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A review by easolinas
Dragon's Time by Todd McCaffrey, Anne McCaffrey
1.0
It's official: Anne McCaffrey should have retired the Pern series, rather than handing it off to her profoundly untalented son Todd. And we get yet another demonstration of why in "Dragon's Time," another painfully slow, tension-free story that is more soap-opera than sci-fantasy. And this time around, Todd is obsessing about something new: PREGNANCY.
Specifically, Fiona is pregnant, and everyone cares about this because she's so wonderful. Lorana WAS pregnant, but traveling through time causes her to miscarry. However, she does manage to keep hopping through time, supposedly to find help in obliterating the thread in the present... although most of it just seems to be sightseeing.
Meanwhile, everybody is delighted by the fact that Fiona is pregnant, even when another woman miscarries. Fiona "adopts" more random people into her little family, Lorana pops in and out of the plot, and dragon eggs are attacked by tunnel snakes. Think that McCaffrey has run out of plot ideas?
There's supposed to be a lot going on in "Dragon's Time," but you wouldn't know it by actually READING the book. I mean, main characters DIE, two women miscarry their babies, and Pern is about to be obliterated by the Thread... and all anyone seems to care about is that Fiona is knocked up.
In fact, Todd McCaffrey seems weirdly obsessed with pregnancy in this book, since a good chunk of the story is devoted to what happens to the female characters' pregnancies. Occasionally he throws in some brain-meltingly confusing time travel stuff, or some truly horrifying romantic dialogue ("Shut up harper, and get into bed. I want your apology in silence").
And once again, McCaffrey seems to think that readers will adore Fiona as much as he does. Well, I don't. She comes across as a twee, syrupy Mary Sue who exudes love and peace -- one nauseating scene has all the other characters discussing how wonderful she is, and how they would even DIE for her. This sentiment is REVOLTING when it comes from a woman whose unborn child had just died.
As a result, the other characters are pretty much shortchanged. They seem to exist mainly as a cult to the pregnant mother goddess Fiona, and any hints of tension or dislike are quickly swamped under a sticky sea of oppressively warm'n'fuzzy feelings. Lorana is vaguely interesting, but too much of a silent martyr to be engaging.
It also doesn't seem like this book was proofread by an editor. There are frequent mistakes in punctuation, run-on sentences, and the phrase "She point to the worst spot."
"Dragon's Time" might as well have been called "Drags-on Time," because not much actually happens -- but hey, Fiona is pregnant, and that's all that apparently matters. This cash cow needs to be taken to the slaughterhouse.
Specifically, Fiona is pregnant, and everyone cares about this because she's so wonderful. Lorana WAS pregnant, but traveling through time causes her to miscarry. However, she does manage to keep hopping through time, supposedly to find help in obliterating the thread in the present... although most of it just seems to be sightseeing.
Meanwhile, everybody is delighted by the fact that Fiona is pregnant, even when another woman miscarries. Fiona "adopts" more random people into her little family, Lorana pops in and out of the plot, and dragon eggs are attacked by tunnel snakes. Think that McCaffrey has run out of plot ideas?
There's supposed to be a lot going on in "Dragon's Time," but you wouldn't know it by actually READING the book. I mean, main characters DIE, two women miscarry their babies, and Pern is about to be obliterated by the Thread... and all anyone seems to care about is that Fiona is knocked up.
In fact, Todd McCaffrey seems weirdly obsessed with pregnancy in this book, since a good chunk of the story is devoted to what happens to the female characters' pregnancies. Occasionally he throws in some brain-meltingly confusing time travel stuff, or some truly horrifying romantic dialogue ("Shut up harper, and get into bed. I want your apology in silence").
And once again, McCaffrey seems to think that readers will adore Fiona as much as he does. Well, I don't. She comes across as a twee, syrupy Mary Sue who exudes love and peace -- one nauseating scene has all the other characters discussing how wonderful she is, and how they would even DIE for her. This sentiment is REVOLTING when it comes from a woman whose unborn child had just died.
As a result, the other characters are pretty much shortchanged. They seem to exist mainly as a cult to the pregnant mother goddess Fiona, and any hints of tension or dislike are quickly swamped under a sticky sea of oppressively warm'n'fuzzy feelings. Lorana is vaguely interesting, but too much of a silent martyr to be engaging.
It also doesn't seem like this book was proofread by an editor. There are frequent mistakes in punctuation, run-on sentences, and the phrase "She point to the worst spot."
"Dragon's Time" might as well have been called "Drags-on Time," because not much actually happens -- but hey, Fiona is pregnant, and that's all that apparently matters. This cash cow needs to be taken to the slaughterhouse.