A review by manwithanagenda
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
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'