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ejrathke 's review for:
Dragonquest
by Anne McCaffrey
These are peculiar books that are beginning to take on an interesting shape.
The first novel is something I would probably describe as misogynistic, classist, and maybe racist (in what it implies about genetic superiority), and for about half of this I was thinking the same thing. It's odd reading a book written by a woman that seems pretty hateful towards women. Not that women can't be misogynists--it's just not what I expect out of a writer who is a woman.
There's at least an implicit argument in these first two novels that men should take control and women should be docile and support their men, while also being sexually loyal to them, despite the fact that this society has done away with that form of sexual morality.
Had I not read Dragonsong first (which, chronologically, comes after this one), I probably wouldn't have continued, but Dragonsong is at least much kinder and more supportive of women, and eschews traditional gender roles.
But Dragonquest is actually a link between that more traditional, patriarchal, and racist society presented in Dragonflight and the gradually opening up of society in Dragonsong. We see the society change, evolve, become more open. The classism and totalitarianism and misogyny become eroded by new ways of thinking that develop in this novel, which is pretty cool.
It gives all of this an interesting shape. We start with traditional fantasy stuff and are becoming more radical with each novel.
Anyrate, the novel itself is deeply sociological. More than a quest or an adventure, it's a restructuring of the world around them.
Pretty interesting stuff. Aspects and sequences are still troubling, but I think McCaffrey's doing something a bit more revolutionary than I expected. She's thrown us in a world that feels familiarly upsetting and is transforming that world into a more equitable place.
It's also worth remembering when these books came out. McCaffrey was the first woman to win a major SF award for one of the novellas that makes up Dragonflight. It was the early 70s, a time when publishing was especially dominated by masculine voices. So she gave us a masculine and muscular world and story to draw us all in. Then, here, she begins subverting that. Dragonsong subverts it further.
I'm interested where these first six books lead.
The first novel is something I would probably describe as misogynistic, classist, and maybe racist (in what it implies about genetic superiority), and for about half of this I was thinking the same thing. It's odd reading a book written by a woman that seems pretty hateful towards women. Not that women can't be misogynists--it's just not what I expect out of a writer who is a woman.
There's at least an implicit argument in these first two novels that men should take control and women should be docile and support their men, while also being sexually loyal to them, despite the fact that this society has done away with that form of sexual morality.
Had I not read Dragonsong first (which, chronologically, comes after this one), I probably wouldn't have continued, but Dragonsong is at least much kinder and more supportive of women, and eschews traditional gender roles.
But Dragonquest is actually a link between that more traditional, patriarchal, and racist society presented in Dragonflight and the gradually opening up of society in Dragonsong. We see the society change, evolve, become more open. The classism and totalitarianism and misogyny become eroded by new ways of thinking that develop in this novel, which is pretty cool.
It gives all of this an interesting shape. We start with traditional fantasy stuff and are becoming more radical with each novel.
Anyrate, the novel itself is deeply sociological. More than a quest or an adventure, it's a restructuring of the world around them.
Pretty interesting stuff. Aspects and sequences are still troubling, but I think McCaffrey's doing something a bit more revolutionary than I expected. She's thrown us in a world that feels familiarly upsetting and is transforming that world into a more equitable place.
It's also worth remembering when these books came out. McCaffrey was the first woman to win a major SF award for one of the novellas that makes up Dragonflight. It was the early 70s, a time when publishing was especially dominated by masculine voices. So she gave us a masculine and muscular world and story to draw us all in. Then, here, she begins subverting that. Dragonsong subverts it further.
I'm interested where these first six books lead.