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A review by iviarelle
Dragon's Kin by Todd McCaffrey, Anne McCaffrey
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.5
I have a great nostalgia for Pern, I read every book my library had when I was a teen, at least once a year. But they never had all of them, and so somehow this is the first time I've read this particular instalment. I can't say I'm very impressed.
The watchwher lore is neat, but... there's a concept called the "idiot ball" (for lack of a better term, this is what I still use to describe it) where a character has to be the one to "hold the idiot ball" and ask the questions that should be obvious to the other characters so that someone can explain, or conveniently forget whatever needs to be forgotten for the scene to work. Unfortunately, that concept is implemented pretty strongly in this book, and it's not pretty. In the most blatant instance, Kindan sees his father's watchwher go Between, then bemoans to a dragon rider that it sucks they can't go Between, then remembers they can go Between just in time to save the day at the end. It's not a great look.
And even beside that, a lot of things about the timeline are REALLY wibbly. Like, Natalon is supposed to be 26 turns old, but his eldest kids are 10? I didn't think Pern was given to teen pregnancies being all that common. And time seems to vary between the book taking place across about six months or two years, and Kindan is mentioned as still being 10 even in the same chapter as the two-year figure is offered.
And the fact that Nuella is barred from being a gold dragon rider because she's blind... She dreams in images, she can conceive of mental images given the developments with "seeing" with the watchwhers, but what, it would be too much trouble to have images sent to her potential dragon instead of her seeing them for herself? I don't like it. I just don't.
I've still got a fondness for Pern stories, but this is never going to be a favourite for me.
The watchwher lore is neat, but... there's a concept called the "idiot ball" (for lack of a better term, this is what I still use to describe it) where a character has to be the one to "hold the idiot ball" and ask the questions that should be obvious to the other characters so that someone can explain, or conveniently forget whatever needs to be forgotten for the scene to work. Unfortunately, that concept is implemented pretty strongly in this book, and it's not pretty. In the most blatant instance, Kindan sees his father's watchwher go Between, then bemoans to a dragon rider that it sucks they can't go Between, then remembers they can go Between just in time to save the day at the end. It's not a great look.
And even beside that, a lot of things about the timeline are REALLY wibbly. Like, Natalon is supposed to be 26 turns old, but his eldest kids are 10? I didn't think Pern was given to teen pregnancies being all that common. And time seems to vary between the book taking place across about six months or two years, and Kindan is mentioned as still being 10 even in the same chapter as the two-year figure is offered.
And the fact that Nuella is barred from being a gold dragon rider because she's blind... She dreams in images, she can conceive of mental images given the developments with "seeing" with the watchwhers, but what, it would be too much trouble to have images sent to her potential dragon instead of her seeing them for herself? I don't like it. I just don't.
I've still got a fondness for Pern stories, but this is never going to be a favourite for me.