A review by mdpenguin
Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey

adventurous medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

This would have been better read directly after Dragon Singer and before The White Dragon: it would have benefited from the goodwill from my enjoyment of the former and maybe fleshed out Piemer's rather annoying character in the latter and made him more sympathetic. That said, Piemer wasn't that great of a character, being rather self-serving. He wasn't totally unpleasant, but he wasn't that interesting, either. The story wasn't a bad hero's journey, but it also didn't bring much to the world of Pern beyond resolving some issues with Nabol Hold that I hadn't really cared that much about and that become moot in The White Dragon, anyway. It breaks canon slightly by making queen fire lizard eggs identifiable, which is mildly annoying but not that big of a deal. Really, everything in it is very plot-driven, from Piemer's character to the queen eggs to Robinton's ruthlessness. There was even a gratuitous bit of sex and romance that didn't fit in with the story at all that I suppose was intended to give a little background for the two characters to be an item in The White Dragon. Overall, this was somewhat enjoyable, if mediocre. I'll probably rest with the series here since it isn't really exciting me right now and half the books that I've read have been rather mid, but that doesn't mean that I won't eventually come back to read some of the other books.