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afantasysky's review against another edition
adventurous
3.0
First book of 2024! Dragonflight was the January pick for a book club I go to and I probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise.
It was a super interesting discussion with it being a childhood favourite for some and completely new to others. We had a range of loved to hated but everyone agreed that the gender politics, relationship dynamic and fatphobia in particular were big problems. For those that loved it, it was the first example of SFF with a strong female hero with agency that they had ever read and that made it a really special series for them.
Once I got into the story, I actually had a lot of fun. The prose at the beginning is a bit hard to get into with lots of over the top word choices but later on it's better. I was very much enjoying being in the the dragons and dragon riders. I flew through the second half. Unfortunately I couldn't ignore the problematic elements and I constantly found it jarring every time the love interest did something like violently shake the heroine because she did something he didn't agree with. There was just so much of it, that while half of me was having fun the other half was going "excuse me, what?!" the whole time.
Saying that I did consider continuing the series, until I found out exactly how long it was. I think I'll leave this one here and just appreciate that reading let me take part in a really interesting discussion.
It was a super interesting discussion with it being a childhood favourite for some and completely new to others. We had a range of loved to hated but everyone agreed that the gender politics, relationship dynamic and fatphobia in particular were big problems. For those that loved it, it was the first example of SFF with a strong female hero with agency that they had ever read and that made it a really special series for them.
Once I got into the story, I actually had a lot of fun. The prose at the beginning is a bit hard to get into with lots of over the top word choices but later on it's better. I was very much enjoying being in the the dragons and dragon riders. I flew through the second half. Unfortunately I couldn't ignore the problematic elements and I constantly found it jarring every time the love interest did something like violently shake the heroine because she did something he didn't agree with. There was just so much of it, that while half of me was having fun the other half was going "excuse me, what?!" the whole time.
Saying that I did consider continuing the series, until I found out exactly how long it was. I think I'll leave this one here and just appreciate that reading let me take part in a really interesting discussion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Domestic abuse
foxwish's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Heir to Ruatha, Lessa, wants her kingdom back from invader Fax. Dragonman F'lar wants a woman to bond with a female dragon because they need more dragons and dragonmen. The two are initially very compelling characters, Lessa is focused entirely on revenge and is smart enough to have kept herself hidden at Ruatha for 10 years, F'lar is evidently a good leader and extremely calculating.
The early chapters did an excellent job teaching me about the politics and world itself. But the more I saw of F'lar and Lessa the more I disliked them, I was initially rooting for them to learn to trust each other but F'lar loses all his charisma as he is clearly abusing Lessa to the point where she appears to have a panic attack about returning to him.
Lessa seems like she might've been considered a strong female character at the time of release, but she, like all of the characters including F'lar, ends up being reduced to being a purely arrogant character. The sexism she has to deal with is dreadful and there are only 3 other female characters in this book I could name, so Lessa gets points for rebelling against her treatment.
The dragons are great and the threat of the "Threads" and the main problem of the Weyr seemed like it wouldn't be solved within the very first book..However, it is! In the space of 30 pages Lessa solves the incredibly complex problem with absolutely no issues convincing anyone! She convinced 1800 dragonmen and their dragons to abandon their lives 400 years in the past and come to the future with her and they happily do this because "they are bored". She and all the other characters seem to be entirely unaware that this means she herself has caused the very issue she was trying to solve. The plot becomes laughably bad towards the end, so much so I can hardly believe I was enjoying this book at the beginning.
On top of that, since the main hook and problem of this book has been solved I don't see any reason to read the following book. Surely now they've increased their forces 9x they can defeat the threads. "Threads" aren't a very interesting villain and I really don't care about how they are defeated enough to try reading the next book. I was extremely surprised the storyline with Fax didn't last longer because he was a much more interesting antagonist.
The early chapters did an excellent job teaching me about the politics and world itself. But the more I saw of F'lar and Lessa the more I disliked them, I was initially rooting for them to learn to trust each other but F'lar loses all his charisma as he is clearly abusing Lessa to the point where she appears to have a panic attack about returning to him.
Lessa seems like she might've been considered a strong female character at the time of release, but she, like all of the characters including F'lar, ends up being reduced to being a purely arrogant character. The sexism she has to deal with is dreadful and there are only 3 other female characters in this book I could name, so Lessa gets points for rebelling against her treatment.
The dragons are great and the threat of the "Threads" and the main problem of the Weyr seemed like it wouldn't be solved within the very first book..However, it is! In the space of 30 pages Lessa solves the incredibly complex problem with absolutely no issues convincing anyone!
On top of that, since the main hook and problem of this book has been solved I don't see any reason to read the following book. Surely now
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Rape
Moderate: Pregnancy, Confinement, and Mental illness
polarbbp's review
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-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? No
1.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Rape, Sexism, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Pregnancy
mikariah's review
adventurous
slow-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? No
0.5
Too much not-good treatment of people perpetrated largely unchallenged by characters we are supposed to consider 'good.' The general content warnings should give you a good enough idea of what I mean. Also, it's just a bit of a grind in general and not the fun kind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Rape
Minor: Sexual assault
trillingconclusion's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Infidelity, and Fatphobia
cossty's review
The beginning of the book piqued my interest.
The first few chapters were fantastic.
Everything took a nosedive once Lessa was raped.
You are deluded if you believe that MC was not raped or that they raped each other because they couldn't control themselves.
She had undoubtedly been raped.
Everyone knew what was going to happen, but no one said anything to her.
I wonder why.
Following that, her toxic relationship with F'lar was really frustrating to read, and I put the book down.
Yes, I didn't complete it.
That doesn't prevent me from having an opinion about it.
Dragons are sapient in this narrative.
That implies Mnementh also raped Ramoth.
While she was following another dragon, Mnementh leapt out onto her.
I have no objections to rape being depicted in literature.
What I despise is when it's written in a conciliatory tone.
"Because of this and that, it wasn't truly rape."
Because of the "culture," it wasn't a rape.
Because they aren't humans, it wasn't a rape.
Because he is a male, it was not a rape.
The first few chapters were fantastic.
Everything took a nosedive once Lessa was raped.
You are deluded if you believe that MC was not raped or that they raped each other because they couldn't control themselves.
She had undoubtedly been raped.
Everyone knew what was going to happen, but no one said anything to her.
I wonder why.
Following that, her toxic relationship with F'lar was really frustrating to read, and I put the book down.
Yes, I didn't complete it.
That doesn't prevent me from having an opinion about it.
Dragons are sapient in this narrative.
That implies Mnementh also raped Ramoth.
While she was following another dragon, Mnementh leapt out onto her.
I have no objections to rape being depicted in literature.
What I despise is when it's written in a conciliatory tone.
"Because of this and that, it wasn't truly rape."
Because of the "culture," it wasn't a rape.
Because they aren't humans, it wasn't a rape.
Because he is a male, it was not a rape.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Toxic relationship
withywoods's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape and Domestic abuse
spacebornfew's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Misogyny
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Domestic abuse
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