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seraphjewel 's review for:
Dragonquest
by Anne McCaffrey
This was such a great trip down nostalgia lane. So many of the characters were familiar to me. I couldn't help smiling as Jaxom, F'nor, and Robinton all got a lot of attention and fleshing out. This book also did one of my favorite things in a Pern novel: have the characters try to science their way out of problems. I love how these characters reason their way through problems by experimenting. Sometimes those experiments don't go well, but they still take that risk.
I'm going to have to talk about the dubious consent again. My vague memories of childhood had F'nor and Brekke as one of my favorite couples. This book is when their relationship first kicks off. It was very hard for me to read their first sex scene, as it read very much like F'nor raped Brekke. The text said she was saying "no," and he kept at it anyway. It's definitely a scene that has not aged very well. It's a shame, because otherwise the two are a very good couple. I especially like Brekke as a character, because she struggled a lot with the idea of hooking up with guys just because her dragon was mating. The scene where she lost her dragon was heart-breaking.
One thing I think McCaffrey struggles with is her antagonists. They're written well and they provide some good roadblocks for the characters. She just doesn't resolve their stories very well. Kylara is built up as this horrible, conniving character, but after she loses her dragon she disappears from the narrative. One of the Oldtimers was very antagonistic toward F'lar to the point of challenging him to a duel. F'lar one but didn't kill the guy, and the Oldtimer was sent to Southern Weyr never to be heard from again-- at least in this book. This isn't the first time McCaffrey had her antagonists taken care of off-page. It can feel really unsatisfying, especially if they're built up a lot over the course of the novel.
There are definitely some issues with these books, but there are a lot of enjoyable things for me. The scientific minds of these characters is really fun to read about, and how they think their way through things is exciting for me. The cast can get a little overwhelmingly large at times, but so many of them are memorable. Not all of it aged well, but I know I'll be coming back to these books again.
I'm going to have to talk about the dubious consent again. My vague memories of childhood had F'nor and Brekke as one of my favorite couples. This book is when their relationship first kicks off. It was very hard for me to read their first sex scene, as it read very much like F'nor raped Brekke. The text said she was saying "no," and he kept at it anyway. It's definitely a scene that has not aged very well. It's a shame, because otherwise the two are a very good couple. I especially like Brekke as a character, because she struggled a lot with the idea of hooking up with guys just because her dragon was mating. The scene where she lost her dragon was heart-breaking.
One thing I think McCaffrey struggles with is her antagonists. They're written well and they provide some good roadblocks for the characters. She just doesn't resolve their stories very well. Kylara is built up as this horrible, conniving character, but after she loses her dragon she disappears from the narrative. One of the Oldtimers was very antagonistic toward F'lar to the point of challenging him to a duel. F'lar one but didn't kill the guy, and the Oldtimer was sent to Southern Weyr never to be heard from again-- at least in this book. This isn't the first time McCaffrey had her antagonists taken care of off-page. It can feel really unsatisfying, especially if they're built up a lot over the course of the novel.
There are definitely some issues with these books, but there are a lot of enjoyable things for me. The scientific minds of these characters is really fun to read about, and how they think their way through things is exciting for me. The cast can get a little overwhelmingly large at times, but so many of them are memorable. Not all of it aged well, but I know I'll be coming back to these books again.