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Dragongirl (The Dragonriders of Pern) Review

a very good read. I like the way the story started with out any gaps in the story line. I will be waiting for the next book, to come out in may.

Dragongirl (The Dragonriders of Pern) Feature

ISBN13: 9780345491169
Condition: New
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Dragongirl (The Dragonriders of Pern) Overview

Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned from the past, where she and a group of dragons and riders fled so that the wounded could heal from their previous battles with Thread and the younger dragons could safely grow to fighting age. Gone only three days, yet aged more than three years, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman prepared to fight against the Thread that threatens to destroy her world.

Fiona’s life takes a pivotal turn when a shocking tragedy thrusts her into a position of authority. Now she finds herself leading weyrfolk who have a hard time trusting a senior Weyrwoman who is both young and an outsider.

But even greater challenges lie ahead: Thread is falling and there are too few dragons to stem the tide. Many have died from the recent plague, and even with the influx of newly mature dragons from the past, the depleted fighting force is no match for the intensifying Threadfall. Fiona knows that something must be done, and what she proposes is daring and next to impossible. But if her plan succeeds, it just might save them all.

With a cast of familiar characters from previous Pern novels—including Lorana, who sacrificed her own queen dragon so that all the dragons of Pern would have a chance to survive, and Kindan, the harper Fiona has loved her whole life—Dragongirl is another triumph for Todd McCaffrey, and a riveting new chapter for the Dragonriders of Pern.

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Customer Reviews

continuing this series is doing it no good - B. Capossere - Rochester, NY USA
The steep fall in the quality of the Pern series can't be laid solely at the feet of Anne McCaffrey's son Todd McCaffrey as Anne's later books in the series themselves widely varied in quality from downright bad (a few) to mediocre/adequate (most) to not-real-good-but-pretty-good (a few). But at least one could kind of justify the existence of most of them (not all) as they wrapped up characters we'd grown to love or gave us the prequel backstory of how the whole setup began or kept us in the familiar and beloved setting but gave us new situations. But pretty much since the point Todd began co-writing the books with his mother, or, the last few years, written his own, it isn't just the quality of the books that's questionable, but their very reason for being. The simple fact is we've seen these types of characters and these specific plots too many times and the books have suffered from a major lack of originality, along with a pretty big drop-off in writing craft (at least in comparison to the first seven or eight).

Those same problems bedevil the most recent Pern book, Dragongirl, which is why I can't recommend it. In terms of plot, there's just nothing new here: undermanned dragonfighters urgently fighting thread against the odds, dragons fighting off a plague, use of "timing", mating flights, a character who can talk to all dragons, a character feeling her way into a position of authority, hatchings and impressions, dragonriders mourning their dead dragon, etc. We've seen all of this in nearly every book, and the few issues that don't arise in every book (plague), we've now seen in three or four at least. Do we really need to see any of this again?

Even worse, not only is the entire book repetitive within the series, but the individual scenes in the book are maddeningly repetitive within its own limited scope. Multiple scenes with the same conversation over how there aren't enough dragons, multiple scenes with people doing math to figure out there aren't enough dragons (yes, math scenes), multiple scenes worrying over the number of eggs in a clutch, discussing records, and so on.

Beyond the issues with unoriginal and repetitive plotting, the writing simply isn't very good. Scenes seldom feel full enough or smoothly integrated, but instead read like a bunch of mostly perfunctory plot points one after the other. The book is probably 97 percent dialogue, but the dialogue is far from crisp, compelling or sparkling and too often falls into cliché. The many, many discussions on "timing" just bog the book down--it's rarely a great idea to have a concept that characters are constantly confused about as a major topic of conversation throughout a book. The prose is adequate at its best moments and just bad at its worst (best to simply avoid the poetry). Characters have little depth and most are pale shadows of characters we've seen before; to be honest, I simply didn't care what happened to any of them.

Unfortunately, the book resolves some matters but leaves others hanging, ending not quite in a cliffhanger but at a point requiring a follow-up book. Personally, I hope it's the last; it's well past time to put Pern to rest.

Disregards Anne McCaffrey's Pern - KS -
I love Anne McCaffrey's Pern. This book makes me miss Anne McCaffrey's Pern more than any of the other novels Todd McCaffrey has done. Todd McCaffrey writes the dragons as mere background characters whose bonds with their riders seem tenuous. Add to that an unprecedented and disturbing practice of polygamy in the new book and you end up longing for a fountain of youth so Anne McCaffrey can bring back the Pern we all know and love. If you're able to ignore the downfalls of the book (which is hard to do because the writer feels the need to keep throwing them in your face), there are a few interesting parts to the book. However, if the next book is as extensive a break from Anne McCaffrey's Pern, it will be the last I read from Todd McCaffrey.

The Fire Stone is Missing - Michael Dunham - SC Coast,USA

I have been a McCaffery fan since 1969,and eagerly waited for this edition to the Pern saga,and hoped for something that would show a spark beyond Todd's last solo novels...alas,not so. Book was hard to keep an interest in,thought it was me,so I put it down for a week and tried it again...still just flat. The plot,characters,etc,are here,but the style,the human drama that still grabs me on a reread of any of Anne's Pernese works is just not there. Blah is a good description.If Todd could study Anne's work,perhaps with a good writing coach,we have hope for more of Pern,otherwise,his next release will not be a purchase by me,but a library loan.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 30, 2010 10:55:05

Books Science Fiction & Fantasy

Monday, August 30, 2010