandatory scene in this kind of book: the plucky heroes are at the end of their resources and almost ready to give up and accept their fates. Their leader then gives an absurdly impassioned pep-talk, calling on the heroes to band together and use their individual talents to courageously fight on in spite of the odds. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. Everybody cheers. Goosebumps.
What the hero should not do in this situation is have his friggin' minstrel, a character we've never heard from before, give the St. Cripin's Day speech. Particularly if said minstrel takes the opportunity to irritatingly mimic the voices of the people he's trying to motivate like a six-year-old. The recipients of the St. Crispin's day speech should cheer like lunatics and then run of to perforate the bad guys with axes. What they should not do is mumble some gibberish about a tapestry and then kind of shuffle off to do research.
So there are clearly quite a few problems with this book. What elevates it to `average' status is how much fun it is in spite of all the problems. This is clearly the appeal: who wouldn't want a giant flying cuddly telepathic dragon friend to fly around on while shooting fiery explosions at things? I had fun reading this one, but not as much as I should have, and certainly not enough to check out the rest of the series and see if McCaffrey cleared up the problems.
Cross-posted on Worlds Without End.
amethyst_hearts_books's review against another edition
1.0
I don't remember when I read this, but I didn't like it.
wispy_reviews's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I grew up hearing about this series but never gave it a good shot. I’m glad I did; the world this book builds is wildly imaginative, and the characters equally so. It has the “tropes be damned” attitude I so love in old sci fi/fantasy, redesigning the titular reptiles into something bizarre and wonderful.
I can see the seeds this series plants for future books, like Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Saga, which I practically worshipped as a kid.
Though I love the foundation, this book’s tone is weirdly conservative, which isn’t to my tastes. As it’s written, the author believes the main faction’s rigid interpretation of tradition is justified, as is their open exploitation and abuse of the lower class peoples in the fiefdoms surrounding them. It’s jarring, and an ugly stain on this otherwise brilliant story.
I can see the seeds this series plants for future books, like Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Saga, which I practically worshipped as a kid.
Though I love the foundation, this book’s tone is weirdly conservative, which isn’t to my tastes. As it’s written, the author believes the main faction’s rigid interpretation of tradition is justified, as is their open exploitation and abuse of the lower class peoples in the fiefdoms surrounding them. It’s jarring, and an ugly stain on this otherwise brilliant story.
mikariah's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.5
Too much not-good treatment of people perpetrated largely unchallenged by characters we are supposed to consider 'good.' The general content warnings should give you a good enough idea of what I mean. Also, it's just a bit of a grind in general and not the fun kind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Rape
Minor: Sexual assault
cypress13's review against another edition
5.0
First (recorded) Read: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Second Read: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dragonriders of Pern has long been one of my favorite worlds to visit and revisit. It has been decades since I read this book and this is my first time coming back to it as an adult. You can definitely tell this is a book that was written during a time when women were treated quite differently than they are today. Some of the characters behave in ways that would have been acceptable then, but are not now. That being said, this book is still dear to me and was better than I remember it.
Second Read: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dragonriders of Pern has long been one of my favorite worlds to visit and revisit. It has been decades since I read this book and this is my first time coming back to it as an adult. You can definitely tell this is a book that was written during a time when women were treated quite differently than they are today. Some of the characters behave in ways that would have been acceptable then, but are not now. That being said, this book is still dear to me and was better than I remember it.
galliexyc's review against another edition
2.0
I understand how someone could be a fan of this series - it was surely a seminal work for the 'dragon' sub-field of fantasy/sci-fi that followed and continues to occupy a niche within the field... I also get there is a certain pre-teen eroticism to the weird kind of coerced dragon sex. However, as an adult reading this book in 2020, I am horrified by the Smurf-like sexual isolation and idolation of women in this world, as well as the extreme lack of consent involved in the MC's relationship with her 'love interest' who openly acknowledges raping her. The MC is physically and emotionally abused by this man and constantly put down by others in her community. Beyond that, she and all characters lack depth and personality. I was deeply horrified to discover in the author's afterward that Anne McCaffrey wrote, quote, "as a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in science fiction novels in the '50s and early '60s". I am not well-read in the genre in this particular frame of time, but I shudder to think what the norm was if this is progressive young adult media.