Dragonflight

Let me start by saying that this was the first Anne McCaffrey novel, and first Dragonriders of Pern novel, I’ve read in nearly 15 years. I read a few as a schoolchild and they had a notable impact on me, but I hadn’t really touched them since. So, having found a new thirst for fantasy, I decided to revisit her series through the eyes of an adult and see if it held up.

1) General Impression:
– I finished this novel over the course of 4 weeks. Although that isn’t quite accurate to how I actually read it. I began reading it in my surgery rotation of medical school and found time in my Family Medicine rotation to finish it. But it does speak to the primary reason why I rated it 4/5 and not 5/5. The beginning starts slow. Very slow. Anne’s world is fascinating and incredibly well crafted but she does throw you in the thick of it and explains very little. I actually prefer that, but the dip was pretty powerful here and it made the slow start feel slower.
– The lack of plot and generic feel to both protagonists made the first half of the novel rather bland, but there is a huge shift once about 40% into the book when all the elements start to align and there is a course for the reader to see ahead.
– Once the elements of the plot settle in, this gives the characters (Lessa and F’lar) real room to breathe and develop. Book got infinitely better.
– By the end I was beyond hyped and thoroughly enjoyed the read. At about the 55% mark I couldn’t put the book down.

2) Characters:
– Lessa – Female lead. Very reserved, independent, and dealing with a troubled past while being kept in the squallor of Ruatha, her home Hold. I can’t really reveal much more for spoilers sake. As a character she starts off rather generic. She is your prototypical passionate, vengeful, clever female lead. However, when her place in the plot is revealed, she is really given room to show incredible character depth. In fact, I was impressed with Anne’s ability to add great levels of nuance. Her romantic relationship, her personal growth, her understanding of her role, her wisdom in knowing when to be overbearing and when to let others lead. It all made for a very unique and memorable character.
– F’lar – Male lead. A born leader, big picture thinker, determined, and charismatic. His and Lessa’s growth are very interwoven so it is difficult to truly analyze them separately, but he acted as a solid foundation for the story to move forward. His journey from mentor to partner is fascinating to watch and his obssessive drive to defend and lead his people made for a solid reason to root for him. It was relieving to see that his romantic relationship was only a facet of his character, one that very much took a backseat to his true motivation which was saving his people.

3) Plot – It takes a while to truly settle in, and even when it does there is a lack of urgency. The plot is essentially that the Red Star circling the planet will release Threads (deadly organisms that devour organic matter) upon Pern, which it hadn’t done in 400 years. Only F’lar believes this to come true, everyone else is sceptic. When the events inevitably do come true it felt so sudden after what felt like a long, drawn out “doomsday clock” sort of vibe. It could have been smoother, but honestly, it was fine. There is a nice mystery element and plot twist that adds alot of fun.

4) Prose – Anne breaks a lot of rules and writes her world with that “old time” kind of feel, but it is strangely hypnotic and is actually a strong case to her successful series. She really knows how to make deep characters, her vocabulary and seamless transitions make for a steady read, and her clear depiction of perspective decreases confusion. However she does abuse certain adjectives. Be prepared to read “Sardonically” a million times.

5) World Building – Incredible. #1 reason I came back to this book. The planet and traditions of Pern honestly feel like another character in itself. Anne put serious work into her world, its history, its cultures, and its mechanisms. There were so many times where I just wanted her to keep describing elements of a new city as opposed to returning to the plot or the main characters.

Re-read this book recently – had remembered liking it as a kid. Overall, it’s still an interesting story. However, I’m detracting two stars for persistent violence against women. I mean, what the heck?? I didn’t remember noticing this as a kid, but, in addition to the general societal issues, the main character’s love interest is constantly grabbing her and shaking her in anger. It jumps out as weird and unnecessary violence that doesn’t have anything to do with the plot. It also bothers me that the main character doesn’t even seem to object or realize that this behavior is really abusive. It bothered me rereading the book and I certainly wouldn’t add a copy to my kids’ library. Sorry to see that in a classic sci-fi/fantasy novel.

OCR problems are common when converting an older book to digital format. The problem can be huge for some books. While it sounds like the Kindle version of Dragonflight had OCR problems originally, I can happily report that the current version seems perfect. I’ve read the whole series multiple times over the past 40 years and have all the paperbacks in my library. I tend to prefer reading on Kindle these days, so wanted to read the series once again, this time on Kindle. I have no idea yet how the rest of the books are on Kindle, but as I said, the first was perfect. Thanks to whoever fixed the reported OCR problem. I’ll be downloading more in the series and hoping for the best.

If you had problems with this book on Kindle, re-download and hopefully your problem is fixed.

I wish that I could affix ratings to the story and it’s rendition as an ebook independently. This novel is great. But don’t read this version of it.

More than 40 years after its first publication, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight clearly withstands the test of time. A vibrant and compellingly original vision of flaming dragons rising in the skies to combat an ancient foe that returns to menace their home.

Dragonflight has justly remained among the most cherished of SciFi & Fantasy classics because it deftly blends both genres, and because it introduced our world to McCaffrey’s captivating world of Pern.

Unfortunately, this kindle edition makes that experience nearly unreadable. The text clearly wasn’t given the most cursory review by a human editor prior to being released into the marketplace. Most notably, this text is rife with missing and incorrect punctuation. Without exaggeration, one has the feeling that on almost every virtual page, there are multiple sentences that run together because the necessary punctuation marks are missing.

Making matters worse, character names are at times misused. When characters have names which resemble each other, it’s sometimes necessary to take care that they’re not mixed up. On more than one occasion though, the reader encounters a name that’s simply the result of poor OCR during the original digitization process. Names which are close-but-not-quite-right appear in scenes and are never heard from again.

The shoddy quality of this edition truly takes the reader out of the story, because you are forced to try and understand how the text was really meant to be.

If this were my first exposure to this novel, I would have had a difficult time understanding what was going on. I would likely have never continued reading the series.

I love my Kindle. I have read 100s of Kindle books on it, as well as on phones, tablets and computers. I’ve read Project Gutenberg works, PDFs and Amazon novels. I’ve used it for years and this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to say: don’t read this story on your Kindle. It’s not worth it.

I want to be charitable to this book, and that is why I am giving it two stars, but to be honest I cannot remember the last time I completed a book that I have such a low score two. Usually I DNF them will before.

There are definitely some good elements, Lessa is absolutely a character I could get behind. Sadly the book let’s get down. I know it’s written in a different era (53 years ago at the time of writing this.) but this is no excuse.

My main issue with it is the romance between Lessa and F’lar. I’m sure at one point he was effectively raping her! But by the end Lessa was within pages of each other, worried he was going to physically harm her, abs then melting into his embrace (said embrace being the first time she seems to explicitly consent!

I know this book has a list of fans, and it means a lot to some people. That’s ok. I’m now in two minds about whether I want to continue with the series. If I hadn’t read the Harper Hall series set in the same world, I doubt I would. If I do it would most likely be from an anthropological stance.

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