Dragonsblood

While not awful, it isn’t the same.

Well, it was a new story…written by the SON, not Anne. *sigh* It wasn’t bad, though I think he gets bits muddled up. For example, to my recollection in Dragon’s Dawn Wind Blossom is Kitty Pings granddaughter, all through this book he states that Kitty was her mother. And, he also says that thread eats plastic. Uh, no it doesn’t, or all those houses at Landing would have been eaten up, and the plastic hulled ships and the docks they built. Pretty much most of what was established at the Southern Continent was plastic!

The first time I read this book, I was thoroughly confused. Perhaps I read too fast, but the two interweaving plotlines (50 AL and 500 AL) with the year numbers being so similar (both starting with 5), and the Weyrleader names (M’hall and M’tal) being SO similar made this a hard read the first time. At first I thought it had been just one of the mystery name-changes (like T’ton to T’ron). Add to that the *hundreds* of character and dragon names and the hundreds of deaths, when I finished the book, I couldn’t pick it up again for over a year. There was very little satisfaction in the end (you *knew* they would find a cure), although there are the times when loose ends get tied up and make me smile (D’gan’s weyrling son who didn’t visualize his destination and ended up entombed with his dragon in solid rock, found by F’lar’s generation and mentioned when F’lar was first teaching Lessa to fly).
Our heroine Lorana, whose deeds should have ranked her right up there with Lessa, Moreta, et al, was SO shallowly drawn that she inspired very little affection from the reader (this reader, anyway). So much MORE could have been done. I would like to have learned *much* more about M’hall (oldest son of the first dragonriders/Weyrleaders Sean and Sorka!) and Torene, but the former is poorly drawn and the latter is almost non-existent 🙁
That said, I just finished reading the book for the 2nd time, after studying and making notes so I would remember who was in which time, and it really *was* a good story which was why I gave it 3 stars. I can’t describe what is wrong, but Anne somehow made you LOVE or HATE the major characters of all her books, while Todd just seems to lack that whatever-it-is that helps you love Lessa (as cranky/acerbic as she was at times ;)) while Lorana elicits a sort of “Meh.” So much could have been done with a woman who can gather the power of all the dragons of Pern and get an essential message (“Air!”) back to Wind Blossom 400 years in the past!! An amazing woman who could survive the death of her queen dragon and go on practically as if nothing had happened!!
The relationships that could have been interesting were *boring* (M’tal/Salina) – perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by Lessa & F’lar or F’nor and Brekke 😉 Maybe the relationship-stuff needs to be written by a woman ;D
Spoiler alert: I *did* cry at the end when Tullea gave Lorana back her heirloom that she’d greedily snagged from the Learning Rooms, and redeemed herself (Tullea) slightly, but it was only a few paragraphs. Even though the book was over 400 pages, it could have been fleshed out more deeply. I have really enjoyed the “filler” books – not a put-down – I mean the books that fill in parts of Pern’s history (“The Dolphins of Pern,” etc), and I really hope that a) Todd grows his wings, or b) Anne helps him out and they co-author.
Edited: I hadn’t heard that Anne has passed on. So much for hope b) 🙁

There are moments in this book where you feel like you’re back in Pern. Unfortunately those moments are few and overpowered by moments where you wonder if Todd has ever read the earlier books.

By rehashing a plague as a major story line (and across several books no less) we get redundant plots and carbon copy characters. Not to mention problems with epic events getting forgotten in a relatively short period of time. Moreta has some epic time travel as part of the plot, yet the extensive time travel done in this book is completely forgotten in the weyrs by then. Wouldn’t a plague that almost wipes out the dragons become part of weyr lore? The ninth pass books also frequently hinge on a trip in time to “fix” problems, yet no one knows anything about the (extensive) past history of time travel. There should be a reason why it goes from common to so rare it’s considered legend/myth.

In addition, knowledge about how long would it take to repopulate the weyrs (including trips in time) after a plague should become embedded knowledge saved for posterity, yet no one knows anything even a decade after the first plague. And instead of multiple references to multiple plagues and dragon deaths by the score there is supposedly only a tapestry to clue Lessa in on such things and not dozens of harper songs. You would think that since records (and the lack of legible ones) is such a problem it would be fixed after the first plague, but instead we are to believe that sloppy records are the norm for the next 2000 years, no one writes (or remembers) songs about those events and no one bothers to tell their children about epic plagues or the time uncle T’zar went back in time three years to train weyrlings to save Pern. Oi!

The Dragons of Pern and their riders are in good hands in this book about a deadly plague killing dragons, decimating the weirs. This is the story of Lorana, who searches for the cure through her mysterious connection to the ancient healer Wind Blossom Ping. It is the story of Wind Blossom’s fight to save the future dragons of her world, to find a way to pass along the needed knowledge, equipment, and skills to make that happen even as those are being lost to age and accidents.

And lacks sense of integration and importance of female characters. Todd understands old storylines but lacks senses of nuance. He comes short of to make us empathetic. More of a military mind and analytical history lacking Ann’s subtitles. Too much testosterone!
Obvious difference in subtleties. Well, teenage writing vs grown-up shades. Keep trying. going but don’t jump scenes so much, better connect characters and give up so much play to Wyerleader militarism. Ann’s stories where much more character-insightful and gave us more insight

Keep trying Todd. Get wife. This is not an adolescent space opera. Too black and whit and too much about

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