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michaelchurch 's review for:
Dragonflight
by Anne McCaffrey
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed this overall. You can tell a bit that it’s nearly 60 years old, but it also holds up surprisingly well. The relationships between the characters are all pretty gruff, and there’s some old fashioned “romantic” relationship, but they still manage to acknowledge the female characters’ agency.
The concept is the biggest selling point for me. The world is so well developed and realized, and it hits a lot of interesting science fiction tropes in what feel like unique ways. There’s also the way it takes something typically fantastical (dragons) and integrates it into the sci-fi setting.
It’s a far future on another world settled by Earth so long ago, they don’t even remember coming from earth. Every two hundred years, another planet passes close to the orbit of Pern (Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible) and drops Threads, some sort of parasitic creature that will burrow into the soil and consume all organic matter it encounters. The only defense is the dragons and their riders who can burn the Threads out of the sky. Unfortunately, only 1 of the 6 dragon dens (called Weyrs) remains populated and the rest of the population has started to hold the dragon riders in contempt because they’ve never seen the Threads fall.
The story follows Lessa, a fallen noblewoman who turns out to be candidate for bonding with and caring for the new queen dragon. F’lar is the dragonman who finds her and is the main point of view character who knows the world of dragons. They’re both kind of jerks, especially to each other, but I think it’s mostly a product of the time and I couldn’t help rooting for them.
We get interplanetary war, teleporting dragons, telepathy, political intrigue, a planet wide mystery, and time travel (the good kind with closed loops, not branching). Even a hint of romance, though with tasteful “fade to black” every time it comes up.
Another fascinating aspect is that the book was apparently originally published as multiple short stories and then put together as a “fix up” into one novel. Everything flowed so well together that I had no idea, and I’m so glad it was all there, because I think any of the stopping points between stories would’ve driven me mad waiting to find out what came next.
I’m excited to read the rest of this series, and even want to read more of Anne McCaffrey’s works (the Brain and Brawn series also sounds fascinating).
The concept is the biggest selling point for me. The world is so well developed and realized, and it hits a lot of interesting science fiction tropes in what feel like unique ways. There’s also the way it takes something typically fantastical (dragons) and integrates it into the sci-fi setting.
It’s a far future on another world settled by Earth so long ago, they don’t even remember coming from earth. Every two hundred years, another planet passes close to the orbit of Pern (Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible) and drops Threads, some sort of parasitic creature that will burrow into the soil and consume all organic matter it encounters. The only defense is the dragons and their riders who can burn the Threads out of the sky. Unfortunately, only 1 of the 6 dragon dens (called Weyrs) remains populated and the rest of the population has started to hold the dragon riders in contempt because they’ve never seen the Threads fall.
The story follows Lessa, a fallen noblewoman who turns out to be candidate for bonding with and caring for the new queen dragon. F’lar is the dragonman who finds her and is the main point of view character who knows the world of dragons. They’re both kind of jerks, especially to each other, but I think it’s mostly a product of the time and I couldn’t help rooting for them.
We get interplanetary war, teleporting dragons, telepathy, political intrigue, a planet wide mystery, and time travel (the good kind with closed loops, not branching). Even a hint of romance, though with tasteful “fade to black” every time it comes up.
Another fascinating aspect is that the book was apparently originally published as multiple short stories and then put together as a “fix up” into one novel. Everything flowed so well together that I had no idea, and I’m so glad it was all there, because I think any of the stopping points between stories would’ve driven me mad waiting to find out what came next.
I’m excited to read the rest of this series, and even want to read more of Anne McCaffrey’s works (the Brain and Brawn series also sounds fascinating).