A review by cathepsut
Dragonflight, Book 1 by Brynne Stephens, Anne McCaffrey

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

As a teenager I was a massive fan of the Dragonriders of Pern. I re-read the first trilogy last year and from today‘s view there are some issues with it, but the series will always be close to my heart. For completion‘s sake I got a copy of this graphic novel, published in 1993.

What did I think? For info, I read comics regularly.

The artwork is pretty bad. But in my experience many book-to-comic adaptations have pretty mediocre artwork. Besides of anatomically dodgy looking humans, lack of detail and poorly drawn backgrounds in general, characters change their look quite dramatically at one point. Presumably at the start of issue #2, which I can‘t tell, as there is no indication when one issue ends and the next one begins. The difference was so pronounced that I couldn‘t tell who was who and struggled to tell characters apart till the end. 

Storytelling: I doubt that someone who hasn‘t read the novels can make much sense of the plot. If I hadn‘t re-read Dragonflight recently, I would probably have scratched my head. There simply is no decent storytelling, explaining the world or who everybody is and the plot is full of holes.

My recommendation? Don‘t bother! 

For newcomers to the series: Read the book instead.

For fans: If you are a completionist, go for it. But this didn‘t do anything for me, except annoy me.

(Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight #1-3)