A review by mercog
Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
4.0
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......
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(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.
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......
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(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.