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orsuros's review against another edition
5.0
The plot of this book had a lot of turns I didn't expect. All the twists turned it to a very emotional book because every early easy out for the suffering of the characters is passed up in favor of a much deeper and more meaningful plot. It's easily one of the better books in the entire Pern series.
kim_chelf's review against another edition
3.0
While I love the Dragonrider novels by Ms. McCaffrey, I'm not a huge fan of her son Todd's writing style. It's not something I can put my finger on, but it just feels a little flat to me. Still, I love reading anything else about Pern, so I'll keep on reading.
jennchandler's review against another edition
4.0
Good, though a tad confusing keeping track of all the characters at times.
una_10bananas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
draeprice's review against another edition
3.0
This trilogy is confusing and wanders all over. It's hard to keep track of the main character. But it sorted itself out a bit at the end.
clockworkbee's review against another edition
fast-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
1.0
Todd definitely doesn’t have his Mom’s talent. The characters were barely described and never fleshed out. I found it hard to care if any of them died. Kindan is a Mary Sue, but with zero talent. No idea why everyone fawns over him. The plot sounded interesting but it couldn’t fulfill that promise of potential.
xeni's review against another edition
Forget this book and anything written by Todd McCaffrey. And I think I'm done with Pern for a while, since it seems I read anything decent in that world.
ph_vulgar's review against another edition
2.0
Much like its characters, which have to deal with a plague, this book too suffers from something debilitating and deadly.
Unfinished-ness.
From the very beginning the book is striking in its emptiness. There is nothing here for a long time reader to grind their teeth on. Every aspect of the writing is either minimal, bare bones, or has been covered better in prior books.
The first chapter is liable to confuse readers as it focuses, in a limited third person perspective, on one boy and provides no hint that another, Kindan, is the books true protagonist. This makes the transition between chapters 1 and 2 jarring and confusing.
Adding to the confusion is a veritable letter soup of names. These characters are thrown at us in the first two chapters with little description or preamble.
In fact, if there is one thing the book does most horribly wrong it is description. Mainly, the fact that there is none. Reading this book I could tell you that the Harper Hall has some Apprentice dormitories, and Fort Hold a Great Hall. What these locations (or any locations in the book) look like I couldn't tell you. The book NEVER describes. It mentions things but never elaborates, never pontificates, leaving all events to occur in a vague white space of slightly differing locales.
The one thing the book does tell us are the characters, but that's not a good thing. We are TOLD that a certain character likes to draw, for example, but never once in the story do they do so nor do other characters comment on their work. I subscribe to the adage: "Show, don't tell." And the book is as far away from following it that one can possibly be without cutting out dialogue entirely.
Speaking of the dialogue, it's unique. By which I mean that if I took out all the 'he saids' and 'she saids,' and just placed names in front of every line of text there would be little change in the text. THAT is how little description and prose can be found in this book.
The lack of any text describing setting, emotion, actions, etc. leads to the creation of a whirlwind of activity where characters move from place to place because someone somewhere said so. There is no depth here, no introspection for either the reader or the characters. No growth, no development. The few characters that do exhibit some of those two are forced and rushed through those changes since there is no descriptive text of them changing. This makes their shift in standing and behavior jarring.
All of these things together make me feel like this is NOT a book. This is, perhaps, a second draft. A manuscript that COULD be a good book if the author(s) had spent even another year actually WRITING some prose into it.
2 Stars. Barely. Because its bad, but not just yet horrible enough for 1.
Unfinished-ness.
From the very beginning the book is striking in its emptiness. There is nothing here for a long time reader to grind their teeth on. Every aspect of the writing is either minimal, bare bones, or has been covered better in prior books.
The first chapter is liable to confuse readers as it focuses, in a limited third person perspective, on one boy and provides no hint that another, Kindan, is the books true protagonist. This makes the transition between chapters 1 and 2 jarring and confusing.
Adding to the confusion is a veritable letter soup of names. These characters are thrown at us in the first two chapters with little description or preamble.
In fact, if there is one thing the book does most horribly wrong it is description. Mainly, the fact that there is none. Reading this book I could tell you that the Harper Hall has some Apprentice dormitories, and Fort Hold a Great Hall. What these locations (or any locations in the book) look like I couldn't tell you. The book NEVER describes. It mentions things but never elaborates, never pontificates, leaving all events to occur in a vague white space of slightly differing locales.
The one thing the book does tell us are the characters, but that's not a good thing. We are TOLD that a certain character likes to draw, for example, but never once in the story do they do so nor do other characters comment on their work. I subscribe to the adage: "Show, don't tell." And the book is as far away from following it that one can possibly be without cutting out dialogue entirely.
Speaking of the dialogue, it's unique. By which I mean that if I took out all the 'he saids' and 'she saids,' and just placed names in front of every line of text there would be little change in the text. THAT is how little description and prose can be found in this book.
The lack of any text describing setting, emotion, actions, etc. leads to the creation of a whirlwind of activity where characters move from place to place because someone somewhere said so. There is no depth here, no introspection for either the reader or the characters. No growth, no development. The few characters that do exhibit some of those two are forced and rushed through those changes since there is no descriptive text of them changing. This makes their shift in standing and behavior jarring.
All of these things together make me feel like this is NOT a book. This is, perhaps, a second draft. A manuscript that COULD be a good book if the author(s) had spent even another year actually WRITING some prose into it.
2 Stars. Barely. Because its bad, but not just yet horrible enough for 1.